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FRIDAY • MARCH 6, 2015

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 32 • VOLUME 126

Nine arrested on Michigan Avenue in trauma center protest Natalie Friedberg Deputy News Editor

Nine members of the Trauma Center Coalition were arrested while protesting a University-sponsored fundraising event at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in downtown Chicago on Thursday. Protesters also interrupted the event, which was intended to raise money for the University’s $4.5 billion Campaign for Inquiry and Impact.

JONAH RABB | THE CHICAGO MAROON

New bill would require more transparency from the UCPD Marta Bakula Associate News Editor A proposed amendment to the Private College Campus Police Act would require campus police forces such as the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) to provide more transparency in their current police practices.

Last Friday, House Bill (H.B.) 3932 was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly by State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie (D25) (A.B. ‘68, M.A. ‘73). She proposed an amendment to the Private College Campus Police Act that would require

campus police forces subject to this act to publicly disclose any information that other law enforcement agencies would have to provide under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Because the UCPD is a privately funded police force and not a governmental agency, it is currently not subjected to the requirements of the FOIA. If passed, the bill would require the UCPD to disclose any information that is requested, unless the information is protected from public disclosure by specific record exemptions. Under the

FOIA, the UCPD would also be required to automatically disclose certain information, including records frequently requested by the public.

“I’ve heard many comments and concerns from people in our community about the lack of information available on University of Chicago police interactions with the public,” Currie said in a statement. “In response, I’ve introduced legislation that, I hope, will provide greater accountability. I believe we are all best served when the public’s relationship with law enforcement is open UCPD continued on page 2

Radical activist Bill Ayers hosts discussion at Seminary Co-Op Isaac Stein Senior News Staff Bill Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground, led a discussion of Michael T. Heaney and Fabio Rojas’ book Party in the Street at the Seminary CoOp bookstore on Wednesday.

The discussion was the first installment of Bill Ayers’s new book discussion series, Fresh Ayers, in which he talks with the authors of works on social and political issues at the Seminary

Co-Op. In keeping with this theme, Party in the Street explores the relationship between contemporary American social movements and party politics.

Ayers, a Hyde Park resident, is best known as the co-founder of the Weather Underground, a leftist radical organization which was active in the 1960s and 1970s. He opened with the suggestion that the book cannot be judged by its title.

“I thought it would be about sex, drugs, and rock and roll,

but it wasn’t that kind of party.

It was a different kind of party,” Ayers joked.

Heaney, assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan and co-author of Party in the Street with Rojas, was also present at the event.

Heaney said that he was inspired to pursue the subject of the book after participating in an anti– Iraq War demonstration.

“It was a protest in Washington on Labor Day, 2004. People AYERS continued on page 2

Nine activists from the Trauma Center Coalition (TCC) were arrested by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) after blocking off North Michigan Avenue for approximately one hour on Thursday evening. About 60 other people continued to shout and picket from the sidewalk, protesting the lack of a level I adult trauma center at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC).

The rally was a collaborative effort by the Trauma Center Coalition, which consists of five community and University organizations, including Students

for Health Equity (SHE), Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), the Kenwood Church, and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

The protest was planned to occur at the same time as a University event at the RitzCarlton Hotel for the $4.5 billion “Impact and Inquiry” fundraising campaign. Protesters marched from the main entrance of the Ritz-Carlton at Water Tower Place to the northeast corner of North Michigan Avenue and Pearson Street, and a string of nine activists in lockboxes made a line across North Michigan Avenue, blocking off traffic amid honking cars.

“I’m feeling really empowered right now. We are out here right now because the University of Chicago is at the Ritz schmoozing millionaires for money,” TCC staff organizer and FLY member Veronica Morris-Moore said, bound to the other protesters in the lockboxes, before her arrest.

“Lives are being lost, young black people are dying, and we won’t be ignored anymore.”

Earlier that evening, activists rode in a school bus paid for by KOCO and FLY to the Ritz-Carlton. They disembarked by carrying a black coffin with the painted slogan “No Trauma Center, Lives Lost” and pro-trauma center, TRAUMA continued on page 2

Fourth-year injured in collision while studying abroad Christine Schmidt News Editor A fourth-year student studying abroad in Morocco has been rushed to London for neurological treatment after being hit by a vehicle on Monday and suffering a broken collarbone and a head injury. She is currently in stable condition.

Sydney Reitz, a student in the College's Middle Eastern civilizations program, was jogging across a crosswalk on Monday morning in Rabat, Morocco when a Moroccan military truck hit her. Reitz’s head hit the truck’s windshield during the incident.

Reitz was conscious when taken to the hospital. Upon arrival, doctors determined that part of her skull should

be removed to allow room for her brain to swell. She underwent two surgeries and was put into a medically induced coma, according to her sister, Dani Dingman, who has since

started an online fundraising campaign to help with her treatment and travel costs.

Reitz has responded well to treatment, has been able SYDNEY continued on page 3

Fourth-year Sydney Reitz was struck by a truck on Monday while abroad in Rabat, Morroco.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DANI DINGMAN

MAROON ARTS

Behind the scenes at Fire Escape James Mackenzie Arts Editor 86 degrees. Everyone acts surprised when reading the temperature in that room, but it shouldn’t really be a surprise. Somewhere close to 20

people are crammed inside a living room and kitchen space designed for three. A set of huge light fixtures gives off heat like radiators. Red gels in front of those lights bathe the walls and people in a red monochrome daydream. This

stuff y room is a hot spot surrounded by the coldest winter, a red blip amid the endless white waiting outside. It’s almost a different world. Perhaps this is fitting. The film being shot here, entitled “Age BLOSSOMS continued on page 6

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Promoting voting » Page 4

Moda: Back on the catwalk again » Page 6

Two-year-old squash club makes strides » Back page

USO plays Mahler » Page 6

Track and Field hope to break into national top 15

Letter: French club leaders defend Charlie Hebdo event » Page 4

» Back page

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 6, 2015

2

Visiting German professor explains seven types of forgetting Brandon Lee Maroon Contributor Aleida Assmann, a professor at the University of Konstanz, analyzed the forms and functions of forgetting during a lecture on Wednesday.

The lecture, Forms of Forgetting, was co-sponsored by the Council on Advanced Studies, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

Assmann is the chair of English literature and literary theory at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Her research centers on transnational and cultural memory studies, historical anthropology, and the role and history of media, with an emphasis on the Holocaust and trauma.

“We live with the consensus that we need to remember and we must fight forgetting,” Assmann said in her opening remarks. “But what should be positive about remembering?

Remembering and forgetting are human capacities that are neither positive nor negative, per se, but are both needed for coping with life.”

Assmann outlined seven different forms of forgetting.

The first three, she claims, are morally neutral forms: automatic, preservative, and selective forgetting.

She defined automatic forgetting as the removal of materials, preservative forgetting as the archiving of objects such that they may be retrieved later, and compared selective memory to computer memory space. “While storage space can be infinitely extended and supplemented, memory space remains a rare resource,” Assmann said. “Our brains will have to go on working on the more or less limited and invariant basis of their biological infrastructure.”

Assmann then defined two darker forms of forgetting: repressive and defensive. Repressive forgetting is “memoricide,” or the killing of the memory of persons or groups, and is inflicted upon others.

Defensive forgetting is the destruction of evidence to protect perpetrators.

“Towards the end of the war, Nazi officials hastily destroyed archival documents of the mass murders perpetrated against European Jews,” Assmann said. “After 1945, higher Nazi functionaries changed their names and identities to escape legal prosecution. It is estimated that 80,000 persons chose this undercover existence in postwar Germany.”

She said that defensive forgetting can only be challenged if society wills it, and that the voice of the victims alone is not enough.

Assmann concluded on a lighter note, defining the constructive and therapeutic forms of forgetting. To constructively forget, a person moves forward without observing the past and with a clear conscience. Assmann cited the fall of the Berlin Wall and the renaming of streets after the fall as acts of constructive forgetting. Therapeutic forgetters actively address the past and then progress onward, such as when one honors those fallen in war before returning to presentday life.

She also argued that the Internet has changed the ease with which we forget. “Since the beginning of human history, forgetting was the rule and remembering was the exception. Due to the invention and dissemination of digital technology, forgetting must become the exception while remembering the rule,” Assmann said. She added, however, that although the Internet has changed the way information is stored and revitalized, the merits of forgetting still stand and people will continue to move beyond their pasts.

“The weakness of their memory gives humans strength to live,” she added.

“The weakness of their memory gives humans strength to prosper.”

Freedom of Information Act requests would apply to UCPD as to a public agency UCPD continued from front

and transparent.”

State Representative Christian L. Mitchell (D-26) (A.B. ’08) co-sponsored the amendment. Both Currie and Mitchell represent portions of Hyde Park.

“For me, this bill is about building trust between all of our local law enforcement agencies—including the UCPD—and the surrounding neighborhoods and communities that they serve,” he said in a statement. “It’s about making sure that the same level of transparency that the public has with the Chicago Police Department also exists within the University of Chicago Police Department,” Mitchell said in a statement.

If passed, the bill would meet some of the major demands of the Campaign for

Equitable Policing (CEP), a South Side group committed to ending racial profiling in the UCPD. Last March the CEP delivered a petition to UCPD headquarters, demanding public release of current police rules and regulations, amendments to the accessibility of the complaints policy, and an establishment of a process for releasing information to the public. The petition garnered the support of Student Government (SG) and more than 800 signatures, but records continue to remain private. “[Transparency within the UCPD] has been one of CEP’s central asks for the past two years, a topic for which we have petitioned and protested,” fourth-year and head of the CEP Ava Benezra said.

“We commend Representatives Currie and Mitchell for being so responsive to community concern, and hope that the University quickly follows suit.”

University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said the UCPD already makes some of its information public.

“The University is committed to making information about UCPD activities available to the public, and we do so through a variety of channels,” Manier said. “We are continuing to evaluate these processes to ensure that the information is as accessible as possible.”

The first reading of the bill took place last Friday, and it was immediately referred to the Rules Committee, but no further actions have been taken thus far.

CHICAGOMAROON.GITHUB.IO

“Lives are being lost, young black people are dying and we won’t be ignored anymore.”

This Thursday, nine protestors put themselves in lockboxes to block half of Michigan Avenue. They demanded the establishment of a Level I adult trauma center at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

JONAH RABB | THE CHICAGO MAROON TRAUMA continued from front

anti-University efforts for the Obama Library center banners.

Inside the fundraising event, seven members of the Trauma Center Coalition disrupted the schedule by blowing air horns and whistles on the stage intended for the screening of a University promotional video.

Two different groups of protesters disrupted the event in this way, and each group was escorted out of the building by hotel security. None of these people were arrested.

“We wanted to make sure that donors weren’t isolated from our voices and that we had a physical presence in the building,” SHE member Shiro Wachira said. “It went exactly according to plan.”

Pedestrians unaffiliated with the TCC spoke with protesters about the lack of a level I adult trauma center on the South Side and the University’s bid for the Obama library. The street was filled with chants such as “U of C is wack, give the trauma

center back” and “Whose lives matter? Black lives matter.”

According to Emilio Comay del Junco, SHE member and one of the protesters, the arrested protestors were changed with class C misdemeanors, then released. When the CPD first arrived, they cleared the majority of protesters from the street and onto the sidewalk, cordoned off by a makeshift wall of bicycles, but left the ones in lockboxes where they were. Officers were seen trying to persuade the activists to remove themselves before they were arrested.

“What are you trying to accomplish?” one officer asked a protester.

“When the police makes an announcement to move off the street—move off the street. But for now...the people of the South Side are dying,” a TCC organizer shouted through a loudspeaker.

When asked about how he felt about being chained to a lamp post, student activist Woody Travers said, “OK, good. I think I might be getting

arrested in a minute [laughs].”

“The tactic is not to appeal to a sense of moral responsibility on the part of the administrators...it’s about making the choice about not agreeing to a trauma center...so uncomfortable that it’s no longer appealing to them,” said del Junco.

University spokesperson Jeremy Manier declined to comment on whether the students who were arrested will face disciplinary procedures within the University.

The UCMC is currently conducting an internal study about its “services, capacity, and community need,” according to UCMC spokesperson Lorna Wong.

In December the UCMC raised the age of admission of the level I pediatric trauma center from 16 to 18.

Editor’s Note: One of the nine arrested protesters is an outgoing co-editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. She had no editorial involvement in The Maroon’s coverage of this event.

Ayers is best known as the co-founder of the Weather Underground, a ’60s leftist group AYERS continued from front

were in groups, wearing pink, yellow, and green shirts, but appeared as if they were forming distinct contingents. I started thinking about how social movements have the dynamism that political parties don’t have, but parties are where we learn about politics, and they play an important disciplinary function,” he said.

He added that his research suggests that the anti–Iraq war movement collapsed because Democrats withdrew from the cause in the second half of the decade after wresting a political majority from the GOP. “The data shows that the percentage of Democrats at the anti-war protests went from about 50 percent early on to into the teens by 2007. It isn’t that

the Democratic Party crushed the anti-war movement; it was that loyalty to the movement was partisan. Once the Republicans went away, people stopped participating, even though the policy itself never changed,” Heaney said.

In response, Ayers added his belief that the Vietnam War protests maintained their political strength until the end of the war because the source of the discontent was not so closely tied to partisanship.

“People paid attention to Vietnam not because people were dying; the decisive thing was the draft, because absolutely everyone knew somebody who was there or would potentially go there. That, combined with Cronkite, really brought [the war] home,” he said.

Heaney said that the only way for contemporary social movements to succeed is to draw “crosscutting” support that does not depend on legions from either the Democrats or Republicans.

“To build a successful social movement, one has to use partisan structures but also appeal to people on a nonpartisan basis,” he said.

Ayers told The Maroon that young Americans should disregard the popular myth of “the ’60s” as the apex of protest movements.

“There is no such thing as ‘the ’60s’ Nobody said ‘let’s get loud’ or ‘let’s get high.’ That just flowed naturally. References to ‘the ’60s’ today just operate as a wet blanket on today’s activism,” he said.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 6, 2015

Community has raised over $25,000 in less than two days for Reitz’s medical care SYDNEY continued from front

to move her limbs, and is being weaned off the sedative. Reitz was visited by members of the Moroccan military, who brought her flowers and candy, before being flown to Wellington Hospital in London on Thursday. There, she is receiving more treatment before her eventual return flight to the United States for her recovery.

Dingman said the truck driver is in jail, and Moroccan authorities are investigating the incident.

Dingman has started a GoFundMe page to offset the costs of overseas travel and treatment in addition to her recovery expenses in the United States. She said their family is comforted by the support they’ve received from donors and also from the members

of Reitz’s sorority, Delta Gamma. Dingman said the sorority has found a place for her parents to stay in London while Reitz receives treatment.

“We’re feeling very well supported and [people’s generosity] has brought us a lot of comfort,” Dingman said. “We know how loved Sydney is.”

Reitz majors in comparative human development with a minor in biolog y, is a former member of Thompson House, writes for the Triple Helix, and has done research on diabetes and strokes while at UChicago.

She is also heavily involved in her sorority, having served as the vice president of foundation and vice president of membership.

Friends from both the University and abroad describe her as friendly, spirited, and

enthusiastic.

“Sydney is extremely outgoing. Everyone who knows her will attest to that. She’s also very kind, thoughtful, and quite driven to make a difference in her field, neuroscience research,” thirdyear Sam Zacher, another student in the Rabat program, wrote in an e-mail.

“We’ve had too many fun adventures to count—both here [in northern Africa] and in Europe.”

“Sydney is absolutely effervescent... I think the outpouring of love and support we’ve seen this week really speaks to the incredible impact she has on everyone she meets,” fourth-year Lauren Capra, Reitz’s roommate, wrote in an e-mail.

At press time, the fundraising page had raised $25,000.

Discourse? I love that shit.

Give us a call.

(773) 702-1403

3

Women in University history highlighted by Special Collections Shelby Lohr News Staff The University of Chicago Special Collections hosted More Than Lore, a lecture and archive-based event that highlighted women’s roles in founding the University, held on Wednesday in the Regenstein Library.

Daniel Meyer, the Director of Special Collections and University archivist, discussed how certain buildings on campus—including the Reynolds Club, Regenstein Library, Bond Chapel, and Classics Building— were founded as a result of the generosity of female donors. After the lecture, attendees were encouraged to visit the Special Collections viewing room, where archivists had assembled a collection of materials from the University that featured these women.

“There are so many women who are associated with… buildings during the early part of the school’s history, and their role as women donors is not as recognized,” Meyer said.

The lecture’s title, More Than Lore, was inspired

by former Dean of Women Marion Talbot, who wrote a book under the same title in 1920. Her book is being re-released this year to commemorate the University’s 125th anniversary. More Than Lore is a memoir of her many different roles during her time at the University, which spanned 1892 to 1925.

First-year Asya Akça said the talk was an introduction to information that can be difficult to obtain.

“I really enjoyed this talk because it allowed me to find out more about influential females on our campus, as it is hard to find out about online,” she said.

“I would really want in the years to come to see… more women being honored for their contributions in more tangible forms through monuments, portraits, tablets, or statues,” Akça continued. Akça has worked in her role as a Student Government representative to bring statues of women to campus, which she described in a recent Maroon Viewpoints article.

Some attendees said they

wanted to see more progressive women described in the speech.

“I am pleased to know that there were hands of women involved in so many of the main [buildings], but the names on the buildings ended up being [the name of their husbands]…. So many of the female donors were widows, so I was wondering if [widows donating money] was part of the same old ‘image of femininity,’” said first-year Marina Resende Santos.

Meyer acknowledged the wider influence of women at the University in an interview after his talk. “[Although] I was only talking about buildings in the lecture, [women have] contributed in a wide range [of ways] to the University through scholarships and academics [….] It is important to recognize that they are an important part of the University, as well.”

The event was a part of International Women’s Day celebrations at the University.

Special Collections hosted the speech on women’s founding as part of an annual series.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed MARCH 6, 2015

Promoting voting With an unexpected mayoral runoff election around the corner, the MAROON Editorial Board encourages students to vote On February 24, voters went to the polls in the Chicago mayoral election.

No candidate won over 50 percent of the vote, which means there will be a runoff election on April 7 between the top two vote-getters: Jesús “Chuy” García and Rahm Emanuel. Because of this, the city has re-opened voter registration and will accept all applications postmarked by March 10. Any person who has lived in Chicago for over 30 days can register. The Maroon Editorial Board encourages all eligible students to register for and vote in the election.

Many students don’t feel that they are affected by politics. However, politics is an important tool for effecting change on many fronts that students care about, includ-

ing racial profiling, reducing crime, LGBTQ rights, and the environment. We are all responsible for making sure the city we live in is managed the best it could possibly be, and for that reason we can all take the small step of going out and deciding who should run our city.

Living on this campus, it can sometimes to be easy to forget that we are also citizens of Chicago. But most of us will be here for at least four years. In these four years, we will engage with this city every day. If you’re upset that there’s no pedestrian walk sign on East 53rd Street and South Woodlawn Avenue, or are frustrated by the CTA’s accessibility—or lack thereof—on the South Side, it is the city government you must turn to.

Students should recognize their part in the fabric of Chicago society, should do their civic duty, and should go register to vote.

To register, visit chicagoelections.com, and click on the “Register to Vote” portal. Fill out the “Online Voter Registration Application,” print out the completed registration form, and mail it to the Board of Election Commissioners at 69 West Washington Street, Suite 600 Chicago, IL 60602. If you are already registered to vote in a different state or with a different address, include your former registration address on your application. This will deregister you from voting in your former district.

—The Maroon Editorial Board

ALICE XIAO

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THE CHICAGO MAROON

Letter: French club says ‘Freedom of speech does not mean safety from debate’ in response to criticisms of Zineb El Rhazoui discussion of free speech Last week, the University of Chicago French Club hosted an unprecedented discussion on freedom of expression called “Who is Charlie?” featuring Charlie Hebdo journalist Zineb El Rhazoui. As its organizers, we were thrilled to note the overwhelming interest in the event, and the many conversa-

tions on free speech, France, secularism, and Islam prompted by El Rhazoui’s remarks. However, we must take issue with the narrative of the discussion as recounted

by Xin Tian Yong in her opinion piece, “Actions speak louder than words,” which includes discrepancies with the actual events that

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took place, as well as a disconcerting conception of free speech.

We reject the notion that the event failed to provide a safe space for any attendee to participate in the conversation, and somehow created uneven grounds for debate by inviting a speaker “in a relative position of power.” El Rhazoui is an immigrant, a woman, Arab, a human rights activist who has known exile, and a journalist living in very real fear of death. She was invited to speak precisely because her right to do so is, quite literally, under threat.

Furthermore, around 50 minutes of a 90-minute event were dedicated to open, unfiltered Q&A from the audience, and El Rhazoui answered every question she was asked, including ones from student Aseal Tineh, who strongly criticized Charlie Hebdo. In fact, our decision to let the event run 10 minutes long allowed Tineh to ask a follow-up.

What, then, constitutes a safe space? Putting aside the canine sweeps, UCPD officers, and bag prohibition that made this event the most secure any current student has probably ever attended on this campus, we ask: What more can event organizers do to ensure a “safe space” for productive conversation for all? If “safe space” means a demand to narrow our choice of speakers or restrict the diversity of views we bring to this campus because they risk making some of us uncomfortable, we politely decline.

When Yong describes El Rhazoui as “dismissive” or “not appear[ing ] concerned about en-

suring that others felt safe enough to express dissenting opinions,” she is misrepresenting what actually happened. In fact, El Rhazoui simply disagreed with the challenge made to her argument. Disagreement does not mean restricting others’ freedom of speech or shutting down debate, quite the contrary.

Inspiring profound debate and thought is the raison d’être of the French Club’s speaker series and of the University as a whole.

With this goal comes the reality that we will all, at some point, face discomfort when our tightly held views are questioned. Equating that feeling of discomfort with a threat to free speech sets a dangerous precedent and brings into question the very legitimacy of talks such as El Rhazoui’s. While we invite disagreement over the speaker’s views, we wish Yong had devoted more thought in her editorial to engage with them as they were expressed, and we firmly stand by our decision to invite El Rhazoui to campus to speak.

To make the fallacious argument that was critiqued above, Yong resorts to numerous false statements and ideas wrongly attributed to El Rhazoui, which is perfectly clear from the video of El Rhazoui’s talk, which is now available on YouTube. For example, Yong writes that during El Rhazoui’s exchange with Tineh during the Q&A session, El Rhazoui was “...insinuating that Tineh did not have the ‘balls to die for [her] ideas.’ “ Instead, what El Rhazoui said was, “Today, being Charlie Hebdo means to

die for a drawing, because of its own ideas, and because of a certain idea of freedom. And not everyone, excuse me, has the balls to die for his ideas.” El Rhazoui was not addressing Tineh’s own attitude at all.

Furthermore, Yong writes, “Muslims are not a homogenous social unit with a singular worldview, as El Rhazoui seems to suggest.” In fact, El Rhazoui said the exact opposite, referencing the difficulty of defining a “Muslim community” because “...it is not a community where people are all the same.” Yong then declares, “no Muslim should have to apologize for another Muslim’s action.”

El Rhazoui never once promoted this idea throughout the talk.

In her piece, Yong deplores that “...most of the audience appeared to endorse El Rhazoui’s conception of free speech by giving her a standing ovation when the event ended.” This leads us to the question of why exactly the audience gave El Rhazoui a rare standing ovation. El Rhazoui narrowly escaped a terrorist attack on January 7 that resulted in the deaths of 12 of her colleagues. A week prior to our event, El Rhazoui became the target of thousands of death threats disseminated by ISIS supporters via Twitter, announcing an obligation to kill El Rhazoui, detailing the best methods to kill her, and publishing her and her family’s addresses. As a result, El Rhazoui now lives with six bodyguards, and needs to give two hours’ notice if she wants to leave her apartment to buy bread. To FRENCH continued on page 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | March 6, 2015

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“In bringing Zineb El Rhazoui to campus, the University of Chicago upheld its values of free speech” FRENCH continued from page 4 choose to travel to Chicago and speak publicly required a tremendous amount of courage on her part. It was this display of bravery that prompted a standing ovation at the conclusion of her talk, and it is this bravery that deserves

applause, regardless of whether or not we agree with what El Rhazoui says.

In the 2014 report by the University’s committee on free expression, Professor Geoffrey Stone quoted former University President Hanna Holborn Gray

as saying, “education should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think. Universities should be expected to provide the conditions within which hard thought, and therefore strong disagreement, independent judgment, and the

questioning of stubborn assumptions, can flourish in an environment of the greatest freedom.”

In bringing Zineb El Rhazoui to campus, the University of Chicago upheld its values of free speech, and the University of Chicago French Club will proudly con-

tinue to be part of this essential tradition.

—Eve Zuckerman and Alexandra McInnis, President and Vice President of the Chicago French Club

Letter: Restaurant review doesn’t take Senegalese culture into account After reading Isaac Stein’s recent review of Yassa, the Senegalese restaurant in Bronzeville (“South Side Senegalese Satisfies Stomach” [3/3/15]), I am left wondering if Stein or his editors bothered to do any research about Senegal or its cuisine before the visit. Although Stein’s

meal sounds wonderful, where was the Senegalese food? No Yassa, no Mafe? No Thieboudiene—the Senegalese national dish? No awareness that the “Afro-French music” was probably Senegalese music, shockingly enough? For that, matter, what does “Afro-French” mean, exactly?

French is an official language of Senegal, so a lot of Senegalese music is in French—that doesn’t make it any less Senegalese. Add that to the completely unacceptable reference to the Wolof people as a “tribe,” and you’ve got a very questionable article. Given that the College has sent students to

Dakar, Senegal, twice now through the African Civilizations in Paris program, I would hope that The Maroon would at least make an effort to display at least a small amount of cultural competency. One of the draws of international cuisine, as Stein suggests in his article, is to

learn about the history and culture of other people. And yet, here we have an article that suggests that learning about Senegal is not worth just 10 minutes of Googling.

—Patricia Stichnoth, Class of 2016

ARTS

What is art?

MARCH 6, 2015

Young filmmakers blossom as part of Fire Escape Films' latest crop of movies Blossoms continued from front

of Blossoms", is like a dreamy shadow of reality more than an accurate representation of it. No one can see it during shooting, but the film will make heavy use of slow motion and feature no sound recorded on set.

It might be for this last reason that production is moving along so smoothly. The various productions of Fire Escape Films, the RSO behind this and numerous other student projects, have historically had more trouble with the sonic elements of film production than the visual ones. Part of the rationale behind director Grace McLeod’s choice to omit dialogue from the film was to circumvent this technical challenge, calling it her “best decision.”

But behind this nonchalance is a meticulous attention to detail that has paced the project throughout its nearly six-hour shoots. On the kitchen counter there is a short stack of papers with neat and detailed diagrams for every shot in the entire film.

They remain untouched for much of the shoot, but that only seems to indicate that everyone knows their contents already. The actors require little coaching and each shot needs only a few takes before McLeod is satisfied. “I think it’s a reflection of how much time we put into pre-production that it wasn’t crazy on set,” McLeod said.

She chuckles, “At least it wasn’t that crazy.” She has been at this for a long time. Though only a first-year, she took a gap year after graduating from high school to

participate in a fellowship at the Tribeca Film Festival. She directed a film as part of this program, following others she had made in high school.

This quarter, Fire Escape called on its members to create pastiche projects inspired by the style of famous directors. McLeod wrote and submitted the script for "Age of Blossoms" as a homage to Hong Kong–based director Wong Kar Wai, specifically 2000’s In the Mood for Love ("Age of Blossoms" is itself a translation of the original film’s Cantonese title). Soon enough, McLeod found herself sitting in the director’s chair. Her film is one of five pastiche films and one of the eight overall films produced through Fire Escape this quarter. In recent years Fire Escape has been increasing its resources and membership, giving students opportunities to work on films in many different roles — often with relative newcomers alongside hardened veterans.

McLeod borrows several visual elements from Wong’s film in areas ranging from the rich colors to the film’s slow frame rate. The film itself crosscuts between two parties: one a typical if decidedly red-hued college apartment party, the other a children’s birthday party. This juxtaposition requires the crew to transform the room into yet another strange space. Off came the red coverings, into boxes go the prop bottles of liquor, and out came the cone hats and birthday cake. Soon, fistfuls of candy were being thrown around the room. These were

It ain't easy being red. First-year May Makki stands apart in a still from first-year Grace McLeod's film Age of Blossoms.

COURTESY OF GRACE MCLEOD

among the more technically challenging shots to complete, along with several of a beer pong game where the balls proved uncooperative. As a crew member retrieved a bouncing one with some difficulty, director of photography Keegan Morris grinned and said, “It’s child actors, animals, ping pong balls. Those are the hardest things to deal with.”

Like McLeod, producer Sofia Butnaru, and much of the cast and crew, Morris is a first-year but still looks confident on set. In high school, he would regularly work on student video projects and even occasionally made videos in-

stead of papers for class projects.

In some sense he is a triggerman, framing and filming shots that have been pre-planned, but in between takes he was constantly in dialogue with McLeod over possible revisions, both technical and creative. He was the first to see a stray shadow that would interfere with a shot. He was often the first to propose a correction. One shot features a close-up of actor Eric Kirkes, but his face was not well lit and space was too tight for a proper light fixture. Morris suggested the shot be changed so that Kirkes looks down at his phone, the light of which will illuminate

his face. They try it, and McLeod later calls it her favorite shot of the film.

But once all the footage was taken and the equipment packed up, there was only so much that could be done about a shot gone wrong. Among the casualties was McLeod’s most prized prop. “I went all the way to Party City to get this beautiful pink cupcake piñata that I wanted to be this crown jewel of the film,” said McLeod. But alas, an at first unseen pair of hands of a crew member holding the piñata in place were just inside the frame and had Blossoms continued on page 7

MODA: Back on the catwalk again The mountain that is Mahler Fashion show featuring student and local designers expected to attract 1,300 Sammie Spector Arts Staff MODA struts its stuff tonight at Chicago Union Station for its annual spring fashion show. This spring show is always a celebration of fashion and lifestyle, and this year is no exception.

The show includes a cocktail party, work on the runway by both student and local designers, and a much-anticipated after-party downtown.

Every year, MODA chooses a specific nod to fashion to synthesize all of its designs and event night under one theme. The board that turns a dreary gray night into Fashion Week is comprised of 17 undergrads.

This group of students plans and organizes more than 200 people involved in the organization’s magazine and/or in the show as models, designers, photographers, and volunteers. The RSO began as a magazine in 2003, and has since evolved to include a daily blog. It has an entire

team dedicated to planning events such as tonight, its largest and grandest event of the year, plus the Designer Boot Camp that gives fledgling designers the resources and classes needed to design.

Sixty-five percent of designers tonight are current or alumni students of this program that Harrison Yu has been running the past three years. The remaining thirtyfive percent have previous sewing experience, two of which are professional, local designers.

The theme House of MODA celebrates is “nonchalant glamour” as Marketing Director Sophie Critchfield-Jain said. “We love the idea of people looking like they’re not even trying to be glamorous, while being in a haute couture gown.” Through hair and makeup styles, and a certain 'demeanor’ that she defines nebulously, Sophie says this year MODA is searching for a sort of ‘tarnished’ perfection to be reflected on the

runway. Its inspiration was drawn from the decadent Hall of Mirrors in Versailles; Sofia Coppola’s film, Marie Antoinette; and Elie Saab’s runway designs. The expected attendance tonight will amass 1,300, an extra grand of fashion-goers this year.

For those who have attended before, Yu excitedly said to look forward to some changes: “The aesthetic looks to be going in a very different direction from previous years, but I can’t give too much away as it may give away the surprise before the show!”

As it’s Critchfield-Jain's first year involved with planning the show, she is most excited to see it come together on the day of, adding that she’s most excited to “see everyone’s faces as they see what we’ve decided to do!”

Though perhaps improbable on the streets of Chicago during this wintry start to March, with a little bit of MODA magic, Union Station will have its fill of glamour tonight.

University Symphony Orchestra preps for ambitious quarter closer Hannah Edgar Arts Staff They’re among the most immortal and recognizable opening bars in the symphonic repertoire: A doleful trumpet wails into the void, its persistent motif—three quick pickups, followed by a longer note—channeling another famous Fifth. But, unlike Beethoven’s, this Fifth eschews the might of the entire orchestra, if only for a few measures, to lay bare the anguish of a single voice.

It suffices to say that the beginning of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 is more than familiar to trumpet players. It’s certainly familiar to Matt Bloomfield, third-year Ph.D. student at the Booth School of Business and principal trumpet of the University Symphony Orchestra (USO).

“This is my first time playing the big solo, but I didn’t really have to learn it, since I’ve played it so often for auditions,” Bloomfield

said. “But it definitely feels pretty different playing it in an orchestra. It’s a little nerve-racking.”

Regardless of instrumental or musical experience, tackling a Mahler symphony—especially one as apotheosized as the Fifth—is a daunting endeavor. In a 2006 NPR interview, Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, compared executing the symphony to climbing Mount Everest. But it’s a mountain that Bloomfield and his colleagues in the USO will scale this Saturday, marking the ensemble’s last performance of the quarter.

With an average performance time of around 70 minutes, the symphony is a challenge in not only physical endurance for its players, but also emotional endurance. As is typical of Mahler, climaxes give way to even bigger climaxes in the Fifth; musicians must pace themselves so that the music doesn’t dissolve into

histrionics.

“There’s so much in it emotionally, there’s so much in it intellectually,” USO Music Director Barbara Schubert said of Mahler’s Fifth. “It is tremendously hard, but I felt like we had a strong orchestra this year that could really do it justice.”

And there is much in the Fifth, indeed. A famous conviction of Mahler’s— one quoted to gross excess—was that “a symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything.”

Over-cited, perhaps, for good reason: Nothing better describes the emotional scope of the conductorcomposer’s output. His symphonies are capable of succumbing to the depths of utter despair, reeling from abject horror, and soaring to sublime ecstasy, sometimes all within just a few bars of each other.

Schubert has conducted the piece a number of times and studied it for decades, USO continued on page 7

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | March 6, 2015

“...a symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything...�

USO continued from page 6

but finds that revisiting the symphony continues to yield new insights. “A lot of my decisions in terms of pacing and what to bring out are continuing to evolve,� she admitted.

Principal hornist and Chicago Law School alumna Debra Tucker ( J.D. '95) whose part figures prominently in the symphony’s third-movement Scherzo, distinctly remembers the last time Schubert conducted Mahler’s Fifth with the USO 16 years ago. She also played principal horn for that performance. “It’s really a credit to our conductor and the strength of our orchestra that we’re able to perform such a monumental work,� Tucker said.

Bloomfield is also revisiting the work, but on a different part: He’d played second trumpet as an undergrad at the University of Michigan when the symphony orchestra took the piece on tour to Carnegie Hall. Contrasting his most recent encounter with the Fifth to his last, Bloomfield said that the two aren’t dramatically different, despite playing a different part. “There’s a little bit more pressure, a little bit more

7

Late UChicago chemist’s art exhibit breaks down left- and right-brain barrier Shoshanna Coalson Arts Contributor

Mahler rocks a bow tie while brainstorming his next musical work of genius.

COURTESY OF GUSTAVMAHLER.COM

spotlight—which I kinda like.�

For many in the orchestra, though, this is their first time playing a Mahler symphony in its entirety.

Schubert is pleased to make the introduction. “Everyone deserves the privilege of entering into a Mahler symphony,�

Schubert said. “It’s so awe-

inspiring.�

In turn, the USO will have the privilege of performing the work this Saturday at Mandel Hall at 8 p.m. There is a recommended donation of $10 for general admission, $5 for students. There will be a reception in Hutchinson Commons immediately following the concert.

It’s easy to place people into categories: introvert or extrovert, left-brained or right-brained, and so on.

However, University of Chicago chemistry legend Gregory Hillhouse demonstrated that an individual is more than a category. Hillhouse was more than a scientist; he was also an artist. Last Monday, his artwork was honored at Kent Hall. The walls on the first floor of Kent were covered with his cubist paintings and replications of his paintings of flowers.

In addition to showcasing much of Hillhouse’s artistic work, a photo slideshow was on display that showed his interactions with his students, his involvement in sports, his educational accolades, and his involvement in the chemistry community.

The exhibit demonstrated that Hillhouse was the epitome of the modern Renaissance man. In addition to winning several awards for his achievements in research and teaching, he was an avid and prolific cubist painter, a gourmet chef, and an accomplished basketball player. According to his colleagues, he was a

dedicated chemistry adviser ready to write an amazing letter of recommendation for his students. Hillhouse was constantly thinking of ways to better the academic experiences of those whom he mentored. The legacy he left includes Chemistry 296, a non-credited researchbased course that allows students to demonstrate their research efforts through their coursework. Before its existence, there was no way for undergraduate students’ research efforts in chemistry to be reflected in their academic transcripts.

At first glance, Hillhouse’s many interests seem unrelated. So often we categorize science as a purely logical and emotionally removed discipline, devoid from any creativity. Hillhouse’s artwork is a clear example that separating the world of art from the world of science is a fallacy that is often limiting. This fallacy can keep those who are interested in a particular field from pursuing other interests in their lives. His work demonstrates that science and art can be combined to make something vibrant and beautiful. Many of his paintings are filled with colors and lines that are reminis-

cent of the illustrations of atomic bonds and reactions that can be seen inside many chemistry textbooks. As explained by his colleague Vera Dragsich, Hillhouse would often say his hands were “touched by God,� referring to the fact that all of his interests were related to his handiwork, and that he was lucky to be able to be so diverse in the things that he did.

So often, we are focused on categorizing people as leftbrained or right-brained, as if everyone has to be one or the other. Through his life’s work, Hillhouse demonstrated that there is no need to have limited, insular interests. Hillhouse showed us that love of chemistry can be reflected in a love of art, which can also be reflected in a love of cooking. Similarly so, we can all make our strengths apply to any field that we are interested in, regardless of major or overarching life choice. From attending the exhibition of his work, I learned the true definition of achievement.

More specifically, I came up with a personal definition of success and learned what it means to have spent a life well-lived, well-rounded, and well-loved.

“It’s child actors, animals, ping pong balls. Those are the hardest things to deal with.�

Blossoms continued from page 6

to be cropped in postproduction, much to McLeod’s dismay. “You see it...but the top part of it is kind of cut off.�

Once she began editing the film, McLeod was forced to make many more tough decisions. Slow motion is integral to the film’s style, but it led to an initial cut of the film because it was twice as long as intended and monotonous in pacing. The majority of the shots in the film had to

be shortened to some degree, leaving McLeod in a cycle of editing the footage and showcasing it to close friends to put together a coherent film. “My concern was asking people, ‘Do you know what’s going on?

What do you think this is about?’ And finally on my fifth or sixth round people starting giving me the same answers so I felt good about that.�

Now the cameras and lights are all safely back in Logan, and most of the

cast and crew are studying for finals. The apartment has returned to a comfortable room temperature, with natural light coming in from covered windows instead of red-tinted spotlights. But that miniature world made in there still exists. Now it will just be on a movie screen. “Age of Blossoms�, as well as seven other new Fire Escape productions, will be screened at the Max Palevsky Theater in Ida Noyes next Thursday at 5 p.m.

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SPORTS

IN QUOTES “I don’t like the nutrition. [I eat] whatever I want. If there’s something here, I’m eating.”

–Minnesota Twins third-base prospect Miguel Sano discusses his preseason weight

Squash makes vast strides in second year as a club Squash Derek Tsang Senior Sports Staff UChicago’s squash team is making waves in its second year of existence. After starting the year ranked 43rd in the country—out of 77 university squash teams—the Maroons finished 32nd this season, better than all but two other club teams and ahead of Midwestern rivals Northwestern and Wash U. “We were playing teams that have formal squash programs with coaches, that can recruit,” said fourth-year team captain Imaad Musvee. “We put up a good show.”

Squash—a racquet sport played within four walls—is famous for being a relatively cerebral sport. After alternating serves, players have to hit their returns above a line on the front wall and return balls before they bounce twice. Everything else—hits off the side and back walls, feints, and spin—is fair game. Teams pit their best nine players against each other in order for best-offive sets of first-to-eleven; whichever team takes the majority of the individual games wins.

Chicago started its season in November, when it dropped only two games in victories over Wash U, USC, and Duke at a tournament hosted by Northwestern. According to Musvee, beating Wash U soundly demonstrated

Chicago’s improvement from last year; last year, the Bears beat the Maroons at Nationals.

“The Maroons returned seven of [our] nine first-team players from last year, and although [we] lost Ameer Aladeen, the club’s founder, an influx of first-year talent made up for the team’s losses,” Musvee said.

The club’s roughly 20 regular members are a mix of former tennis players and students with competitive squash experience.

“This year we were fortunate to recruit a lot of innate squash players,” Musvee said. “Coming into the season, I thought we could do very well.”

In January, the Maroons proved their wins in November weren’t flukes. At another Northwestern tournament, they beat Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Wash U a second time, again only dropping two games.

“Seeing the results we were getting motivated us to play higher-ranked teams,” said second-year Kelvin Lee. “It showed us that we needed to travel more and keep up our practice.”

To get that practice, they traveled to Baltimore to play Swarthmore, Johns Hopkins, Siena, and Georgetown. The club had previously only left Illinois to play in 2014’s Nationals, and Musvee said that the trip was the highlight of their season; the Maroons swept their

four opponents to keep their undefeated season going.

“We definitely didn’t expect to beat the teams that were ranked 29th [John Hopkins] and 31st [Georgetown],” Musvee said. “I think the primary reason we did well was because we didn’t expect to do well; we had fun, and winning came along.”

That’s not to say the team didn’t take its games seriously.

“There was a palpable difference in our preparation,” Lee said. “We were trying to stay very focused, to plan out our meals and travel.”

The Baltimore trip was also an opportunity for team bonding. Their flight was cancelled, so most of the club members took a 20-hour train ride back to Chicago.

“Our camaraderie is great, even though we’re from different parts of the world,” Musvee said.

The club has members from the U.S., India, and an exchange student from the U.K. “We really get along, and that’s something that helped us against other teams,” Musvee added.

The Maroons ended up losing all three of their matches at nationals (to No. 28 MIT, No. 30 Bucknell, and No. 25 Hamilton), but they had already made a name for themselves during the regular season.

Fourth-year team captain Imaad Musvee dashes to strike the ball in a match again Hamilton during the CSA National Championships held at Wesleyan end of last month.

COURTESY OF KELVIN LEE

“We’re already being contacted by a lot of teams about playing next season,” Lee said. “We’re going to have a much busier schedule, and even more travel.”

Compared to varsity teams, Chicago’s club plays less often, usually two to three times per week, and at worse facilities. Henry Crown’s squash courts are slightly smaller than regulation size, according to Musvee.

But community non-profit MetroSquash, which provides a mixture of

tutoring and squash practice to disadvantaged students from Chicago neighborhoods, is building a facility next year on East 61st Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue. The squash club, which makes a point of volunteering with MetroSquash, is hoping to have access to this new facility.

“We’re hoping to build a formal program, attract a coach, and compete as a high-end club team or a varsity team,” Musvee said.

Tigers tilt kicks off toughest stretch of season Men’s Tennis Helen Petersen Associate Sports Editor The No. 17 Maroons (7–2) head into this weekend’s matchup against No. 26 DePauw riding a five-game winning streak. At the same time, the Maroons are coming off of a successful weekend in which the squad knocked off its first DI opponent of the season with its victory over UIC. Much like the Maroons, the DePauw Tigers have had a strong schedule of opponents thus far this season.

The Tigers are 4–4, having defeated

Principia, Rhodes, Earlham and Vincennes. However, the Tigers have yet to overcome a ranked opponent, falling to No. 5 Wash U and No. 25 UW-Whitewater. DII Indianapolis also proved too much for DePauw, edging the Tigers by a score of 5–4.

Despite its mediocre record, DePauw is always a threat. They have been conference champions three of the past six seasons and have fourthyear NCAC player of the week Chris Bertolini to count on. He picked up two No. 1 doubles wins in addition to three singles wins as he narrowly

missed out on an undefeated weekend as he finishing with a 7–9 loss in doubles play against Indianapolis.

The Tigers’ strength in doubles play poses the greatest threat to the Maroons.

“The goal going into this weekend is to be very solid and smart about our doubles play. DePauw is one of the stronger teams we will play and they have great doubles team, so we want to be ready,” said first-year Luke Tsai.

Chicago has recently struggled with the No. 1 doubles position.

This slot has been the most inconsistent in the lineup thus far this season, with Hawkins and Tsai earning the No. 1 spot in the past few weeks.

The duo was unable to get a win last weekend in matches against UIC and Carroll.

Despite this minor setback, Chicago was 14–2 last weekend and will be looking to carry this, as well as the momentum that comes from a fivegame winning streak, into the next phase of the season.

“This match is crucial for us because we want to carry the momen-

tum into spring break, which is probably the most important week of the season,” Tsai said.

Chicago does not have a nonranked team left on its schedule. The Maroons will head to California during spring break to face off against some of their toughest opponents of the season. This line-up includes DI UCLA, as well as No. 25 Cal Lutheran, No. 23 Whittier, and No. 15 Pomona-Pitzer.

The match against DePauw will take place in Greencastle, IN and will begin at 1 p.m.

Last chances at UW–Stevens Point and Carthage Track & Field Eirene Kim Sports Staff Some Maroons head to Stevens Point, WI in hopes of qualifying for the upcoming NCAA tournament. in North Carolina. Others will try to make NCAA cuts at Carthage.

For some Maroons, this weekend is their last chance to keep their hopes of a postseason alive. Each South Sider hopes to break the top 15 in national rankings to have a chance to compete in North Carolina.

“This is the ‘last chance’ meet, in which athletes with a chance of qualifying for nationals attempt to solidify their place in the national rankings,” said second-year distance runner Nick

Nielsen. “If it works out, you’re going to the NCAAs and if not, all you’ve lost is nine hours spent on a bus driving to and from the meet.”

“This weekend is super important,” third-year Nelly Trotter said. “This is the last chance for many of us to qualify for the national meet in North Carolina. This meet will have some very good competition—everyone will be vying for the top 15 or so spots in the country.”

After a long season and UAA Championships, the Chicago athletes competing this weekend have to gather enough strength to push through this last obstacle to the NCAA tournament.

“We’re coming off a long, physically

and emotionally exhausting weekend of competition with the UAA Championships, so recovery and getting our legs back to feeling fresh is our first priority,” said third-year sprinter Ryan Manzuk.

Everything that they have been working for all season comes down to this weekend for some Maroon track and field athletes. For these few Maroons, this weekend is a chance to go all out in order to secure their spots in the NCAAs. “The mentality going into this meet is an all-or-nothing, winner-take-all, no-holds-barred, bet-the-family-farm gamble to push yourself faster and farther, with no concern for the consequences,” Nielsen said.

“The mentality for this weekend is to simply run personal best times. I am on the 4x400 relay team this weekend, and if we all run equal to or better than our personal best splits, we think we’ll have a good chance to go,” Manzuk said.

With Chicago athletes from all different events going to this last-chance meet, practice preparation has varied.

From distance runners to sprinters to high jumpers, the preparation going into a weekend with a lot on the line looks different for each of these Maroons.

“Track and field preparation is the compounded, daily effort that comes with training, with no special last-minute training techniques. Your abilities aren’t altered by your training in the

past weeks, but in the past months,” Nielsen said.

“Workouts should be light enough that we are not tired come Saturday, but we do have to get some work done to maintain conditioning,” Manzuk said. “Personally, I’m making sure I get a good high-quality two-mile warmup run every day...some light lifting to maintain some very important strength and explosiveness…[and] staying wellwithin my dietary guidelines.”

“For high jump, we have been focusing on technique and just building confidence at the higher heights,” Trotter said.

The last chance meet kicks off this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at UW–Stevens Point.