020712 Chicago Maroon

TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 7, 2012

ISSUE 26 • VOLUME 123

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

Despite cuts abroad, admin vow African programs won’t vanish Haru Coryne News Editor

“We the peoples of the United Nations determined...”

Dean of Students in the College Susan Art welcomes more than 2,000 high school students to the Model United Nations at the University of Chicago conference at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel Thursday evening.

DARREN LEOW | THE CHICAGO MAROON

For sale, experimental precursor to Robie House Marina Fang News Staff

12 years before he designed the Robie House on East 58th Street and South Woodlawn Avenue. Designated a National Historical Landmark in 2004, the 6100-square-foot home offers significant insights into Wright’s creative and professional development.

“Inside, it’s like the beginnings of Robie House,” said Jack Spicer, chair of the Hyde Park Historical Society’s pres-

A Hyde Park architectural gem that marked an important transitional period in Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural career is on the market for $2.5 million.

The Heller House, located at 5132 South Woodlawn Avenue, was designed by Wright and built in 1897,

ervation committee, explaining that the building’s open rooms and use of natural materials bridge Wright’s early architecture with his signature Prairie style.

“Outside, he was still trying to decide what style he wanted to use,” Spicer said. “He was still working toward what looks modern. There are some aspects of Victorian architecture and other aspects WOODLAWN continued on page 2

Changes made this year to study abroad programs in Africa and the Middle East do not portend a longterm reduction in the University’s presence in those regions, an administrator has assured.

The popular Civilizations program in Cape Town was not available to students who applied last month for a quarter abroad next year, and the University announced in November that its Cairo program would relocate to Rabat, Morocco.

However, faculty are deliberating over ways to maintain the University’s offerings in Africa now that Cape Town is no longer a study abroad option, and the University remains set on keeping Cairo as the nucleus of its Middle Eastern studies far into the future, according to Sarah Walter, the director of the study abroad programs.

“The College continues to maintain a strong commitment to Cairo and Eg ypt more broadly.

Our intention is to make Cairo the permanent home of this Middle Eastern Civilizations program,” Walter said in an e-mail.

Meanwhile, Dean of the College John Boyer has joined

with faculty in the College to formulate a plan for African Studies at the U of C, according to University spokesman Steve Kloehn. Faculty have raised the possibility of expanding the African Civilizations quarter in Paris to include an “excursion” to Africa as an alternative to Cape Town, although it is not clear where on the continent that trip would be, or even if it would be related to South Africa.

“Dean Boyer has asked the Africanist faculty how they wish to proceed with the African Civilizations program, and the College hopes to build new opportunities for students in Africa,” Kloehn said in an e-mail. “The College continues to support students’ engagement with Africa through the African Studies Research Grants program.”

It is unclear why the Cape Town program has been discontinued.

When asked for a reason, Walter said, “We are drawing the faculty together to assess what plan they want to support in Africa.”

Students studying in Cape Town this quarter were unable to respond to questions by print time.

—Additional reporting by Raghav Verma and Sarah Morell

Student soldier mans the Uncommon Interview: Clare Gillis (A.B. ’98) line amid Korean tensions James Delvesco News Staff Nearly 7,000 miles away from his Hyde Park stomping grounds, U of C student Dong Song will stand guard directly south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) for the next several months.

As a citizen of South Korea, which has compulsory military service, Song began 21 months of active duty in fall 2010. He is currently on leave from the University until his service ends in August, when he will return to Chicago as a fourth-year.

However, Song has a long seven months ahead of him.

His battalion is scheduled to move soon into an area covering parts of the tense, four-kilometer-wide DMZ, at which point Song himself will be among the soldiers manning the border fences up until he leaves for the US.

“Figured some might find this exciting,” Song said. Right now, though, he serves in his battalion’s human resources division, mostly doing clerical work and physical exercises.

Since its establishment in 1948, the Republic of Korea (as South Korea is officially known) has been on a constant state of alert, requiring all males to begin their service in the military by the time they turn 20.

During Song’s time abroad, however, there have been moments of particularly high tension. In one instance, in November 2010, the North Korea military shelled an island under South Korean control, killing two soldiers and two civilians.

“Things got pretty intense,” he said. “I was going through my basic training then, and we trainees didn’t know what was going on at all at that SONG continued on page 2

TUES

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Temperatures in Fahrenheit - Courtesy of The Weather Channel

Clare Gillis (A.B. ’98) was one of three journalists captured and detained in a military prison for 44 days last spring by the forces of Libya’s ruler Muammar Qaddafi. Gillis sat down with the MAROON to discuss her time in prison, her investigation into the death of fellow reporter Anton Hammerl, and her return to the U.S. Gillis also will give a MAROON-sponsored talk tonight at 6 p.m. in Ida Noyes.

Chicago Maroon: You’ve wanted a search for the body for Anton Hammerl, who was killed when you, Manu Brabo, and James Foley were captured.

What is happening with that?

CG: James Foley and I have already made efforts to locate Anton. We went back to the site where we were captured and we looked around for clues or something. But it was kind of just to firm up the geography in our minds, because of course after five months in the desert, it’s wind and sand moving all around.

It was a very frustrating experience because things

look different when you’re not thinking that you’re going to die, basically.

The big problem in Libya right now is that there are mass graves which are continuing to being discovered along the coastal road between Ajdabiya and Bin Jawad, definitely hundreds, possibly thousands of missing people. We just don’t know where he is in there.

We’re planning to return in the spring. I’m going back right now on the February 17th anniversary, or planning to, assuming that I get the visa. I’m planning to go back in April, and the current plan is for me, James, Manu, and [Hammerl’s

Freelance journalist Clare Gillis (A.B. ’98).

DARREN LEOW | THE CHICAGO MAROON

wife] Penny to all work together. Other than looking through all the mass graves, which we really can’t do personally, what we can do is just investigate.

There are ways to find out who were the soldiers working the front lines that day, who was it who shot him and

captured us. They could be dead now, they could be in prison, they could have fled, they could just be keeping a low profile, but guaranteed we can find something this way. We find somebody who knows who they are. We’re in it to win it.

GILLIS continued on page 2

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN SPORTS

Rescuing academia from the academics » Page 3

Perfect season remains intact following UAA weekend » Page 8

Police chatter » Page 3

In final dual meet, Chicago escapes with comeback victory » Page 8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 7, 2012

2

Snowed in? Snow problem Tiantian Zhang News Staff University of Chicago graduate student Forest Gregg and Webitects developer Derek Eder launched a new online app that estimates which Chicago streets have been cleared of snow during a storm, as part of an effort to develop useful software using data provided by the city.

As a storm loomed the night of January 20, the two programmers created the app, called ClearStreets, in nine hours. ClearStreets improves upon the features of Plow Tracker, a separate app released by the City of Chicago on January 3 that tracks the location of snowplows in real time.

The app features a city map with dark lines representing road segments driven over by snowplows. With over 3,000 hits in the days following, the app has become immensely popular among Chicagoans.

However, the app’s creators warn, the website’s data may not exactly account for street conditions after a plow passes by. A snow plow may turn in between two points, making its location

more difficult to pinpoint.

“I’m still working on improving it and making it more accurate,” Gregg said. “The biggest challenge is that when the plow goes around and takes turns, it is hard to guess where it has been going given just two locations.”

In order to plot the routes, Gregg and Eder used GPS location data from the snowplows, which was uploaded and updated online by the City of Chicago.

“The city was very easy to work with and did a great job of collaborating with us. We really want to thank the City for taking this innovative step toward open government,” Gregg said.

ClearStreets is one of four apps that make up the Open City project, a nonprofit civic organization that aims to develop helpful software based on open data provided by the City of Chicago. The group, which includes Eder, Gregg, and developers from Groupon and Webitects, has also launched Chicago Lobbyists, an app that documents the interactions between lobbyists and government officials, A Look at Cook to track Cook County spending, and Metra Schedules to follow transportation changes.

Heller House encapsulates Wright’s maverick streak WOODLAWN continued from front

of the more open Prairie style.”

Sam Guard, a Hyde Park resident who studies historic Chicago architecture and gives building tours around the area, said that the house’s exterior demonstrates Wright’s attempts to emulate the classical style of most late 19th century homes.

“Wright was a country kid from Wisconsin,” Guard said. “He never had a classical education, much less studied classical architecture. He was an extremely competitive guy. If someone did something, he always wanted to do it better.”

The house’s interior bears many Prairie School characteristics, according to Guard. The hardwood floors and wood door frames are an integral component of the “arts and craft movement,” during which architects wanted to display materials in their natural form.

The Heller House also reflects Wright’s spacesaving techniques, and has relatively large rooms for a house in a narrow city lot. Spicer says

Song ducked for cover during North Korean aggression SONG continued from front

“The whole time that he was talking to me about this, he was just taking the clip out and putting it back in.”

GILLIS continued from front

CM: What has it been like to return to the U.S. after your detainment?

CG: This is something I wanted to give you guys because nobody ever asks this except for one very obnoxious person on the BBC. He was like “Oh you know do you have PTSD? Did you go to therapy? I was like you know I don’t have any signs of PTSD. And you know, I have talked to a number of psychiatrists and I have done a lot of research on this kind of thing. One of the things that I’ve learned is that PTSD is fundamentally about the inability to move beyond the particular moment where you could have done something different that would have led to a different result.

I think one of the things that drew me to history and journalism is just a commitment to, and a respect for, things that did happen.

This is something that’s made me resistant to this kind of syndrome that comes out of some kind of traumatic event.

I got really fascinated by the idea that, because of 100 meters, we wound upinstead of being back in Benghazi that night in our own beds—1,000 kilometers away in the capitol of the country. That fascinated me, but it’s never plagued me.

I’m perfectly happy to say it—I did consult with a professional—because I think it’s basically an issue of responsibility.

It’s a dangerous job, the physical dangers we’ve all been talking about are really well known. And you take specific steps to deal with that, like get a flak vest, get a helmet, take a hostile environment class, and people are starting to understand more about the emotional risks of the job.

CM: What are the moments when you’re

doing your job and you really think to yourself, “This is what’s right for me, this is the job that I want, this is the work that I want to devote my life to?”

CG: One of the moments that I had in the first article that I ran in The Atlantic, I’d gone down to Brega to interview soldiers.

It wasn’t actually a front line piece—it was soldiers talking about how they had taken a city earlier that day. There was this one guy who was a 28-year-old blacksmith, and he said, “You know, I shot a weapon for the first time today, it’s a huge responsibility to take a human life, I think about it very much.” And he said that he picked up the AK that he was using from a dead mercenary, he just picked it up off him the night that this big military complex in Benghazi was taken.

And the whole time that he was talking to me about this, he was just taking the clip out and putting it back in, and just fascinated by this instrument that he was suddenly wielding. He was like, “I shot it for the first time today, never held a gun before.” You feel like you’re seeing something that’s really a moment of great personal change. And you happen to be in the place and time to see that guy reflect on what the meaning of that is.

That’s one type of moment, that’s in the field. The other type of moment is something that I feel equally—or I felt equally when I was doing more academic stuff— just writing. If you’re a writer, you know when you’ve got it. You know when you don’t got it. But when you’ve got it, like when you’ve been working really hard, and the thing is just falling together, and you’re kind of massaging it into place—that’s the other time that I feel like, “Yeah, I was born to do this.”

Wright worked around the spacial limitations by placing the front door on the south end, facing East 52nd Street, rather than in the front on South Woodlawn Avenue.

Commissioned by Chicago meat-packer Isidore Heller, the house was the first of Wright’s Hyde Park homes after he angrily parted ways with his mentor, Louis Sullivan.

The current owners, Emily Novick and Steven Goldstein, have lived there since 2004, but they decided to sell it after Goldstein, physician-inchief at UCMC’s Comer Children’s Hospital, was appointed provost of Brandeis University last June, according to an interview Novick gave with Chicago magazine last month. The house has been on the market since January 25.

Novick lamented having to sell the house, she told Chicago.

“If you had a Van Gogh painting, would you sell it because it was inconvenient to move it? That’s what this feels like,” she said.

time. We were simply told that there was an attack and that we had to sleep without uniforms on and hide in the bushes as a survival tactic in case of another attack.”

After the attack, during a joint US-South Korea military exercise that elicited veiled threats from the North Korean government, Song had reason even to fear for his life.

“This one afternoon, I was actually calling my mom for the first time since I entered the army, and this officer took the phone away from me and told me to go out and join the group to hide,” he said. “The constant threats of attack by North Korea for another month led the South Korean military to maintain its alert level and drove us all to our bunkers few times...The attack definitely made the South Korean military take their train-

ing and simulations much more seriously, which made my time in the army pretty tough.”

The recent death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il also put the military on edge, he said.

Although the transition from the U of C to the military was difficult, as was getting to live with 10 strangers, Song has come to enjoy the company of his battalion.

Moreover, Song has been able to spend time with his family. Born in the southeastern city of Ulsan, on the Sea of Japan, he left for the United States in ninth grade to enter boarding school.

During his service, he has been able to attend his brother’s wedding and to be there for his mother while she underwent surgery.

He has also gotten an exciting shot of his native culture.

“I didn’t realize how awesome Seoul is,” he said.

WED | FEB 15 eighth blackbird & Pacifica Quartet

Celebrates

SOFIA GUBAIDULINA

eighth blackbird

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VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Police chatter Recent communication between University police and students provides a solid foundation to build on The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 ADAM JANOFSKY Editor-in-Chief CAMILLE VAN HORNE Managing Editor MAHMOUD BAHRANI Senior Editor JONATHAN LAI News Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE News Editor SAM LEVINE News Editor EMILY WANG Viewpoints Editor CHARNA ALBERT Arts Editor DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Head Designer KEVIN WANG Web Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor DON HO Head Copy Editor GABE VALLEY Head Copy Editor DARREN LEOW Photo Editor JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor REBECCA GUTERMAN Assoc. News Editor LINDA QIU Assoc. News Editor CRYSTAL TSOI Assoc. News Editor GIOVANNI WROBEL Assoc. News Editor AJAY BATRA Assoc. Viewpoints Editor

One thing to take comfort in during the winter: Crime levels tend to drop during the colder months. But perhaps more notable this year is that the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) has started to show a commitment to bolster communication with students.

Unlike in previous efforts, the UCPD is engaging with students face-to-face, which could go great lengths in informing the campus community about current trends and in preventing future crime.

It would be wise for the UCPD to maintain its dedication to the people it protects by expanding these communication efforts.

Last Tuesday, nine UCPD officers gathered at the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) to speak to students about security on campus, concerns about racial profiling, and new crime prevention initiatives.

Such sit-down meetings between

students and safety administrators are all too rare and are usually reserved for times when students have complaints against the UCPD. For example, several open forums were hosted in 2010 in response to concerns about racial profiling when Maurice Dawson (A.B. ’10), a black student, was arrested in the Regenstein Library’s A-level after refusing to show student identification to a UCPD officer. It is reassuring to see police administrators talking to students simply “in an effort to increase communication channels,” according to an article published in Friday’s Maroon.

Although the UCPD has made attempts in the past to keep healthy communication lines open with students, none have been utilized to their potential. The police department’s Twitter page has over 1,000 followers, but has barely tweeted 10 times since the beginning of the school year. The

majority of those tweets are simply links to crime reports, giving no explanations or guidance. It’s even more difficult to find any pulse on the UCPD website—the last news post was made by Police Chief Marlon Lynch in October 2011.

As the largest private police force in the nation, it shouldn’t be hard for the UCPD to update the community every once in a while with tips and trends through any of these methods, and it would be extremely beneficial to set up more meetings between students and police officers similar to the one on Tuesday. Many types of crime can be easily preventable if people are aware of it—like cell phone theft on CTA buses—and new students are not always informed about safety amenities like SafeRide. Monthly meetings with students would get these messages across to the community, and would also give the UCPD opportunities to share up-to-date

crime reports and open cases.

If the UCPD steps up their communication efforts, they also need to be transparent and helpful. They cannot treat their various platforms like Twitter and open forums as PR opportunities to reassure students of low crime levels in the area. It’s the UCPD’s job to protect students, not to give the guise of safety. It’s difficult to ignore the volume of crimes close to the main quadrangles last quarter, for instance, and that would have been an appropriate time for the UCPD to meet with students to go over safety efforts regarding this burst of activity.

When crime rises with the temperature, the UCPD should ensure that students are ready to take the heat.

The Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Viewpoints Editors, and an additional Editorial Board member.

TOMI OBARO Assoc. Arts Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Assoc. Sports Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager VIVIAN HUA Undergraduate Business Executive VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator

Rescuing academia from the academics A liberal arts curriculum should meet needs of students with interests outside of academia

HAYLEY LAMBERSON Ed. Board Member HYEONG-SUN CHO Designer SONIA DHAWAN Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER Designer SARAH LI Designer AUTUMN NI Designer AMITA PRABHU Designer BELLA WU Designer KELSIE ANDERSON Copy Editor CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN Copy Editor

By Ajay Ravichandran Viewpoints Columnist

MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor ELIZABETH BYNUM Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Copy Editor NISHANTH IYENGAR Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor KATIE MOCK Copy Editor LANE SMITH Copy Editor JEN XIA Copy Editor

Suppose you’re a student who chose the U of C over other schools mainly because it combines the material resources of an elite university with a traditional liberal arts curriculum that emphasizes the humanities and

social sciences. While you need those resources because you’re not interested in an academic career, you think that reflecting on eternal human questions, learning how to appreciate great works of art and literature, and figuring out how complex societies work are important parts of a worthwhile life, even for non-scholars.

Remarkably enough, completing your Core requirements only strengthens your convictions about the value of the liberal arts, so you decide to become a humanities or social sciences major. The undergraduate curricula in most non-math and science departments are presumably designed for

students like you, rather than for the minority interested in becoming professors. So how well do they meet your needs?

Four years as a philosophy major have made it abundantly clear to me that at least one of those disciplines often does so quite poorly. Consider the department’s offerings this quarter, which include a class on the ethical thought of Elizabeth Anscombe—a fascinating but obscure 20th-century British philosopher whose name has generated many a quizzical look when I tell friends I’m studying her—as well as several classes on the philosophy of language and

logic, topics which are of great interest to academics but are quite remote from the iconic works that most educated laypeople take philosophy classes in order to read.

While I don’t have the detailed statistics to prove it, I’ve found the phenomenon of departments designing undergraduate classes for future academics to be quite widespread. One friend majoring in history often bids for only three or four classes because most of the others deal with extremely specific phenomena, such as 6th-century Chinese medicine, rather than the major political and social changes that drew him to the subject.

CURRICULUM continued on page 4

ESTHER YU Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Copy Editor

A matter of taste Cultural preferences are undeniably social—but don’t let that get in the way of personal enjoyment

The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500.

The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2012 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Douglas@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

By Peter Ianakiev Viewpoints Columnist A friend of mine recently bought a T-shirt with a noted musician on it. This is despite the fact that he has only ever heard one song by said musician, and, if pressured, is unlikely to even remember its title. When I asked him about it, he simply told me that he thought the shirt looked cool, and that was that.

The average person might be expected to drop the matter at this point, but naturally I did no such thing and instead got really angry. Tastes matter,

after all; they signify so much about you as a person. You can’t just wear a T-shirt with a musician on it because you think it looks “cool”! But I eventually calmed down and reflected on why exactly my friend’s wardrobe choice had upset me so much.

There’s an undeniably social component to taste. Its manifestations are many, but I will only discuss two of them: Trying to convince other people that you like something that you don’t actually like, and trying to convince yourself that you like something that you don’t actually like. The former is far less dangerous, far easier to explain, and ultimately far easier to avoid; the latter, on the other hand, is dangerous, crippling, and probably unavoidable.

When it comes to the former, it’s easy to think of examples. When I discovered rock ‘n’ roll journalism at the (quite appropriate) age of 14 and began reading Rolling Stone, I was introduced

to the notion of a canon of rock music.

This being Rolling Stone, it was an undeniably white and frankly boring canon, but nevertheless, here was a list of recordings that I needed to familiarize myself with simply to be educated.

So I set about listening to every single Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Rolling Stones album I could find; I learned about the Velvet Underground, The Clash, David Bowie, and so on. Basically, I learned what I was supposed to like, and whenever I encountered a fellow music nerd, I knew exactly what artists I was supposed to say I loved, even if in my heart of hearts I had always thought that Pink Floyd was sort of boring and the Rolling Stones sort of overrated.

Pretending to like something just so you fit in is undeniably lame, but at the very least it’s simple. You know you’re lying—you know you don’t actually consider Exile on Main St. a masterpiece, but you pretend to think it is one just

to avoid an endless argument with no resolution. I understand the motivation for this relatively harmless lie, so in the end, it doesn’t really bother me.

But there is a point at which you start to fool yourself when it comes to taste.

Once you’ve experienced the idea that there’s a certain list of things that you simply must like in order to be educated or cultured or whatever—then it really gets dangerous. I’ve reached the point where I’m not sure if I “really” like Beethoven and Coltrane or if I’ve just internalized the idea that I’m supposed to like them, and as a consequence have managed to convince myself that I do.

I don’t even know what it means to really like something anymore. Maybe it’s something tantamount to: “You would listen/watch/read it even if nobody knew that you were doing so,” but that would exclude the case that really worries me, which is precisely that, CULTURE continued on page 4

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | February 7, 2012

4

Support for humanities may be in danger CURRICULUM continued from page 3 Most departments do, of course, still offer some classes that have wider appeal (the Philosophy Department offerings also include courses on Plato and Kant).

However, the teaching style they feature tends to reflect the same focus on preparing students for academia. Professors and TAs frequently proceed as if most of their students are bound for graduate school and so orient lectures and discussions around academic concerns rather than the aspects of a topic that would be of most interest to a non-specialist.

Defenders of this approach would likely offer several objections to the critique sketched here. First, they might note, professors will teach most effectively when they can focus on material that they find exciting, which will presumably be related to their research interests and to the ongoing academic debates within which those interests are situated. Furthermore, the most obvious alternative to finding guidance about what to teach in the academy’s research agendas would seem to be developing some list of important figures, events, and phenomena about which educated people should generally be informed. However, because of the vast amount of knowledge that most academic disciplines have now produced, developing such a list based on objective criteria is an impossible task. Any list that is actually created will therefore be highly arbitrary and will also risk the sort of exclusion of marginalized individuals and subjects which has often characterized such lists in the past.

As someone who does want to become an academic, I can see the force of these complaints, but I think that those who make them ultimately miss a fundamental point. Those who study the humanities and social sciences contribute very little of quantifiable value to the society that sustains them, so we need some way of persuading our fellow citizens to support our inquiries into sometimes obscure questions; the stillstruggling economy and the resulting budget cuts at many universities have made this problem especially urgent. If our disciplines do not in fact deal with matters that any educated person ought to know something about, then those who study them simply have unusual tastes and it is unclear why the students and parents who subsidize graduate programs with their tuition, the foundations that endow professorships, and the taxpayers who provide many other kinds of financial support should make sacrifices for their benefit.

Therefore, regardless of the real difficulties involved, it is essential that humanists and social scientists think seriously about how to serve the sort of student I described above. If they do not, the purely academic pursuits that they rightly want to protect may soon become a mere memory.

Ajay Ravichandran is a fourth-year in the College majoring in philosophy.

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 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.

No clear answer to question of “genuine” interest CULTURE from page 3 even if I don’t share my love for David Lynch with anyone else, I only like him because I think that I’m supposed to, because I like to feel intelligent and cultured, even if absolutely nobody else in the world knows or remotely cares.

This kind of anxiety is crippling because there’s never really a way to assure yourself that your love of something is genuine, and not ultimately a façade, whether to other people or to yourself. There is no way to test for something like this. And so truths that were previously absolutely certain to me have been undermined; am I watching The Wire because it’s a great work of art or is it because I want to be the kind of person that watches The Wire?

My guess is that, as always, the answer is an unsatisfying compromise. On the one hand, I don’t think I could spend hours watching a TV show or reading a book without enjoying it at least a little, but on the other hand, if I had read hundreds of reviews in entertainment magazines that continually talked about Breaking Bad being a horrible show—well, then I have no doubt that I would view it in an entirely different light.

Maybe I wouldn’t think it was horrible, but

111 Year History

I don’t know if I’d be so willing to identify it as my favorite TV show of all time.

And that’s why my friend’s T-shirt upset me. Because it affirmed my worries that taste is something vague and ill-defined, existing only to differentiate us from the herd and to signal to others (or ourselves) that we are refined, even when we aren’t. I don’t want taste to be like this; I want my favorite music and movies to indicate things about my personality and “who I am,” even if this seems like an absurd and rather adolescent demand.

At the end of the day, these reflections shouldn’t be taken too far. At a certain point, it gets absurd to wonder whether or not you like something genuinely or because of social cachet; at the very least, I’m not particularly worried that my parents only love me because they think that they’re supposed to. To get through life, you’re going to have to enjoy some parts of it, and so you may as well try not to waste too much of it wrapped up in pointless considerations without clear answers.

However, for my sake, take the time, when the new season premieres later this year, to ask yourself whether or not you really like Mad Men. Peter Ianakiev is a fourth-year in the College majoring in math.

Ravisloe Country Club

Letter: The price of a U of C degree When some students asked Andrew Alper, chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, about the rising tuition at University of Chicago, the Maroon reported that “Alper explained rising tuition using the economic principles of supply and demand; the demand for a U of C education is high…so the University can increase tuition prices.”

That’s exactly the response Milton Friedman would have given: Charge what the market will bear. On the other hand, the demands for Harvard and Princeton educations are probably not so much lower than those for the U of C, and yet the cost for many attending those and several other institutions is nearly zero. For some years now a number of wellendowed universities, led by Harvard and Princeton, have moved away from loans to grants.

If the U of C offers an education for $200K, and comparable institutions offer an education for a whole lot less, we don’t need Professor Friedman’s economics acumen to know where the market will go.

David Derbes Teacher at the Lab Schools

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ARTS

Trivial Pursuits FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Lyric captures grandeur of Verdi’s Aida Gabriel Kalcheim Arts Staff Verdi’s Aida has, for more than a century, held a reputation as the definitive grandiose opera spectacle, fit with camels and elephants (no animals at the Lyric though, only a cast of marvelous human voices). Indeed, one of the most remarkable things about Aida is its immense range of scale.

Both the opening and close of the opera are extremely intimate. Yet in between are the large choruses at the pharaoh’s court (“Su dell Nilo” and “Gloria all Egitto”), in which it seems the entire opera company has been utilized to fill the stage.

There are also two extensive ballet sequences, a section of offstage horns and a stage decorated with imitation Egyptian columns. And

AIDA Lyric Opera of Chicago Through March 25

yet it is the personal, more cerebral solos and duets, such as Aida’s rhapsodic “Ritorna vincitor,” in Act I and the Act II duet for Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano “E’ la sorte dell’armi,” that are the most affecting scenes in the opera. Although the melodies are not Verdi’s best, with the possible exception of the theme in the overture, it is what Verdi does in support of the main vocal line in the orchestra that makes Aida

something truly remarkable.

French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette prepared a storyline for Verdi, which is roughly as follows: Radames (Marcello Giordani) captain of the guard, is given command over Egypt’s forces in their war against the invading Ethopians.

Radames becomes the object of the affections of the pharoah’s daugher Amneris (the excellent Jill Grove), but he himself is in love with Aida (Sondra Radvanovsky). Aida is an Ethiopian princess, who, having been taken captive by the Egyptians, now serves as Amneris’ slave girl, whom the Ethiopian invaders have presumably come to liberate.

Antonio Ghislanzoni’s versification is perhaps largely responsible for the old cliché that Verdi’s operas have ridiculous libretti. But the basic plot provides a number of scenarios full of deep, internal human conflict, representing those passions that can be found in every human breast, and which in a sense, unite us all. And they allow Verdi to write some of his most beautiful and colorful music, giving us dramatic moments of great emotive power.

The main strength of this production is in the marvelous voices of Sondra Radvanovsky as Aida, and Marcello Giordani as Radames, both of whom appeared in Lyric’s 2010-2011 season. And one should certainly try to see Aida in the month of Feburary, to experience Ravanovksy and Giordani’s uncommon vocal power AIDA continued on page 6

Aida (Sondra Radvanovsky) and Radames (Marcello Giordani) embrace passionately in Lyric’s Aida.

COURTESY OF DAN REST & LYRIC OPERA CHICAGO

Lana Del Rey is an easy target, Madonna halftime show: but the hate’s unwarranted lots of material, little substance Anna Hill Arts Contributor

Lana Del Rey pouts on the cover of her new album Born to Die. COURTESY OF INTERSCOPE RECORDS

Daniel Rivera Arts Staff “Everything I want, I have— money, notoriety, and rivieras,” coos Lana Del Rey in one of the closing tracks from her muchhyped debut album, Born to Die, which went on sale last week. I doubt she knew how prophet-

ic that line would prove to be.

Famous more for her notorious SNL performance and failed first album attempt than her musical merit, Del Rey has become the Internet’s favorite new punching bag. After listening to her CD in full, I’ve formulated a theory as to why, exactly, this has come to be.

LANA continued on page 6

Hundreds of millions looked on as a muscled mass of oiled-up gladiators yanked an enormous winged figure onto the field this past Sunday night. If I had any doubts about the extravagance of Madonna’s performance at halftime for the Super Bowl, her entrance shut me up pretty quickly. She burst out of her feathered cocoon-carriage looking as fit as ever and gave a glitzy performance that, if nothing else, at least managed to avoid the now-feared wardrobe malfunction that Janet Jackson made infamous eight years ago.

Surrounded by a back-flipping gang of dancers, 53-year-old Madge, wearing an enormous horned helmet, put on a sparkly but ultimately forgettable show.

Because she clearly lip-synced the entire performance (it was so obvious that I wished she hadn’t even had her prop microphone), I expected some spectacular dancing—come on, we all know the lady can move. However, she never really got past strutting across the stage, though a random man would occasionally lift her leg or give her a flip. There

was a significant amount of leg lifting in this show.

As she Vogued her way up a flight of multicolored steps, she tripped (hey audience, there’s the cringe moment we were all secretly hoping for) and bared a little bit more skin than anyone wanted to see, but overall, she made it through the performance intact.

Rapid-fire artist appearances that were more disorienting than enjoyable characterized the rest of the show. What was LMFAO doing up there? (Please, Madonna, get off that young man’s zebra-clad shoulders.)

Did M.I.A. do anything besides flip off the camera and curse?

Why was Cee Lo Green wearing a floor-length black sequined frock, looking like a priest who had been attacked by Liberace?

Aside from his performance, the only cameo I really enjoyed was Nicki Minaj’s, which lasted less than 30 seconds. The show’s most memorable moment came not from the Material Girl or her many friends, but from a man in a toga who danced on a tightrope. Now that was impressive.

I’m not quite sure why Madonna pretended to shoot him.

Though Madonna’s new song

fell miserably flat (how many times can you repeat, “L-U-V, Madonna, Y-O-U, you wanna”?), I was happy to hear some of her classics. I have a weakness for “Like a Prayer,” and she did the song justice with the help of a swaying choir and a lot of smoke.

She almost won me over with that as her closing piece, but just as I started to think the show would end on a high note, the camera zoomed out to reveal a massive light display that read “World Peace.” Wait, what? Which part of the performance was supposed to promote peace—the drumline or the hip-swiveling cheerleaders? That was an abrupt and confusing end to a confusing show, and I couldn’t help but laugh as the million-dollar commercials kicked back in.

Overall, the performance was entertaining in its over-the-top production, but that’s about it.

The whole thing was just glitzy and loud (and considering the venue, that might be just what everyone wanted).

Nip-slip avoided, the act was an expensive and safe success that will be forgotten as soon as NBC stops apologizing to everyone for the one finger that stole the show.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | February 7, 2012

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Del Rey epitomizes indie’s shift from alternative to mainstream LANA continued from page 5 The hate that surrounds Lana seems to be steeped in the fact that the lyrical nature of her songs—all nostalgia and cultural cues crafted over decades to be specifically subversive— stand in direct contrast to what many believe to be her disingenuous image.

Lana Del Rey is not a soulful, melancholic, “gangster Nancy Sinatra,” as she calls herself, who croons about PBR and the one relationship that meant everything.

She’s Lizzy Grant (her birth name) with a box of brunette hair dye and some lip filler, sponsored either by her new, calculating record label or daddy’s multi-digit bank account (probably, both). Less pointed critics have chosen not to join the war on Lana’s image but don’t understand why her saccharine lyrics would warrant such fuss in the first place.

But my question is, why hold Lana to a new set of standards?

I’d be hard pressed to think of a female pop star in the past two decades who did not, at some point or another in her career, undergo a major image change.

Generally, it’s tied to age— Britney and Christina particularly felt the need to express their departure from

being “young and innocent” with snakes, shredded halfshirts, and excessive hip shaking. The difference, according to the masses, is that while Britney and Christina underwent transformations, these changes never danced around under any pretense outside of pop.

Lana, her critics argue, has crafted an image that tries to subvert its genre, that begs to be taken more seriously than its simplistic nature warrants.

I disagree with these assertions.

Del Rey is, inarguably, a pop singer. Lizzy Grant was, as well. The difference between Lana and Lizzy versus Christina and Britney boils down to pop culture.

Britney and Christina rose to prominence in a time where there was no shame in the mainstream. The “hipster” or “indie” or “alternative” subculture had not evolved to the point it has today. It is now a large faction made up of youth that studios recognize as ripe for exploitation.

The majority of today’s youth revel in thinking themselves part of the minority. Indie is the new mainstream. We live in a world where Young the Giant plays at the VMAs, where flannels and thickframed glasses and independent coffee shops are the new…whatever was big at the dawn of the millennium

decade. (Maybe bell-bottoms, scrunchies and bagel shops?)

Regardless, Lana’s music reflects this—she’s exploiting the mass societal viewpoint of what “indie” is, without subtlety (listen to “This Is What Makes Us Girls,” a song that both references PBR by its full name and sets the female gender back by about 40 years). Lana is catering to the Tumblr crowd, the people who re-blog Instagram’d pictures of girls in high-waisted shorts and roller skates because they evoke some nostalgic, carefree time that exists only in the vacuum of our discontented, Internet-riddled imaginations. Whether it’s Lana’s idea (in which case her lyrical simplicity belies her keen intellect) or (more likely) Interscope’s idea, the songs of Born to Die know what they are and what they have to do; they have to be both catchy and culturally relevant. Listen to them, and you’ll see that they are. Even if Lana’s musical styling isn’t for you, you have to acknowledge that the carefully-crafted mood her songs are meant to evoke work perfectly as a lens into what’s driving our current “subcultural” mainstream. Born to Die is metapop, and her album only really fails when it loses sight of this (unfortunately, this failure spans its entire second half, which tries for some-

thing other than her trademark, radio-ready nostalgia).

So, I close my argument by again posing the question with which I opened it: Why all the hate on Lana? Did she produce a bad album? In that case, the hate would be warranted. But why then did Born to Die debut at number one in 11 different countries? Is the hate on Lana solely about her industry-sponsored transformation? I’d doubt it because, if becoming more attractive was an American sin, then a bulk of our pop culture would cease to exist. I argue then that the negativity surrounding Lana stems from the unsubstantiated opinion that her music tries to front an authenticity that nothing about her as a person can testify to. Pop is digestible only so long as it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. If Kim Kardashian had tried to use the infamy surrounding her sex tape to become say, a politician as opposed to a reality TV star, then the masses would’ve rioted as well. As a culture full of people who know nothing about themselves, we’ve ironically developed a blinding taste for the self-aware.

I guess, then, my perspective on Del Rey might be somewhat of a comfort for those who hate her on the basis I’ve suggested. I’m glad. Now the rest of us can listen to “Radio” on repeat in peace.

Despite overly sentimental libretto, Aida is an impressive feat AIDA continued from page 5 before a March change of cast. Radvanovsky’s voice is richer than what we often hear in Italian opera and has a dark-hued, icy quality that is ideal for this role.

There is a slight tincture of impurity, but it only serves to augment the emotive quality of Radvanovsky’s voice.

Particularly noteworthy is the versatility of Giordani’s voice; in his opening lines, Giordani’s voice is so thick and so powerful in the lower register that we are not totally sure that Radames is a tenor. But Radames’s first aria, “Celeste Aida,” assures us that he is a singer with all the Italianate warmth for which one could hope.

So prominent a place is given to dance in this opera that it is impossible not to mention the fine work of choreographer Kenneth Von Heidecke and an ad-hoc group of dancers, especially in the first Act Ballet at the temple of Vulcan, in which traditional ballet is judiciously fashioned to evoke ancient Egyptian figures, but never so as to appear overly stylized. While it was certainly a strange choice to have all the Ethopian characters in Aida appear with bluish-tinged skin, as if to avoid the unpleasant

spectacle of black skinnedEthiopian prisoners being led in chains before the much lighter skinned Egyptians, in general, director Matthew Lata gives us a production that is sensibly laid out and has enough spectacle to awe us without upstaging the music.

Aida’s sublime overture will suffer a tad from the first-rate Lyric Opera Orchestra’s tendency to take at least 10 minutes to warm up. Still, Italian conductor Renato Palumbo makes a strong argument for Verdi’s masterfully coloristic orchestration in Aida and leads a tender, generally very convincing performance.

Opera -goers may grumble at the poor quality of Aida’s libretto; and indeed it is at times so artificially wrought that one is often tempted to turn away from the supertitles and just listen to the music or watch the dancing , depending on the moment in the opera. The great luxury of grand opera as a genre, however, is that one can always divert attention away from any particular aspect of the performance that is underwhelming to focus on the more sublime.

This is certainly true in the case of Lyric’s Aida.

Opening Reception Wednesday, February 15, 7:30–9 p.m.

Celebrate the opening of Feast! The evening features a performance by Theaster Gates and the Black Monks of Mississippi, the debut of Michael Rakowitz’s Enemy Kitchen food truck, and more—all for free.

smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Admission is always free

Julio Cesar Morales, still from Interrupted Passage, 2008.

Courtesy the artist and Frey-Norris, San Francisco.

7

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | February 7, 2012

Cygan: It was incredible Conference opponents stifle offense, prevent upsets to see how thankful the Men’s Basketball Mike McGrath, the Maroons’ head coach. “I rematch against the Yellowjackets. The teams kept thought they were much more active defensively the contest close throughout the first half, until there school was Daniel Lewis and they made a couple of technical adjustments, was 2:35 left. At that point, Rochester exploded on a Sports Editor

RAFFLE continued from back president Kim Cygan said. “A lot of the prizes we receive are from local businesses, which students go to regularly, which is a great incentive for them to buy raffle tickets. It’s awesome how generous they are in their donations and how much they contribute to the success of our event.”

The Emory game showed the best of our University in and out of competition. It may have been a coincidence that Matt Johnson’s recordbreaking-ESPN-featuring buzzer-beater fell on the evening of the Hoops for Hyde Park event, but it still gave the night a little extra pizazz. It was, it seems, a fitting sendoff to the event’s most successful year to date.

Ultimately, Hoops for Hyde Park is about the Hyde Park schools that benefit from it. Cygan understands better than most how important this event is to them.

“Casey (Capozzoli) and I had the opportunity to present the check to Fuller two years ago and participate in a field day. It was incredible to see how thankful the school was and it was really fun getting to participate in a field day at the school where the money was going,” she said.

The concept behind Hoops for Hyde Park isn’t complicated. But it’s incredibly effective, and after 24 years and over $30,000, it’s a basic reminder that no matter how busy you may be, there is always something worth making time for. For the WAA, that thing is giving other kids the same opportunities they have, doing what they love.

“We are grateful for the community’s support and the people who come to our competitions.

That means a lot to us,” Capozzoli said. “But, mostly, it’s our love for sport that makes us appreciate being able to help the schools in our area bring that to their students.”

Case, NYU await at conference championship meet WRESTLING continued from back 8–5 decision at 184 pounds truly turned the meet into a close contest.

“Everyone just focused on doing their job,” Kocher said about his team’s response to their early deficit. “I figured it was definitely winnable.”

There was plenty of interest in the earlier part of the meet, as well. First-year Willie Long managed to earn two takedowns in the last 10 seconds at 133 pounds to eke out a 7–6 victory.

Second-year Jacob Smith filled in at 141 pounds against the nation’s fifth-ranked wrestler in the weight class, Andrew Zobac, a trial of fire for Smith, who was coming back from a two-week injury lay-off. Zobac triumphed with a 20–5 technical fall, but Kocher remained positive about the match.

“Jacob learns as well as anyone from going up against tough people like that,” he said.

The Maroons were missing five wrestlers who typically factor into lineup considerations at dual meets. Those missing in action were third-year James Layton, who has been having a strong season, second-years Ryan Klein and Josh Lowry, and first-years Joseph Ruettiger and Joe Ellis, each of whom has shown himself to be competitive.

The exciting victory puts the Maroons’ final record in dual meets this season at 7–5. Chicago competes this Saturday at Case Western for the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship, where they will face both the hosts and New York University in a pair of dual meets. The Maroons are the three-time defending champions and have failed to win only twice in the last 12 years; a victory on Saturday would be championship number 16.

Chicago (11–9, 4–5) failed to provide an encore performance this past weekend against UAA rivals Emory (16–4, 5–4) and Rochester (13–7, 4–5).

Facing increased defensive attention, fourth-year guard Matt Johnson, who had scored a total of 85 points against the two teams a week ago, only managed 17 on the road against them last weekend.

The Maroons began their road trip traveling to Atlanta to take on the Eagles, who were seeking revenge a week after Johnson stunned them on a last second three-pointer, securing a 103–102 Chicago victory. Johnson’s heroics earned him UAA Athlete of the Week honors and left Emory yearning for payback.

Chicago started the game flat, however, and the Eagles sprinted ahead to a 14–2 lead, never looking back. Riding point guard Austin Claunch and forward Jake Davis, who join Johnson as the top three per-game scorers in the UAA, Emory continued to pile on the points against the Maroons, who were unable to adjust to the Eagles’ defensive tenacity.

“I thought they had a higher energy level,” said

but overall I thought they just had a lot more energy defensively.”

At the end of the half, Emory enjoyed a 47–26 lead thanks to a 14–0 first half turnover differential.

One of the culprits for Chicago’s sluggish start was an increased focus on Johnson, which contributed heavily to the turnover disparity. Once Chicago’s star guard was locked down, no other consistent option emerged, save for first-year guard Royce Muskeyvally, who was 7–9 from the floor and finished with 16 points on the night.

“I felt that as they attacked Matt, we didn’t do a good job of spacing the floor and making ourselves available to him when he had people coming at him,” McGrath said. “I thought we did a much better job of that in the second half.”

Chicago rebounded after halftime, but the effort was not enough to overcome the overpowering firsthalf surge of the Eagles. The Maroons ultimately found themselves on the wrong side of an 83–67 defeat.

“It was disappointing, but they’re a very good team,” McGrath said. “They came out with a lot of energy. It was a tough night for us.”

Chicago then flew to Rochester for Sunday’s

13–0 heading into halftime.

The Maroons responded out of the break, outscoring the Yellowjackets 29–15 in the first 15:25 of the second half, reducing Rochester’s lead to one.

Chicago’s comeback fell short, however, as Rochester was able to halt the Maroons’ last minute charge.

“We just didn’t get to the line as much as they did,” McGrath said. “We outrebounded them, we took more shots than them, we made more shots than them, we made more threes, and they beat us at the free throw line.”

Johnson turned in a second unimpressive performance, hitting on only one of his seven three point attempts, and finishing with a meager five points on the night. Fourth-year guard Michael Sustarcic helped to pick up some of the slack.

“Michael’s a really good shooter,” McGrath said.

“He’s been in a bit of a funk lately, and he, Tom, Sam, and Royce are going to get some looks when people key in on Matt, and if those guys knock them down the way they’re capable of, then we’re going to be pretty hard to beat.”

The Maroons return to Ratner on Friday to face Carnegie at 8 p.m. and follow it up with a game against Case Western on Sunday at 12 p.m.

The Oriental Institute Members’ Lecture Series Presents:

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Neolithic Jordan: From Hunter-Gatherers to Village Farmers Wednesday ∙ February 8 Breasted Hall ∙ 7:00PM The Oriental Institute 1155 East 58th Street Free and Open to the Public Reception to Follow The Members’ Lecture Series is made possible by the generous support of Oriental Institute Members

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “My husband cannot fucking throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.”

—Gisele Bundchen, supermodel and wife of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on the Patriots’ loss in Super Bowl XLVI.

Perfect season remains intact following UAA weekend

First-year Morgan Donovan dribbles past University of Rochester’s defense in a game earlier this season.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Women’s Basketball Mahmoud Bahrani Senior Editor The Maroons found themselves in an odd place Sunday, trailing at the half to fifth-ranked Rochester 25–31. It was the type of close game that D-III basketball pundits had predicted would take place a week earlier, a hotly contested battle between two of the best teams in the country. Rochester used their size to their advantage, out-rebounding Chicago 24–19 in the first half.

They also bothered the Maroons to the tune of nine turnovers, leading to 10 points. Finally, it seemed like Chicago had met a team they couldn’t just run out of the gym, as they had done all season to a vari-

ety of opponents.

“We got outworked and outhustled the first half. Rochester is a very good team, so there was definitely a sense of urgency within the locker room at halftime,” said fourth-year forward Morgan Herrick, who scored a game-high 19 points to go along with seven rebounds.

The one bright spot in the half was the play of Morgan Donovan, a first-year guard who has seen significant time at the point guard position this year. In just eight minutes in the first half, Donovan put up four points to go along with two steals.

“If it wasn’t for Morgan, we would have been down by a lot more at halftime. She gave us the spark and energy we needed in the

first half to stay in the game with Rochester,” Herrick said. “[She] played one of the best games I have seen her play this year.”

Chicago came out of the gate hard at the start of the second half, going on a 15–9 run to take the lead. Chicago didn’t let up after regaining the lead, and back-to-back scores from Donovan pushed the advantage to six.

Chicago began to resemble in the second half the dominant team they had been all year, holding Rochester to only 24 points off 22 percent shooting, while scoring 43 points themselves to defeat the Yellowjackets 68–55.

Unlike Rochester, which played a much closer game on their home floor, Emory had just as difficult a time scoring at the Woodruff

Physical Education Center as they did at Ratner. Emory scored just 25 points in the first half off 32 percent shooting from the field, and once again, Chicago was able to contain scoring dynamo Hannah Lilly, limiting her to a paltry six points. Chicago never trailed throughout the contest and led Emory by 15 points at the end of the first half. They would go on to win 79–55, a 24-point margin.

Chicago took their record to 19–0 with the win, the team’s best record since the program’s inception 41 years ago. The game was historic for another reason as well; with a jumper a little more than two minutes into the second half, fourth-year Meghan Herrick joined her fourth-year teammate Bryanne Halfhill in the 1,000–point club, which has only eleven members.

With only five games left on the schedule against teams that Chicago has already beaten this year, fans and pundits alike are predicting an undefeated season for the Maroons. The chatter hasn’t quite crept into the locker room just yet.

“It’s just not something that we’re focused on. It’s never been a goal of mine,” said Aaron Roussell, the Maroons’ head coach. “Quite simply, and this is boring, but we just want to win the next game. I think there’s a difference in wanting to win your next game as opposed to winning all of them.”

After a weekend on the road, the U of C will return home Friday to play Carnegie Mellon, a team they decimated in a 37point blowout on the road. Two days later they’ll play Case Western, the team that has offered the most resistance on the UAA schedule so far. Chicago trailed by as many as 13 against Case before pulling ahead in the second half and holding off a late run.

Tip-off is at 6 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

In final dual meet, Chicago escapes with comeback victory Wrestling Derek Tsang Sports Staff Despite missing several of their usual starters, Wrestling rattled off four straight wins to defeat North Central 25–16 in their last dual meet of the season. The Maroons pulled off the victory after coming back from a 16–6 deficit through six matches.

First-year Mario Palmisano (197 pounds) and second-year Jeff Tyburski (285 pounds) clinched the victory with consecutive pins at 6:56 and 6:42 in their respective matches.

“We really needed Mario Palmisano’s pin because it put us in a very good position to win the dual,” said Leo Kocher, the Maroons’ head coach. “Pins are good, but pins when you really need them are even better.”

Ryley Hankenson’s major decision at 174 pounds brought the Maroons within six, and Sam Pennisi’s close WRESTLING continued on page 7

First-year Joe Ellis competes against Wheaton College’s Caleb Cardenas in the wrestling team’s season debut earlier last fall at Ratner Athletics Center.

TIFFANY TAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Hoops for Hyde Park raffle benefits local schools Jake Walerius Sports Staff The Women’s Athletic Association held their annual Hoops for Hyde Park fundraising raffle at the women and men’s basketball games against Emory on Friday, January 27. The organization raised more than $4,000 for two local elementary schools, Fuller Elementary and Woodlawn Elementary Community School.

The money will go toward new equipment for the schools’ physical education departments.

The raffle was made possible through weeks of fundraising and ticket selling carried out by roughly 150 members of the WAA. “We sold raffle tickets to anyone and everyone,” WAA President Casey Capozzoli said. “We sold them to athletes, parents, friends, coaches, trainers, professors, facility staff—anyone.

We even sold two tickets to Emory’s women’s assistant basketball coach.”

On top of the money raised by raffle tickets, sold for one dollar a piece, the major financial contribution to the event came from businesses that donated prizes, money, or both. Notable donations included five $100 cash-prizes and two round-trip plane tickets donated by Anthony Travel.

This was Hoops for Hyde Park’s 24th year, and the most successful in a program that has raised over $30,000 since 1989. For many years, Hoops for Hyde Park, formerly known as the Shootout, raised money for the Special Olympics, whose Chicago area tournament was hosted at Stagg Field. When that competition moved away, however, the WAA preferred to donate their money somewhere closer to home and chose two schools recommended by the Neighborhood Schools Program.

“This fundraiser means a lot to us,” Capozzoli said. “As athletes at the University of Chicago, we have so much available to us. We’ve had a lot of opportunities growing up that made it possible for us to be here.

“Athletics shape who you are and help you grow as a person, and this event is a way for us to help provide for young kids who don’t have the basics that make it possible to succeed.”

Events like Hoops for Hyde Park are one way to dispel the illusion that University community is isolated from the larger Hyde Park community.

“For me, the most difficult thing about living in Hyde Park is that students often never leave the bubble of the quads,” WAA secretary Julia Sizek said, “and one of my goals is to get rid of the assumption that Hyde Park, our community, is separate from the University.”

It seems that any isolation the U of C may feel from its community exists largely due to our own failure to reach out to that community. But the WAA realizes the importance of many Hyde Park businesses in making their event possible.

“We greatly appreciate all the support we receive,” WAA co-vice RAFFLE continued on page 7