030714 Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • MARCH 7, 2014

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 33 • VOLUME 125

Mayors of four major US cities trade jokes and share challenges Chrstine Schmidt News Staff

From left: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti meet on Thursday at the International House for an Institute of Politics event to discuss the challenges of being a mayor in the 21st century.

PETER TANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

In a talk that spanned a range of topics, including the Polar Plunge, charter schools, and predicting future elections, the mayors of four of the United States’s biggest cities spoke about the challenges they face and the role of teamwork in overcoming those challenges, in what was called an “unprecedented” event.

Mayors Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Kasim Reed of Atlanta, Bill de Blasio of New York City, and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles took part in a discussion on Thursday evening at International House, sponsored by the Institute of Politics (IOP) and the International House Global Voices Program and moderated by IOP Institute Director David Axelrod (A.B. ’76).

The evening began on a

good-humored note when Garcetti ribbed Chicago for its weather. “I’m not sure what all that white stuff outside is. I put my hand in it, and it hurts,” he said.

“It’s water,” Emanuel replied without missing a beat. “People take showers here year-round.”

This camaraderie and sense of teamwork continued throughout the discussion, with the mayors often praising each other’s efforts in their cities. De Blasio often clapped Reed on the shoulder, and Emanuel frequently went for highfives and fist bumps from the others after making a joke.

Reed, who was a state legislator before becoming Atlanta’s mayor in 2010, described one of his first experiences in public office.

When he went up to the podium to speak during a session of the State House, MAYORS continued on page 2

SG takes action on policing Students PostSecrets in public Sarah Manhardt News Staff Editor’s Note: Matthew Schaefer is a Senior Editor at the Maroon.

Student Government (SG) voted on two measures concerning the University of Chicago Police

Department (UCPD) at its final assembly meeting of the quarter yesterday and selected members for its Elections and Rules Committee (E&R) in preparation for its spring elections.

SG voted to pass Resolution 2013.1, which propos-

es to allow SG to “directly appoint representatives of the Student Association” to the Independent Review Committee (IRC), an autonomous auditor of the UCPD. Sponsored by second-year Community and Government Liaison TySG continued on page 3

Uncommon projects, old & new Sarah Manhardt News Staff The Uncommon Fund allocated almost $70,000 on Wednesday to 23 different projects and checked in with all previously funded projects to ascertain wheth-

er the projects came to fruition. Last year was the first year the Uncommon Fund imposed a one-year limit on its funds, according to third-year Maggie Schurr, chair of the Uncommon Fund board.

Some of this year’s

winners with the largest amount of funding include $9,384 to UChicago Illuminoggin, a glowing, interactive brain sculpture; $8,900 to Suit Up!, which will provide suits to students to wear to job interFUND continued on page 3

GOP candidates face off in forum Carissa Eclarin Maroon Contributor Two weeks before the Illinois primary on March 18, the 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidates met for a heated hour-long forum at the Logan Center Perfor-

mance Hall on Tuesday evening. Broadcast live on NBC 5, the event was open to students and the general public.

Candidates Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard, Bruce Rauner, and Dan Rutherford fielded questions from the moderator, NBC 5 Political Editor

Carol Marin, as well as others submitted via social media. NBC 5, the Institute of Politics (IOP), and the Harris School of Public Policy jointly sponsored the event.

Marin moderated the debate in a roundtable converGOP continued on page 2

ArtShould, a community service RSO, displayed its PostSecret submissions in McCormick Tribune Lounge on Wednesday.

COURTESY OF ARTSHOULD

Kristin Zodrow Maroon Contributor “My biggest career aspiration in life is to be a Power Ranger.” “I hate how privileged I am and wish I were doing more to end inequality.” “I don’t know if this is worth $120,000 of debt.” “I think vegans and vegetar-

ians demand too much.”

On Wednesday night, these and many other student secrets were on display as part of ArtShould’s PostSecret Gallery Night. After collecting what are known as “PostSecrets,” which were placed in orange mailboxes in student cafés this quarter, the organization unveiled

the cards. The statements ranged from emotional confessions to quirky complaints.

The event was inspired

by PostSecret, a community art project in which people anonymously mail in their secrets on postcards to Frank Warren, an artist SECRET continued on page 3

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Tourre’s switch demands explanation » Page 4

Lady of the lake: Martínez makes waves as voiceless lead » Page7

Maroons look to serve up another victory against DePauw » Back Page

Digging our graves with debt

Maroon Spring Break book recommendations » Page 8

For the love of the game: A call to true sports fans » Page 11

» Page 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 7, 2014

2

UChicago hosted the 2014 Republican primary candidates on Tues.

GOP continued from front

sation format, with questions covering topics such as state pensions, charter schools, replacing the ISAT (Illinois Standard Achievement Test), gun ownership, and state prisons.

Personal questions targeting specific candidates were also asked. For example, Marin questioned Rauner, a businessman, about calling Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, formerly the Chicago Public Schools CEO, to get his daughter into Walter Payton College Prep after she had been denied admittance.

“Why would any reasonable voter who does not have Arne Duncan’s phone number not think that this was just plain old, old-fashioned Chicago-style clout?” she asked.

“Because we did not ask for any special favors or any

NEWS IN BRIEF Delhi Center to kickoff March 28 The opening ceremonies for the Center in Delhi will take place from March 28–30, the University announced Wednesday. The weekend will consist of panel discussions with scholars

special treatments,” Rauner said, claiming that he just asked how the application process worked and did what any parent would do.

Marin also asked Dillard, a state senator, if he regrets comments he made of thenSenator Obama during an interview she conducted with him, in which Dillard referred to Obama as “someone he wanted to work with and make a friendship with, and we solidified it with major pieces of legislation in Springfield.” Dillard responded that he was the lead sponsor of an ethics bill that needed bipartisan support, and Obama was just his cosponsor.

“Anytime a colleague stands up with me on something like ethics, I’m going to give him that...atta boy, you oughta do what you want,’” he said.

The public submitted questions via social media prior to the event. Event organizers then selected a few questions and invited the selected social media users to attend the event, where they read their questions to the candidates directly.

Fifth-year physics Ph.D. candidate Yangyang Cheng asked the candidates about how they would clean up top-level corruption in Springfield.

Rutherford, the Illinois state treasurer, blamed gerrymandering and proposed taking away incumbents’ ability to redraw electoral maps to favor their reelection chances, while Dillard suggested the reimposition of United States Attorney Patrick Collins’s report, which recommended limiting campaign donations.

Collins was the lead pros-

ecutor in former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial and chaired a political reform commission appointed by current Gov. Pat Quinn.

Rauner advocated for establishing eight-year term limits, bringing business leaders into state government, and refusing union bosses’ money. Brady, a state senator, on the other hand, combined both the term limits idea and the idea of limiting gerrymandering.

The candidates’ forum marked the first time the IOP has hosted such an event.

“For our students, it’s a unique chance to witness firsthand one of the great rites of democracy, free and open forum. We hope to establish the University of Chicago and IOP as a regular home for such events,” IOP Director David Axelrod said in a press release.

from a wide array of disciplines, ranging from cinema studies to physics. The list of participants includes Martha Nussbaum, a renowned philosopher and professor in both the Law School and the Department of Philosophy, and Raghuram Rajan, governor of the Reserve Bank of India and a professor at Booth.

President Robert Zimmer will lead the first discussion, a “presidential forum” on the center’s

missions and objectives. Subsequent discussions will touch on visual cultures, transnational scientific innovation, and early childhood education. A ribboncutting ceremony, which will be webcast live, will take place at 4 p.m. India time on Saturday, March 28.

The Center, first announced in October, is one of the University’s ongoing international initiatives, which also include an

upcoming facility in Hong Kong that will open this summer. Unlike the Center in Hong Kong, which will offer a Booth M.B.A. program, the Center in Delhi currently has no plans to offer specific programs or degrees. Like the existing Center in Paris and Center in Beijing, it is intended to serve as a hub for faculty research in India and house study abroad programs.

—Preston Thomas

Weekly Crime Report

By Alex Hays

Since Jan. 1

Feb. 27 March 5

Here are a few of this week’s incidents:

Type of Crime

19

1

Arrest (except traffic violation)

0

0

Assault (multiple types)

0

0

Attempted burglary

3

1

Attempted robbery

7

0

Battery (multiple types)

5

1

Burglary

0

0

Criminal trespass to vehicle Damage to property (including vehicle)

18

1

113

13

Other Report

8

0

Robbery (multiple types)

0

0

Traffic violation

36

1

Theft (including from motor vehicle)

2

0

Trespass to property (including residence)

55th

Blackstone

53rd

S. Hyde Park

51st

S. Lake Shore

Ellis

Cottage Grove

47th

» February 27, University Avenue, Between 55th and 56th Streets, between 9:30 a.m. and 3:40 p.m.— an unknown person or persons forced entry into an off-campus apartment by forcing the front door open and stole property. This is now a CPD case.

» March 4, 53rd Street, between Blackstone and Harper Avenues, 8:00 p.m.—An unknown male, armed with a handgun, stole cash and merchandise from a retail location. This is now a CPD case.

Source: UCPD Incident Reports

Battery Criminal tresspass to vehicle

Other Report

Cornell

Traffic violation

Stony Island

University

60th

62nd *Locations of reports approximate

the Speaker told him that it should be a year before he, as a new representative, should speak during the session. “I thought that I had been elected, [but] he took my parking space, and he moved it so far away,” Reed said.

“And you didn’t speak for a year,” Emanuel joked.

“Yeah, because of that walk!” Reed exclaimed.

The mayors all agreed that one of the largest issues they were facing was a lack of support from state and federal governments.

“We know there is not a cavalry coming right now from Washington,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio contended that it would be more efficient for the federal government to send money directly to cities as opposed to states.

“The federal government is functioning on an outdated model that shifts the money to 50 states as opposed to shifting resources by GDP,” he said.

“If the federal government wanted to boost productivity in American cities, they would change the formula…because [cities] get it to where it is needed faster and more efficiently.”

Emanuel, who has

worked in two presidential administrations and as a U.S. congressman before his election to the mayor’s office, said, “Washington is AWOL. The state capitals have their own problems.

We are cast on our own in a time when we need to boost the economy.”

To confront these issues, the mayors spoke of the importance of working together among mayors and among citizens to move forward and revitalize the country through its metropolitan areas.

“If you put together the most pro-charter, conservative school reformer with the most active, union, hard-core activist and get them for a moment to say, ‘What does a good school look like?’ they’ll have an identical conversation,” Garcetti said. “We are losing all of our time, saying, ‘Are you pro-charter, anti-charter? For teachers’ unions or against teachers’ unions?’”

For the New York City Mayor, these debates go beyond their local contexts.

“The future of this country lives and dies by its cities,” de Blasio said. “We have to have a changed dynamic, and that has to begin with all of us.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESENTS

70

th

SEASON

JAZZ AT THE LOGAN

FRIDAY, MARCH 7 / 7:30 PM

Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet the imagined savior is far easier to paint Winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, Ambrose Akinmusire will perform some of his latest, most exciting works.

LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS PERFORMANCE HALL, 915 E. 60th Street

Assault

Theft

59th

MAYORS continued from front

» March 4, 5709 South Ellis Avenue (Snell-Hitchcock), 11:00 a.m.— There was a report of a suspicious person seen in the lower level recreation area earlier in the day.

Damage to property

57th

“The future of this country lives and dies by its cities,” de Blasio says

Plus! Listening Party: Thursday, March 6 | Logan Center Penthouse “The brightest beacon on the trumpet, the sharpest in a few decades.”

—Billboard

$5

ETS

$35/$5 students with valid ID For tickets call 773.702.ARTS or visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu

T TICK

STUDEN

Trespass to property Burglary

@jazzatlogan

Attempted Robbery Robbery Arrest Attempted Burglary

A limited number of FREE student tickets are available through the Arts Pass program; visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu for details.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 7, 2014

PostSecret follows campus trend of anonymous confession projects SECRET continued from front

who then displays them online, in books, or at galleries. The concept was brought to the University four years ago, and the PostSecret Gallery Night has been hosted three of those years.

This year, the project partnered with the new student podcast, The Quad, to create the opportunity for people to call a number and record their secret for others to listen to.

“It is such a small project that anyone can contribute to it,” fourth-year ArtShould member Wendy Guan said. “You don’t have to be an artist to make a little postcard. The anonymous aspect is also really interesting because people say a lot of things that they usually feel that they can’t share in public. We like that we provide people with a way to express their thoughts and open up.”

Over the past three years, ArtShould has collected more than 400 postcards. Fourth-year ArtShould member Alexi Williams said she has noticed a trend on campus for anonymously revealing thoughts, citing the

UChicago Crushes and UChicago Secrets Facebook pages.

“It’s always nice when people come who are sort of hesitant about this idea, who didn’t make PostSecrets themselves, and they see ones up and are like, ‘Oh! I totally do the same thing or feel the same way about this,’” she said. “I feel that’s one of the things people find very cool, that they can relate to these secrets, things that they wouldn’t normally reveal. If people can do it in an artistic form too, that’s awesome.”

In addition to PostSecret, ArtShould runs after-school programs for elementary school students in Hyde Park and Woodlawn and also hosts workshops and events.

“We started this four years ago because there wasn’t a Logan Arts Center. There wasn’t really a way for artists or people interested in art to come together and do things together,” Guan said.

“There was no other coherent arts programming. We try to bring together artists and people who are interested in art and create an environment for that.”

3

Winners include a glowing brain and a suit-sharing exchange FUND continued from front

views; and $7,678 to UChicago Women’s Gala, which will celebrate women’s leadership at the University.

The Uncommon Fund, created in 2006 to fund “interesting and creative student projects and initiatives,” allocated $75,132 to 24 different projects in 2013. Of those projects, the majority have completed their projects, but some have requested extensions or returned their money.

Of last year’s winners, Interiors and Exteriors: Avant-Garde Itineraries in Postwar France, an exhibition with programming at the Smart Museum of Art; the International Snacks Vending Machine (formerly the Asian Snacks Vending Machine), which will provide international snacks in Reynolds Club; the Seminary Co-Op Documentary Project, which is producing a movie and book about the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore; and UChicaGrow, which is building a greenhouse at the Arts Incubator, applied for and received extensions, according to Uncommon Fund board member and third-year Matt Montequin.

Two of the projects, the Inter-

national Snacks Vending Machine and UChicaGrow, faced setbacks because their advisers left the University, according to project managers and third-years Dake Kang and Leslie Glotzer, respectively.

“Involvement of the adviser in each project varies depending on the individual needs of each project and the needs of the student leading each project. Some advisers are needed to simply help connect projects to campus resources, others are needed for specific event, financial, or organizational advising,” ORCSA student activities adviser Brandon Kurzweg said in an e-mail.

This year, the Uncommon Fund Board checked in on all of its existing projects, accepting applications for extensions of funds.

Projects that did not occur at all must return their money to the Uncommon Fund. The money goes back to Student Government, where it is redistributed at Annual Allocations.

Many of last year’s projects were successful, including the Latin American Policy Event, which brought Latin American politicians to campus; Techno Contra

Dance, which brought in a DJ for a techno contra dance and purchased supplies to hold multiple dances; and South Side in Focus, which will exhibit an artistic gallery of South Siders’ experiences at the Experimental Station next weekend.

Of last year’s projects, Financial Thinking, which planned to hold seminars on financial literacy, and Dinner in the White City, a proposed flash dining mob, both events-based projects, did not occur. Another project, Tea with a Ph.D., applied for an extension of funds but was denied because the board was unsure the project manager, a graduating fourthyear, could complete the project in time, according to Montequin.

Schurr said the board granted extensions to all projects the board judged could feasibly complete their project.

“Really, I think the Uncommon Board does as much as we care to, in order to ensure it’s as feasible as possible for the project managers to complete their projects, but once we allocate the money, it’s really up to them to allocate the money through ORCSA,” she said.

SG joins community members in signing petition for equitable UCPD practices, to be delivered today SG continued from front

ler Kissinger and co-sponsored

by Class of 2016 representative Mark Sands and Class of 2017 representatives Katherine Shen and Leeho Lim, the resolution resulted from a subcommittee last quarter, charged with considering whether partiality should be a criterion in appointing students to the IRC, and if Campus and Student Life administrators should have the power to veto SG’s recommendations.

The resolution passed with 15 members in favor, one opposed, and four abstaining. According to Kissinger, this resolution is the beginning of a new conversa-

tion between SG and the University administration.

“I think this will probably serve as the basis for more discussion between Student Government representatives and folks at Campus and Student Life and the Office of the Provost as we talk more about how the IRC is structured and basically giving Student Government the power to appoint people to it,” he said.

The subcommittee formed last quarter in response to the administration’s rejection of ninth-year Ph.D. candidate Toussaint Losier for a seat on the IRC. Currently, the Executive Slate can submit recommendations to adminis-

trators, who have final approval over the students seated on IRC. While the Executive Slate recommended Losier, administrators were concerned that his arrest by the UCPD at the January 2013 trauma center protest could compromise the IRC’s impartiality.

In addition to the IRC resolution, SG also voted to sign the Coalition for Equitable Policing’s petition to the UCPD, which will be delivered to UCPD headquarters this afternoon. Third-year Ava Benezra presented the petition to Assembly, outlining the group’s three key demands for the UCPD: publicly releasing its current

rules and regulations, amending its complaint process to make it more accessible, and establishing a process for releasing information to the public.

“It shows [Benezra] and the coalition take channels of power in the University seriously,” said second-year and Vice President for Student Affairs Jane Huber.

SG’s endorsement of the petition passed with 15 members in favor, five opposed, and one abstaining.

Class of 2014 representative TJ Welch voted against both resolutions.

“I think the UCPD does a very good job and has done a good

job, considering we live near two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago,” he said.

SG also voted in members to E&R and the Annual Allocations Committee. After reviewing approximately 10 applications, Executive Slate presented four members who were then confirmed to E&R: third-years Matthew Schaefer, Howard Fang , Isabella Rowe, and Steven Wendeborn. Wendeborn is the only returning member of E&R, having served on the committee last year when E&R came under fire for a lack of transparency amid a controversial election season.

CORRECTIONS The March 4 article “Tourre, Former Goldman Trader, Will Not Teach Undergrads, Univ.

Says” misstated Allan Zhang’s year. He is a second-year.

The February 28 article “Climate Change Activists Deliver Divestment Report” misidentified Johnny Guy's affiliation. He is an SFCC co-coordinator, not a UCAN officer.

DESIGN.

DRAW.

WRITE.

COPY EDIT.

SEEKING WRITERS, DESIGNERS, COPY EDITORS, CARTOONISTS, PHOTOGRAPHERS Have what it takes to make the Maroon Staff? Contact us: editor@chicagomaroon.com

SINCE 1892.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed MARCH 7, 2014

Tourre’s switch demands explanation University has a responsibility to defend its students’ right to free inquiry 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 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 ALICE BUCKNELL Arts Editor WILL DART Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Sports Editor SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor MARA MCCOLLOM Social Media Editor

On Monday evening, the University announced that Fabrice Tourre, a Ph.D. student and former Goldman Sachs trader found liable of securities fraud, would no longer teach an undergraduate honors economics course next quarter. Instead, he will instruct graduate students in order to fulfill the teaching requirement of the Ph.D. program. The announcement came after more than a week of silence from the University as national media focused their attention on the decision to let Tourre teach undergraduates. While it is unclear whether Tourre was asked to forfeit his undergraduate teaching position or chose to do so of his own volition, the University’s silence over this move has only allowed controversy to grow. Instead, the University should have framed the discussion by publicly explaining the institutional val-

ues that deem Tourre an equal member of our community.

Tourre, who deliberately defrauded investors of $1 billion, committed actions in the private sector that were reprehensible and deserve punishment. Those actions have already been judged and punished by the justice system and rightly so. In accepting Tourre as a student in the economics department, the University has made the decision that his past actions do not affect his ability to make honest and valuable contributions to the University community—a decision that it could defend with an explanation of the assessment made of an applicant’s ideas and academic history (and Tourre has a strong one).

Now that Tourre is here, the University has a responsibility to defend his place as a legitimate member of our academic discus-

ALAN HASSLER Head Copy Editor

sion. This would be a defense not of character, but of the right to exchange ideas—a value which makes the University an exceptional institution. As attention focused on Tourre, the University could have taken a courageous stand by publicly stating that we are a community that considers the value of people’s ideas, apart from their background. We recognize that allowing Tourre to teach an undergraduate class gives him authority to influence students’ thinking. But a fundamental value of this University and its students is that teaching should not be accepted as gospel, but constantly challenged. The right to express oneself, which applies to teaching, is certainly limited in cases where exercising it would harm others, but the condition for that restriction was not met in Tourre’s case.

A community unequivocally

committed to freedom of inquiry is one that must accept individuals and ideas that are disliked and heavily criticized. But the strongest of these communities not only tolerates these members and ideas, but robustly defends their right to be a part of discussion. By simply announcing that Tourre will no longer teach undergraduates without any further explanation, it seems as if the University has neglected its core values. In not leading the discussion and challenging critics, the University failed to uphold the fundamental values that make it exceptional.

Kristin Lin has recused herself from the writing of this editorial.

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

SYDNEY COMBS Photo Editor

Go for the bold

Mental illness matters

JULIA REINITZ Photo Editor

Education shouldn’t be risk averse

Campus and country should pay more attention

SHERRY HE Head Copy Editor KATARINAMENTZELOPOULOSHeadCopyEditor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy 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

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

Jane Huang

Anastasia Golovashkina

The Ionic Column When I watch figure skating during the Olympics, the thoughts going through my mind are usually along the lines of, “Ooh, shiny,” or, “Ooh, pretty.” However, the results of the ladies’ competition last month have prompted an interesting debate on what should be valued more: a difficult but flawed routine or a less technically challenging but clean performance? A skater from the U.S., Ashley Wagner, was especially vocal after the competition about her belief that she should have placed ahead of skaters who had fallen. The question extends to other aspects of our lives: Should risk taking be rewarded even if the execution is imperfect?

If we consider certain other sports, the question might seem silly. For example, imagine if basketball were scored so that you got points even if you missed the basket or if the soccer referee thought you deserved credit for a particularly elegant kick that didn’t result in a goal. But one famous inspirational sports quote is, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” In many sports, there’s no real downside to taking a shot and missing. Sure, you might earn the disapproval of spectators or teammates, but it’s not as though points will be subtracted from your team’s score if the referee thought your shot was appallingly off the mark. But if one is to argue that not making any errors is paramount in judged sports, then there can definitely be a downside to trying if one isn’t certain of success.

Likewise, in our daily lives, mistakes tend not to be cost free.

When I was in high school, one type of question I heard quite often at college information sessions was

whether admissions officials looked more favorably upon applicants who took advanced courses and wound up with a few Bs here and there, or whether it would be better to have straight As with a less difficult course load. The inevitable answer was that they wanted us to get straight As while taking advanced classes, which is not a particularly helpful response when it comes to deciding what to do. Given the option of being able to perfectly accomplish difficult tasks, I bet most of us would take it. Even without perfect grades, those who take more rigorous classes still benefit from engaging with more complex assignments. Thus, despite criticisms about students just looking to boost their GPAs, it makes sense that high schools often use different grading scales for advanced classes, which mitigates some of the risk of taking on tougher coursework and gets people into the habit of challenging themselves.

On the other hand, the way that higher education is organized nowadays may work against the kind of risk taking that has been encouraged in high school. It’s not difficult to imagine that the very high cost of attendance at many universities leaves students feeling as though they have much less margin for error. Even factoring in financial aid, many students feel the pressure to stick with classes and activities that lead to the most stable, remunerative careers.

With that said, it’s unlikely that colleges will consider reining in costs so that students are less worried about the consequences of making choices with longer odds of success—but PASS/FAIL continued on page 6

The Left Write This past January, Bell Canada hosted its fourth annual Bell Let’s Talk Day, a day dedicated to informing the public about mental illness and, in doing so, raising money for its treatment. Thanks to a total of 109,451,719 tweets, texts, Facebook shares, and calls (for each of which Bell Canada donated five cents), the event managed to raise nearly $5.5 million to help fund much-needed mental health initiatives and public awareness campaigns.

Incredible, right? It’s just too bad that Canada isn’t the only country with mental illness. Despite having approximately the same incidence of mental illness—between one in four and one in five, or about 63 million people—four years of Bell Let’s Talk Days later, the U.S. still fails to have anything even remotely close.

But we too need to start talking (a lot more) about mental health and illness. By not talking about it, we cultivate an environment of shame and stigma in which it’s little wonder why, when one in five are ill, barely one in 100 seek help—and that’s absolutely not okay.

Back when it actually did things, Congress designated the first full week of October as Mental Health Awareness Week.

Twenty-four years later, barely anyone knows about its existence.

Though National Eating Disorders Awareness Week gained a lot more traction through social media last week, it still failed to reach a sufficiently wide audience

to truly promote dialogue and “awareness.” This isn’t to say that dedicated national weeks can’t do a lot for a cause. But if we’re serious about promoting mental health awareness, we need to dedicate the same amount of time, energ y, and resources to making these weeks a success.

Despite the significant improvements made to mental health care access through the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), organizations dedicated to promoting ACA awareness have similarly failed in this crucial respect, at best relegating the topic of mental illness to a side note, a third-paragraph example, or a once- e ver y-five-months- or-so tweet. Half of the articles you’ll find by simply searching such groups’ sites for “mental+health” or “mental+illness” aren’t even about these topics, but about SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. If we’re serious about informing the public about changes to their health care benefits, we need to inform people about all their benefits— not just the physical ones.

Though the popular press has itself made important strides in reporting about and discussing mental health and illness, it too needs to raise the bar. If we’re serious about discussing mental health and illness in a constructive and meaningful way, we need to start replacing broad, removed language like “the mentally ill” WELLNESS continued on page 6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | March 7, 2014

5

Purim unmasked Politicization of Purim runs the risk of missing modern philosophical relevance of the holiday

Eliora Katz

Katzenjammer On the eve of March 16, Jews will don their silliest costumes and drink more than Manischewitz to celebrate the Jewish holiday Purim, otherwise known as, “They Tried to Kill Us, We Survived, Let’s Eat.” Purim is the infamously messy Jewish Mardi Gras enacted to remember how Persian Jews narrowly escaped extermination at the hands of the malevolent vizier Haman. We are now in the cheeriest month of the Jewish calendar—Adar—where we read the Purim story from “The Scroll of Esther”(Megillat Esther in Hebrew) in synagogues worldwide—counting those in Iran, which houses the shadow of an illustrious and established Jewish community that has existed for 2,700 years.

Nonetheless, given that Iran just saw out the term of a president who is denying the historical fact of the Holocaust while invoking a Middle Eastern one, it’s not hard to believe that the occasionally persecuted Jews of Iran might not read Purim as an obviated calamity, but as calamity

to come.

A tale of payback and restoration, Purim is gripping, romantic, droll, and regarded as a historical satire. It surfaced around 2,400 years ago—not long after the Babylonians exiled the Jews. In the scroll, King Xerxes of the Persian Empire summons beautiful virgins from all over to find a new Queen, and out of all the ladies chooses Esther. The new Queen conceals her Jewishness while her cousin/father, the steadfast Mordechai, decidedly does not, ultimately refusing to bow to the king’s right hand man, Haman, as a Jew does not kneel down to a man, which enrages him. In his fury Haman wants to make all the Jews pay for Mordechai’s defiance. He approaches Xerxes with his proposition to eliminate the Jews, the King hands over his signet ring in approval, and the genocide is set in motion.

What is Esther to do? After fasting for three days to prepare herself, she divulges to the King that she is in fact a member of the tribe Haman now persecutes.

Shaken into some understanding, the King commands Haman to be hanged on the gallows initially erected for Mordechai.

Unfortunately, at this time even Xerxes is incapable of reversing the genocidal decree, so alternatively, he permits Jews to arm in self-defense, and, on the day of the planned butchery, the Jews do the slaying.

I am writing about this in a secular paper, because Purim has grown over-politicized in many circles. As a Persian Jew, I am bombarded by these sentiments around this time of year. Because of its Persian background, the story is often used to draw a connection to the current Iranian regime. In March of 2012, prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu gave the scroll as a gift to Obama in the midst of talks on thwarting Iranian nuclear capability. Not surprisingly, many are so caught up in modernizing the story to fit contemporary Middle East politics that its philosophical significance has been left in the dust.

Though Purim transpired thousands of years ago in a land far, far away, it’s remarkably modern; not by relating to the Iranian nuclear threat, or Zionist oppression, but by maturely facing a statement

later affirmed by Nietzsche, that “God is dead.” “The Scroll of Esther” is one of only two biblical books missing any mention of God, focusing instead on the individual and the outcomes of her actions.

We masquerade on Purim to remember that we live in the era where God “hides his face.” Purim marks the turn from the “open miracles” in previous books of the Bible, which are impossible under the laws of nature, to hidden miracles; it marks the switch from prophecy to Torah study and good deeds as ways to connect to the divine in the modern era. After all, Maimonides explains that “All the books of the Prophets and all the Writings will be annulled in the days of the Messiah, apart from Megillat Esther”(Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Megilla, 2:18).

Why is this satirical fairy tale of princesses and kings, heroes and villains so indispensable?

In the language of the scroll, the Jews of Persia saw their world undergo whimsical volte-face— “grief turned into joy, a day of mourning into a day of celebration.” With Purim we acknowledge the seeming arbitrariness of the world felt by the modern man.

But instead of this being a reason to give up, it turns into a commit-

ment to communal responsibility, social justice, and action. God’s absence in the story invites man to engage in god-like activity of his own. The tools we have to make sense of life’s randomness and fragility are respecting and nurturing the loving relationships that keep us going, and helping those whose fortunes are not as fortunate. While we can’t control the whimsy of the universe, we can control how we deal with it.

We come face to face with the chaos and ethical uncertainty of Purim by doing as the scroll proscribes: giving gifts to friends and family, and charitably donating to the poor. We drink until we can’t tell the difference between “Cursed be Haman” and “Blessed be Mordecai” (the sages, of course, disagree on how drunk that actually is); we realize that not everything is black and white, that good and bad are often intertwined—we drink to withhold judgment. We dress up for concealment, while revealing the hidden side of ourselves. Once a year we understand that sometimes inebriated carousing is the only proper response to the fraught vulnerability in this world.

Eliora Katz is a first-year in the College.

Digging our graves with debt Government policies have exacerbated, not helped, the unemployment situation David Grossman Viewpoints Staff President Barack Obama’s latest budget calls for an end to an “era of austerity,” suggesting that after a long period of careful government expenditure, it’s time to spend freely once again.

While reading the press release, I had to look up “austerity” in the dictionary, not because I forgot what it meant but because the last time I checked, last year’s budget was $3.44 trillion (this year’s will spend even more). For a second-term president without any hope of getting anything accomplished in Congress, a loose connection between speech and reality is probably not that important anymore, but for the younger generations who will live to suffer the consequences of Obama’s actions, the fiscal situation of this country is pretty damn relevant.

This request for tens of billions of dollars comes after the greatest financial stimulus since the invention of money, on the back of the most dismal jobs report in three years, and in the middle of the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression.

While all of this is happening , labor participation has dropped to 62.8 percent, a 36-year low.

Ouch. Still, politicians spending money without stopping to consider where it comes from is

nothing new—most of the money spent by the government goes right back into the economy, and if we didn’t keep raising the debt limit indefinitely, there would be a practical limit to how much of it can be wasted. Instead, by allowing the government to borrow more money than it takes in year after year, we effectively allow it to borrow against future generations. And, news flash, that’s us. When our government actively legislates policies such as Obamacare and an increased federal minimum wage which incentivizes millions of Americans to stop working , it makes it that much harder for us to pay back all the debt we didn’t actually gain by borrowing.

The Congressional Budget Office recently released two reports on the real impact of Obamacare and the potential impact of raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The first would result in a decrease of work hours approximating two million jobs as people would no longer rely on their full-time job for access to affordable health care. Actually, quitting their jobs would drop them to an income bracket in which the government would effectively give free health care at the expense of the taxpayer.

The second would result in an estimated 500,000 lost jobs on account of companies cutting workers who only generate be-

tween eight and 10 dollars of value per hour. However, not everyone is convinced that disincentivizing work is a bad thing : talk show host Bill Maher argued last week, “Americans work too much. Americans are overworked, overstressed. They take less vacation time. They don’t retire when they want to. Not everything is GDP.” This would

“

Even someone with a degree from the University of Chicago is not impervious to macrofluctuations.

”

be fine, except that for the government, everything should be GDP. Without economic productivity, it can’t afford things like food stamps for millions of struggling Americans or a military that costs six times more than China’s.

This isn’t to say that the government should ignore the benefits of added leisure in pursuing its goal to maximize welfare—it just shouldn’t ignore the larger

picture. When someone quits her job because she was in it more for the health care than the money, the cheap health care she now gets from the government is incredibly expensive health care subsidized by taxpayers, who in turn have to work that much harder. Similarly, anyone who works for minimum wage and ends up losing her job will have to increasingly rely on government services, putting additional non-discretionary pressures on the budget. When someone stops working because he wants to, it’s leisure for him. When millions are subsidized to stop working because of an artificial incentive structure, it’s the beginning of the end for the country. Not so hidden behind $17.4 trillion of national debt is, well, $17.4 trillion dollars that have to be eventually paid back with interest.

And it’s only going to get worse.

The national debt is projected to rise to more than $20 trillion dollars in the next ten years, and as fiscal reality would have it, we’re the generation that’s stuck with paying for the wars and domestic programs of the past five years. Should we really be digging this hole any deeper?

The impacts of these government policies aren’t abstract, either. Due to generally poor market conditions, a quarter of a million recent college graduates are working minimum wage jobs,

70 percent more than 10 years ago. Raising the minimum wage without addressing the reasons people can’t find work above the minimum wage will only force companies to lay off more people, or force those above the new minimum wage to take a pay-cut to compensate for having to pay their less-productive workers more than they would be worth in a free market. This is exacerbated by Obamacare, which forces employers to provide health care past a certain threshold of full-time employees. In 2013, this resulted in employers hiring part-time employees four times as often as full-time employees when historically the inverse ratio has been the norm.

Even someone with a degree from the esteemed University of Chicago is not impervious to macro-fluctuations in the job market. Upon graduation, we will be facing an environment full of artificial incentives to work less and artificial competition for the jobs we actually want—and if we actually land one of those highpaying and rewarding jobs, guess who’ll be approached first when it’s time to pay back the $20 trillion someone else borrowed for work-disincentivizing subsidies to avoid future tax revenues?

Thanks, Uncle Sam. David Grossman is a first-year in the College.

For more Viewpoints go to maroonviewpointsblog.tumblr.com

6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | March 7, 2014

Pass/fail is not necessarily a backup plan PASS/FAIL continued from page 4 colleges can also institute other useful policies.

For example, allow students to take certain classes on a pass/fail basis, but the context in which the option is presented may affect how students choose to exercise it. The bulletin (equivalent to a course catalog) for the College of Columbia University states: “The purposes of [the Pass/D/Fail] option are to encourage students to take courses of interest to them outside of the field of specialization and to permit those who have not decided upon a major to test their talents in a particular field that may be of interest.” In contrast, while University of Chicago also allows students to exercise the pass/fail option, its course catalog does not offer similar commentary about its purpose, which leaves students to draw their own conclusions. The impression I’ve gathered from my time here is that the pass/fail option is seen as a way to salvage one’s GPA at the end of the quarter, rather than to encourage one to make bold course selection choices at the beginning of the quarter. In particular, the pass/fail option would be better emphasized as an aid for

exploration if pass/fail policies for each class were stated explicitly on our course registration website.

Creating a system that mitigates risk may seem as though it’s enabling mediocrity, but I see it as an investment in the future. We want to encourage people to take on challenges not only because they would derive benefits from being more innovative and skilled—whether that be in a foreign language, computer programming, or really anything else they’re interested in—but also because others can also benefit from the ideas, entertainment, services, or products that they can offer. If people are too anxious about the mistakes they make now, their reaction might be to avoid doing something entirely rather than work hard enough so that they can be even better in the future. Thus, instead of having to choose between valuing challenge taking and quality of the outcome, we can encourage the former to improve the latter.

Jane Huang is a fourth-year in the College majoring in chemistry.

“But true, positive, lasting change requires a fundamental and integrated change to campus...”

WELLNESS continued from page 4 with specific, people-first terms, like “people with schizophrenia.” Beyond creating a sense of “separateness and otherness,” as President-Elect of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Dr. Paul Summergrad recently pointed out, the former terminolog y promotes the myth that mental illness is “a unimodal type of thing.”

Needless to say, it’s not; the APA’s highly incomplete diagnostic manual alone is 991 pages long. It’s also worth noting that we’d find the construction “the mentally ill” completely unacceptable if used to reference virtually any other group of people.

Try it: “Equal pay for the women.” “How the blacks use Twitter.” “Deal could allow the gays in Boston parade.”

But the most important, immediate, and impactful changes don’t have to happen at the national level, and we don’t have to wait for them to happen in the popular press. They can and should happen right here, right now, on campus.

There are many things each of us can do.

For one, we can—and should—stop discussing mental illness as if it were a choice, or worse, a joke.

Though our generation has at last embarked upon a much-needed disavowal of slurs like the r-word from our daily dialogue, our pervasive misuse of mental illness terms like “OCD” and “bipolar” is no better, and also needs to go. “Bipolar” is not a synonym for indecisive; “OCD” is far more than a preference for hygiene and order. By joking in this way, we marginalize and understate the grave weight and danger of these disorders.

Then there are things we can do as a student body.

The recent UChicago Health of the Mind student initiative, for instance, is doing incredible, invaluable work generating dialogue and fostering a culture of peer support on campus. The fact that some of its Facebook posts have been getting upwards of 200 likes says a lot about students’ desire for this kind of dialogue and openness. It’s a great, albeit limited, first step.

Projects like UChicago Clothesline, which connects campus artists with sexual assault survivors to give the latter a voice and raise awareness about sexual assault, are also incredibly important, as is the (unclear if still active) Student Health Horror Stories Tumblr, which offers students a public outlet to anonymously share their experiences and grievances with campus

physical and mental health services.

The students behind all of these projects deserve a lot of praise for their brave hard work advocating for mental health and associated issues. I hope (but, at least for now, unfortunately doubt) that our administration is paying attention to the amazing student initiatives described above, and is doing everything it can to support them.

More initiatives like this are also needed.

For instance, one of the students I spoke to in the course of researching for this piece suggested launching a for-students, by-students support group in the style of those run by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Though NAMI currently operates over 180 chapters on college campuses across the country, there’s only one in Illinois at UIC. But true, positive, lasting change requires a fundamental and integrated change in our campus culture—a change that calls on students, organizations, and administrators to work together to foster a more open and supportive environment in which students feel comfortable opening up about their concerns and problems without being mocked, ostracized, or manipulated.

Based on my discussions with students and my own, admittedly biased campus perception, it seems that the weakest link in this relationship is currently our administration. Though most of the students I’ve spoken to have praised the launch of Health Promotion and Wellness and cautioned against making Student Counseling Services (SCS) a scapegoat for broader campus problems, all agreed that many— too many—problems remain.

For all our rah-rah about Healthy Minds surveys, we still do an inadequate job of supporting students who seek help elsewhere, or of encouraging students to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Reports of students being told to abruptly abandon counseling or being ignored in their attempts to return to school—experiences both reported in the Maroon, and versions of which have been echoed in my own discussions with students—are absolutely unacceptable.

It’s time we recognize that high-stress environments like our campus aren’t immune from mental illness, but breeding grounds for it.

Anastasia Golovashkina is a third-year in the College majoring in economics and public policy.

ALICE XIAO | THE CHICAGO MAROON

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers.

Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words.

Op-ed submissions, 800 words.

Large Pizza up to 3 Toppings only

$10!

Carry-out or Delivery Order online! www.papajohns.com

Hyde Park Location 1418 E. 53rd Street (773) 752-7272

Mention this coupon to receive offer

ARTS

Heartlandia MARCH 7, 2014

International Women’s Day speaks to new audiences Evangeline Reid Arts Staff

Love Anderson and Chidimma Jones-Mubima, advisers at the Office of International Affairs, enjoy one of the special exhibitions in the Regenstein Library as part of UChicago’s International Women’s Day celebrations.

COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

This week, the University celebrates International Women’s Day—March 8—for the second year in a row. However, with renewed visibility and interest, the event has grown into a forward-reaching initiative that aims to create dialogue on women in a mindful way, and in a manner which promises only more growth to come.

“Really for a week leading up to International Women’s Day, [we wanted to] talk very concentratedly and intensely and intentionally about women,” Director of International Affairs Tamara Felden said.

“There is real enthusiasm for it because we’re in an environment where I can’t imagine anybody here saying, ‘Oh, why would we pay attention to women?’”

This environment is, in part, historical. The University welcomed women

among its very first class in 1892, at a time when that was not necessarily the norm. Moreover, National Women’s Day, as an oncampus event, dates back, with records showing a celebration in 1978, a year after the United Nations declared it an official observation date, and also in a few of the years following. In the interim prior to 2013, however, it had fallen by the wayside.

It’s thanks to the Office of International Affairs that the event is back. Organizers were searching for a platform that would cross boundaries between both nationality and culture, while also exploring differences of experience. The 2013 festivities were fairly small: a screening, a workshop on gender equality, a video featuring the women of the University, and an online photo exhibit, with very little advertising.

However, the enthusiWOMENS continued on page 8

Lady of the lake: Martínez makes waves as voiceless lead MJ Chen Arts Staff Billed as a “fairy tale for adults,” Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka is a twisted tale of love and betrayal.

The Lyric’s new production is a spectacle from start to finish, with visually arresting sets and gorgeous casting. Never mind ninth week—spend an evening with one of opera’s most hidden treasures.

Rusalka happened when a Czech librettist read Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” with sunglasses on. Dark yet dazzling, the opera follows the story of Rusalka (Ana María Martínez), a water nymph who falls in love with a human prince (Brandon Jovanovich). She longs to become mortal. Her father, the water goblin Vodnik (Eric Owens), warns her against the idea, but refers her to the witch Ježibaba ( Jill Grove). Rusalka trades her voice for a mortal body, but the spell comes with consequences. If she fails to win the prince’s love, she will suffer eternal damnation along with her lover.

While hunting in the forest, the Prince discovers a mute Rusalka and brings her back to the royal palace. He soon tires of her and seeks the attentions of a foreign princess (Ekaterina Gubanova).

Heartbroken, Rusalka returns to the lake. Ježibaba tells her that she can save herself by killing the prince; however, she refuses and becomes a bludička, an evil water spirit. The prince, maddened with remorse, comes to the lake in search of Rusalka. He repents his earlier infidelity and asks for a kiss, knowing that her kiss means

death and damnation. They kiss, and he dies. Sinking into the lake, Rusalka commends his soul to God. Ana María Martínez returns to the Lyric stage as a sumptuously haunting Rusalka. Her voice is pure fantasy, combining rumcake richness with a moonlit upper register. She has more than enough sound to go around: At her most inspired, Martínez demolishes Dvořák’s orchestration with rapturous ease. Nor does she

RUSALKA

Lyric Opera of Chicago Through March 16

skimp on sentiment, serving the immortal “Song to the Moon” with poignancy and a sense of otherworldly grace. Her dark, glossy voice soaring above watercolor strings with ghostly grace is pure fairy-tale magic.

As opera’s greatest wallflower, Rusalka is something of an oddity. By giving up her voice for a chance to be human, she loses the ability to communicate with other characters. A non-singing prima donna role seems counterintuitive, but Martínez makes it work. As Rusalka, her silence is alien in a world of song—she makes the glittering royal court her desert. There’s a desperation in her movement that’s both heart-wrenching and captivating to watch. And there’s innocence, too, like a girl at her high school prom. Martínez combines the two to devastating effect, eliciting sympathy for days.

Brandon Jovanovich delivers a

Vodnik (Eric Owens), a water goblin, warns his daughter Rusalka (Ana María Martínez), a water nymph, to beware of falling in love with human princes.

COURTESY OF TODD ROSENBERG PHOTOGRAPHY

virile, thrilling prince. The man has a voice the size of a small island nation—at maximum output, it easily overpowers everything else on stage. His high notes are explosive, finishing the first act with a bang. Impressively, Jovanovich also nails the prince’s character with just his voice. He sounds incredibly self-absorbed, even when wooing Rusalka; the only thing he’s in love with is his own voice.

Another quirk of Dvořák’s opera is that the main love interest

sings mostly by himself; partly because of navel-gazing, and partly because our heroine is magically mute. What passes for a love duet comes at the very end, in which Martínez and Jovanovich display powerful chemistry. The prince, after realizing his betrayal, reconciles with and professes his love for the fallen Rusalka. Instead of the lusty womanizer of two acts previous, we hear a changed man.

His sound is breathtakingly tender, tinged with newfound sincerity. Martínez, too, feels trans-

figured: Her voice is resigned and almost transparent. It’s a beautiful moment, but the honeymoon doesn’t last. Pastoral woodwinds give way to darker strings as Vodnik is heard: “All sacrifices are futile.” There is no happily ever after here.

Dvořák’s Rusalka dishes up pure fantasy. Beautiful and tragic, the Lyric’s production is a feast for the eyes and ears. I walked out of the theater absolutely devastated. Happy endings are for children.

8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | March 7, 2014

The Maroon recommends....

Angela Qian Arts Staff Did you know March is National Reading Month? It’s kind of hard to cheer on books when you’re swamped with final papers (heavy classes and a polar vortex do not a happy winter make), but hey, when spring break rolls around you can catch the tail end of the month with some lighter fare. No research paper required.

NONFICTION Mindwise

by Nicholas Epley: A professor from our very own Chicago Booth School claims that we can all read minds. It’s just not that reliable. OK, so maybe it’s not

exactly mind reading, but the intuition humans use to decode each other’s expressions and actions is what makes cooperative society possible—when it’s not creating misunderstandings.

FICTION An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris: If House of Cards whetted your appetite for state corruption and intrigue, then Robert Harris might also suit your palate. At 448 pages, it’s not exactly a beach read. But the drama and suspense of this fictionalized Dreyfus affair, the story of a Jew wrongfully accused and imprisoned for passing secrets from the French to the Germans, and of the officer who

can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong, might just make it worth it.

FICTION Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li: Continuing with the spirit of intrigue, this novel follows the lives of three estranged childhood friends who, years ago, lost a fourth in a mysterious incident involving poison. One of the three may be the poisoner. The book goes beyond pure mystery fodder, however, and explores how the lives of the friends are shaped by their suspicions.

FICTION Bark: Stories by Lorrie Moore: Sometimes a novel is just too much. Luckily, we have Lorrie Moore, one of the most popular and beloved short story writers around. In her first collection in 15 years she gives us eight new, funny, poignant, human stories to chew on.

FICTION Famous Writers I Have Known by James Magnuson: Coming at a time when MFA programs are increasingly under scrutiny, this far-fetched caper follows con man Frankie Abandonato (even the last name makes you smile) as he poses as the famously reclusive writer, V. S. Mohle, at a small writing program. While there he winds up tangling with the world’s richest novelist, who just so happens to be jealous of Mohle’s prestige.

Literary high jinks ensue.

NONFICTION e. e. cummings: A Life by Susan Cheever: Speaking about famous writers!

In this biography, Susan Cheever explores the engine behind the sunny exterior of the poet she once met when she was 17. e. e. cummings once famously wrote, to immediate over-quotation: “wholly to be a fool/ while Spring is in the world,” and while his spring may have been more metaphorical than ours, we echo the sentiment exactly.

COURTESY OF KATHERINE TEGEN BOOKS

ESSAYS A Place in the Country

by W. G. Sebald: Sebald’s name is legend, and his legacy is enduring. This latest collection of his works brings together handselected art and Sebald’s own essays and memoirs, most of which reflect on the artists who influenced his unforgettable career.

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: If you’re tired of too many words on a page, check out the third volume in Vaughan and Staples’ saward-winning graphic novel series. Aptly named, the ongoing Saga follows the romance and struggles of a young family caught in an intergalactic war.

MEMOIR Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening by Carol Wall: Described as “a perfect spring awakening” by Good Housekeeping, this memoir reflects on the friendship formed between a WASP middle-aged woman in an all-white neighborhood and her gardener from Kenya.

FICTION Divergent by Veronica Roth: While the movie version of Divergent is clearly trying to be the next Hunger Games, it may be worth checking out, if for no other reason than that it features Mansueto Library in a couple of shots. Grab the book beforehand; it’s the first of a young adult dystopian trilog y that’s 100 percent grade-A beach material.

GRAPHIC NOVEL Saga by

COURTESY OF RANDOM HOUSE

Women’s week festivities to culminate with address by acclaimed physicist Young-Kee Kim WOMENS continued from page 7 asm at those events prompted the Office to expand in an effort to organize resources and gather expertise. “My office started as the coordinator, but this is something that cuts across every program, every office, every population in the University…so we started reaching out,” Feldon said.

One such collaboration was with the University of Chicago division of the Body Project, which hosted a workshop on Tuesday in collaboration with the Women’s Day celebrations.

The student-led discussion asked poignant questions, addressing topics such as the nature of the ideal woman and how people could ultimately challenge this perpetuated concept of perfection.

Through other collaborations with groups and departments on campus, this year’s festivities include Reg exhibits about the academic life of women, a day of service supporting women in Chicago, poster decoration for a parade on the main quads, a resource fair, and even a screening of the film It Was Rape. The week

will conclude this Saturday with a keynote address from YoungKee Kim, the Louis Block Professor of Physics at the University.

“We wanted to touch into many different areas that have to do with women’s lives. We wanted to seriously think about things—create an opportunity to seriously think about things— [and] also have the joyful part of celebration, but always with the expectation as we are having this dialogue: How can we move forward? How do we say we actually have found a couple of areas in which there are things we

can yet do, that are feasible, for which there are resources, [and] where people are interested to support whatever it might be?”

Felden said. Yet, she maintains the perspective that the event is still growing, and she is already speaking of plans for next year.

Most students on campus had heard about the event through emails and posters, but many noted the ninth-week workload as an impediment to involvement.

“I was going to go to the Body Project thing yesterday, but then I had a lot of work to do…but it’s very cool,” second-year Amanda

Wiesler said.

However, there’s undoubtedly been positive feedback and participation from many different parts of the University in a quest to explore, celebrate, and ultimately support women through the discussion of many different parts of their lives—both serious and fun. With this positivity behind her, Felden says she hopes to expand the celebration again next year, with even more collaborative events. Describing the complicated process of making the event happen, Felden added with a laugh, “We’re having a ball.”

9

ROSS STYLE

HEAD-TO-TOE

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENT | March 7, 2014

Come in and enter for your chance to win a

$500

D N A R G NING!

OPE RDAY SATU 8 MARC

H

SHOPPING SPREE Five 2nd prizes: $100 Shopping Spree

Enter to win: Sat., March 8 - Sun., March 16 Entry valid only at Hyde Park - Chicago location from Saturday, March 8 - Sunday, March 16, 2014.

See store for details. No purchase necessary. Must be 18 years or older to enter and win.

HYDE PARK 1300 E. 47th St. RossDressforLess

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | March 7, 2014

10

Maroons crush Spartans, enter StarCraft playoffs undefeated Andrew McVea Arts Staff This past weekend the Chicago StarCraft team capped off a stellar season, defeating Michigan State and ending the regular season undefeated. The South Siders have plowed through the opposition this year, shutting out their opponents in four of the eight competitions this season and solidifying themselves in the Collegiate Star League (CSL) rankings as the third-best team in the nation, trailing only the University of Toronto and Georgia Tech.

Starcraft, for those not aware, is an online real-time multiplayer strategy game in which individuals control an army of one of three races and battle to defeat their opponents. The player controls groups of units from a third-person perspective in a battlefield on an alien planet or futuristic city. The science-fiction setting of the game lends itself to incredibly intricate character designs and backstories, and although they are not always visible on screen, the individual units and the dystopian space colonies where the battles occur are surprisingly detailed.

Players can choose between the Protoss race, an advanced alien species that looks like the Na’vi from Avatar; the Zerg race, a species of violent aliens similar to the creatures in the Alien franchise; and a group of humans known as the Terrans. Each race has its own unique strengths and strategies. The goal of StarCraft is to collect resources, build an army, and destroy the opposing team with these armies.

Competitive collegiate StarCraft is composed of a best-of-five series. There are three one-versus-one games,

followed by a two-versustwo game and a final oneversus-one game, in whichthe “ace” player is allowed to play a second game to break the tie.

Chicago StarCraft is a relatively new organization but is growing in popularity. Members meet twice a week to play casual games for practice and hang out with other players. Although all of the players are full-time students, players on the competition team must devote a large portion of their free time to honing their StarCraft skills and tactics to remain competitive in upcoming matches.

Regarding tactical strategy this season, the Maroons have focused on preparing extensively for their matchups, according to competition team member Sean Sullivan.

“We always do our homework when we’re prepping for a match,” Sullivan said.

“But the real secret to our undefeated season has been ace player Thomas Joe. [ Joe] is to StarCraft what Reggie Bush was to college football when he played at USC, just an unstoppable force.”

Joe, who goes by the screen name Logic, occupies the “ace” position in the Chicago lineup and hasn’t lost a match yet this season. However, he’s not the only player who has been turning heads this season. Tyler Zhu and Nathan Blau, co-presidents of the Chicago StarCraft organization, have had an incredibly successful pairing in two-versus-two matches this year. “[Zhu] and myself are currently undefeated in two-versus-two matches,” Blau said. “We met during my second year and it was love at first sight. Before each two-versus-two match we look at each other long-

From left to right: Fourth-years Ben C. Yu, Nathan Blau, and Thomas Joe prepare for the upcoming Collegiate StarLeague playoffs with their stuffed panda friend. What you know about rockin’ a wolf on your noggin?

COURTESY OF GRACIE CHANG

ingly, bump fists, and declare our opponents as ‘easy peasy’. They always are.”

By virtue of their victories this season, the Maroons have qualified for the CSL playoffs this month, the equivalent of March Madness in basketball. While Chicago has had a very successful strategy during the regular season, the playoffs are a best-of-seven series instead of a best-of-five, and the team may have to alter its strategy.

“For the playoffs, we’re adding David Tag and Viktor Moros to our lineup for the best-of-seven,” Blau said. “They’re both solid players, and there’s a good chance that with a few more weeks of practice they’ll be able to challenge some of the more senior members of the team for top spots.”

Despite the change in

format, the team members are confident that Chicago can do well against other teams and advance far in the postseason.

“I think we are capable of winning a championship,” Sullivan said. “I think we’re going to cruise from the round of 64 all the way to

the round of eight before we hit any real competition.

We’ve been an underdog all season, which has worked in our favor.”

The team encourages members of the University community to come out and show their support during these matches. The playoffs

begin March 23 and spectators can watch the Maroons compete in Harper Library or stream the matches online at twitch.tv/the_ursadon.

“Florida State has football, Duke has basketball, and Chicago has StarCraft,” Blau said.

First Prize $1500 Second prize $500

CLASSIFIEDS Classified advertising in The Chicago Maroon is $3 for each line. Lines are 45 characters long including spaces and punctuation. Special headings are 20-character lines at $4 per line. Submit all ads in person, by e-mail, or by mail to The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, Lower Level Rm 026, 1212 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637. The Chicago Maroon accepts Mastercard & Visa. Call (773) 702-9555.

5438 S. HARPER, (3) BED. (2) BATH apartment in attractive (5) unit apartment building featuring: Lrge eat in kitch, living room, dining room, sunroom, & hardwood floors throughout. On-site laundry. Near shop and trans. $2150 plus utilites. Call Chad 312-720-3136, cjohnson@hallmark-johnson.com

5419 S. HYDE PARK BLVD, (5) BED. (2) BATH apartment in complete rehabbed (3) unit apartment building featuring: Lrge kitch, new stainless appl, lrge living room, dining room, (2) sunrooms, hardwood floors throughout.

On-site laundry. Near shop and trans. $3500 plus utilities. Call Chad 312-720-3136, cjohnson@hallmark-johnson.com

5213 S. DORCHESTER, (4) BED. (2) BATH apartment in attractive (6) unit apartment building featuring: Lrge eat in kitch, newer appl, living room, hardwood floors throughout. On-site laundry. Private backyard. Near shop and trans. $2500 includes heat. Call Chad 312-720-3136, cjohnson@hallmark-johnson.com

5121 S. KENWOOD, (5) BED. (3) BATH apartment in attractive four (4) unit apartment building featuring: Lrge kitch, newer appl, huge living room, dining room, sunroom hardwood floors throughout. On-site laundry. Near shop and trans. $3000 includes heat. Call Chad 312-720-3136, cjohnson@hallmark-johnson.com

YOUR AD HERE

advertise in the MAROON ADS@CHICAGOMAROON.COM

www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/crerar-prize Submission deadline: April 22, 2014

11

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | March 7, 2014

For the love of the game: A call to true sports fans Sam Zacher Associate Sports Editor In a Bud Light commercial that aired during football season, a Denver Broncos fan leaves a game to grab a beer from the basement, only to return and find that his team scored. Realizing that his trips to the basement must be causing the Broncos’ touchdowns, the avid fan selflessly ventures back into the dark basement for the remainder of the game, doing whatever it takes for his team to win.

This superstitious move is worthy of praise, no question about that. However, there’s a distinction between the everyday fan and the true sports team fan.

The definition of fanatic (often shortened to “fan”) is a person filled with excessive, single-minded, enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal. In the case of a sports fan, the goal is a team’s success, most likely how close one gets to the championship.

I’m from Ohio, so for years I’ve considered myself a fan of the Cleveland Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers (unfortunate, I know). Often, I would catch these teams’ games on TV, look for their respective standings every now and then, and even go to a game every few years. I rooted for them to win, surely, but a couple years ago I realized that I didn’t actually care about any of their successes deep down.

One such realization came when I was watching the Browns play the Patriots a few seasons ago. I like to say that I hate New England, not only because it wins too often, but also because Tom Brady went to Michigan, known as “that school up north” in Ohio. So naturally, I wanted the Browns to win, even more so than usual. In classic Cleveland fashion, they made a few great plays, toying with their viewers’ emotions, only to inevitably fall to the mighty Patriots.

I may have cursed once or twice as the game ended, but after I turned off the T V, I didn’t give the game another thought. I went on with the rest of my day as usual. Only later did I realize that none of my emotions whatsoever were affected by the outcome. This is why simple actions do not formulate the true fan of a team: True fandom transcends the physical world—it impacts one’s mind and emotions.

Similarly, I also follow Ohio State’s basketball and football teams, since my parents teach there and I grew up just blocks from campus. When the Buckeyes lost to Wichita State in last year’s NCAA basket-

ball tournament, I was in disbelief. I remember it like it was yesterday, too. As the game clock wound down, my hands covered my face, concealing everything except my eyes, trying to fight the inescapable acceptance of failure and loss…to freaking Wichita State.

After the game and a wave of frustration, I could feel genuine sadness washing over me. I remember thinking that I had to distract myself with some fun activity. A casual observer probably would’ve thought a relative of mine had just died.

Looking at the definition of a fan, I ask, is my devotion to Ohio State excessive? Maybe (my friends would say so)— if watching every game, even at the dining hall or library, having an Ohio State phone case and wall posters in my room, and traveling to multiple games during the school year is excessive. Is this devotion single-minded? Yeah, pretty much—I only want wins. Lastly, is it enthusiastic? O-H! (Take a guess.)

Additionally, I believe that when the outcome of your team’s game or season affects your mood and happiness, that’s when you are a true fan. It becomes apparent that the success and failure are ingrained in your being, your soul, and your subconscious. There exists a sort of metaphysical relationship between you and your team. That’s not to say that you cannot be happy without wins—something out of your control—but your mood and attitude are lifted by your team’s successful performance, and vice versa.

Don’t get the wrong idea, though. I’m certainly not bashing the casual fan, because there are fans of varying degrees (even though casual fans likely don’t fit the definition of “fanatic”), and all are necessary. In fact, casual fans might be even more important to teams and organizations since they probably outnumber true fans. If you consider the occupancies of college and professional football stadiums (around 70,000, some 100,000), baseball stadiums (around 40,000), and basketball arenas (20,000), it’s likely that the majority of attendees are some variation of the casual fan.

I’m certainly a casual Browns, Indians, and Cavaliers fan, but there’s no doubt in my mind that I bleed scarlet and gray for Ohio State. If you ever find yourself wondering, “Am I a true fan?” don’t think about what you would do for your team— à la Bud Light-loving Broncos fan—but rather how its successes and failures (rationally or irrationally) affect your mental and emotional being.

Follow us @ MaroonSports

LONG LIVE LONG-FORM.

GREYCITY.CHICAGOMAROON.COM

GET IN THE GAME.

WRITE FOR SPORTS. editor@chicagomaroon.com

In the Chatter’s Box with Sarah Langs Renat Zalov is a third-year on the track team from Buffalo Grove, IL. We chatted with him to get some insider info on the life of a Maroon athlete.

CM: Do you follow any sort of professional running?

RZ: I do. The team has bought an account on Flotrack, which is a website dedicated to track and field and cross country. And whenever we see something really cool about professional running, we actually email it out to each other.

CM: When you follow it, is that as peers, or as something to aspire to?

RZ: Definitely something to aspire to.

I think that most of the runners at the collegiate level have either no chance or very small chance of ever becoming as fast as some of these people. I think it’s just really cool to watch what some of these people do.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

Chicago Maroon: When did you start running?

Renat Zalov: I started running in sixth grade, and played soccer the year before that. So I’d missed the cross country season because they were the same time. And then I started track, really liked it, and decided to switch to running full time.

CM: When did you know that you’d want to run in college? Or that you’d be able to?

RZ: I think I really started showing results sophomore year of high school. That’s when I really kind of thought seriously about, “Hey this could be a possibility.”

CM: Was it a priority when you were looking at schools and deciding where to go?

RZ: Yeah, I think I put a lot of emphasis on a place that I could run, which would probably be a DIII college. But my first requirement was academics, and then the sport.

CM: What are the differences between running in middle school, high school, and college?

RZ: So the difference between middle school and high school is that middle school is very, very relaxed. You don’t practice every day. Mileage is very, very low. And then high school, depending on where you go—I went to a high school where the coach gave us a lot of mileage. And there were structured workouts, which was a very college-like training approach. And then in college, there are almost no off days. Two or three workouts a week and our mileage is about anywhere from 70 to 100 miles a week, depending on the person.

CM: What do you think about during a long race?

RZ: A lot of times a song will get stuck in my head. And I’ll sing; I guess I won’t sing it out loud, but it’ll go over and over in my head. That helps a lot. I think a very important thing, especially in the early stages of the race, is to ignore the buildup of the lactic acid. It’s very difficult to ignore at the end of the race, because it’s just in your face.

But that’s when you start to push through and you kind of focus.

CM: I know that you guys run in a pack and have strategies associated with that.

When you run, are you thinking more on the individual level or overall?

RZ: We train together in groups and that’s the same way that we run. And so when we run in a pack it’s not about, “Oh how can I be better alone.” It’s about, “How can I help pull the group along?” Sometimes at the end of the race, some people in the group—just because they’re not feeling well or something—they can’t hang on. And that’s on them. But for most of the race, you run together, and help each other. You switch off leads, which is hard. It’s hard to lead. Especially the older runners, the more experienced runners, will switch off leading to help the group not lose pace.

CM: Do you feel like being an athlete influences your mindset?

RZ: I think that being an athlete, especially at this school—and I noticed this in high school, too—a lot of times you notice that athletes are a little more disciplined with the way they approach homework. Just because we don’t have the luxury of having an extra two, five, three, or four hours. So we try to get our work done on the weekends and get in some sleep.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES

“Hey @BMcCarthy32 your dog rolled in duck poop in our backyard please come home to clean her..not a question just a request #chattingcage” —Wife of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy interacts with her husband on Twitter

Maroons look to serve up another Begging for Mercy, Chicago aims to end skid victory against DePauw Women’s Tennis

Men’s Tennis Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff It is imperative that the Maroons take two victories this weekend.

After being barely edged aside by No. 24 UW–Whitewater on Friday and No. 18 Gustavus Adolphus on Saturday, No. 30 Chicago looks to rebound against DI Detroit Mercy on Friday and DePauw on Saturday.

Chicago will face adversity, however, with several players battling illness and injury.

Head coach Jay Tee is very familiar with Detroit Mercy, having coached against the team while at Cleveland State, a Horizon League rival. This season, the Titans hold a 2–6 record in non-conference play.

“Detroit came into the Horizon League as I was transitioning into a coaching role. Their coach, Grant Asher, did a tremendous job making them competitive within the Horizon League in only their first season since

having their program dropped several years earlier,” Tee said. “We played them several times while I was at Cleveland State and the match was always closely contested.”

Saturday’s match against DePauw is highly anticipated, not just for the competition, but also for the crowd.

The Maroons will hold their annual Alumni and Parents Night. Last year, the Maroons had hundreds of fans pack their indoor home in Burr Ridge.

“I’d like to see over 200 people pack the building for the match,” Tee said.

But the crowd will not earn the Maroons a victory.

“DePauw is a very strong team with great doubles,” Tee said. “Last year, we went to their place and were able to sweep them in doubles, which was remarkable. We will have to once again come out ready to play because they have the talent to beat us if we’re not ready.”

Both matches are scheduled for 6 p.m. at Five Seasons in Burr Ridge, IL.

Do or die: Individual qualification on the line at last-chance meet Track & Field Isaac Stern Sports Staff

Second-year Sruthi Ramaswami lunges to return a ball during a match against Wheaton last year.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

David Gao Sports Staff Chicago will host its most competitive rivals this weekend, playing them for the second time in two weeks.

Last weekend the No. 8 Maroons traveled to Greencastle, Indiana for the ITA Indoor Nationals. In the first round they faced the host, the DePauw Tigers, whom the South Siders defeated in a narrow 5–4 match.

This weekend Chicago (3–1 excluding the ITA Nationals) hosts the Alumni and Parents Night, where it will once again face the No. 13 Tigers (4–0 excluding the ITA Nationals), except this time on its own home court.

Last year the Maroons defeated the DePauw Tigers 5–4, with the entire matchup determined in the last match of the night. This year at the ITA Nationals, the score was once again decided late in the matchup.

“I absolutely expect another battle against DePauw. I think the last couple years we’ve left

some points on the courts and missed some opportunities to widen the distance between us and them,” head coach Jay Tee said.

Coincidentally, second-year Sruthi Ramaswami ultimately determined both matchups.

“This weekend’s match will be no less of a challenge than it was this past weekend against DePauw. However, with the confidence, energ y, and fight that we brought at the ITA tournament, we can definitely repeat that victory,” Ramaswami said.

The atmosphere will certainly be different, as the home-court advantage favors the Maroons.

“Having a home-court advantage this weekend will definitely help us considering DePauw always draws a huge crowd to their home matches. They are always a fun team to play, and playing them during Alumni weekend will put us at an advantage even before the first ball is hit,” thirdyear Kelsey McGillis said.

Between last year and this year, four DePauw players have stayed

in the singles lineup while three Chicago players, Ramaswami and third-years Megan Tang and McGillis, are again in the singles lineup this year. The Maroons have won the singles matchup 4–2 in both years. In doubles the pairings have changed entirely for the Maroons while they have stayed consistent for the Tigers, a strateg y that seems to have worked for the Tigers as they have bested the South Siders 2–1 both years in doubles.

“They’re traditionally strong in doubles and we’re traditionally strong in singles, so it always comes down to the wire. I’m hoping we can close out our doubles matches this weekend so we don’t have to put all the pressure on our singles,” Tee said.

The action begins 6 p.m. this Saturday at Five Seasons in Burr Ridge, Illinois. Following the match against DePauw, the South Siders will have no more matches until spring break, when they travel to California to face three teams ranked nationally in the top five.

While most of the Maroons will use this week to rest and celebrate a UAA title, a few of Chicago’s best will take their talents to UW–Stevens Point or Carthage College this weekend in one final effort to qualify for nationals. The top 12 men and top 15 women in each individual event and the top 12 in relays qualify for the NCAA National Championship.

Currently, the Maroons can qualify in five events: the women’s 800-meter, women’s 4x400-meter, men’s pole vault, women’s mile, and women’s long jump.

First-year Michelle Dobbs holds the ninth spot in the 800-meter with her time of 2:12.74. The women’s 4x400meter is in seventh with their time of 3:53.46. Second-year Michael Bennett ranks fourth in the nation in the pole vault with 4.9m. Second-year Brianna Hickey is 14th in the mile with 4:58.43.

And third-year Pam Yu holds the 12th spot in the long jump with 5.56m.

Of these five, only Bennett has a realistically safe hold on his spot. Dobbs should also be fine because at least six different people would have to improve their time by one to two seconds to knock her out.

The 4x400-meter will consist of Dobbs, second-years Mikaela Hammel and Alison Pildner, and third-year Francesca Tomasi, and should be OK, as Dobbs adds additional speed to the group. Hickey might be in danger of being knocked out, as there are two runners outside of qualifying position who have times of only roughly a second behind her.

Yu has five centimeters to spare in her current position and is also in peril of losing her spot. In all, four of the five—if not all five—should make it to nationals, though that won’t stop them from trying to improve on their current marks.

“We are looking to run a good time and get out the kinks for nationals,” Pildner said.

In addition to these four, a few other South Siders with outside shots of qualifying will compete this weekend.

Second-year Nick Lyon currently ranks 43rd in the pole vault but will need to improve by upwards of 23cm if he is to meet the current qualifying mark.

Second-year Michael Frasco, who is 35th in the mile, will also qualify if he can shave about three seconds off his time of 4:12.46.

First-year Nick Nielsen will join Frasco in trying to qualify in the mile, though he will need to cut down his 50th-ranked time of 4:14.16 by roughly five seconds.

Second-year Rachael Jackson ranks 32nd in the long jump, and will qualify if she can increase her 5.41m leap by about 15cm.

While the odds might not be in its favor, this group of hopefuls will definitely be able to use this weekend as an opportunity to vault itself into the upcoming outdoor season.

“My goal for this weekend is to try to qualify for nationals,” Lyon said. “I am super hopeful. But if that doesn’t happen, I just want to P.R. and have the biggest jump of my season.”

The Maroons have had a successful season as a team. Now it is the time for them to run and jump for themselves and see where their talents take them.