030414 Chicago Maroon

TUESDAY • MARCH 4, 2014

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 32 • VOLUME 125

Uncommon Interview: Tom Kompare By day, Tom Kompare designs websites for the University’s IT Services. In his free time, he uses his technological skills to develop free apps for public use, including one that tracks locations in the city offering flu vaccines, another that helps parents figure out directions to their child’s school and what departure time is best, and one that compiles pothole complaints in the city. The Maroon talked to Kompare about

what inspires his work, what it takes to build these apps, and his next project, an app that tracks condom distribution. To read the full interview, visit chicagomaroon.com.

Chicago Maroon: On your Twitter, it says you’re a participatory technologist, and I’ve also seen the term civic technologist. In an article about KOMPARE continued on page 2

OMSA lecture scrutinizes gentrification So, a comedian walks into Ida Noyes...

Comedian Hannibal Buress brings laughter to Ida Noyes on Saturday during this year’s Winter Comedy Show. See story on page 6.

FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Tourre, former Goldman trader, will not teach undergrads, Univ. says Marina Fang News Editor Economics Ph.D. student Fabrice Tourre, a former Goldman Sachs trader found liable for fraud, will no longer be teaching undergraduate economics this spring.

“As preparations continue for the spring quarter, Fabrice Tourre will no longer be assigned as an instructor for Honors Elements of Economic Analysis in the College. Instead he will be able to fulfill the teaching requirements for his Ph.D. program through opportunities in his department’s graduate-level curriculum,” University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said in an e-mail.

According to the economics department’s graduate program policy, “pedagogical training is a component of our doctoral education and for all students beginning in the autumn quarter of 2007 and later, the degree program requires compensated service equivalent to five appropriate teaching assistantships.”

Manier declined to comment on what prompted the decision or offer further details. On the courses website and on Time Schedules, Tourre’s name has been removed from the course listing, and the instructor is listed as “pending.”

Fourth-year Allan Zhang bid for the section and was disappointed that Tourre would no longer be

teaching the honors section of the macroeconomics course.

“Macro, I feel, at the very least at the U of C, depends on who’s teaching it, so I was hoping that with Fabrice Tourre, it would be different than with other people in the past.

I guess I was hoping that his experience in the private sector and [investment] banking would add something to the class,” he said.

Despite the change, Zhang still plans to enroll in the honors section.

“I guess it depends on who the econ department picks to fill the spot, to see if it’s a net gain or a net loss,” he said. “Having Fabrice Tourre is a plus, but honors econ is still honors econ.”

IOP spring fellows to include two alums Marina Fang News Editor The chief political columnist for Politico and a former adviser to both Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Rodham Clinton are among this spring’s visiting fellows at the Institute of Politics (IOP).

In a press release Monday, the IOP announced the names of the six fellows, including former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Representative Bob Inglis (R-SC), and syndicated political columnist Roger Simon.

The group also features two alums, Howard Wolfson (A.B. ’89), former deputy mayor of New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and campaign adviser to Bloomberg and then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Ana Marie Cox (A.B. ’94), founder of the political blog Wonkette and currently a columnist for The Guardian.

Providing an international perspective is David Muir, who directed political strategy for former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This quarter, the IOP hosted U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s former

senior strategist Steve Hilton.

Just as previous fellows have done, the spring fellows will hold office hours with students, participate in IOP programming and events, and lead seminars and discussion groups related to their fields of expertise.

For example, Cox’s seminars “will explore the growing role of social media in modern politics,” and Inglis’ seminars will focus on energy and environmental issues, as he served as “the top Republican on the influential Energy & Environment Subcommittee,” according to the release.

Stephanie Xiao Associate News Editor Touching on issues close to home, students discussed the potential and limitations of redevelopment on the South Side in a forum led by Amy Khare at OMSA on Monday night.

Khare, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Social Service Administration, presented her research on the impact of the recession on mixed-income housing development, focusing on the construction of the 350 new mixedincome apartment units at East 61st Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue, made possible by a $30.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Particularly with the economic re-

cession, there’s the question of ‘What do we build?’” she said. “I know that the residents who live in Woodlawn have real concerns about the funding that’s coming in to redevelop the five blocks here. How will that money be spent? What jobs will it create? Will it make a difference?”

Khare also reflected on the merits of mixed-income strategies in general, emphasizing that non-profit developers like Heartland Alliance, where she worked before coming to UChicago, do not always share the same values as the private developers with which they often partner.

“It occurred to me that my so-called colleagues who I was partnering with thought about this mixed-income OMSA continued on page 2

Uncovering nature’s solar energy machines Kevin Song Maroon Contributor Over several billion years of natural selection, nature has developed machinery that is far more technologically advanced than what humans are capable of building.

Such machines include the lightharvesting cells found in plants and bacteria, capable of converting solar energy to usable energy with near perfect efficiency. Peter Dahlberg, a third-year graduate student in the Biophysical Sciences working in chemistry professor Greg Engel’s laboratory, is eager to uncover the energy-transfer mechanism found in these light-harvesting cells.

“Nature has found out a way to robustly harvest more solar energy to use– six times more energy than humans use–with simple chemical constituents, and do it in a very noisy environment of a cell, compared to the defined systems,

like photovoltaics,” he said.

Photovoltaics refers to the process of converting light energy into solar energy, usually using solar panels.

In light-harvesting complexes found in nature, solar energy is first harvested through light-harvesting proteins and converted to usable energy, which is transferred throughout the cell. The light-harvesting complexes have found ways to minimize any energy losses during the energy transfer process.

Previous studies have shown that the reason for the high efficiency of energy transfer is due to a phenomenon called quantum coherence. However, these studies were all done with light-harvesting complexes isolated from their natural environment—the inside of a cell.

Dahlberg has developed new spectroscopic techniques that made his lab the first group of researchers to observe quantum coherence and energy transSOLAR continued on page 2

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Retracing steps, returning to first year » Page 3

SNL vet Buress brings big laughs to Ida Noyes’ Cloister Club » Page 6

Women finish atop UAA field, take conference title » Back Page

When a book chooses its cover »

Asaf Avidan, acclaimed folk singer, Israeli good in concert » Page 6

Comeback falls short against No. 5 Wash U » Page 7

Page 3

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 4, 2014

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Kompare: “Everything I build is really user-focused.�

KOMPARE continued from front

your work, you’re referred to as a civic hacker. Which term do you prefer?

Tom Kompare: I’ve been calling it more of a participatory technologist. I personally don’t like the term “civic hacking� because it portrays just maybe the wrong context of what it is. People see hacking and automatically think bad stuff. But it’s really good stuff. It’s where citizens get more involved in working with their government to have a better outcome for their city or their neighborhood. That’s why I think of it more of like a participatory technologist. We’re helping government do things better for the city, just trying to help out the community through doing some technology.

CM: How did you get involved in civic technology?

TK: I’ve always been interested in how government works and politics and everything like that. About two years ago, I became involved in a group called Open Government Chicago.

We started a hack night every Tuesday where we got together and wrote code and talked

about how to build different things and use the city’s data portal. At one of these monthly meetings, a bunch of department heads within the City of Chicago came to our meeting to ask us to use their data. One of them was from the Chicago Department of Public Health.

And he started talking, and I started researching all the data they had available, and I looked at the website and there was the locations of all the flu shots, the dates and times and all the different places. And I was like, “I can map that, I can build something around that.� So I did and showed it to him, and he was like, “Hey, that’s really cool.

Let’s use it as part of our plan to do advertised flu shots.� And through that, a couple of people from other cities saw that and were like, “Hey we want to do the same thing for our city.

Could we use the code?� And I’m like, “Absolutely you could use my code, go right ahead.�

People from Boston and Philadelphia went ahead and did their own flu shot app based on my code.

CM: How long does it take to make an app?

TK: It all depends on how

complicated it is. The ones I do for the City are fairly simple. I do these things at night when I get home—I don’t do it as part of my job. I would say probably spent a good 20 nights on those—maybe a total of 50–60 hours on each one. But they’re fairly simple applications.

CM: How frequently do you make one?

TK: I try to play around with something new every couple of months. There’s one I’m talking [about] with the Department of Public Health again.

They have condom distribution points all across the city where you can go to a business and get condoms for free. An app tracking that will look very similar to the flu shot tracker— where are they, where are the businesses, what time of day, what are the business hours, and...where are they located.

Like is it at the bar, is it next to the cash register, or do you ask Joe in the back of the store or whatever. So that’s the type of info that if you’re going to be someone who has to pick up a condom. That’s what you need to know. Everything I build is really user-focused. I want to make sure the end user gets the

information they need.

CM: What issues do you think technology can improve in the future, in the civic space?

TK: In the open government sense, never before could we look at so much data at one time from the city government all at once. Before you’d have to do a series of FOIA requests and you’d get a big pile of paper.

There was no way to really analyze that data and really find out good nuggets of information that you’re looking for, find out the bigger-picture way of possibly doing things better. Let’s say there’s a disease outbreak in the city. What is it about those communities that can really help address, say, an outbreak of a communicable disease like an STD? You can pull together census data, income data, demographic data and try to see if there’s a pattern there that is also matching up with disease outbreak. As we get better and better at that, using those skills, I think technology can really help in that area. —Christine Schmidt Editor’s Note: This interview has been condensed and edited.

CORRECTION The February 28 article “Harlem Mosque Leader Talks Malcom X Legacy� incorrectly stated the part-time occupation of Imam Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid. He is a part-time employee of the New York City Department of Corrections.

No singular view on redevel.

OMSA continued from front

strategy very differently than the way I was defining it,� Khare said. “They were not thinking about it as a project to ameliorate poverty. They were thinking of it as a way to access land in key areas in Chicago neighborhoods, land they could use to build houses for a very different type of resident than I was thinking of.�

Khare emphasized that there was no singularly held view on the effects of redevelopment, based on her fieldwork. “I don’t think there’s one voice. People say, ‘If we can get our kids into the charter school then we might be able to not go through another generation of living in public housing‌ We want our neighborhood to look a little bit like Hyde Park,’â€?

Khare said. “I also hear another message, which is that ‘the Uni-

versity is not a place that I have access to‌’ I don’t want to share my neighborhood with them because the University has historically perpetuated a type of development that has forced residents to move.�

Khare believes that race is usually absent from discussions about urban development, and better alternatives to current mixed-income policies can only come when race is acknowledged. “This is an income-based policy. Race is silent. You do not see the word ‘race’ on any legislation,� Khare said. “I do think that we will need to return to a race-conscious language and perspective to actually be able to work through integration around income. We need to be able to talk about race in a different way than developers are doing now.�

Researchers able to see live cells SOLAR continued from front

fer in light harvesting complexes in live cells. “I figured out a way to do 2-D spectroscopy in only three seconds, which used to take at least 10 hours. This has allowed us to look at light harvesting complexes in live cells rather than in isolated environment,� he said.

Dahlberg’s method demonstrated that the energy transfer mechanism studied in isolated systems accurately represents

the energy transfer mechanism in live cells, reassuring the validity of this new field of research, which is only about a decade old.

In the future, Dahlberg hopes that his research will inspire others to engineer more efficient solar panels. “If we understand how plants move around the energy that they absorb from the sun, it can provide inspiration in how we should design energy transfer in photovoltaics.�

University Symphony Orchestra Barbara Schubert, conductor

Jennifer Stumm guest soloist and Concert Artists Guild Competition Winner

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VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed MARCH 4, 2014

The official Maroon Study Game™ As if you didn’t know how to study without guidance The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 REBECCA GUTERMAN Editor-in-Chief SAM LEVINE Editor-in-Chief EMILY WANG Managing Editor EMMA BRODER Editor-in-Chief-Elect JOY CRANE Editor-in-Chief-Elect JONAH RABB Managing Editor-Elect AJAY BATRA Senior Editor DANIEL LEWIS Senior Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Senior Editor

Ninth week brings with it the true dog days of the quarter, when the sweet, sweet freedom of spring break is so close, yet so far.

The temptation to finish a series on Netflix or polish off a box of Girl Scout cookies grows increasingly strong as the quarter trudges through its final days. Why not try the Maroon Study Game™ to get you to the other side, and prepare you for finals along the way?

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

1. Do a problem on your P-set any time someone asks during a review session, “Is this going to be on the final?” (Finish your Pset if you are the asker.)

4. Drop and memorize 20 French vocab words when you see someone passed out in one of the chairs in Harper.

5. Check your professors’ office hours every time someone coughs/sneezes in a quiet area in the Reg. 6. If someone glares at the offending cougher/sneezer, actually go to said office hours.

7. Meet a TA in Ex Libris if someone’s headphones come out of their laptop and their music blares in Crerar.

ALICE BUCKNELL Arts Editor WILL DART Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Sports Editor

2. Get off of Facebook if someone in front of you is on Facebook; close your browser if someone’s on Buzzfeed.

SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor MARA MCCOLLOM Social Media Editor ALAN HASSLER Head Copy Editor SHERRY HE Head Copy Editor

3. Shut down your computer and go outside if someone in front of you is posting a Buzzfeed quiz result on Facebook.

8. Do a chapter of reading every time you realize that your paper has no thesis.

9. Return to your paper every time you realize that your life has no thesis.

10. Fill out a class evaluation

for every Louis C.K. YouTube video you spot someone watching in Mansueto.

11. Form a study group every time your coffee break turns into an hour-long chat with a friend.

12. Bring your reading to Bar Night when you realize that hanging out on the A-Level does not count as socializing.

13. Get up and get dressed like the dignified human being you are when you wake up and it’s past 2 p.m.

14. Plan a trip to the Reg for every article of clothing you choose not to wear on your day at home.

15. Make it to Crerar if you choose not to wear pants.

16. Take a nap every time you’re unsure if you’re a human or a zombie.

17. Cancel your Reg room reservation when you realize you actually have class during reading period.

18. Start a study guide every time BartMart runs out of chips and ramen.

19. Review the counterarguments to your paper’s claim every time you catch someone dozing off in class.

20. Do some finger-strengthening and reflex-sharpening exercises in anticipation of Add/ Drop during finals week every time someone talks about spring break.

21. Study every time you inhale.

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

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 SINDHUGNANASAMBANDAN Assoc.NewsEditor ALEX HAYS Assoc. News Editor STEPHANIE XIAO Assoc. News Editor TATIANA FIELDS Assoc. Sports Editor SAM ZACHER Assoc. Sports Editor

Retracing steps, When a book chooses returning to first year its cover As life in college settles down, opportunities for new experiences dwindle

Attention to appearances is not necessarily superficial—it can be empowering

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

Clair Fuller

Kristin Lin

Particularly Nothing

Navigating Nuance

CARINA BAKER Designer ANNIE CANTARA Designer CARISSA ECLARIN Desginer AURNA HASNIE Designer JANE JUN Designer MOLLY SEVCIK Designer KRYSTEN BRAY Copy Editor KATIE DAY Copy Editor SOPHIE DOWNES Copy Editor JOE JOSEPH Copy Editor CHELSEA LEU Copy Editor KATIE LEU Copy Editor JOHN LOTUS Copy Editor VICTORIA RAEL Copy Editor HANNAH RAUSCH Copy Editor CHRISTINE SCHMIDT Copy Editor OLIVIA STOVICEK Copy Editor ANDY TYBOUT 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

I am sitting in Clarke’s waiting for a baked apple pancake at 1:30 a.m., and it’s Tuesday. I am unsure what sequence of events led to this moment, the one right after my friends and I have ordered and the waitress is returning with three glasses of lemon water. I am unsure of the circumstances that surround my current mood: happy but without any reason to be otherwise. It’s the type of happiness that matches the tungsten glow that eternally envelops Clarke’s in a surrealist version of Nighthawks. I am unsure of these things because I feel like I am lost in time, a spontaneous first-year trapped in a second-year’s body.

They say that the best way to find something you’ve lost is to retrace your steps, so maybe I should start by doing that.

Step one: I am working with two friends in one of the I-House lounges.

Step two: Someone mentions that they’re hungry.

Step three: I note that Clarke’s delivers.

Step four: We decide to go to Clarke’s instead.

Step five: We end up borrowing a car from another friend and roll slowly up Blackstone and toward the 24-hour diner.

And now, I’m sitting in one of the plush booths with two friends. We’ve all dropped our work (some of which

is due tomorrow) and we’re talking about life and school and anything, really. To me, it almost seems cheesy, like we are some flashback in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. It’s cheesy because it came together so easily, as if it were normal for us to drive instead of walk from I-House to Clarke’s, and it were a natural decision to embrace the futility of a night spent working.

But retracing my steps up till this moment might require a little more digging. Somewhere between the door of my dorm and the booth of this diner, I had found a part of the spontaneity of my first-year self.

There’s a moment after O-Week when college life just becomes life.

Perhaps the novelty of living in a dorm or being with all these new and wonderful people doesn’t fade so much as a rhythm settles into your days, and laundry and morning alarms and class become prerequisites for your even being here. I remember feeling relieved when this moment happened—content that I didn’t feel the need to constantly drop my underwear mid-fold to go experience something else new. Maybe I just had a severe fear of missing out, but before this moment, everything and everyone here was a possibility. It was all so fresh. And maybe there’s a better way of framing this, but the moment CLARKE’S continued on page 4

Like every budding lipstick feminist who grew up in the late nineties /early 2000s, watching Legally Blonde was a formative experience for me. In it, Elle Woods, a walking stereotype of a UCLA sorority girl, stalks her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School, where she learns that she’s an awesome lawyer and goes on a girl-power filled journey of self-discovery and fulfillment. There is a lot of Valley-girl slang and hot pink fashion circa 2001, and it is awesome.

But before the audience entirely realizes that Elle is actually awesome and smart, we’re supposed to understand that she doesn’t fit in with her stuffy Harvard classmates because she does things like seek out a salon trip after a terrible day and vent to the manicurist (spoiler: at the end of the movie, the manicurist also becomes super empowered and has an awesome lady-friendship thing going on with Elle, because this movie is a feminist triumph). This is supposed to mean that Elle is shallow, because obviously serious people don’t care how their nails look, or something.

I do my nails myself, which is why they always look like complete shit.

Even so, I was never able to begrudge Elle her salon visits, especially if they instantly improve her mood. My best friends and I have a treasured ritual of spending most of a day making a trip to the North Side for haircuts, because spending time on yourself is incredibly relaxing. Also because we can never

ever make our hair look as good as it does immediately post-haircut, and when we walk around Wicker Park with professionally styled hair we like to pretend that we’re cool enough to fit in.

But beyond this simple pleasure of pampering ourselves, the haircut outings are rituals because they are, in many ways, magical. They’re often dismissed as shallow, but aesthetic changes like hair color or clothing are a means of self-transformation; changing the way you look is a way of changing how people respond to you. When Elle Woods decided she wanted to fit in at Harvard, she started wearing black and navy blue suits. Meanwhile, any time I wear bright colors, people comment on the departure from what has been called my “usual pallor.”

All this is to say that, like it or not, how we look is closely tied to how we feel about ourselves and how others perceive us. As such, the ability to change how we look is powerful, especially for women and feminine-presenting people for whom appearances are especially charged with social meaning.

Choosing to appear in certain ways means I can play with the assumptions people make about me. If I were to dress like a police officer, for example, people might think I was one. But this works in more subtle ways, too; after trading my long hair for a pixie cut, relaELLE WOODS continued on page 4

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | March 4, 2014

4

Being a first-year has its perks CLARKE’S continued from page 3 I felt even slightly settled was the moment I realized that my possibilities weren’t as vast as I had thought when I first arrived here—that not every person on this campus could become my best friend, and not every conversation could impart some deep insight upon me. I felt relieved by this because it’s pretty exhausting to live as if you’re on the verge of something great every minute.

The moments in our college days that we will recall two, five, or even 10 years from now probably won’t have much to do with the reading that you need to start for next week, or that one time you ate at Bartlett. While these daily occurrences necessarily constitute the bulk of our time here, they are the stories that no one tells. Rather, the moments you remember will probably have to do with the times when you forgo those regular commitments and do something else. It’s romantic to stay up and watch the sunrise at the Point or to wander around Chicago for a day and not think about anything but your next destination via CTA. Spontaneity is memorable.

But this life is also unsustainable on a practical level. I’m not really saying that these opportunities fade as we proceed with our years here,

Legally Blonde takes hot blonde stereotype and subverts it ELLE WOODS continued from page 3 tives stopped asking me if I had a boyfriend and started asking me if I even liked boys.

When we talk about the ways aesthetic influences perception, especially for women, we focus mainly on lamenting the fact that it does so.

There’s lots of talk about the male gaze that frames women as objects who receive the unfair appearance-based judgments of society. I agree. The fact that we judge people so harshly based on the way they look is counterproductive; the fact that this judgment is amplified around what femininity is supposed to be like is counterproductive as well as patriarchal. What doesn’t make sense to me, then, is why attempts to get around this perception issue by altering one’s looks are still written off as vain or frivolous. It is precisely because we collectively place so much stock in aesthetics as determinants of various social markers that “cosmetic” changes

“

The fact that we judge people so harshly based on the way they look is counterproductive.

”

can have such radical power and subversive potential. I am able to designate myself as queer just by how my hair looks. That’s not what I’d consider frivolous or shallow at all—that’s incredibly powerful.

Just in time for the triumphant courtroom scene in Legally Blonde, Elle ditches the navy-blue suits and returns to pink. This, too, is a subversive choice. It is her way of choosing to be true to herself and kick ass while doing so instead of conforming, despite the fact that a hot blonde woman in pink is a stereotype in itself. It is Elle’s agency that makes the difference here, and too often I think we underestimate that kind of agency when we consider why and how people might choose to present themselves the way they do, because when these choices are so fraught with social meaning they are rarely made lightly. But also, seriously— go watch Legally Blonde.

Clair Fuller is a second-year in the College majoring in gender and sexuality studies.

but we certainly become less open to them—especially on those Tuesday nights when you have a reading response and a problem set due the following afternoon. And even when you are free, Netflix often sounds more appealing than trudging through the wind and snow to somewhere else.

College is not always a succession of spontaneous events, or a memory-making machine. It’s life wrought in the best possible way—a time when you can do and study things that interest you. It’s also a life that requires some sort of structure in order to proceed.

But I think settling into life here comes at the risk of becoming too attached to mundanity.

It’s pretty common to stay in to watch a movie and make ramen instead of venturing out and just being open to whatever may happen and wherever it may happen.

Sitting in this booth at Clarke’s, I marvel at how organic the moment is, even if it feels so out of place in my Usual Week—I’m supposed to be asleep right now.

But instead, I feel like a first-year again. And I think I like it.

Kristin Lin is a second-year in the College.

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Monday: Nadia Chana Tuesday: Ginger Carr Wednesday: Meredith Haggerty Thursday: Yaniv Ron El Friday: Kat Ziegler RESTORATIVE YOGA Every Tuesday 4:30 pm and 5:45 pm, Rockefeller Chapel Meredith Haggerty offers an hour of restorative yoga in the noble setting of Rockefeller Chapel — poses held for deep relaxation and restoration. Bring your own yoga mat if you have one. Suggested donation $5, free to students.

ZEN MEDITATION Every Wednesdays at 5:30 pm, Rockefeller Chapel (5 pm for instruction) Rockefeller offers Zen meditation weekly throughout the year, with Taigen Dan Leighton and Nyozan Eric Shutt of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate. Free.

THE CHICAGO MAROON’s Quarterly Magazine

Spring 2013

UNDER THE TABLE Inside food culture at the University of Chicago » Page 14

PLUS Q&A with Dean of College Admissions and Financial Aid, Jim Nondorf » Page 19

The State of the Humanities (And why you shouldn’t double major) » Page 2

Through The Portal: The Maroon Rabbit Revealed » Page 22

and Pierce’s last stand » Page 7 GREY CITY | 1

WANT TO KNOW MORE? CONTACT US AT EDITOR@CHICAGOMAROON.COM

SAMATHA MEDITATION Every Wednesday, 6 pm, Rockefeller Uncommon Room Samatha Buddhist meditation (calmness through attention to the breath) for beginners.

GENTLE YOGA Every Thursday 4 pm, Bond Chapel Meredith Haggerty instructs a gentle yoga class, a slightly more active one than the Tuesday restorative classes. This class is a combination of easy movement and breathing exercises to relieve stiff necks and backs! Suggested donation $5, free to students.

spirit.uchicago.edu 5850 South Woodlawn Avenue | Chicago, Illinois 60637 | 773.702.2100

2014 Student Leader Awards Help the University recognize the amazing contributions made by students on our campus this year. Nominate students for the 2014 Student Leader Awards.

To find more information about award qualifications and to nominate students, visit: studentleaderawards.uchicago.edu NOMINATIONS ARE DUE BY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12TH at 11:59 PM

ARTS

Heartlandia MARCH 4, 2014

SNL vet Buress brings big laughs to Ida Noyes’ Cloister Club

Former 30 Rock writer Hannibal Buress: “If you truly care about the environment, you should piss in your sink.”

FRANK YAN

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

Robert Sorrell Arts Staff Last Saturday, the Major Activities Board (MAB) revived its Winter Comedy Show after a one-year hiatus, prompting students to wonder why they had stopped in the first place. Are we really that humorless of a campus?

Do Foucault and fart jokes really have to be mutually exclusive? After taking a break in 2013 due to funding issues, MAB banked on Chicago-born comedian Hannibal Buress to bring back

the laughs. Or at least the jokes.

To enter the hallowed sanctum of the Club of Cloisters, students first offered up their wrists for blue and red wristbands, one allowing entry to the (comedy?) Club and the other allowing entrance to the hopping northwest corner of the room, which provided the liquid entertainment for the evening. The room, used throughout the quarter for contra dancing, swing dancing, LARPing, and other similar pursuits, was now decked out to feel like an intimate comedy club, com-

plete with dim lighting, stage, and rows of folding chairs. Onstage a DJ laid down spaced-out beats and synth loops with strains of Chance the Rapper, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar bubbling sporadically to the surface.

Buress, who has written for 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, as well as performed on many late-night shows including The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, is no stranger to an intelligent audience. The real burden lay on the sleep-deprived, frostbitten, humorless

eighth-week zombies who constitute the student body this deep into winter.

Do they still remember how to laugh?

The first opener, Dan Brier, a fourth-year member of student improv comedy group Occam’s Razor, provided a glimmer of hope with a few topical jokes touching on Durkheim, the darker side of internships, and awkward conversations with French professors. Brier’s nerdy shtick gave many in the room a strange sensation, almost like uncontrollable, spontaneous sneezing mixed with a nasal-y yodel: the first hints of laughter.

Next on stage, Chicago rapper Calez tried to get the crowd on its feet and dancing, but rows of sharp metal folding chairs and scores of barked shins kept things from getting too rowdy. Calez suffered from the choice of venue, and a sadly large portion of the audience sat down during his set.

Yet, though he failed to get any laughs, he gave a much-needed energy boost to the first few rows, who, after a few minutes of dancing, clapping, and yelling, seemed in peak physical condition to release deep belly laughs.

Buress finally clambered onto the stage to cheers and instantly had the crowd (or at least the more amenable first few rows) in his hands.

Feeling out the room with jokes about sex, weed, and plane delays, he also threw an offhand quip about Adderall, which elicited an unexpected guffaw. Buress took note and harped for a bit on other UChicago stereotypes (mainly the rich, white ones) and, when his DJ used a gunshot sound effect, added, “You’re

safe; this is Hyde Park!”

He spent the rest of the evening toeing the line between alienating and buddying up to the crowd, always getting at least a few chortles. After outlining an experiment he conducted on the “infinite” water supply in his New York apartment by leaving the tap running for nine hours (noting he only needed about two percent of infinity, and could send the rest of it to places in the world where clean water is a scarcity), he won a few laughs from the environmentally conscious by adding that to make up for the water he wasted, he decided to piss in the sink for three months. “If you truly care about the environment, you should piss in your sink,” he quipped, adding that, on top of saving water, it also makes you feel like a king.

By the end of the night, Buress’s act wove in longer narratives and hilarious stories about pissing his pants on ecstasy, staying out late for bad reasons (“I don’t want to go home; it’s messy there”), and how racism hurt his back.

And, for the rest of the crowd who’d been too busy reading Derrida to notice he was up onstage, he provided an explosively entertaining deconstruction of rap songs by 2 Chainz, Eminem, Young Jeezy, and of Big Sean’s infamous “ass” verse from Kanye West’s “Mercy.”

MAB served up a night of raucous, rib-splitting comedy Chicago style: with lots of hot, saucy layers, and beer on the side. Buress made sure that even the coldest humorless academic got a chance to laugh. Most of the audience members took it.

Asaf Avidan, acclaimed folk singer, Israeli good in concert Ellen Rodnianski Arts Staff If one were to listen to the music of Asaf Avidan, an Israeli singersongwriter, chances are they’d be convinced that the singer is a female chain smoker who enjoys indulging in whiskey. Tel Aviv native Avidan, however, is a skinny man with a mohawk. Acclaimed in Europe and in Israel, Avidan came to Chicago as part of his first North American tour, and his first as a solo artist.

Avidan previously performed as the front man for the aptly named Asaf Avidan & the Mojos, a folk rock outfit that he founded in 2006.

He left the group in 2012 to pursue a solo career, and last year saw the international release of his first solo studio album Different Pulses, songs from which he performed at the Old Town School of Folk Music this past Thursday.

The farthest seat in the fantastic venue that is the Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall is a mere 45 feet away from the stage. This, combined with the hall’s incredible acoustics, floor seating, and dim lighting, created an intimate and soulful atmosphere for Avidan, alone on stage, to broadcast his dulcet tones. The fact that most of the audience had drinks in hand didn’t hurt, either.

Avidan’s accomplishments as a musician are a result not only of his

incredible, octave-defying vocals, but also of his skill as a lyricist and his ability to play numerous instruments fluently. His songs tend to focus on personal experiences, among which failed love is definitely the most recurring. “I said, ‘Baby I adore you.’/ She said, ‘No babe, you’re just afraid,’” he sang in “Anchor.” Avidan accompanied most of his songs with his guitar; however, he also played the harmonica and a percussion synth. At one point during the show Avidan used a loop machine to perform the Mojos’ “Weak,” proving to the audience that one musician with a loop machine can create incredible live music.

Between songs, Avidan entertained the audience by sharing the story of his greatest failed relationship, which he compared to two islands floating apart. The spectacular heartbreak that ensued inspired him to share his emotions through music, ultimately leading to his career as a songwriter. The audience was compelled to ruminate further when Avidan discussed the concept of time, explaining that time is “one long, thin line” that we “divide into cyclical patterns” what we call seconds and minutes, “all so that in the end we can say, ‘365 days ago, I was here! I exist!’”

Avidan left his signature number, the tense and frantic “Reckoning Song,” for the encore, which at first stressed out several audience

Musician Asaf Avidan performed at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Thursday. Avidan is touring in promotion of his latest album, Different Pulses, his first solo studio release.

COURTESY OF CARSTEN WILDE

members but ultimately satisfied everyone’s musical desires. Avidan also performed his newest song, “Tunnels,” which was inspired by a friend of his explaining his depression by saying, “My tunnels are long and dark these days.” The song was pervaded by a melancholy mood, as

is characteristic of Avidan’s music.

The “Reckoning Song” serves as the rare exception, at least in the Wankelmut remix that led to its popularity on dance floors across the world.

Asaf Avidan is an artist worth listening to. Influenced by American folk music, but hauntingly

skewed by his androgynous vocal range, the work of the Israeli musician is unique and enticing.

Avidan’s performance and charm and the inherent virtues of the magnificent Maurer Concert Hall combined to form a truly unforgettable concert experience.

7

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | March 4, 2014

Maroons can’t Bear tough offense Comeback falls short against Men’s Basketball Sam Zacher Associate Sports Editor When bears smell honey, they attack consistently, without fail.

As they have for three times in the last three seasons, the No. 3 Wash U Bears (23–2, 14–0 UAA) spoiled the Maroons’ (15–10, 8–6) final game of the season. During the South Siders’ Senior Day on Saturday, the Bears defeated the home team by a score of 86–73, holding onto the lead for the majority of the game.

Chicago started the game well, holding Wash U in check and going up 7–6. Three-point shooting plagued the Maroons in the first half, though, as they shot 0–6, and Wash U shot 60 percent from the field, going on a 13-point run and never looking back. Second-year shooting guard Jordan Smith tried to keep Chicago in the game, scoring 13 points in the first half. The South Siders found themselves down 40–28 at the half.

In the second half, fourth-year guard Wayne Simon was not about to let his collegiate career end that easily. He scored 16 points in the second half, bringing Chicago to within eight points, a 64–56 score.

However, the Maroons just couldn’t muster up enough to overcome the comfortable Wash U lead on the day, as the Bears closed out the 86–73 win.

Three-point shooting especially hurt Chicago on the day, as it converted 3–15 treys to Wash U’s 8–16 shooting.

Smith led the team with 19 points, Simon added 18 points and six rebounds, and second-year forward Nate Brooks scored 11 points and gathered seven rebounds.

Although this was the last competition that Chicago’s fourth-years will play in maroon and white jerseys, fourth-year forward Sam Gage has a somewhat positive outlook.

“I have mixed emotions,” Gage said. “On one hand, I’m obviously sad because it’s my last game in a Maroons uniform. But on the other hand, the end of my basketball career means the beginning of the next chapter of my life, which is exciting.”

Smith gives credit to the veterans’ importance to Chicago Maroon basketball.

“Our four seniors were the heart of our team and a lot of the reason why I came to U of C,” Smith said.

“It’s going to be really weird playing without [them].

They will definitely be missed.”

Prior to the game, the four fourth-years—Gage, Simon, guard Derrick Davis, and forward Charlie Hughes—were honored in traditional Senior Day festivities.

Gage contributed tough minutes for Chicago all season, rebounding and hitting tough mid-range and three-point jumpers.

Simon, a transfer from DI American University, always provided a spark off the bench and averaged an impressive 20.7 points per game in his final three as a Maroon with athletic drives and threes.

Davis often brought the Ratner crowd to its feet this season with thunderous dunks; as a lockdown defender, the absurdly athletic shooting guard was key on the offensive and defensive ends.

It’s not easy to characterize Hughes in a few sentences, but the fan favorite did it all: he could defend anyone from a two-guard to power forward, he could lead the fast break, he could rebound, and most notably, he could knock down in-your-face jumpers from anywhere on the court. Hughes contributed most, however, with his energy and veteran leadership.

“Playing basketball at UChicago taught me countless lessons,” Gage said. “One that sticks out is the perseverance that comes along with seeing a four-and-a-half-month season through till the end.

Especially at a school like this, that grind can be very tough, and from that I feel like I can take on almost any challenge.”

Chicago finished third in the UAA, behind Wash U and Emory (17–8, 9–5). The Maroons beat Emory once and lost to Emory once this season.

Smith provided very steady offense for Chicago, leading the team in points per game (11.2) and threepoint shooting (41 percent) among players who shot at least eight threes. Next season, the team will belong to Smith, third-year point guard Royce Muskeyvalley (10.1 points, 3.7 assists per game), and Brooks (7.3 points, 5.4 rebounds per game). Those three players started every game this season in which they played.

Second-years Alex Voss (forward), Eric Robinson (forward), and John Steinberg (shooting guard) and first-year forward Waller Perez are also expected to make significant contributions.

“Next year is still a long way away, but we have tons of young talent,” Smith said. “And we certainly have the potential to go far next year.”

No. 5 Wash U

Women’s Basketball Adam Freymiller Sports Staff Saturday’s game was prefaced by a Senior Day ceremony recognizing the contributions of fourth-years Maggie Ely, Julie Muguira, Kate Casaday, and Christiane Murray to Chicago’s squad (15–10, 9–5 UAA) throughout their careers. But No. 5 Wash U (23–2, 13–1) came into town planning to spoil the party. Although each of the teams came into Saturday’s contest averaging more than 70 points per game, the game turned into a defensive showdown testing the physical mettle of both teams.

Chicago’s offense got off to a sputtering start, as a combination of subpar shooting and Wash U’s defensive efforts led to a four-minute drought, allowing Wash U to build a 30–14 lead. However, the South Siders arguably played their best defense all season against the Bears, as they fought tooth and nail for every rebound and limited the Bears’ top-scoring guard, thirdyear Melissa Gilkey, to only one first-half point.

Chicago entered halftime trailing 35–22, but its stout defense laid the groundwork for an audacious second-half comeback.

The Maroons shot a dismal 2–12 (16 percent) from three-point range in the first half, but the game turned on its head when they began turning defensive stops into points in transition, going on an immense 17–2 run midway through the second half to level matters at 46–46.

“We had some great defensive possessions, but we also allowed offensive rebounds that forced us to have to play defense for another 30 seconds. Possessions like that are extremely deflating, especially when you’re not hitting,

and that really hurt us down the stretch,” said third-year guard Claire Devaney. She attained her fifth double-double this season with a 13 point, 14 rebound performance.

Indeed, both defenses were on top in the second half, as possession after possession was nixed, leading to a four-minute scoring drought late in the game for both teams. Although Chicago managed to challenge Wash U’s slim lead right to the death, time ran out for the South Siders as Wash U cleaned up at the free-throw line to see through a 63–57 victory.

While the team is a long shot to be selected to the NCAA DIII women’s tournament, this team has several things to be proud of in a season in which it improved its record from the previous season by eight wins and tied for second place in the UAA. Head coach Carissa Sain Knoche certainly agrees.

“This team has made unbelievable strides— in their play, in their skills, and most importantly in their togetherness. I always hate the offseason, but this one is particularly bitter because I was having so much fun coaching this team and watching them grow,” she said.

While Muguira’s college basketball career is over, the investment she and the other graduating fourth-years have made to this team will continue to pay dividends outside the court.

“Ultimately, the relationships you build with each of your teammates are what you’ll remember in the years ahead. It’s been such a fun season, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to spend it with,” Muguira said.

Thus, the women’s basketball season draws to a bittersweet close, but the zeal and anticipation for next season has surely just begun for this resilient team.

ASH WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY MARCH 5

Welcome all Students and Faculty

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For those wanting to experience centering/walking prayer, a labyrinth will be available for all in Bond Chapel in between services.

8 am | Bond Chapel Call to Lenten observance and imposition of ashes Rev. Devin McLachlan, Interim Chaplain, Brent House

1525 E. 53rd St., Ste. 734 Chicago, IL 60615

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“Ashes to go” throughout the day from 9 am - 6 pm Two locations: Rockefeller Chapel and Reynolds Club Marketplace 773-643-6006

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SPORTS

IN QUOTES “Favorite things to do at the grocery store.... Get my blood pressure taken and smell the coffee beans” —Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw discusses his grocery store habits on Twitter

Women finish atop UAA field, take conference title Track & Field

Women’s track and field take first at UAA Championships in Waltham, Massachusetts this past weekend.

COURTESY OF NICOLE MURPHY

Shiro Wachira Maroon Contributor The women’s squad returned home from Brandeis this weekend with the UAA Indoor Championship in tow. This was the team’s first UAA win in five years, making the vic-

tory particularly notable. The women finished at the top of a seven-team field, beating the runner-up by an impressive 36.5 points to finish with a total of 140 points. The men finished sixth out of seven teams.

Highlights on the women’s side included four event wins

on Saturday and first-year Michelle Dobbs’ first career UAA title with a time of 2:16.73 in the 800-meter race. In addition, Chicago took first and second place in both the triple jump and the shot put. In the women’s shot put, secondyear Nkemdilim Nwaokolo

took first place with a throw of 12.14m, while third-year Reecie Dern took second with a throw of 11.83m. In the triple jump, third-year Pam Yu earned a victory with a jump of 11.02, and first-year Olivia Clink took second place with a jump of 10.82m.

“I’m very happy with my performance over this weekend,” Clink said. “The best part was being able to stand on the podium with two of my teammates for triple jump. The fact that we all placed top six after so many weeks of training together is very rewarding.”

Second-year Rachael Jackson finished second in hurdles and long jump and fourth in the 55-meter dash. Describing the team’s accomplishments this quarter, Jackson said, “Without each other, I don’t think we could have made it this far. We push each other because we know that each and every one of us is better than what we think. We are more than just a team, we are a family. I don’t think we’re done yet; this is only the beginning of the show. I think we will have more to offer in the upcoming seasons.”

This put the exclamation point on a strong season for the women’s team, coming on the heels of their victory at the Margaret Bradley Invite last month.

The men’s team also put forth a strong showing with second-year Michael Bennett topping the pole vault table with a height of 4.80m. Bennett said that he believes that

the weekend competition was excellent preparation for nationals.

“All of us were pushed by other UAA athletes who will most likely also be going to nationals and we all responded.

That’s really what the national meet is all about—which athletes can remain calm and respond when put under pressure,” he said.

Second-year Michael Frasco and first-year Nicholas Nielsen were also among the top finishers in the mile, with Frasco placing second in 4:16.80 and Nielsen third in 4:20.43.

“It is impossible to run 80 miles a week, train to become a national champion, and survive at this school without the support of terrific teammates,” Frasco said.

Overall, the men’s team placed sixth in the field with a total of 44 points.

Next on the calendar for both teams is the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point Last Chance Meet on March 8 before the NCAA DIII National Championships kickoff on March 14. The Last Chance Meet is an opportunity for those on the cusp of NCAA qualification to get the times or measurements they need to take that next step.

Two for two: Restaino and Staab qualify for Nationals

Chen and company net third place at ITA Championships

Diving

Women’s Tennis

Charlotte Franklin Maroon Contributor The first weekend of March was a triumphant one for the diving squad, especially for third-year divers Matt Staab and Anthony Restaino. In the 2014 NCAA DIII diving regional meet, which took place over two days in Granville, Ohio, both divers unofficially qualified for Nationals. Staab secured a sixth-place finish in the three-meter dive with a score of 483.65 and Restaino took eighth with a score of 466.60. The official list of qualifiers will be published tomorrow.

Since this is the most competitive men’s diving region in the country, it is allocated the largest number of qualifying spots for NCAAs. The regional meet is the most important, and as head diving coach Kendra Melnychuk puts it, the “most nerve-racking” event of the year because it is the athletes’ only opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Championship.

The first day went off without a hitch for Staab as he clinched his qualification for Nationals early on. However, Restaino ended Friday in seventh place on the one-meter, which meant he needed a bit of luck on Saturday. Things ultimately fell into place for him and he became one of the nine NCAA qualifiers, making it the second consecutive year the two athletes have qualified.

Legendary New York Yankee Yogi Berra once famously said of baseball, “Ninety percent of the game is half mental.” Like baseball, diving is a highstakes sport with a great deal of pressure riding on every dive. Even the countless repetitions of a

specific routine in practice cannot ensure that the limited dives in actual competition will be placed successful. This means an extra emphasis must be on mental focus.

The Maroons showed that they understood that type of concentration was essential this weekend, but nevertheless prepared for this zone meet no differently than they did any other meet. Restaino said, “I just tried to remember to take it one dive at a time and remember that it wasn’t over until the last diver did his last dive.” The divers could not afford to let mistakes distract them from their goal.

The divers set their goal of making it to NCAA Championships at the beginning of the season and refused to lose sight of it all year. In addition to their mental focus and physical training, the divers attribute much of their success to Melnychuk.

“There is no one better to point out what I am doing wrong than her [Melnychuk], and there is no one better to help me fix it,” Restaino said.

Melnychuk understands her responsibilities.

“As their coach, it’s my job to get them in the frame of mind to prepare them to dive their best at the NCAA Championship,” she said.

Physically, the training schedule until NCAAs will not vary from what it has been in the previous months.

In addition to the divers, Chicago will also send 21 swimmers to Nationals, making it the swimming and diving team’s largest National-bound team by a considerable margin. The NCAA DIII Swimming and Diving Championships will take place Wednesday through Saturday, March 19–22 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

David Gao Sports Staff Even after graduating four All-Americans, No. 8 Chicago (3–1) has proven itself a toptier team yet again at this year’s ITA Indoor Nationals.

In the second-most prestigious tournament Chicago attends over the year, the squad managed to distinguish itself by finishing third in a competitive field featuring the No. 7–14 teams in the country.

First-year Tiffany Chen did especially well over the weekend, winning all three of her singles matches.

“The tournament was a great experience and an exciting one especially for the firstyears. It was fun competing against teams from across the country, some of which we haven’t faced before,” Chen said.

The team traveled to Greencastle, Indiana, where the No. 13 DePauw Tigers (3–0) hosted seven teams in an elite tournament.

The Maroons played the Tigers first on Friday, where they edged the hosts 5–4, with Chicago winning four of six singles matches and one of three doubles.

In the double-elimination tournament, the South Siders advanced to face Carnegie (5–0). Against the No. 9 team, the Maroons lost two of three doubles matches and could not recover, winning only one of their remaining six singles matches. In the consolation bracket the Maroons took on No. 10

Pomona-Pitzer (2–2), who fell to the South Siders 6–3.

“The team’s biggest challenge was probably Carnegie because all of their players were very solid, though I think we were neck and neck with them in all of our matches. I don’t think the scores reflect how close it was,” Chen said.

Because each team was so close in skill, the mental side of the game became especially important as the weekend progressed.

“In our wins against DePauw and Pomona we came out with a much better attitude and energy level. We are starting to learn that those are real things that make a difference and not just clichés that athletes like to use,” head coach Jay Tee said. “Against Carnegie our energy level dropped and we were too focused on winning and losing rather than bringing the intensity and playing to win.

Too often in big moments we were waiting for our opponent to make an error rather than playing to win the point.”

Coming in as the No. 2, Chicago finished third, while No. 1 Johns Hopkins managed to win the championship match 8–1 against the No. 3 Carnegie, who took second place at the ITA Nationals.

Next week, the Maroons will take on the DePauw Tigers yet again, and then rest for two weeks before embarking on a spring break road trip to California, where they will take on three of the top five nationally ranked teams over the course of one week.