021414 Chicago Maroon by The Chicago Maroon

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CHICAGOMAROON.COM

FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 14, 2014

College apps down 9.5 percent 27,499

21,774

15000

25,271

25000

30,369

30000

19,370

Number of Applications

35000

20000

10000 5000 0

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Class of Marina Fang News Editor This year, 27,499 students applied to the College’s Class of 2018, a 9.5 percent decrease from last year’s record high of 30,396 applicants. University spokesperson Jeremy Manier attributed the decrease to problems with the Common Application but noted that the number of applicants has steadily risen since 2006, when the College received 9,538 applications. “Applications to the College remain at historically high levels, more than triple the numbers

ISSUE 27 • VOLUME 125

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

prior to 2006. Problems with the Common Application affected this year’s total, but highly qualified students who are passionate about the College continue to apply in extremely high numbers,” he said in an e-mail. This year’s revamped Common Application was wrought with technical glitches that caused College Admissions to push back the regular admissions deadline to mid-January, instead of the usual January 3 deadline. The decrease in applicants this year marks a departure from steady increases over the last 10 years. Last year’s 30,396 applicants comprised the College’s

highest total yet and a 20 percent increase over the previous 25,271 applicants. Application numbers have markedly increased since the College adopted the Common Application in 2009 and hired Dean of Admissions Jim Nondorf in 2010. Last year’s acceptance rate— 8.8 percent—marked a record low for UChicago. As for this year, Manier said, “It’s unclear what the overall acceptance rate will be, but it should be roughly in the same range as last year.” While applications have decreased, he said that, given higher yield rates over the last few years, ADMIT continued on page 2

Local realtors discourage use of security deposits Sarah Manhardt News Staff Security deposits for studentrented apartments are on the decline in Hyde Park, as local realtors heed the advice of a city-wide realtor association that shunned the practice last month. In late January, the Chicago Association of Realtors began advising Chicago landlords not to require security deposits, long used by landlords as collateral for unpaid rent, utilities, or damages to a unit. Security deposits are no longer a mainstay in rental leases. With approximately 50 percent of UChicago undergraduates re-

siding in off-campus housing, the demise of the up-front down payment has resulted in one less living expense for some student renters. MAC Property Management, which owns 53 apartment buildings in Hyde Park and has many student tenants, stopped collecting security deposits in 2007, according to MAC’s Director of Community Management Peter Cassel. Cassel said that MAC landlords now accept credit scores in lieu of security deposits to validate a tenant’s good standing. “We don’t need to hold a large amount of cash, so the deposit became unnecessary. We’re trying to DEPOSITS continued on page 3

Penguin India bans Univ. prof ’s book Jonah Rabb News Staff Penguin Books India agreed in a settlement dated February 4 to withdraw and pulp remaining copies of UChicago Professor Wendy Doniger’s 2009 book The Hindus: An Alternative History within the next six months. The settlement concludes an Indian lawsuit filed in 2011 by Dinanath Batra, head of

Shiksha Bachao Andolan, a Hindu educational organization in New Delhi. The settlement agreement, which leaked online on February 11, ends a lawsuit that Doniger said “[Penguin India lawyers] knew they’d lose.” Doniger, who teaches about the history of religions at the Divinity School and in the College, received a legal complaint from Batra PENGUIN continued on page 2

Collection of films on Hyde Parkers build diverse lifestyle in co-ops sexual health premieres Isaac Stein News Staff

Kristin Zodrow Maroon Contributor In time for Valentine’s Day, South Side Stories premiered its first set of digital stories at the Gray Center Lab in Midway Studios Thursday night, with videos created by local youth that centered fittingly on the emotions that come with first love and relationships. As part of the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry & Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health (Ci3), the South Side Stories project is run by a crossdisciplinary collection of graduate students, scholars, doctors, and artists who plan to study the creation

of narratives produced by students of different genders, ages, and neighborhoods to supplement statistical public health research. The first in a series of local presentations, the premiere drew around 20 audience members. “It’s a unique medium,” Ci3 Communications Manager Lauren Whalen said. “It’s really a way to encompass all the different facets of storytelling. All the voiceovers in the South Side Stories are the students’ own voices telling their stories, which we thought was extremely important because it’s them giving voice to their own experiences, and there is a STORIES continued on page 3

Located at 5130 South University Avenue, roughly a block north of Kimbark Plaza, a large Victorianstyle building blends in with the row of residential homes that precede it. But the front porch bears one sign—a wood carving— that betrays the home’s inconspicuous exterior. It reads: “Bowers co-op. Where Vegetables Go to Die.” Bowers is one of three co-ops operated in Hyde Park by Qumbya Housing Cooperative, a Hyde Park–based organization founded in 1988. (Bowers members note that the pronunciation is “coom-byuh,” and not “coom-bah-yah.”) Bowers itself houses

Members of Bowers House, one of the three buildings included in the Hyde Park Qumbya Housing Cooperative, enjoy their nightly communal meal together on Monday. FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON

25 residents, including UChicago undergraduates, graduate students, married couples, and individuals

unaffiliated with the University. Residents of the co-op live in private bedrooms and share the rest

of the building as communal space. In addition, residents evenly distribute COOP continued on page 3

IN VIEWPOINTS

MAROON

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Creating a donation process » Page 4

VALENTINES

For love and Linklater, the third time may be the charm » Page 9

I love my team because...

Is love dead? » Page 5

» Page 6

AIC’s Paul-David Young sneaks a swig of Molly Soda » Page 9

Grapple in the Big Apple

» Back Page

» Page 11

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 14, 2014

Weekly Crime Report

Doniger remains positive in spite of lawsuit

Due to higher yield, class size will remain similar ADMIT continued from front

“the number of students admitted this year is likely to be lower.” The University of Pennsylvania saw a sharp increase in applications for the class of 2018: Its 35,788 applications marked a 14 percent jump from last year. Northwestern received 33,200 applications, a 1.3 percent increase from last year. Princeton received 26,607 applications this year, a 0.7 percent increase. Harvard and Columbia both saw slight decreases: Harvard received 34,295 applications, a two percent decrease from last year, and Columbia received 32,952 applications, a 1.5 percent decrease. In recent years, the University has touted developments such as the Logan

Center for the Arts, the Institute of Politics, the Institute of Molecular Engineering, and UChicago Promise as attractive to prospective students. This year’s applicants cited various reasons for applying. Josh Nickelman, a high school senior from Kettering, Ohio, who was admitted during the Early Action round of admissions, visited campus in November as a prospective track athlete. “[The track team is] a really close team and really tight-knit. That’s what I felt when I visited, and I really like that because as soon as you get there, you have a team, people you know can help you with whatever you need,” he said. Noel Rubio, from Guam, who was also admitted, cit-

ed a variety of reasons for his interest in the College, one of which was the History and Philosophy of Science (HIPS) major. “When I found out about the HIPS program, I was really excited because I’ve always wanted to go into a premed degree that blended some sort of humanities with the sciences,” he said. While Nickelman plans to attend UChicago, Rubio will make a final decision after the regular admissions round. UChicago received 11,143 Early Action applications this year, an all-time high. Those applicants received admissions decisions in December. All Class of 2018 applicants will receive admissions decisions by late March.

Arrest (except traffic violation)

Assault (multiple types)

Attempted burglary

Attempted robbery

Battery (multiple types)

Burglary

Criminal trespass to vehicle

Damage to property (including vehicle)

Other Report

Robbery (multiple types)

Traffic violation

Theft (including from motor vehicle)

Trespass to property (including residence)

»February 5, 5730 South Drexel Avenue (Comer Hospital), 12:50 a.m.—During the course of an argument, a male struck his girlfriend with his fist and then fled before the police arrived. »February 6, 5048 South Cornell, 11:45 p.m.—Two males, one armed with a knife, took cash from a gas station attendant. » February 7, 1055 East 55th Street (7-10 Lanes), 11:34 p.m.—Three unknown females struck two female victims with their fists in an apparent unprovoked attack. No injuries were reported, and the victims declined medical attention.

53rd

55th

S. Hyde Park

51st

S. Lake Shore

47th

» February 9, 5225 South Harper Avenue (Hotel), 12:53 a.m.—A male subject was arrested for battery of a CPD officer. Source: UCPD Incident Reports

Assault Battery Criminal tresspass to vehicle Damage to property

57th Other Report

59th 60th

Theft

Cornell

Doniger was informed that they would not settle for as long as possible in order to keep the book in print, though she said her lawyers knew winning the case was impossible. “I wasn’t at all shocked when we lost it,” she said. Doniger believes that selling her book in India is still a possibility. Penguin New York, a company not affected by the lawsuit, is considering sending 3,000 copies of the book to sell in India. Several Indian publishers have also offered Doniger the opportunity to publish the book again. Moreover, it has risen to the number 26 spot on Amazon’s list of top-selling books. “It’s a shame that Penguin lost the lawsuit,” she said. “But you can’t suppress the book anymore because of the Internet. The whole question of censorship is different because of the Internet.” Shiksha Bachao Andolan, the organization that filed the lawsuit, asked Doniger to submit her work to a panel in India for review and issue an apology in the future. “Don’t hold your breath,” she said.

Blackstone

book would upset people. “It’s what happens when religions become fundamentalist. They say only this is part of our religion and this is not.… I wanted to put into my book precisely those parts of history that they don’t like and they have left out. I wanted to put them back, and I knew they wouldn’t like that.” A 2010 online petition sponsored by the Sarasvati Research and Education Trust claims 24 factual errors and “derogatory, defamatory, and offensive statements” were present in Doniger’s book. The petition has since accumulated approximately 11,000 signatures. University spokesperson Susie Allen said in an e-mail that “the University vigorously defends [Doniger’s] right to publish and discuss her scholarly work.... As it has been for more than a century, the engagement of our scholars and that of the University is anchored in our fundamental commitment to free inquiry and free argumentation around scholarly ideas.” After Penguin India lawyers began fighting the case,

Type of Crime

University

in 2010 that she described as “insane.” She said that in the notice, which was copied to Penguin Group and Penguin Group India, the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, “the stuff that they objected to was very silly.” The document enumerated approximately 40 objections to The Hindus: An Alternative History, stating that the book “shows the malice and contempt [Doniger has] for Hinduism” and “is written with a Christian Missionary Zeal and hidden agenda to denigrate Hindus and show their religion in poor light.” The notice also alleges that Doniger infringed upon five different sections of the Indian Penal Code, the main criminal code in India, including Section 295A, an antiblasphemy law that bans acts intended to “outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” “[My book] reveals an aspect of Hinduism that these people want to pretend doesn’t exist,” Doniger said. She said that she knew the

Feb. 5 Feb. 12

Ellis

PENGUIN continued from front

Here are a few of this week’s incidents:

Since Jan. 1

Cottage Grove

Professor Wendy Doniger talks about the lawsuit in India against her book The Hindus: An Alternative History for an alleged Christian agenda. FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON

By Alex Hays

Stony Island

62nd *Locations of reports approximate

Traffic violation Trespass to property Burglary Attempted Robbery Robbery Arrest Attempted Burglary

Follow us @ChicagoMaroon CORRECTIONS The February 11 article “With After the Disco, Broken Bells Ring in Sophomore Slump” incorrectly stated the amount of time between the albums Port of Morrow and After the Disco. After the Disco was released nearly two years after Port of Morrow. The February 11 article “University Under Federal Investigation for Sexual Assault Policy” incorrectly described Title IX. It is a law to prevent sex-based discrimination. The article also misstated the day of the first Office of Civil Rights meeting. It was on Monday. Both mistakes were due to editing errors.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 14, 2014

Sexual health project highlights personal experiences of South Side community members STORIES continued from front

lot of power in that.” Ci3’s founder and director Melissa Gilliam said that she sees the film project as supplemental to the organization’s quantitative research on teen reproductive health and relationships. “We decided to bring the people we study into the picture,” she said as she introduced the stories. “Using narrative is so different from what you get with a clinical study. There is a lot going on with this project, but tonight we highlight these voices.” The Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, Global Girls, and the YMCA connected participants with the project, which resulted in the production of 50 short films. While one aim is to share these stories, the program also

provides students with free training in photography, video, and editing skills. Digital Storytelling Manager Steven “Seed” Lynn has been working with students in weekend workshops at the Logan Center since last summer, collaborating with participants aged 13 to 24. Lynn led discussion among the audience Thursday night following the presentation of each story, in which he explained the group process of crafting effective narrative and visual components. “It still shocks me how much you can get a story pulling on your heartstrings in two minutes with just voices, images, and text,” he said. “We are really a listening project. We provide tools for storytelling, but also we help give proper tools for listening.”

South Side Stories, a collection of short films on the sexual and reproductive health of black youth, is screened and discussed at the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry on Thursday night. FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Pilot education study benefits urban youth Alice Xiao Maroon Contributor Researchers at the University of Chicago Urban Education Lab received promising results from a behavior intervention project aimed at improving the academic performance of high school students in Chicago. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) published the results on January 27. The study was developed in the University of Chicago Urban Education Lab by a small group of researchers, three of whom are University of Chicago professors. The problem in urban education may be a “mismatch” between what students need and the support they are receiving, according to the study. The project takes a two-pronged approach that aims to improve both students’ academic skills and their social awareness. Participants receive an hour of one-on-two math tutoring every day. In addition, students attend Becoming A Man (BAM) social awareness group sessions once a week. BAM is a program developed by Chicago Youth Guidance that aims to teach values, social sympathy, and cognitive creativity to male students in grades sev-

en through 12. Jens Ludwig, co-author and Crime Lab co-director, said that teachers often do not have the time to help students below grade-level standards catch up, keeping those students from catching up with classroom instruction. “The sort of intensive, individualized instruction in math that we tested in our pilot study seems to generate an extra three years’ worth of math learning in one academic year, the equivalent of over half the black-white test score gap in math that we see in national data sets,” he said. According to the Urban Education Lab, the program reduced course failures by 57 percent and increased the likelihood that youth will graduate high school by 50 percent after six months. The pilot program focused on 106 ninth and tenth grade male students attending Harper High School, a Chicago public school in the South Side neighborhood of Englewood. The report stated that 95 percent of the participants were black, and 99 percent qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. According to the study, the estimated investment of the program is $4,400 per student. Presently, the project is spon-

sored by private funding, but Ludwig hopes that the pilot project’s success will lead to more public funding and said that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been supportive of the project’s approach. “Our current demonstration project is structured like a randomized controlled trial of the sort that provides goldstandard evidence in medicine, and can provide convincing evidence that this approach can work at scale. That sort of evidence would then, under the mayor’s vision, provide the basis for appealing to the federal government for additional flexibility to let the city repurpose its federal grant dollars to support evidencebased approaches like this,” Ludwig said. According to Amanda Norton, communications director for the Crime Lab and Urban Education Lab, the researchers hope to replicate the program in other cities. “What we are seeing is very encouraging, and we have been fortunate that Chicago Public Schools is a really collaborative partner and eager to help figure out what interventions might truly be effective and cost-effective, and might be able to help at-risk youth not only in Chicago, but also in other urban areas,” Norton said.

Landlords and students alike stand in support of the deposit system DEPOSITS continued from front

balance barriers to entry,” Cassel said. Many private landlords, however, continue to require security deposits. Timothy O’Connell, who owns two eight-unit apartment buildings on East 61st Street and South Ellis Avenue as well as a building on East 61st Street and South Kimbark Avenue, rents his buildings to between 50 and 70 students. He requires a security deposit of between $500 to $600 per room for three- and four- bedroom apartments, equal to a month’s rent. “I have never had a problem asking for security deposits. It’s silly and bad business not to ask for security deposits,” he said. According to Chicago laws, before deducting expenses, a landlord must give a tenant an itemized list of damages within 30 days of move-out and return the security deposit and interest, minus unpaid rent and expenses, within 45 days of move-out. If a landlord does not comply, a tenant can file a class-action lawsuit and be awarded dam-

ages worth twice his or her deposit with interest, court costs, and attorney fees. As landlords, particularly those associated with larger companies, have stopped requiring security deposits, administrative or movein fees have become more common in rental leases. This is a one-time, nonrefundable fee paid with a new lease. It is unclear if this trend is a response to the declining use of security deposits, said Jerry Ettinger, president and owner of Hallmark & Johnson Properties, which owns at least six buildings in Hyde Park and specializes in student housing. Second-year Marc Vernick, who lives in a MAC apartment, doesn’t regard the shift away from security deposits as a net good for student renters. “On either side of the exchange, I think it’s crazy not to use a security deposit system,” he said in an e-mail. “Obviously there’s some risk for both sides, but the alternatives—either no security for the owner or higher fees for the renter—seem way worse.”

“...the coexistence of people in different life stages produces a rich experience,” grad student says COOP continued from front

cooking and cleaning responsibilities among themselves. Rent in the House ranges from $360 to $580 per month. Every night, dinner for the entire co-op—vegetarian fare, but with the mandate that every meal contain protein—is prepared by one co-op resident in the communal kitchen. As there are 25 residents, each resident is obligated to cook once every 25 days. For other meals, residents have unlimited access to a wide variety of fresh food, which the co-op purchases in bulk. At present, each resident pays $190 a month for food. According to fifth-year Michael Eugenio, a co-op resident, the communal food system produces occasional hilarity when a

member moves in or out of the co-op. “There will be times when someone moves out, and the supply of cereal goes up 50 percent. There will be pounds of dry cereal, just sitting there, for weeks. And I’ll think to myself: ‘Man, that’s how much cereal that guy ate!’” Eugenio said. In addition to cooking and buying into the communal food supply, each resident is expected to perform a few hours of chores per week, which are referred to as labor. Examples of labor include minor building maintenance, washing dishes, and buying food. Tasks are assigned on a schedule that rotates weekly. According to residents, including fourth-year Lilly Lerer, the co-op’s system of

labor contributes toward building community. “Labor is the binding glue of our whole House. Nothing pulls us together other than the fact that we all want to live here and be members of a community. Living in the co-op is an emotional investment, and labor symbolizes that,” she said. According to Eugenio, the fact that nearly every co-op member is assigned labor also tends to produce amusing results. “We have a four-year-old girl in the building ; she was assigned labor, too. She was supposed to clean the kitchen table, but she kind of stopped doing that after a while,” he said. Bowers residents believe strongly in democratic governance of House affairs: Labor is assigned

and events are planned at house meetings, which take place every Sunday night and are mandatory for residents. “All House plans originate in House meetings, and most propositions are settled by majority vote. [The co-op] takes meetings very seriously; showing up to meetings and completing labor are necessary conditions for every resident seeking to have their lease renewed,” Eugenio said. According to Fedya Manin, a fifth-year graduate student, the functions of the co-op’s House meetings extend beyond the borders of Bowers House; in one meeting , Bowers nominated three representatives to a conference attended by all three Qumbya co-ops, which

took place on February 9. “The attendees resolved to make getting a fourth house a priority. The major questions that remain on the table are where to put it and how to finance it. In terms of location, Woodlawn surfaced as a strong possibility,” Manin said. While plans to expand are tentative, residents agree that the institutions that characterize coop life, including House meetings, assigned labor, and the diverse demography of the residents, have led to Bowers being a selfsustaining enterprise built on the concept of community. “I chose to move to the co-op because it offered the possibility of living with people who weren’t going through the exact same life

stage as I was, as a college undergraduate. That spirit—a love of diversity, and of community—is common here, and I think it lends long-term stability to the House,” Lerer said. She also noted that there have been several cases of residents marrying after meeting in the co-op. Current resident Katie Mann, a sixth-year graduate student, met her significant other three years ago in the co-op. “We plan on getting married in the summer; in the future, we may move into a smaller co-op. People tend to associate co-ops with students; residents tend to be students, but I think that the coexistence of people in different life stages produces a rich experience that can’t be easily replicated,” she said.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Creating a donation process Future SG donations should incorporate student input in order to foster community engagement The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 REBECCA GUTERMAN Editor-in-Chief SAM LEVINE Editor-in-Chief EMILY WANG Managing Editor AJAY BATRA Senior Editor DANIEL LEWIS Senior Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Senior Editor EMMA THURBER STONE Senior Editor THOMAS CHOI News Editor MARINA FANG News Editor HARINI JAGANATHAN News Editor ELEANOR HYUN Viewpoints Editor LIAM LEDDY Viewpoints Editor KRISTIN LIN Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Arts Editor ALICE BUCKNELL Arts Editor WILL DART Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Sports Editor SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor MARA MCCOLLOM Social Media Editor CONNOR CUNNINGHAM Head Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Head Copy Editor SHERRY HE Head Copy Editor KATARINAMENTZELOPOULOSHeadCopyEditor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy Editor SYDNEY COMBS Photo Editor JULIA REINITZ Photo Editor PETER TANG Photo Editor FRANK YAN Photo Editor COLIN BRADLEY Grey City Editor

When temperatures dropped below zero and its pipes burst on January 22, the Remake the World (RTW) Veteran Center in Washington Park shut down until it could repair the $4,000 worth of damage. Although the shelter is able to continue some services, such as connecting people to employment and housing opportunities, its hot meals program has been temporarily suspended. Last week, Student Government (SG) donated $1,500 out of its administrative budget, which is funded by the Student Life Fee, to the shelter to help with repairs. While SG’s actions show a laudable commitment to making meaningful connections to the South Side community and should be built upon, SG should invite more student body input and deliberation before using Student Life Fee funds for charitable purposes. As members of the South Side community, the University and the student body both have a responsibility to engage with the community; SG’s donation is one way of doing that. SG President and fourth-year Michael McCown pointed out that donating to RTW

is a mutually beneficial action for two reasons: First, it lays the foundations for future collaboration that will hopefully improve community-University relations; second, it makes the community a better place for everyone, students included, to live. In addition, SG determined that the contribution—which is only about 10 cents per student—was financially feasible based on projections for the rest of the year, according to second-year Tyler Kissinger, SG community and government liaison. The administrative budget, which includes airport shuttles, forum and meeting costs, and other fixed expenses, was $40,000 in total this year. Given the circumstances, $1,500 seems a small price to pay for something that has a direct, immediate benefit for the community. However, even McCown recognizes that this is an “out-of-theordinary step” for SG. In order for charitable donations to be a feasible action for SG should similar circumstances arise in the future, an established process should be put in place. The expenditures from the administrative budget

do not have to be approved by the SG Assembly or even by the cabinet, according to McCown. “The [executive slate] could have made a unilateral decision but it was something we chose to discuss with the cabinet because we were aware of the potentially controversial nature of donating money. After reaching consensus we proceeded,” he said in an e-mail. Because of that controversial nature, SG should mandate that the Assembly vote on donations so that the maximum number of student voices are heard. In the process of considering a donation, SG could also encourage students to come in and voice their suggestions or concerns. While College and Graduate Councils have representation on the cabinet, it is still a small group when compared with the entire SG Assembly, which contains representatives from every class. SG had not been hunting for a place to which it could donate— according to Kissinger, cabinet members saw RTW on the news and were spurred by the extreme weather to act. Because of the immediate nature of the problem, they did not want to wait a few

weeks until the next SG Assembly meeting to initiate payment to the shelter. Even in cases where immediate action seems necessary, SG could send out alerts to the student body to let them know what is happening and why it is happening. Even in these cases, SG should formally codify its practice of reaching consensus among cabinet members before taking action. SG’s donation to the Center is a commendable action, of which University students should be proud. But if SG wants to facilitate a larger, student body–wide engagement with the community, leaving the donation up to just the cabinet could result in the majority of students feeling shut out. A donation can only lead to meaningful interactions with the community if the student body as a whole understands its motivation. If SG wants students to support the community in this way, there need to be procedures in place that let them have a say in where their money is going and when.

The Editorial Board consists of the Editors-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.

JOY CRANE Grey City Editor SINDHUGNANASAMBANDAN Assoc.NewsEditor ALEX HAYS Assoc. News Editor STEPHANIE XIAO Assoc. News Editor TATIANA FIELDS Assoc. Sports Editor SAM ZACHER Assoc. Sports Editor

Home is where the rice is Letter: Admin defends SL The way to a student’s heart is through her stomach

TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager TAMER BARSBAY Director of Business Research ANNIE ZHU Director of External Marketing VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator ANNIE CANTARA Designer

Eleanor Hyun

Don’t go alone

CARINA BAKER Designer AURNA HASNIE Designer JANE JUN Designer JONAH RABB Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Designer MOLLY SEVCIK Designer KRYSTEN BRAY Copy Editor SOPHIE DOWNES Copy Editor JOE JOSEPH Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor CHELSEA LEU Copy Editor KATIE LEU Copy Editor JOHN LOTUS Copy Editor HANNAH RAUSCH Copy Editor VICTORIA RAEL Copy Editor CHRISTINE SCHMIDT Copy Editor OLIVIA STOVICEK Copy Editor ANDY TYBOUT Copy Editor LAN WANG Copy Editor RUNNAN YANG Copy Editor

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. © 2014 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: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

The Lunar New Year–themed fourth meal last week was the peak of my four and a half quarters of UChicago dining hall experience for one reason and one reason only—those sesame balls from Chinatown. I hope you had a chance to experience them, and if you didn’t, I have to sincerely apologize, not in that impersonal “I’m sorry for your misfortune” way but in the very personal “I’m sorry that it probably had something to do with my friends and me immediately grabbing as many as we could pile onto a plate, eating three of the baseball-sized balls each, and then gingerly wrapping a couple in paper napkins as we left the dining hall.” That night my friends and I were running around Bartlett checking each station, like it was some kind of Easter egg hunt. Completely undercooked pad thai from Noodles for which I waited in a 15-minute–long line? Hell yeah. Fried potstickers with a sweet and sour sauce that’s really more like really really sweet sauce? Give me that shit. White rice? OK. Bartlett, we need to have a serious talk about your rice. I used to eat rice at home every day with almost every meal, and for a while I dutifully searched out the rice

from your assorted stations until I felt that I had gathered enough data points to extrapolate that it would consistently be undercooked and taste like cardboard for the rest of the foreseeable future. And the Mongolian grill option in South doesn’t seem to fare much better. I don’t know how it’s possible to mess up something like rice this badly this consistently, but I suppose I’m not one to talk, seeing as I’ve never cooked rice for thousands of students on a stove or in a pan before. You see, the amount of rice my family of six ingests on a daily basis means that it saves us significant time and effort to invest in a rice cooker, which makes perfect, glutinous rice every time with about two minutes of prep and industrial-sized variants of which can be found at every Asian buffet ever. I can imagine it now: fresh, plump, white rice emerging steaming from a cooker stationed either by the soups or by that neglected garden water corner that could seriously use a bit more business. One of the things which surprised me the most about my first year of college was how jarring the transition from eating every meal with rice and Korean sides to eating without them was. Before I RICE continued on page 8

I commend the Maroon’s recent editorial, “Broken Links Can Be Mended” (2/4/14). I agree with the message of transparency and communication regarding the changes to the Summer Links program. Open communication is central to successful programming and is a hallmark of the University Community Service Center (UCSC). We also value the rights this University protects in its pursuit of free expression—namely the right to disagree, to talk openly, and to engage in dialogue. Over the course of its history, the UCSC has become a home for social justice and the exploration of societal inequities. And while this is significant, I believe it’s even more significant that the UCSC continues to be responsive to influences both within our student body and in the communities that surround UChicago. This passion for social justice—and the capacity of our students to be agents of change—is unrelenting and a unique characteristic of the University that makes me proud. The UCSC is currently reviewing the 112 applications that have come in for Summer Links 2014. These applicants represent a diverse group of students with a wide range of experience and interests, and a cohort of incredible individuals eager to experience this excellent program will be selected from them. I believe in the passion and dedication demonstrated by the alumni of the Summer Links program and hope that the next cohort will be energized with the same feelings. As an alumna of the College, I hope students who care about social

justice issues will embrace our university’s tradition of driving change through constructive dialogue, rather than confrontation that does not seek to build greater understanding. Our mutual commitment to Summer Links can help fuel that conversation. Every Friday during the program, our Summer Linkers engage in dialogue on the larger social justice issues that inform the experience of all of the students in the cohort. Dialogue is a cornerstone of Summer Links, and I hope our students do not miss an opportunity to use this powerful tool after their participation in the program. As the Maroon’s editorial pointed out, simply “because Summer Links has thrived doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved.” The thoughtful changes that have been made to the program will only enhance its focus on social justice as new internships are added to the existing cadre, ensuring that students can approach social justice from multiple perspectives. This will strengthen the program because a diversity of experience and opinion will cultivate a richer conversation about the challenges, complexities, and opportunities related to social justice. The mission of the UCSC remains unchanged, as does Summer Links. Engagement and participation from Summer Links alumni are important to building connections between the cohorts—both old and new—and we look forward to discussions that explore this program, which is valued by so many. —Eleanor Daugherty, Assistant Vice President for Student Life, Class of 1997

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | February 14, 2014

Is love dead?

Save the date

Love is not about maximizing personal utility

Casual dating puts romantic potential front and center

Eliora Katz Elior

Katzenjammer I remember the first time I was “asked out.” Sitting by my computer, seventh-grade me received an IM from the new kid who had just moved from Israel (who also happens to be married now). “Will you be my girlfriend?” the message read with the accompanying “bing.” I barely knew him, but the thought of being someone’s “girlfriend”—especially a foreign someone— enticed me. I eventually ended the relationship months later on IM by explaining to him that “our chromosomes just won’t work together.” I was looking for a complicated English word beyond his comprehension and “chromosome” was the best I could do. His proposal might have been juvenile, but to this day I look back on it fondly. It remains profound in its saccharinity, simplicity, and most of all its clarity—significant qualities lost in our nonchalant era of “chill.” Long gone are days of such lucidity. Ask a student today about her relationship status and you’ll find myriad answers. “It’s complicated,” or we’re “a thing,” “friends with benefits,” “fuck buddies,” “going out,” “in an open relationship,” “uh…” to the occasional “dating.” The nebulous language now used to describe relationships seems to reflect romance’s nebulous position in the millennial generation, where a myriad of new options— such as hookups and casual sex—have replaced dating. Recently I asked a guy how he felt about us. “I don’t like labels,” he replied. I clarified that I hadn’t asked for a label but for his feelings, his thoughts. “We’ll see,” he quipped, shocking me with his poignant terseness. The problem was not his lack of commitment, but that he couldn’t be honest with me. He was keeping his options open while simultaneously reaping the benefits gained from his association with me—allowing him to have his psychosexual cake and eat it too. A few weeks later, he ex-

plained that as an “individualistic liberal,” he sees no value in monogamous relationships and reasons that love is just lust. His friends were in monogamous relationships because “that’s how they were brought up in religious or traditional families.” Mr. Modern seemed to imply that as a rational, enlightened freethinker, he had reasoned his way beyond convention. Is this what the Modern Lover looks like? My own experiences like this one, those of my peers, those I read about and watch, and sheer statistics illustrating the dwindling popularity of relationships raise the question—are long-term couples going extinct? Are two people, willfully focused and committed to each other—not in the heat of wild passion but in an emotionally intimate life together—a thing of the past? The modern relationship is one big paradox. Sociologist Eva Illouz argues that our capitalistic focus on wealth attainment has made it such that people, and men especially, no longer depend on marriage for social status. Thus, sexuality is the chief center of the new ideal of happiness in relationships. Further, she argues that the logic of our consumer culture has come to influence the modern image of a couple. Put simply, love is now bound up with our ceaseless desire for novel objects: Hence, the mentality of the hump and dump was born: when bored with one partner—just find a new one. But this point of view is reductive. It leads us to think of and sympathize with others only in relation to our own happiness, and with the aim of maximizing it. We wonder, “How can I satisfy someone’s needs? What should I expect from him sans encroaching on his autonomy? How do we each get what we want?” Our hyper self-reevaluation and resulting self-interest has led us to see relationships as a utilitarian endeavor of two people seeking maximum

pleasure. Yet over-rationalizing another person dehumanizes her. She becomes her purpose, which is the benefit she serves you. Quantifying the benefit of another person—how much pleasure she gives you—is only possible through objectifying her. We drown love in rationalization of its economic, physiological, and mental benefits. Mr. Modern’s “we’ll see” accompanies the turning of wheels in his inner calculations of love as a functional pursuit. But love is not a business deal. You can’t plug it into an equation—it should be something unquantifiable, which eludes even the most rigorous costbenefit analysis. The whole point of love is to be an end in itself. But maybe you don’t buy this whole transcendentalism of love thing. Perhaps it stinks of outdated traditionalism to you, and couple-hood remains a superfluous construct creating confusion, conflict of interest, and pain. Statistically, we see more and more people choose to live solo. Accordingly, Mr. Modern must be right—love is dead. Mr. Modern can maximize his pleasure only in the wake of committed relationships. To him, I say this: You’re right. Almost nothing in life is intrinsically valuable, and love is no exception. But can’t things acquire value? Can’t a relationship be as valuable as we make it? Indeed, “make” is the operative word: We can view love in terms of Marx’s labor theory of value, which states that a commodity’s value is proportional to the labor embodied in it. As with everything else in life, the more you invest in a romantic relationship, the more value it accrues. In contrast to a hookup culture that requires an endless supply of goods, the pleasure derived from a committed relationship seems to be a more sustainable alternative, and perhaps that floats your boat. With monogamy, Mr. Modern can even receive greater utility with fewer commodities. Sustainability has been all the rage in recent years. Why not give it a shot in the bedroom? Eliora Katz is a first-year in the College.

Zelda Mayer Viewpoints Staff I find 2studentbodies fascinating. I have spent more time than I’d like to admit to just scrolling through the ads, completely captivated. I love seeing what fetishes UChicago students have and which ones they’ll only admit to with the anonymity of the Internet. But the more I have explored the site, the more I have realized that people use it for more than just kinky hookups: For every few posts asking for a quickie in the bathroom at the Reg or wanting to experiment with BDSM, there is a post from someone who just wants to chat. Last year as I browsed the posts, I started to wonder what all these anonymous people claiming to want something besides sex on a website meant for sex actually wanted. Were these posts just sneaky ways to get laid by appealing to the hopeless romantics and the lonely? Or did these people actually just want to talk to someone, and figured Craigslist-style ads would be most effective? So I created an account and responded to a few messages. One guy immediately asked for naked pictures, answering that question. But another replied asking if I wanted to grab coffee, and I agreed to meet him in a well-lit, public space. The experience was awkward, to say the least. I kept trying to engage him in conversation, to find literally anything we could talk about, but he would only respond with one-word answers. He never really made eye contact with me, and after about 20 minutes of stilted small talk, I told him I had a lot of work to do and had to go to the Reg. He said he did too, and I got up to leave. But rather than waiting until I had already left to get up or just leaving with me, he silently followed a couple steps behind me all the way to the library. Unsure how to act in this uncomfortable, somewhat creepy situation, I ducked into the girls’ restroom and thankfully never spoke to him again. This did not stop me, however, from continuing

to explore the alternative dating scene of social media. This year, at a friend’s suggestion, I entered into the world of Tinder. Although it is technically marketed as a dating app, Tinder matches users based on whether both people vote “yes” on each other’s photo, assessing “compatibility” by attractiveness. But surprisingly, for the most part the guys I interacted with seemed to be actually using Tinder as a dating app. While I got the occasional “DTF?” (or worse), most of my “matches” seemed to genuinely want to have a conversation. But when I actually met someone in Hyde Park, it was little improvement from my experience with 2studentbodies: Although he was perfectly nice, the first guy I met also told me more than six times that he liked talking to me “more than he should on a first date,” and even started to rub my shoulders without consent. Regardless of what form of social media I’ve used, my encounters have felt inorganic and have not actually introduced me to anyone with whom I would want to spend significant amounts of time. Still, they have felt like the closest thing to dating that I’ve ever experienced in college. On a college campus where we are constantly interacting with interesting people our own age, it’s easy to just hang out or hook up (read: housecest). So it seems strange how many people feel the need to meet someone online. People seem to be gravitating toward social media to meet not only sexual but also romantic partners, indicating that something is missing in the college dating scene. While I have been in relationships here, in my experience the progression is: Get to know someone as friends, hook up a few times, eventually decide to be in a relationship, make it Facebook Official. For the most part, I know people in committed, long-term relationships, people who casually hook up, and people who are single. And while all of these options are completely valid, I know almost no one who actually goes

on dates, especially to determine romantic compatibility. On the contrary, it seems that there is an unspoken assumption that going on a date is just a formal prelude to a relationship. For many of my friends, a date almost has to be their guaranteed next significant other for them to even consider asking them out. But dating shouldn’t only exist in this context. When we write off casual dating as an option, we lose some of the necessary process of assessing romantic compatibility. And without this process, those who desire an emotional connection but aren’t yet ready to commit to a relationship with someone are forced to choose between the murkiness of Friends With Benefits and the awkwardness of dating through social media. Casual dating creates a space where the sole objective is to just get to know another person better in a romantic context, providing a low-stakes situation for two people to figure out whether they get along as human beings. And while social media does to some extent create that lowstakes situation, my experiences were inorganic and ineffective. Something is still clearly missing. Casual IRL dating creates that middle ground that seems to be missing in college relationships—without the guessing game of meeting online. It allows us to clearly communicate our romantic desires sans the complications of existing contexts. For example, unlike the confusing transition from “just friends” to “in a relationship,” casual dating puts romantic potential into the equation from the beginning. Just going on a date in the first place removes a lot of the agony of later “defining the relationship,” saving both people a lot of drama. It’s time to bring back casual dating in college, to revive this organic process. Or, fuck it, we can all just get Tinder. What a wonderful time to be alive. Zelda Mayer is a secondyear in the College majoring in public policy.

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Food satisfies the craving for home RICE continued from page 3 got to college, I never thought I’d be homesick, but ever since coming here I’ve had a constant yearning for my home’s food—the kind of yearning that prompts post-midnight ogling of images of the Asian food that I have such limited access to here in Hyde Park (don’t even get me started on Crapè Corea), long sighs over dolsot bibimbap and tteok mandu guk with friends, and an ongoing search for the best Asian restaurants around. I think it goes without saying that food matters. My family always eats together, and eating has become an act of comfort for me, where the end is signaled not by a feeling of fullness, but one of satisfaction. I have always been fascinated by the way my dad, a man strong and stoic as a rock and expert at deferring pleasure for work, eats—noisily and unrestrained, equally full-mouthed and full-hearted. For the first 13 years of my life, I couldn’t fathom the odd taste of pickled cabbage—the Korean staple, kimchi— but, watching my dad’s obvious enjoyment always somehow convinced me that it must be delicious, and maybe I’d understand if I tried it one more time. Recently, when eating noodles with friends, one of them commented on how delicious I made mine look. Somewhere along the line I have inherited my dad’s ability to find simple yet profound joy not only in kimchi, but in good Asian food. I’m urging Bartlett and the other dining halls to get, at the very least, a rice cooker. And I’m also seriously encouraging them to supply a few cheap but invaluable acces-

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.

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sories—kimchi, sesame oil (which I saw at the salad bar last week, much to my excitement), soy sauce, and miso soup, to name some very simple options. It’s a small investment that will make the meals of many students infinitely more enjoyable and comforting. Considering that 28 percent of the Class of 2017 and 17 percent of the entire college are Asian, the potential gains are significant—and by no means is appreciation for a good bowl of rice limited to Asian students. The moment I bit into that sesame ball, a treat my family picks up from Chinatown every time we visit, Bartlett’s Lunar New Year fourth meal changed from a novelty event with sparse decorations to an offer of inclusivity and comfort. It’s already hard enough to help students feel at home in college, what with them having been ripped from almost all the existing social supports they’ve known for their whole lives and all. But if we want to try, I believe food, more specifically a rice cooker, is a powerful place to start. Eleanor Hyun is a second-year in the College majoring in English.

ELEANOR HYUN

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

ARTS

Heartlandia FEBRUARY 14, 2014

Maroon goes gold

For love and Linklater, the third time may be the charm

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) share a moment in Greece. Valentine’s chocolate not pictured here. COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Robert Sorrell Arts Staff The first time I saw Before Sunrise I had the distinct impression that I was being tricked. How could a movie with so little plot, so few characters, and practically no sound, other than Julie Delpy’s and Ethan Hawke’s voices, be so enthralling? At 16, lying horizontally across my parents’ couch, the 110 minutes of that movie seemed a mere 10. I was spellbound, suspended in the same dream

state that Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) find in the middle of Vienna. Watching Before Sunrise is like finding a crack in the universe and slipping through for a few hours into a place full of magic and mystery, where bartenders pity broke teenagers, and people sleeping on the street turn out to be fantastic poets. I fear, however, that subsequent re-watchings of Before Sunrise have lowered my tolerance for the film. Perhaps because, in context with Before Sunset and Before Midnight (the

ALICE XIAO

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

second and third installments in the series), the first film seems at times inexcusably indulgent, elitist, and sentimental. More truthfully however, it is because I’ve seen the next two efforts and they are just so much better. Before Sunrise is a meticulously crafted work. It is a beautiful, complex film. But Before Sunset and Before Midnight are great enough to permanently raise your expectations. For those more unfamiliar with the series, the three films explore a relationship between Jesse, a Texan writer, and Celine, a Parisian he initially meets on a train. Jesse quickly wiles his way into Celine’s heart and convinces her to get off the train with him in Vienna, and the two then share an innocent, romantic romp through the city before Jesse has to leave the next morning. In an era before Facebook, Jesse and Celine face the now-unthinkable reality that they may never see each other again, which adds to the sultry, come-whatmay romance of the first film. Of course, they do see each other again, nine years later in Paris. Whereas Before Sunrise is a sort of teenage romantic dream, Before Sunset is the love affair you want desperately to believe. Reconnecting in a cafe, on the banks of the Seine, and most memorably, in Celine’s small Parisian apartment, Jesse and Celine weave a modern love story that makes even the most cynical viewer feel a bit fuzzy inside. And then you reach Before Mid-

night. Unlike the leisurely first scenes of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, which unfold slowly and allow the action to build throughout the film, the stakes are heightened from the first frame. Or, perhaps as height-

ened as an airport scene without violence or dramatic music can be. Under the pen of Richard Linklater and co., that is pretty damn high. The cinematography then takes flight into the airy, romantic expanse of pastoral Greece. This time, it is not to play out a fantasy. Jesse and Celine bring their lives, their children and ex-partners, their careers, and ultimately their flaws to air out in the Grecian breeze. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset inherently assume the merits of romantic love; Before Midnight instead fights for its soul. At the crux of the film is a central question: What is the worth of love and relationships in our age? At a beautiful, extended dinner scene where Celine and Jesse enjoy the company of a cohort of Grecians and an expat writer, teenaged Ariadni mentions, “We wonder if NIGHT continued on page 10

AIC’s Paul-David Young sneaks a swig of Molly Soda Alice Bucknell Arts Editor Photography is memory materialized, emotions crystallized, time condensed and made palpable. Like any material object, photographs are transferrable, disposable, and have the ability to store meaning and remake it. Maybe it’s simple in theory, but things get complicated—as always—when these objects move from private life and enter public culture. In the same way that photographs can contain the ultrapersonal, they can also unravel it, disseminate it, and expose their authors. So imagine what might happen if some of these containers, meant never again to see the light of day, were to catch the attention of a young man passing by a dumpster. Perhaps the boxes are already open, giving a conspicuous show of what’s inside. Maybe they’re all shut tight or even concealed, and it just so happens that he is suddenly overtaken by some inexplicable urge to backtrack a few steps and open them all

up. What’s the harm? he thinks. It’s clearly unwanted, and who knows, maybe there’s something worth keeping. In this case, the boxes are opened, yielding dozens of printed photographs with no stated author. The man passes off the photos to his friend, Paul-David Young, and half a year later, an exhibition opens. To Perform, To Conceal, which opened last Saturday at Crowded House in Lincoln Square, is both

a reflection and extension of that discovery: selecting just 30 photos from a cache of over 100, Young hoped to present this curated batch as “a visual experience worth having.” While Young conducted the selection process and the show at large primarily through a formal lens, emphasizing the content and visual links that could be made among the photographs, concepts

of performativity, concealment, and identity also emerged, particularly invoked by the many self-portraits included in the ditched photos. With all of these self-shots, it’s surprising that the identity of the photographer was not discovered until the show’s opening day. The photos belong to 24-year-old Molly Soda (real name Amalia Soto), queen of Tumblr and one of the first artists to have sold digital work for IRL cash at Paddles ON!, the world’s premiere digital art auction, last autumn. Soda was surprised— but more baffled—to hear that a collection of photos she had taken during her undergrad at NYU had been pulled from her trash, sorted through, and turned into an art show, all while escaping recognition: “I’m confused as to how it got this far without anyone recognizing me. I’m not a mystery or a lost figure,” she commented in an earlier interview with the Chicago Reader. Regardless of the initial intent of the show, it has developed into an arena for intensely theoreti-

cal back-and-forth among reporters, artists, and anyone responding to the discovery of the identity of the once-anonymous owner of the photographs. The circumstances

TO PERFORM, TO CONCEAL Closing Conversation February 28, 7 p.m. Crowded House Gallery, 4919 North Lincoln Avenue

surrounding the show necessitate a conversation about the nature of authorship versus ownership, the difference between the anonymous and the unknown artist, and the potential dissolution of meaning for all four of those categories when the work in question is published online. “We use the word ‘anonymous’ all the time,” Young told me when I asked him about the unveiling of Molly Soda’s identity. “It comes loaded with the idea that the identity of a person is in a sense known, but has to be without a name. But

to say unknown—there’s no way to know who the person was.” He followed this distinction by informing me that he was aware of Soda’s identity early on in the project, but chose to withhold her name because he felt that to affix a specific identity to the exhibition would “be a distraction” and would “alter one’s perception.” In consciously removing the author from her work, Young wanted to let the material hold its own weight. For Young, the objective of the show was not to recast or expose a life once lived, but rather a pursuit of aesthetics: “The challenge here for me was: Can I make some-

CONCEAL continued on page 10

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | February November14, 1, 2014 2013

In concealing, Young’s exhibit stirs questions of authorship, identity “This year once again looks dim” for Before series NIGHT continued from page 9 this idea of a love affair that lasts forever is still relevant to us.” Similarly, throughout the scene, characters question the old-fashioned romantic ideals that are so deeply ingrained in Jesse and Celine’s relationship, making the two squirm slightly in their seats.

“Untitled,” one of the “found” photographs featured in Young’s first show, was only later credited to Tumblr darling Molly Soda. COURTESY OF AMALIA SOTO (MOLLY SODA)

CONCEAL continued from page 9 thing worth looking at?” Despite this philosophy, it’s hard to ignore the intimacy and simultaneous sense of exposure cultivated by the show, and I’m not speaking just of Soda’s nudes. The photographs reveal alleyways and apartments, found kitten advertisements and lingerie, bedrooms washed in dusty sunlight, and gazes so full of concealed emotion that it aches to know that you’ll never know the full story. But perhaps that’s all part of the de-authored fantasy:

Free from specificity, from integrity to the truth, we can use these expired icons of feeling—memories once significant to somebody, now abandoned—to stitch together a desired story of our own, infinitely malleable. It floats above all the everyday anxieties, disruptions, and discomforts that punctuated the lives of the subjects appearing in these photos—and it doesn’t end up in the garbage, because it never has to leave our own headspace. The process of removing both the hand and identity

of the artist from the artwork has accelerated exponentially in our lifetimes, with the digital age finalizing the protracted breakup between art and artist. The Internet produces a new system of knowledge sharing, one that is immediately accessible and infinitely reproductive. We can all be a part of the fantasy, making and distributing without having to reveal our own identities; there is little risk. As Soda suggests, once original content is online, it relinquishes authorship. And because nobody owns

anything, we all own everything. The idea of using somebody’s photographs in an exhibit without crediting them becomes not only acceptable, but also an automatic reflex. The removal of the artists from their work is not so much a political statement as it is an aesthetic one—an alternate way of seeing, as Young’s exhibit seems to suggest. But even then, I can’t stop myself from thinking: Is it really Youngslash-Soda’s models who are performing and concealing, or is it us?

Ultimately, Celine cuts to the heart of the issue when she intones bitterly, “If we didn’t have the girls, all our crap, would we still even be together?” The other thread connecting the three films, both in reality and in the fictional space, is a sort of fascination with time. In Before Sunrise, the excerpted time seems almost accidental, like a random selection from any one of a string of days. Part of the enjoyment in Before Sunrise is watching the mundane slowly become something extraordinary. In Before Sunset and Before Midnight, there is no such pretense. The moments are carefully chosen. But the beauty in the films is how Lin-

klater makes them seem mundane, accidental, quotidian. Still, as Oscar season draws near, this year once again looks dim for Delpy, Hawke, and Linklater. Before Sunrise didn’t receive any Oscar nominations but won many festival awards including the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin International Film Festival. Before Sunset was nominated in 2005 for best adapted screenplay, but lost to Alexander Payne’s Sideways. This year, Before Midnight shares the nomination with 12 Years a Slave, Philomena, Wolf of Wall Street, and Captain Phillips, all four of which are also nominees for best picture. 12 Years a Slave and Philomena seem especially likely to win best adapted screenplay, as they fall under Hollywood’s favorite “based on a true story” category. (Last year the award went to Chris Terrio for his dramatization of the Iran hostage crisis in Argo, and in 2011 Aaron Sorkin won for The Social Network.) Yet even if the film ends awards season sans Oscar statuette, Before Midnight and its precursors are likely to leave an indelible effect on movie lovers. Or at least they have on this one. Some films leave you speechless; these leave you babbling.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | February 14, 2014

Grapple in the Big Apple

Tough track awaits in Naperville

Wrestling

Track & Field

David Gao Sports Staff “The toughest thing about these duals is that during your match all eyes are on you.” Chicago’s season is nearly over. Yet the sentiment voiced by fourth-year Jeff Tyburski will certainly hold true again this year as the team is preparing for one of its most important duals of the year. This Saturday, the Maroons will travel to New York, where the NYU Violets will be hosting the South Siders and the Case Western Spartans in the 2014 UAA Championships. The three-way matchup has historically been a close contest, especially between Chicago and NYU. “NYU beat us last year by a match. The same goes for the season before that. And three seasons ago we beat them by one match—one point actually. It is always close,” Tyburski said. “In my experience, our best yearly performance tends to be against NYU.” The duals matchup this year between Chicago and NYU will largely be similar to last year’s. “Although Case Western has some good wrestlers, the UAA has, for the last few years, been won by Chicago or NYU. Focusing on our matchup with NYU, out of the 10 weight classes at last year’s UAA meet, Chicago will return four starters—NYU returns six. They [NYU] will have some experience on us. There should only be two rematches from 2013 which we split last year,”

head coach Leo Kocher (M.B.A. ’87) said. With a large majority of NYU’s core returning, the Maroons anticipate a long, contested lineup of matches against the Violets. “We are in a position where we have to win the majority of the close bouts—that means maintaining a super focus and discipline,” Kocher said. As the hosts of last year’s tournament, the Maroons finished in second place, beating the Spartans 40–9 while dropping their matchup against the Violets 24–15, losing by a margin of one loss and a forfeit. The forfeit came at the top of the lineup, followed up with one NYU victory and three straight Chicago victories. Of the remaining five matchups, NYU won the next four consecutively, while Tyburski closed the duals with a 3–2 decision in his weight class. Current third-years Joe Ellis and Devon Range were named to the AllAssociation Team. This year, the Maroons have been training hard since their match against Augustana College. “In my opinion, we have great practices leading up to the UAA tri-meet. That was true last year, and I feel it is true this year too. The enthusiasm in the room is higher leading up to UAA,” Tyburski said. The Championships kick off for the Maroons at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, where the Maroons will face the Spartans. Chicago will then face the Violets at either 12:45 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. ET, depending on how quickly the matches progress.

Isaac Stern Sports Staff For most, tonight will be one of loneliness and ice cream. For the track and field team, though, it will be a day of preparation for the two-day Chicagoland Championship in Naperville this weekend. The women’s squad will compete in their last truly competitive meet of the year before conference while the men get ready for their competition tomorrow. “This meet is going to be super competitive,” said second-year Rachel Jackson. “There are girls that have very fast times, but that will help us. This [competition] will motivate us to work harder and run faster as a team.” Jackson has been a jack-of-all-trades for the Maroons. She tied the school record for the 55-hurdles with her time of 8.59, and also competes in the 200-meter, long jump, and 55-meter, where she ranks ninth (27.41), third (5.32m), and fifth (8.16) in the conference, respectively. “I want to especially improve in my long jump and the 200,” Jackson said. “I know I can jump better if I can focus on my speed and technique down the runway. I am very excited to see how things go this weekend.” Meanwhile, the men will just focus on continuing to improve. Although the team is doing well overall, the UAA has grown stronger this past year and the men will have to keep up to stay in conference contention.

“It can be difficult in this sport to stay motivated when things aren’t going well,” second-year Ben Clark said. “A lot of kids on this team are just starting to match their times from high school. Until you get over that hump, this is a difficult sport to do at the collegiate level.” Clark, who recently came off an injury, has been driving all over the competition since he came back. He ranks sixth in the conference in the 200-meter with his time of 23.30, has a good chance of scoring in the 60-meter dash and also possibly as a key member of the 4x4. “I’m happy to finally be healthy and back with my teammates,” Clark said. “This meet and the conference meet are really the only [indoor] competitions that I pay attention to. I’m ready to have a performance that my coach and I are proud of, and I think a lot of guys on the team feel that way.” The men and women will have one more meet next week at home before they make their way to Boston for the conference meet. Although the Maroons will aim for victory this weekend, the real goal is to ensure they are at top speed and ready for conference play. “Our biggest challenge [will] be staying healthy,” Jackson said. “We’re all getting to that point in the season where we are getting tired and sore. We need to take better care of our bodies both physically and mentally.” The women’s meet starts at 5 p.m. tonight, while the men’s meet starts at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

Specialists in all styles: Team to face Luther, Augustana in doubleheader Men’s Tennis Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff Doubleheaders are not ideal in college tennis. Given that dual matches can last over three hours, teams must be both physically and mentally prepared to handle the task. No. 30 Chicago faces this situation on Sunday against Luther and Augustana. “Last year, doubleheaders were scary for me,” head coach Jay Tee said. “This year, we have the depth to play two teams if we really wanted to and still be successful.” With talent from top to bottom, Tee does not have a lineup set for Sun-

day’s matches, and said that fourthyears Zsolt Szabo and Neil Karandikar, second-year Bobby Adusumilli, and first-year Peter Muncey are contending for spots in the doubles lineup. At the top of the lineup, the Maroons look for wins from No. 1 singles and doubles player, and third-year, Deepak Sabada. Although he had two singles losses last weekend, Tee said Sabada has a new outlook that will improve his match play. “At practice, we’ve been focusing on different styles—moving back a little bit, giving his opponents a different look,” Tee said. “I think after he saw those results, he knew himself that

he needed to make some improvements in a different area of his game. He knows it, he’s taking initiative, and I think you’re going to see a different player from here on out.” Sabada’s doubles partner and No. 2 singles player, and first-year, Sven Kranz has already made a name for himself in his first year on campus. In just months, Kranz, as a singles player, has defeated Iowa’s Matt Hagan, reached the semifinal of the prestigious ITA Central Region Championships, earned the clinching victory for Chicago’s dual win over Denison, and notched the Maroons’ only win against Kenyon. “He’ll compete for every point,” Tee

said. “If we get everybody on the lineup playing the exact same way, where they hate to lose a single point, then our team would be much better off.” In the same way Tee admires Kranz’s competitive attitude, he does not want anyone—including himself—to overlook an opponent. Last week, because the Maroons were eagerly awaiting their match against No. 5 Kenyon, they barely bested Denison 5–4. “In the back of our mind, we were looking past Denison a little bit because that Sunday match was so big in our minds,” Tee said. “That’s something we definitely won’t do in the future. It was a good learning lesson for all of us.”

Luther, although unranked, won its first matches of the championship season by a combined score of 25–2. In preparation for Sunday’s match, the Norse will play three opponents on Saturday—a tripleheader (Loras, Grand View, and Wheaton, respectively). “We’re probably a little deeper than they are, but we always get everyone’s best shot, and for us to go in there and think we’re going to breeze by would be a big mistake on our part,” Tee said. Meanwhile, Augustana is 3–1 with its lone loss coming to Luther, 7–2. Both matches will be played at Moline, IL with the Luther match set to start at 11 a.m. and the Augustana match at 3 p.m.

Maroons hope to tarnish Violets’ unbeaten home mark Gross: “[W]e’ll do our best in both cities”

Women’s Basketball Adam Freymiller Sports Staff Chicago (12–8, 6–3 UAA) is back in action this weekend with two enticing encounters against NYU (18–2, 7–2) on Friday and Brandeis (12–8, 6–3) on Sunday afternoon. The Maroons are currently riding a three-game winning streak following victories over Emory (15–5, 4–5) and Rochester (12–8, 2–7) at home this past weekend, and will look to extend this success on the road. While Chicago’s first task against NYU appears daunting, given that the Violets are 12–0 at Palladium Athletic Facility, the South Siders like their chances at tarnishing this unbeaten record. Both teams indubitably remember their recent encounter on January 17 at Ratner Athletics Center, in which the Violets pulled off an 89–87 victory by the skin of their teeth. The game will also be fourth-year guard Maggie Ely’s final return to her old stomping grounds, where she spent her first two seasons before transferring to Chicago. While first-year forward Britta Nord-

strom has only one previous game against NYU under her belt, it appears that she understands the emotion and intensity behind these conference encounters. “For me at least, the loss to NYU last time was the most disappointing loss of the season, and I think I speak for most of the team when I say that we think that they escaped last time,” Nordstrom said. “We’ll be coming out with a ton of fire, especially because it’s Maggie’s last game back there.” Sunday ’s game against Brandeis doesn’t appear to be any less rigorous for the Maroons, as the Judges have forged a six-game winning streak and a respectable 6–3 conference record thus far. While the Judges will look to force Chicago into turnovers, they average 9.7 steals a game and rely on the consistent play of fourth-year guard Kasey Dean, who has reached doublefigures in her past five games. Look for Chicago’s well-balanced attack to take the game to Brandeis’s defense, which has limited opponents to 59.6 points per game and will do its best to inhibit Chicago’s guards from finding success on Sunday.

The Maroons’ performances throughout the season have been improving at the right time. Head coach Carissa Sain Knoche believes that this can be attributed to the hard work and opportunism they’ve demonstrated all season in practices. “We’ve been very patient on the offensive end and have really started to execute some of the defensive things we’ve been working on in practice. The team plays tremendously hard, and this is what they are capable of when you put playing hard and playing smart together,” Sain Knoche said. After these two games the Maroons will have three more home conference bouts against Carnegie Mellon (11–9, 2–7), Case Western (7–13, 1–8), and Washington (18–2, 8–1) to close out their season. These games will be pivotal in determining whether Chicago will be able to qualify for the NCAA DIII postseason tournament, and it will be intriguing to see how they turn out. Tip-off in New York is scheduled for 5 p.m. this evening. Sunday’s game at Brandeis begins at 1 p.m.

SWIM&DIVE continued from back

with our entire team. Being at conference as one team is the best feeling, but we’ll be cheering for each other in both Cleveland and Atlanta to do our best as one team in two cities,” she said. “I know we’ll do our best in both cities.” The results from both cities’ meets will be compiled to determine team rankings and individual All-UAA records. The athletes who receive NCAA A- or B-cuts this weekend will continue to train for nationals in March. “We will still focus on trying to achieve as many points as possible to finish as high as we can,” Yuen said. “However, there’s an increased focus on ensuring that potential NCAA qualifiers are able to swim the times they need to make it to NCAAs.” Competition in Atlanta begins at 10 a.m. today for divers, while the swimmers take their mark at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday in Cleveland. “I anticipate nothing less than the best performances from my teammates,” fourth-year Evan Bernard said. “And I expect to see more of us heading on to nationals than ever before.” The Maroons will host the Midwest Invitational the Friday and Saturday after UAAs, at which time the athletes not selected for the conference team will compete.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “Only Jesus is perfect, but he’s pretty close to that guy.” —Angels first baseman Albert Pujols reacts to Yankees captain Derek Jeter’s retirement announcement

UAA Championships: Winter storm splits swim and dive teams Swimming & Diving Charlotte Franklin Maroon Contributor Due to severe weather, the long-anticipated UAA Championships have been condensed from three days to two. The meet, originally set to take place in Atlanta, has been divided between two locations. The swimmers will make accommodations by traveling to Cleveland while the divers will still compete at Emory in Atlanta. Competition in Atlanta will take place Friday and Saturday, while the events in Cleveland will happen on Saturday and Sunday. Upon learning of the schedule changes, the team expressed confusion and frustration. Last minute adjustments force the

athletes to adapt, mentally and physically. “This means the event order is completely different, and we’re cramming more into a shorter period of time, which has various implications for the amount of rest we get,” said fourth-year swimmer Vivian Yuen. Despite initial concerns regarding logistics, the swimmers and divers have adjusted mentally and refuse to let the changes affect their focus. Their unrelenting work ethic and subsequent athletic progress seem to be the common factors ensuring they maintain a positive attitude. “We’ve been training so hard and we’ve faced a lot of adversity this year. UAAs always brings out such a great competition

mentality, that I believe that this will actually make us even more focused,” fourth-year Cathy Chen said. Third-year captain Sofia Gross agreed. “We’ve all trained too hard to let this meet complication get in the way of our training, dedication, and commitment this season,” she said. The swimmers are not used to competing without the divers to support them and the same is true of the divers regarding the swimmers. However, knowing there is encouragement in both Atlanta and Cleveland is reassuring, according to Gross, who will be competing with fellow divers in Atlanta. “We definitely wish we were SWIM&DIVE continuedonpage11

For UAAs this weekend, Maroon divers will be at Emory while swimmers will compete at Case Western. FRANK WANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

NYU, Brandeis on schedule for snowy weekend road trip Men’s Basketball Mary MacLeod Sports Staff This weekend Chicago has its last conference roadtrip. Tonight, the Maroons play NYU (15–5, 5–4 UAA) before traveling to Boston to play Brandeis (11–9, 3–6) on Sunday. The South Siders last faced the Violets at home on Neon Night and came away with a 58–50 win. The Maroons relied on their field goal percentage as

well as their defense to best their opponents. In fact, the team as a whole played excellent defense as the game marked the lowest score the Maroons had been able to hold their opponent to since their game against Trinity University (Texas) on November 18. Since then, NYU has regularly put up over 70 points per game. The Violets are 12–1 at home. “The key to beating this NYU team is rebounding and post defense,” said

fourth-year guard Derrick Davis. “Their team is huge for the most part so we have to focus on rebounding even more than we usually do. They also have two pretty good post scorers as well, so rebounding will help keep them to one shot a possession.” NYU is coming off a win against Case in which the Violets dominated the boards 37–29 and outscored their opponents 36–24 in the paint. Therefore, the determining factor on Friday

will be the Maroons’ ability to limit the Violets in these two categories. On Sunday, Chicago plays Brandeis. The Judges are another team the Maroons have beaten at home, as the last time they played, the South Siders won 85–75. The game had a slow start, and there were lapses in intensity throughout, flaws that the team is trying to fix in this matchup. “We just want to improve every time we step onto the court, no matter

if it’s a practice or a game,” Davis said. “We want to have a more fluid offense and a tougher defense.” After this weekend, the Maroons have just three games left in the season, making this stretch crucial for possible postseason qualification. The South Siders currently sit fourth in the UAA. Tip-off against NYU is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight. The Maroons take on Brandeis on Sunday at 11 a.m.

I love my team because... TENNIS

Brian Weisbecker, second-year: …we are family. Sofia Gross, thirdyear: …I have never met a group of athletes that work as hard as the swimmers and divers. We always remember that we’re one team and love having fun with each other. I couldn’t imagine a better college athletic experience, and genuinely love being around this group of athletes. Kendra Melnychuk, head diving coach: …they’re the most committed and dedicated group of athletes. They never give excuses and always show up to the pool ready to go. They have the best attitudes and always remember to have fun while working hard.

Jay Tee, head coach: …they keep my ego in check on a daily basis. Anytime I might be getting too confident, there’s always someone to remind me about being slow, my skinny legs, or being 30. I really do love being around them (almost) every day, and they make my job fun and easy.

SOFTBALL

Jordan Poole, second-year: …they are my best friends and my home away from home. I have no doubt that they have my back in everything I do, whether on the field or off. Maddie McManus, fourth-year: …I know I always have 13 people who will have my back and would do anything for me. They are my family, and I’m so lucky to get to play the game I love and share all the ups and downs of being a student-athlete with them!

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Temisan Osowa, first-year: …my track team is where I feel most at home. We protect each other, care for each other, and all look out for the well-being of one another...because they are who I am truly free with, where the burdens of everyday life and schooling at the U of C can be forgotten and we can just have fun!

Helen Petersen, second-year: …our unwavering support for each other. They are sixteen of the most spectacular young women I ever met, and I feel #blessed to be a part of it. Paige Womack, second-year: …we make every thing we do fun!

WOMEN’S SOCCER Kelsey Peterson, fourth-year: …we’re not afraid to be goofy together. It’s impossible to be embarrassed about anything after we’ve seen each other lip-sync songs during our preseason American Idol contest.

VOLLEYBALL Maren Loe, second-year: …I know I can always count on them to support me, no matter what. Nikki DelZenero, fourth-year: …only one out of 15 of us is a bear.

TRACK & FIELD

Ciara Hu, second-year: …I know that they provide a support system that is hard to find anywhere else. I know for me personally, I’ve been very stressed out this year, both because of academics and personal life. When I feel like I am hopelessly overwhelmed, I know that there will always be open arms to give me a comforting hug, and ears willing to listen to my troubles.

Brian Yan, second-year: …I love training with my team and then eating tons of food together at the dining hall!

SWIMMING & DIVING

Jen Law, second-year: ...they are my family here at school. Swimming is only a small part of it. Every aspect of college, whether it’s cramming for midterms, family issues, relationship drama, stressing about the future, you name it. It’s an amazing feeling knowing that you have this safe and supportive community who will love you no matter what happens.

Mikaela Hammel, second-year: …there’s no bond like the one that’s created when you kill yourself on the track together everyday. I love my team because of their swag and shade throwing. They make practice the best part of my day. Annie Marsden, third-year: …they are like my family. They make me laugh, and I can always count on them.

BASEBALL Kyle Engel, third-year: …there’s solidarity, and we’re able to joke around and not take ourselves too seriously all the time.

Francesca Tomasi, third-year: …because my team loves me.