033012 Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • MARCH 30, 2012

ISSUE 33 • VOLUME 123

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

Slang Bang vents, hip-hop follows

Student anger subsides after Pierce renovations

Onstage and online, a custodian hones his craft Jennifer Standish News Staff When Roosevelt Burkett launched his rap career three years ago under the name “Slang Bang,” he had been working as a custodian at the University for over a decade.

His work has been simmering since then, laying just under the radar of the Illinois hip-hop scene.

But between U of C students on Facebook and the small army of fans he has cultivated over Myspace, Burkett—now a custodian at South Campus residence hall—seems to have grabbed hold of something that demands attention.

Burkett dubs his work “ventmusic,” a concept he developed himself and hopes to someday copyright, which consists of simply setting a beat and “going on a rant.”

His YouTube channel, “Mr. Slang Bang,” is alive with videos of him “venting” in such a way.

“I rap about, you know, that street life. I grew up on the South Side. I’m just like a street analyst. I just tell what’s going on,” he said.

Reverbnation.com, a website that promotes and rates up-andcoming musicians, has documented Burkett’s considerable success for a new rapper, ranking him 10 among

Illinois rappers out of more than 1,000. He has garnered 12,774 fans on the site and his Myspace profile combined.

This has translated to gigs, booked through Chicago-based labels Process of Progress and Rush Entertainment, and he performs at various venues in the Chicago area, such as Exedus II in Wrigleyville and Adrianna’s Club Ballroom in the south suburbs. He also performs monthly at the Checker Board Lounge in East Hyde Park in a show sponsored by Rush Entertainment.

Though Burkett wants to continue togrow his rap career, he says it’s for his own satisfaction rather than the publicity.

“I do this for the love, whether I get fame from it or not,” he said.

Still, his longtime facilities job at South Campus weighs on his mind.

“I’ve been working for the University of Chicago for 16 years.

I’m just trying to get out of my situation. I’ve been doing custodial work for a long time, and I just feel like I’ve got talent. Some people think I don’t, but I’m not going to stop for nobody.”

The next stage for Burkett’s music is a DVD compilation of music VENT continued on page 2

Housing and Facilities Services made changes to Pierce Tower over spring break, after plumbing and other issues last quarter. Among other improvements, they replaced the booster pump for water, repainted common areas like the ninth floor lounge (above), replaced furniture, and renovated lounge kitchens. julia reinitz | the chicago maroon

Lina Li News Staff An extensive renovation of Pierce Tower over spring break has left the building flush with new furniture, plumbing equipment, and even pianos and flat screen TVs, but certain structural problems—along with student anxieties—persist.

The renovations followed last

month’s upswell of student outrage over the building’s plumbing problems, which included exploding toilets and intermittent water shortages. Administrators, along with Housing and Facilities Services staff, vowed to improve the situation in talks earlier this month.

Over the break, a new booster pump was installed to improve plumbing functions in the build-

Uncommon Interview: Jon Huntsman, Jr. Jon Huntsman, Jr., governor of Utah from 2005– 2009 and former United States Ambassador to China, dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in January after a third-place showing in the New Hampshire primary. Since then, he has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Ford Motor Company and was among the candidates for the presidency of the World Bank.

The Maroon sat down with Huntsman after his lecture at International House earlier this month to discuss the viability of a two-party system, the wildcard of North Korea’s new supreme leader, and the future of American industry. See the full interview online at chicagomaroon.com.

Jon Huntsman spoke at International House on March 13. jamie manley | the chicago maroon

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Chicago Maroon: In your talk just now, you likened your views to those of Republicans Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. But party platforms and beliefs can change drastically over time. What does it mean to be a Republican today?

Jon Huntsman: My view of conservatism has always been pretty consistent, and

it comes out of Bill Buckley’s school of conservatism: It’s small government; it’s economic freedom; it’s a strong and confident national security infrastructure; it’s pursuing the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Party priorities go in cycles, and I think the cycles are pretty tied to leaders of particular periods of AmerINTERVIEW continued on page 3

ing, according to Housing and Facilities Services. The previous cushion tank—the source of the exploding toilets—will now only be used as a backup if the booster pump fails. In that case, administrators have assured students that a Facilities staff member will be stationed there for 24-hour supervision.

Housing staff also installed new PIERCE continued on page 2

Policy institute snags $1.5 million for alternative fuels research Sarah Miller News Staff A University research institute studying the economic and sociological factors of energ y policy has netted a $1.5 million gift from a Californian nonprofit organization that promotes the expansion of American domestic fuel production.

The Energ y Policy Institute in Chicago (EPIC) received the gift from the Irvine-based Fuel Freedom Foundation, which bills itself as “dedicated to breaking our oil addiction,” to establish a new Transportation Fuels Initiative.

Through the initiative, U of C faculty in the fields of economics, law, business, physical sciences, and pub-

lic policy will research the viability of fossil fuels and alternative energ y sources in transportation use. EPIC itself is operated jointly by the Harris School of Public Policy and the Booth School of Business.

EPIC co-director and economics professor Robert Topel said the gift marked the first collaborative project between the institute and the foundation.

The $1.5 million will fund the Transportation Fuels Initiative for the next three years, at which point EPIC will evaluate the initiative’s progress. The gift will support research by faculty and Ph.D. students at the Booth School and the Harris School, in addition to financing a visiting EPIC continued on page 2

IN viewpoints

IN Arts

Remix to tuition

Edifice complex: Logan Center draws mixed reactions » Page 7

Responsibility to reflect

Hunger Games mrore than satisfies audience’s appetite » Page 7

» Page 4 » Page 4

2

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 30, 2012

After 16 years on the job, Despite improvements, trepidation remains as housing lottery draws near provements have been made yet. “While the after spring break, but there are no updates South Campus custodian PIERCE continued from front shower heads, covered house lounges and water system has been fixed, there are still on that front. Pierce residents have also pursues passion for rap the second-floor common area with fresh elevator leveling problems. Though there suggested compensation for the reduced paint and carpets, covered heating pipes, repaired elevators, brought in new furniture, TVs, and pianos for public lounges, and restored bathroom tiling.

For future problems, administrators intend to use newly installed television displays next to the elevators to provide residents with information about any facility emergencies. Additionally, public area rugs and lighting fixtures will be replaced, and more bike room will be created.

“Students generally seem pretty pleased with the improvements,” fourth-year Henderson House resident Amy Hua said. “I was impressed they were able to get it all done during a week, and we’re excited to see the administrators’ current commitment to Pierce. We’re convinced that they do care, which is a nice change, considering how neglected we felt earlier this year.”

First-year Shorey House resident David Goldfeld agreed. “Most of the students are very satisfied,” he said. “They’re surprised by the number of good things that happened over spring break.”

However, he said not all technical im-

VENT continued from front

videos, the first volume named The Black and Blue Mix Tape. The videos, each their own song, will tie together to tell a larger story, which Burkett hopes will provoke people to critique them.

But Burkett isn’t the only South Campus custodian in the underground rap scene. He owes some of his success to his co-worker, Eric Jackson, who raps under the moniker DJ E and has served as a mentor to Burkett, guiding him throughout his rapping career.

“He tells me about the game,” Burkett said.

“He’s been in the hip-hop scene for a long time. When I started, he just showed me what I needed to do as far as getting in the underground scene and making an impact.”

In addition to his gigs throughout Chicago, students on campus have recognized his work. One student posted a music video for his song “You Don’t Want None” on the Overheard at UChicago Facebook page a few weeks ago.

Burkett is grateful for student interest in his work, but said there is still much more to come and hopes people continue to follow his music.

“I appreciate the student who did that—I wish I knew his name. Everybody walks up to me like, ‘Oh, when is the next one coming out?’ and I just try to be a humble guy. I got more work to do.”

is a new contractor, we want to see prompt changes. Some students are still concerned about bathrooms as well,” he said.

With the housing lottery looming, students feel especially uneasy about the dorm’s fate.

“We are a tight community, and a lot of us would love to stay, but we are taking into account the age of the building and the past maintenance problems in our decision processes,” first-year Henderson House resident Carlos Pennikis said. Pennikis acknowledged that the situation seems to be improving.

Prior to spring break, Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Katie Callow-Wright wrote to first-year Henderson House resident Michelle Rodriguez that further renovations are still in the works.

“We believe that the entire plumbing system would most likely need to be replaced, and that other building systems, such as heating and the elevators, may need a complete overhaul,” Callow-Wright wrote.

Callow-Wright also said that she hoped to know the feasibility of this construction

living conditions. There will be a town hall style meeting April 9 to discuss the current changes and future plans.

Updates will be posted to the Pierce Updates Web site, according to University spokesman Jeremy Manier.

Pierce’s old furniture was moved into Broadview Hall Monday morning, after Broadview resident heads and assistants discussed the change at a meeting March 12.

According to Wick House RA and thirdyear Samantha Ngooie, a former resident of Pierce’s Thompson House, Broadview was given first choice by Housing and Facilities Services.

Some residents initially bristled at the uniform, blue-cushioned sofas and armchairs that one student said gave the lobby the look of an airport.

However, Ngooie felt, that the rearrangement makes the space more homey, adding that it signifies Housing Services’ attentiveness to student life. She hopes that, after Pierce, other older dorms such as Broadview will undergo renovations and repairs as well.

Transportation Fuels Initiative will focus on energy sources for aircraft, among others EPIC continued from front

professorship and outreach projects.

“In this project, success will be measured by the quality of the people brought in and the quality of our research,” Topel said.

EPIC founder and co-director Robert Rosner will also conduct biological and chemical research through the Transportation Fuels Initiative. An astrophysics, as-

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tronomy, and physics professor, he will focus mostly on the efficiency of fossil fuels and their alternatives, as well as the ways fossil fuels historically have been used to power transportation.

Specifically, Rosner is interested in researching alternative energ y for aircraft, a field that has proven especially difficult for scientists. A European Union policy

that caps aviation carbon emissions and fines violators has also made this area of research particularly salient.

Despite his scientific background, Rosner enjoys the policy aspect of energ y.

“The marriage of policy and technolog y connects them in a substantive way, and often people from both sides of the issue don’t see that connection,” he said.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 30, 2012

Scooter start-up pushes for a smoother way to glide Marina Fang News Staff As sustainability efforts increase, many countries are pushing public transportation and bikes.

But at U of C, a growing group of students are trying to bring scooters into vogue.

Second-years Victor Gutwein and Lee Kuhn, avid scooter-riders, are leading the effort. Last spring, they founded ScooterVersity, a company that sells and rents scooters to U of C students.

The idea came out of a desire to make scooters a trendy and viable transportation option. “As I was headed off to college to start my first year, I didn’t have any skateboarding skills, but I still didn’t want to walk to class. So I brought my scooter from when I was a kid. It quickly broke,�

Gutwein said. “I used it for a month and kind of became dependent on it, so I looked up adult scooters, [for] which there was a growing market for urban professionals, but not many college students were using them.�

According to Gutwein and Kuhn, ScooterVersity first worked with Xooter, a company that manufactures adult scooters, and negotiated a student discount. It expanded this year, adding a partnership with Razor last fall and Micro last month.

Since their start about a year ago, the company has rented or sold a total of 30 scooters, and patronage is expected to increase after a slow winter, Gutwein said. He hopes that eventually they can expand to other universities. “Right now our prices are about break even... we’ll work for free, as most start-ups would, and then in the long-run it might turn a significant profit,�he said.

However, both Gutwein and Kuhn see a social stigma attached to scooters and hope ScooterVersity will make students more open to the idea of riding a scooter.

“We wanted to make it more of a widely accepted form of getting around. People associate scooters with the playground when they were a kid and not as a more serious commuter option,�

Kuhn said.

Gutwein observed that bikes and walking are much more prevalent on campus, as some students observed. “I haven’t even noticed [the scooters],� third-year Lucy Duan said.

ScooterVersity’s first customer, second-year Andrew Burchill, said that he is trying to establish an RSO to unify scooter enthusiasts. “Many of my fellows that I see around campus I don’t know at all, and the club would try to host big, community rides to places like the Point.

We’re also considering trying to get free-style scooter people to come and do tricks and things on campus, as well as maybe having a ‘test-drive a scooter’ day,� he said.

Some students are skeptical that scooters share equal status with bikes. “I think scooters are less practical than bikes. I feel like you could probably go faster on a bike,� secondyear Ruth Mulvihill said.

But Burchill said he often passes bicycles while riding his scooter. ScooterVersity’s founders also believe that scooters are more convenient than bikes. “With a scooter, you won’t have to worry about it getting stolen or locking it up or replacing parts,â€? Gutwein said. “A scooter just folds up‌I can bring it in to class and tuck it on the side, and it doesn’t really cause problems. It’s so much quicker,â€? Kuhn said.

Gutwein stressed the speed and versatility of scooter riding. “You can get all over this campus in five minutes or less. You can actually go eat at South if you live in Pierce or Max. It’s not that far to cross the Midway. It’s not that far to go to the beach in the summer. It makes the campus a lot closer.�

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Huntsman: North Korean regime “the most evil on the face of the Earth�

INTERVIEW continued from front

ican history. So will the Republican Party reformulate itself to some extent, maybe take off some of the edges, maybe some of the areas that are non-core to small government, a strong economy, and a confident foreign policy? We’ll get there, but it will take a leader to get us there.

CM: Do you see something new coming out of the ongoing six-party talks in Beijing between North Korea and the United States? What’s different this time around?

JH: They [North Korean party leaders] have a history of dissembling, and the only different wrinkle this time is that there’s a new head of the party, Kim Jong-un, who’s taken over for his father. It’s hard to know what is in his mind.

He was just such an unknown commodity, such a cipher, when he started taking the positions of power, that I think the most valuable part of the talks going on now will be to see whether or not there’s any desire to begin to transform a highly rigid state, which is probably, I think, the most evil on the face of the Earth in terms of how it treats its people.

We don’t know the answer to that, so some level of engagement through the sixparty process might give us an indication as to whether or not they’re willing to go beyond just the same old dissembling—“We’ll meet and we’ll pretend to talk about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula in exchange for the following‌â€? It’s always been a cycle.

We’ll have to see if there’s anything new.

CM: You’ve mentioned the need for another voting option, now and in future elections.

JH: I don’t think there will be any way to stop third-, fourth-, fifth-party movements, because you’ve got the rise of a very mobile generation. You’ve got social networking technology; you’ve got the internet that allows for people to get their messages out with speed and clarity like never before, the ability to raise money and organize.

All of the necessary ingredients that go into a successful political campaign are there, ready to be captured. We’re just a couple of election cycles premature, perhaps.

CM: Talk about your appointment at Ford. Can American corporations imitate the growth, through Asian investment, that Asian sectors have seen in their exports to the US? JH: We have such a global marketplace today, and so much in the way of disposable income that is being amassed in China and India, just to begin the conversation, where you’ve got some of the largest middle classes in the history of the world that are taking shape or form. They’re going to be consumers. They’re already consumers. And for a viable company in the auto sector and beyond, you’ve got to be a global player.

It isn’t about the U.S. market as much as it is servicing a customer base that is global, that endures to the benefit, ultimately, of the U.S. market. Because where are the cars designed? Where is the accounting done?

Where is the legal work done? Where is headquarters? So you can expand market share throughout the world, which is what any corporation like that will try to do. —Noah Weiland and William Wilcox

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VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed

March 30, 2012

Remix to tuition Recent tuition increase warrants University aid policy which better serves students of all incomes The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 Adam Janofsky Editor-in-Chief­ CAMILLE VAN HORNE Managing Editor JORDAN LARSON Editor-in-Chief-Elect SHARAN SHETTY Editor-in-Chief-Elect COLIN BRADLEY Managing Editor-Elect MAHMOUD BAHRANI Senior Editor Douglas everson, jr Senior Editor Sam levine Senior Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE News Editor REBECCA GUTERMAN News Editor GIOVANNI WROBEL News Editor EMILY WANG Viewpoints Editor AJAY BATRA Viewpoints Editor Charna albert Arts Editor HANNAH GOLD Arts Editor TOMI OBARO Arts Editor DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor BELLA WU Head Designer KEVIN WANG Web Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor

Last Friday, the University announced a 4.1 percent increase in the price of undergraduate tuition, housing, and fees for the 2012– 2013 school year, the latest in a series of hikes over the past decade.

The new total annual cost of a U of C education, $57,711, will no doubt maintain the University’s status as one of the most expensive schools in the country. On a positive note, for the third consecutive year, the rise in financial aid spending will slightly outpace growth in costs, at 4.3 percent. Although the University should be credited for the continued development of its aid program, it must do more to reduce heavy financial burdens and ensure socioeconomic diversity on campus.

To improve its own financial aid program, the University should look to peer schools like Harvard and Yale, which have begun to offer cost adjustments for students in

a broader range of income brackets.

In an effort to be more attractive to middle-class students, both universities now cap tuition for students in most families earning less than $200,000 at 10 percent of income.

Additionally, both commonly give students grants to cover tuition costs in place of aid and loans; so do other Ivies, such as Princeton, which has a no-loan policy. Admittedly, these schools draw from larger endowments to sustain their efforts. Nonetheless, the U of C should examine whether it is financially feasible to expand aid and, in particular, grants to continue to attract the best and the brightest.

This year, about half the student body is receiving need-based aid, at an average amount of $36,294, a figure which accounts for both federal loans and University contribution.

However, the University’s recent success in expanding financial aid does not absolve it of the need to

do more. Even students receiving aid witness first-hand the tremendous financial burden the cost of a U of C education places on them and their families. Many must contend with money worries on top of coursework, and their loans will follow them well into their 20s and 30s, if not beyond. The University should look to extend its promising aid commitments and to minimize its reliance on loans.

Granted, the University’s commitment to relieving expense extends beyond its own giving of aid. The well-received Odyssey scholarship program, started in 2008 with a $100 million gift and subsequently augmented with $57.1 million in donations, currently benefits 1,100 students. However, this program only serves students whose families earn $75,000 or less per year; while admirable, it does not apply to the majority of the student body. Creating more options—grants, merit

scholarships, and increased aid packages—for both lower-income and middle-class students would allow the University to retain all those qualified to attend, regardless of their abilities to afford it.

For the academically curious, the socially quirky, and the stridently masochistic, the U of C continues to be a desirable school.

Yet some students who could no doubt contribute to our campus community follow better financial aid offers elsewhere. Meanwhile, current students live with the fact that they will continue to pay heavily for their experience here well into their adult lives. As more price hikes are sure to come, the University must do all it can to reduce the financial burden it places on students.

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

DON HO Head Copy Editor JEN XIA Head Copy Editor DARREN LEOW Photo Editor JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor BEN POKROSS Assoc. News Editor Linda Qiu Assoc. News Editor Crystal tsoi Assoc. News Editor DAVID KANER Assoc. Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Assoc. Arts Editor ALICE BUCKNELL Assoc. Arts Editor SCOTTY CAMPBELL Assoc. Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Assoc. Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Assoc. Sports Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Assoc. Sports Editor TIFFANY TAN Assoc. Photo Editor Tyronald Jordan Business Manager VIVIAN HUA Undergraduate Business Executive VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator ANDREW GREEN Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER Designer SARAH LI Designer AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN Copy Editor Martia Bradley Copy Editor ELIZABETH BYNUM Copy Editor LISA FAN Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Copy Editor NISHANTH IYENGAR Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor katie mock Copy Editor

Responsibility to reflect KONY 2012 proponents should not blindly accept Invisible Children’s portrayal of the LRA Dillon Cory Viewpoints Columnist Over the past several weeks, we have all certainly heard something about the campaign to arrest the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. The newly widespread awareness of Kony, and more broadly the LRA, is the result of a determined social media campaign by Invisible Children, a group that largely targets the idealistic tendencies of affluent Westerners—more specifically, teenagers and college students. Its effort has been incredibly effective in raising awareness but has drawn its fair share of critics. This intense criticism has been met with clarifications and justifications by Invisible Children, yet the debate rages on and the end result of the movement is unclear.

As a young college student with grand hopes for the world, I can certainly understand the appeal of the “KONY 2012” movement, which attempts to solve an incredibly complex problem with a seemingly simple solution: awareness. But this oblivious drive for awareness could have perverse consequences for the future of central Africa, and would exacerbate the fundamental regional problems that presently allow insurgent groups like the LRA to get away with horrendous human rights violations. Young people can give all the money they want to try to stop the evil that Joseph Kony represents, but it is doubtful that the efforts of organizations like Invisible Children will do any good for the long-term stability of the region.

Invisible Children’s official

website clearly lays out its intended goals for U.S. action: “[KONY 2012] supports the deployment of U.S. advisers and the provision of intelligence and other support that can help locate and bring Kony to justice, but also increased diplomacy to hold regional governments accountable to their basic responsibilities to protect civilians from this kind of brutal violence.” Essentially, the Kony campaign is endorsing the notion of the “Responsibility to Protect,” a popular foreign policy initiative among international governing bodies that was formally supported by the United Nations Security Council in 2006. Responsibility to Protect has its foundations in the idea that the international community has a duty to defend civilians from human rights violations,

especially genocide and ethnic cleansing. Invisible Children is channeling this idea to the masses to confront Joseph Kony, whom it believes to be the figurehead of an organization that is committing crimes against humanity.

But does the United States have a responsibility to protect? From America’s messy intervention in Somalia (the notorious Battle of Mogadishu in 1993) to the war in Iraq and the 100,000 civilian deaths that resulted, the idealistic hopes that push intervention forward are often themselves a cause of immense suffering. The infusion of cash, humanitarian aid, and military aid that flow into these war-torn (and often corrupt) countries can frequently contribute to further deterioration of already perilous situations.

KONY continued on page 5

LANE SMITH Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor Ben ZIGTERMAN Copy Editor

An unhealthy Constitution Obamacare’s individual mandate threatens the foundations of freedom in America

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. © 2011 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Douglas@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

By Eric Wessan Viewpoints Columnist “Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?” Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy asked this question of Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the defender of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, during oral arguments

on Tuesday. The hearings held this week lasted a total of six hours, the longest time spent in argument in front of the Supreme Court since 1966. Even Bush v. Gore, the case which saw the Court uphold the ballot count in the 2000 election, saw only 90 minutes of oral arguments. This bill was one of the signature pieces of legislation produced by the Obama administration, but one of its central tenets may prove untenable: the individual mandate.

The individual mandate, called both a penalty and a tax by supporters and enemies alike, requires every citizen of the United States to purchase health insurance or be penalized one percent of her income.

This unprecedented measure raises the question of whether Congress can require a person to purchase a product, even if she does not wish to do so. The Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, but the states challenging the case have posited that a decision to not purchase insurance does not constitute commerce and therefore cannot be federally regulated. However, the power to regulate interstate commerce has been broadly interpreted in the past, to the extent that some have claimed Congress has unlimited legislative power in that domain. For example, in the 1942 Wickard v. Filburn case, the amount of wheat that a per-

son could grow and sell was regulated by the federal government, and Filburn had grown more than the amount allowed for personal use. Filburn didn’t sell the wheat, but the Supreme Court decided that his wheat harvest constituted interstate commerce because he would have no need to purchase extra wheat for his farming needs.

The Affordable Care Act is another step toward the path of limitless government, and whether the bill or just the individual mandate is overturned is currently at the discretion of the Supreme Court.

While it is unlikely there will be a firm decision before June, the possibility that the individual HEALTHCARE continued on page 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | March 30, 2012

5

Letter: Syrian intervention warranted If our military experts have consistently underestimated the costs of counterinsurgency warfare—from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq—then they have also quite often overestimated the risks of battling conventional state armies, especially in the Middle East. In both Gulf Wars, Saddam Hussein’s army put up considerably less of a fight than many planners expected. The United States’ contribution to the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi, a swift and successful endeavor by most accounts, followed dire warnings about the feasibility of intervention from then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates himself. In all three cases, the regime was regarded by its own people as fundamentally tyrannical and illegitimate, and so its army crumbled from mass defection and desertion.

These considerations ought to frame our perspective on Syria, where all the dynamics mentioned above are again at play. Ajay Ravichandran’s reservations about U.S. intervention in Syria as expressed in an op-ed published in the Maroon, though well-argued, are overly pessimistic and lack some key facts about the conflict.

Ravichandran characterizes the opposition to Syria’s unelected president as “bands of armed men,” comparing them to the mujahideen that resisted the Communist gov-

ernment of Afghanistan in the 1980s and doubting that they could establish a viable democracy in Syria. This comparison is totally illegitimate. The seven main Afghan resistance parties never consolidated into anything resembling a unified political or military front. From the beginning, each group simply reflected the personality of the religious or clan notable who led it. Not one of the main parties had a platform that could be called democratic or secular. The Syrian National Council (SNC) has issued a unified, non-sectarian platform and, unlike the Afghan mujahideen, has rejected the shortsighted idea of collaborating with foreign fighters like Al Qaeda, which is also opposed to the Syrian regime.

Ravichandran is correct to note that the popularity of the SNC has been waning, but he fails to properly identify the reason.

To the extent that the SNC has proven “out of touch with the misery of ordinary Syrians,” it is precisely because it has echoed Ravichandran’s skepticism toward international intervention. Syrian dissident Yassin Haj Saleh writes in the Arabic daily Dar al-Hayat: “The Syrian National Council has gained a significant popular legitimacy, but this legitimacy is not guaranteed all the time, and it seems today in decline due to the inability of the SNC to give a positive

Invisible Children’s campaign oversimplifies a complex situation in central Africa KONY continued from page 4 By supporting central African governments in its effort to stop the LRA, Invisible Children is already creating several problems. It is using donations in a way that indirectly props up governments which are often so corrupt that they can hardly be relied upon to provide meaningful assistance in stopping human rights violations. For example, the Ugandan government has been repeatedly cited by Human Rights Watch for torture and unlawful violence against civilians. Many of these governments would have much to gain from the elimination of the LRA but are themselves perpetrators of actions that are antithetical to international standards of human rights. Second, turning the international community’s focus to central Africa creates incentives that can actually empower groups like the LRA. As Alan Kuperman states in his insightful piece, “The Moral Hazard of Human Intervention,” “The emerging norm, by raising expectations of diplomatic and military intervention to protect these (armed) groups, unintentionally fosters rebellion by lowering its expected cost and increasing its likelihood of success.” There are many other moral hazards that complicate an intervention in central Africa by a group of idealistic Americans, and we must question how well, if at all, Invisible Children is aware of the huge risks of the level of involvement that would actually be necessary to dismantle the LRA. While the results of this campaign have yet to play out, it is important to be skeptical about a

campaign that simplifies such a complex issue down to the point of near misinformation. As college students, we must not be swept up by the overly simplistic idealism of campaigns like KONY 2012 that play into our “highest instincts,” nor become jaded by the intense complexity of humanitarian interventions. We must search for solutions to human rights abuses at home and abroad, but without understanding many of the perverse consequences of humanitarian intervention, our good intentions could well bring more pain and suffering to a region that does not need any more meddling from Western nations.

Dillon Cory is a second-year in the College majoring in political science.

nia sotto

| the chicago maroon

impression of itself and its work after the conference held in Tunis…” Saleh is referring to the disappointment of many Syrians in the “Friends of Syria” conference held some months ago, where the world refused to provide any concrete promises of assistance, such as a peacekeeping force. Recently, an alternative coalition to the SNC has formed because the SNC has failed to posture itself as a proper government-in-exile or to secure direct, military involvement by foreign powers.

A journalist for Al Jazeera English interviewed a member of this new body: “You’re asking about weapons…light weapons?”

“Yes.” “Heavy weapons?”

“Yes.” “No-fly zone?”

“Yes.” “But a no-fly zone normally means it has to be enforced. That means bombing.”

“Of course.”

The Free Syrian Army is indeed a rather loose affiliation of local brigades, composed mainly of defected soldiers. The brigades are local because they were established to protect their respective cities from the regime’s onslaught and to allow the people to continue to express their opinions

freely. When one talks of arming the FSA, it is not to immediately overthrow Assad, but simply to allow Syrians to continue to fight for their lives. As Saleh explained in a separate editorial, “The truth of the matter is that keeping protests peaceful was not feasible in most locations were it not for the ‘Free Syrian Army’ with its military and civilian components to provide relative protection and deterrence against the regime’s striking arms.”

SYRIA continued on page 6

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.

Upholding health care decision would lead to gross expansion of congressional power HEALTHCARE continued from page 4 mandate is stricken seems much more likely than it did before the hearings. When asked in 2009 where the Constitution authorizes the government to order Americans to buy health care, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi replied, “Are you serious?” Now, however, it seems obvious that the answer is not so simple. Justices, ranging from the traditionally conservative Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito to Chief Justice John Roberts to the moderate Anthony Kennedy, and even to Obama-appointed Sonia Sotomayor, have at various points expressed skepticism over the constitutionality of the individual mandate. Solicitor General Verrilli did little to help his case; left-leaning Mother Jones writer Adam Serwer claimed that Verrilli’s argument might become known as one of the worst defenses ever argued before the Supreme Court. While at times it can be difficult to tell how a Supreme Court Justice will vote, five Justices at various times asked questions concerning the constitutionality of the individual mandate. A sixth, Clarence Thomas, is generally considered to be among the least likely to vote on the side of the government in any given case. It is still very possible that the case will be upheld, as Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sotomayor are all expected to vote to uphold the Act, but the lines of questioning showed both Kennedy and Roberts seemingly leaning towards striking the mandate.

This incredulous attitude toward the individual mandate is not only reasonable, but it is also right.

The individual mandate is a dangerous expansion of government power, as it would result in a much broader interpretation of Congress’s ability to regulate interstate commerce. One of the most prominent grievances more moderate members of the Court have with the mandate is grounded in the difference between regulating an affirmative action and regulating a passive action.

Justice Kennedy has said that one does not have a duty to rescue someone if that person is in danger. However, with the mandate, the government is telling its citizens that each individual citizen must take such action; Kennedy believes that this “changes the relationship of the federal government to the

individual in a very fundamental way.” Section 8, Article 1 gives Congress the power to make laws which are both “necessary and proper” in order to support the Constitution. It was the role of Solicitor General Verrilli to make the case, in his brief and oral argument, that such a change in the relationship between government and citizen is both necessary and proper, but his argument was unconvincing.

Throughout the arguments, many Justices pointedly asked Verrilli questions about the constitutionality of other conceivable forms of regulation. For example, Justice Scalia asked if the government can require gym membership or broccoli consumption in order to make for a healthier population. Verrilli often stumbled in his responses, but was repeatedly saved by Justices Breyer and Ginsburg in particular. Put simply, he needed saving because the health care law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional. It fundamentally changes the way that the federal government interacts with its citizens in a manner the Constitution has never been interpreted to allow.

America is a nation that was built with a unique Constitution, a living document that enumerated the powers of the United States government, but at the same time imposed limits on that power for the good of the people. While the “necessary and proper” and interstate commerce clauses have both been used to expand the powers of Congress time and time again, that does not make these expansions right. The more power that Congress has to exercise control over our lives, the less power we have to determine our actions. One beautiful fact about the United States is that the founders were scared of absolute power and sought to guarantee as much freedom for the citizenry as possible. This slow expansion of government power, at the expense of the individual, is a danger to American society and goes against the original intent of the Constitution. The justices of the Supreme Court have the power to determine the constitutionality of laws, or parts of laws, and if they hark back to the intent of the original Constitution the result will be an overturning of the individual mandate.

Eric Wessan is a second-year in the College majoring in political science.

6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | March 30, 2012

American silence abets Assad’s oppressive regime SYRIA continued from page 5 Organizing a cohesive military unit on a municipal level, besieged on all sides by tanks and artillery, is hard enough; to do so on a national level is nearly impossible. According to a Dar al-Hayat interview with Hasn al-Ashtar, a Free Syrian commander north of Homs, the main impediment to national coordination has simply been a lack of the weapons, supplies, and equipment the FSA needs to physically survive. Organization requires the regime to first withdraw from FSA-held areas and give the opposition some breathing room. That, in turn, requires the kind of direct international intervention that Ravichandran rejects.

Ravichandran further claims that U.S. military aid would be counterproductive, as it would give Assad reason to label the revolution another bout of Western-sponsored regime change. This, he says, is “Assad’s most effective method of rallying support so far.�

As popular as this argument is, it has an exceptionally thin case; many commentators made similar warnings about intervention in Libya, which turned out to be false alarms.

Assad has been pinning the revolution on terrorism and outside intrusion since the beginning of the conflict, yet the opposition does not seem to have let up.

Ravichandran fails to understand that Assad’s support stems not so much from

the fear of Syria falling into the hands of the West as from the fear of sectarian rule by the Sunni majority in the country. Since the start of the revolution, his supporters have predominantly been made up of Alawites, Christians, and Kurds, and even then the initial support they had given him has waned. Fear of retribution after an era of minority rule has haunted many democratic transitions, from post-apartheid South Africa to modern Iraq. However, if the fear is rule by a Sunni majority under a democratic system, what is the alternative? Would it not be better to promote democracy in the country while also encouraging governmental unity and fair-mindedness, rather than leave it in the hands of an oppressive ruler?

We do not accept, as Ravichandran does, that there is no better alternative to the status quo. Indeed, we agree (in a rather different context) with one of his parting messages: “Human beings are notoriously resistant.� This is why—against Assad’s tanks, supplied by Russia, funded by China, and abetted by American silence—we know that Syrians will not lose.

Chase Mechanick, Yusef Al-Jarani, Sam Baron, and Apratim Gautam are students in the College and co-founders of the campus group Student Humanitarian Outreach Team (SHOUT).

Interested in News, Viewpoints, Arts, Sports, Design, Photography, Copy Editing and more? come meet the staff at the maroon’s open house on thursday, april 5th at 7 p.m.

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Regulation in the 21st Century: Looking Forward, Looking Back

by Cass Sunstein Monday, April 2, 2012 University of Chicago Law School, Room II 12:15 p.m.

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Cass R. Sunstein currently serves as the Administrator of the United States Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Mr. Sunstein graduated in 1975 from Harvard College and in 1978 from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, where he went on to become the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court, and then he worked as an attorney-advisor in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School from 1981-2008.

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ARTS

Trivial Pursuits

MARCH 30, 2012

Edifice complex: Logan Center draws mixed reactions Alice Bucknell Associate Arts Editor At a height of 12 stories, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts casts a new, definitive break in the longstanding horizontal expanse of the Midway Plaisance. In the daytime, a chalky white, rectangular block towers over the surrounding roads and foliage, now blooming back to life in the sunshine. At nighttime, the structure glows with a sort of spectral light that pours out of the building’s many glass panes, giving it a remarkably futuristic appearance. The University of Chicago’s other recent architectural feats, the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library and South Campus Residence Hall, also boast spacious, brightly lit, and ultra-modern designs. The new style stands in sharp contrast to the solid, immutable neo-Gothic buildings that have framed the main quadrangle since the turn of the 20th century.

The lovably dilapidated Lorado Taft Midway Studios, recognized by their cheerful red doors and earthy brick exterior, sits complacently adjacent to their glitzy successor. At the start of this quarter, all art classes were relocated to the Logan Center with the exception of creative writing courses, which are now held in the old studios. The older building offered its occupants a woodshop, a small kitchen, a handful of student studios, and several classrooms whose walls and floors abound with splatters of paint, pencil marks, and other markings. The new building houses four performance venues, a gallery space, digital media labs, terraces, 14 classrooms, and over 90 studios and practice rooms—not to mention hot water, to many a Midway veteran’s delight. The building’s completion has also garnered a significant amount of local media attention. “...as the biggest, newest and soon-to-be most visible arts nexus on cam-

pus—if only because its tower will rise 170 feet, making it a kind of beacon—the Logan will raise certain expectations,” wrote the March 22 issue of the Chicago Tribune, for example.

The Logan Center presents all these resources in an entirely different architectural layout. Sleek and minimalist, this new artistic playground relies heavily on the concept of negative space.

By welcoming student and professional artists alike into what in essence appears to be an aesthetically pleasing skeletal structure cast in a monochromatic, minimalist style, the University expects the artists themselves to fill the building with creative life. The ultimate goal is for the Logan Center to serve as an ultra-personalized, exact reflection of students’ artistic needs while simultaneously becoming an artistic hub for Chicago.

Compliments abound for this new artistic endeavor, which— from its original conceptualization to its official completion next autumn—has been on the University’s radar for over a decade. “I was blown away by the facilities and equipment,” said Jason Gold, a first-year in the College. “The building is beautiful; it’s open, it’s freeing. It’s clear that the University is really trying hard for the students to have everything they need and more at their disposal to do amazing things.”

However, the Logan Center is not without its faults. Perhaps the most common complaint is that the novelty of the building carries with it a much larger burden than simply requiring the students to “warm up” to the place.

When asked about her opinion of the Logan Center in relation to its predecessor, Whitney Chi, a recent graduate of the College, replied, “There’s something particularly corporate about the Logan that I don’t like. That it has a mission—to consolidate the arts on campus—is rather

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts aims to consolidate the arts on campus. jaime manley | the chicago maroon

noble, but at the same time it makes it stiff and bureaucratic.

Personally, I really liked Midway Studios because it was unpretentious. I guess that’s what made it welcoming and an inspiring place to work in.”

Meanwhile, other students greet this consolidation with a breath of relief. Zoe Petticord, a staff member of the Department

of Visual Arts, said, “Midway just didn’t have enough space for everyone: The MFA studios were all over the place, and the DOVA temporary gallery was all the way up on 53rd.” Other students have responded more positively to the building.

Additionally, there are some fundamental structural complications, particularly involving

the layout of the studios given to art majors. Fourth-year 3-D artist David Nasca plans to move out of the studio space provided at the Logan Center, opting instead for the older, more homey MFA-occupied studio house, “Doomsday.” “The main reason I’m moving out is because there are eight studios and nine LOGAN continued on page 9

Hunger Games more than satisfies audience’s appetite Eliza Brown Arts Staff As the most anticipated, new young-adult franchise—thanks to the conclusion of the Harry Potter and Twilight films—The Hunger Games represents both a new story and a new fan base.

More political than either of the other YA box office cash cows due to the dystopian nature of its source material, The Hunger Games argues vehemently against state control, the folly of mass entertainment, and the wastefulness of excess. Though moviegoers might be drawn to the movie more for its blood and gore than for its current political themes, it’s impossible to leave the theater without considering the latter’s on-screen importance. Keeping its

record-breaking opening weekend in mind, it is important to see this film not just as another actionadventure movie, but also as an astute indicator of an American zeitgeist that simultaneously celebrates and admonishes spectacle.

Katniss Everdeen ( Jennifer Lawrence), a heroine devoid of any of the typical sentimentality, cares for her heartbroken mother and eleven-year-old sister, Primrose (Willow Shields). The film opens with her hunting and preparing for the “reaping,” or the selection of tributes from District 12, where she and her family reside. Due to a violent civil war, the Capital requires each district in the nation, Panem, to provide two tributes, one boy and one girl, to compete in the annual Hunger Games, where the twenty-four

contestants battle to the death until there is one survivor and champion. Brutal and dramatic, the Hunger Games make excellent television and are broadcast live to every district in Panem.

Hunger Games Gary Ross AMC Loews

When Primrose is selected as the female tribute, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Gale (Liam Hemsworth), her dark and handsome friend, watches her walk up to the stage while holding back a screaming Primrose. Peeta Mellark ( Josh Hutcherson), blond and sturdy, becomes the male tribute

from District 12. Gale, Peeta, and Katniss eventually form an awkward but attractive love triangle, which proves to be sexier than that of the Harry Potter trio and more cynical than the Twilight rendition. Peeta and Katniss train in the Capital before heading to the Games. Once there, the movie takes a more brutal turn, as the tributes begin to kill each other until the Games (and film) are over.

The star-studded cast also includes Woody Harrelson, who plays Haymitch, a drunkard who once won the Games and acts as mentor and advocate for Peeta and Katniss. Lenny Kravitz plays Cinna, Katniss’s stylist, with just the right amount of flair (thanks in part to some gold eyeliner) and a rock-and-roll edge. Elizabeth

Banks is unrecognizable as Effie and Stanley Tucci plays the bluehaired host of the games, Caesar Flickerman, with aplomb. Donald Sutherland plays a cool President Snow, setting up a true villain for the next three films in the series.

Some characters from the books were eliminated or reduced, as is the case for nearly all film adaptations. Fans might complain about these changes or others (where one of Katniss’s lethal arrows might land, lines of dialogue, the missing references to particular dishes of food), but with Suzanne Collins as co-screenwriter with director Gary Ross, the adaptation is extremely loyal in content and tone. In fact, I cannot help but wonder if this commitment to loyalty made the dialogue clunky at some points in GAMES continued on page 8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | arts | March 30, 2012

8

Soundtrack turns fictional dystopia into American allegory GAMES continued from page 7 the film, where the characters explain more than interacting.

I will address the music of the film—or rather the music associated with the film— more specifically. The majority of the songs on The Hunger Games album do not play in the film, representing the film’s overall tone rather than specific scenes. Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars, The Decemberists, Kid Cudi, Miranda Lambert, Arcade Fire, and others contributed to the album, attempting to create a diverse sound that appeals to a greater audience than just tweens.

It is important to note the soundtrack in particular because it shines light on some of the major forces of The Hunger Games—a distinctly American franchise created for young audiences but meant to engage people of all ages. Though some of the dialogue and romance is clumsy, the film as a whole is elegantly shot, thought-provoking, and sure to be popular for the next several years.

And if audiences find it uncomfortable to eat fistfuls of popcorn while watching a blockbuster film about a television program in which teenagers starve and kill each other, then the film has made its point perfectly.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen goes in for the kill in The Hunger Games. courtesy of murray close

Cryptic triptych at MCA Eric Shoemaker Arts Staff Teatr Zar, the latest group to grace the Museum of Contemporary Art’s stage, believes in a theater of language. The troupe’s manifesto states that Teatr Zar goes through “a long creative process in making theatrical language based on music,” for “theatre is something that, above all, should be heard.”

The Gospels of Childhood Triptych Museum of Contemporary Art Through April 1

Their three-part production, The Gospels of Childhood Triptych, certainly explores sound and new theatrical language. Indeed, it does more than that—it dives into right and wrong and into a scrutiny of constraint in structured societies.

Teatr Zar formed in Poland between 1999 and 2003 and, from the outset, collected musical material from obscure locations like the Eastern European country of Georgia. Working in this way, the group amassed a core of old polyphonic songs, then used them to form the primary components of its current production of Triptych. The work takes the form of a sort of medieval mystery play in which the dialogue and music bear Biblical themes. Teatr Zar is thus intimately concerned with examining music’s distant past, a process which heavily informs the group’s production and the unique language.

Since it conceived Triptych, the group has worked tirelessly to perfect it for performances around the world. However, the new theatrical language that Teatr Zar sets forth is dense and hardly colloquial enough for the audience to decipher.

The production finds meaning in minutiae, which makes watching the show both an exciting and taxing experience. Many minutes of the show are filled with exploring the wax of a candle or the curve of an orange. This method can grow exhaustingly detailed. Still, the musical language of Triptych is accessible in that it refers to primitive human experience and unleashes “the song that lies within,” as their manifesto explains.

Triptych is composed of three parts, each of which is meant to be viewed individually. In other venues, the portions have been performed separately, and it is easy to see why. Part one, “Fragments on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” recreates the story of Martha and Mary using the Gnostic Gospels, a group of texts deemed unfit for incluTRIPTYCH continued on page 11

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | arts | March 30, 2012

9

Of Montreal skips familiar beats at Metro concert Of Montreal’s concert at the Metro brought with it the lights, projections, pigs, and costumed dancers now expected at the American electro-pop band’s live performances. Somewhat less expected was the emphasis of Montreal placed on its latest album, Paralytic Stalks, which is more stylistically conservative than the group’s early work.

A lumbering opening by the Swedish musician Loney, Dear didn’t help create much excitement for the main act; the singer-songwriter’s singular guitar and dirge-like rhythms created a less-than-lively atmosphere. Following Loney, Dear, the usually nimble of Montreal gave a disappointingly static performance. When Kevin Barnes, the flamboyant foreman of the band, entered with seven other musicians, the crowd shifted, anticipating a rousing start. For the first half of the concert, though, the band decided to run through Paralytic Stalks’ darkest, muddiest songs, like “Gelid Ascent.” Acoustic violin and saxophone joined keyboards and guitars in a mass of textures, melodies, and beats.

During the performance, colorful, psychedelic images were projected onto the stage, but their playfulness failed to mesh with the dense, dark music.

Barnes remained seated to play keyboard for most

Logan too sterile for chaos of creation LOGAN continued from page 7 majors,” Nasca said. “There are issues that I have with the studios, because they’re more like cubicles, which raises a few problems: For instance, you can’t play music, because noise travels in the space, and you can’t control your own lighting.

However, I wouldn’t have decided to move out if I didn’t have to share a studio.”

For most students, however, the immediate gripes raised against the newest architectural addition to the University of Chicago are temporal ones. The issues of sterility, of an environment too stripped of character to truly maximize creative thought and production, are primarily a matter of growing pains, mixed with a bit of nostalgia. Gone are the days of working late into the night under a rattling twostory roof, surrounded by tubes of paint, scraps of paper, and other supplies strewn about the building. No longer does the artist face the intellectual challenge of overcoming an apparent lack of physical space amidst the clutter, or the omnipresent chill and distinct howl of a cold winter draft pushing through unseen cracks in the structure of the building, or even the occasional inexplicable eerie noise echoing from somewhere in the shadowy depths of the studios. Though these defining characteristics of the old Midway Studios might give the casual reader goose bumps to simply imagine, for the student artists who spent countless nights under such conditions, they became fond and necessary catalysts for artistic inspiration. For many students, it is difficult to imagine engaging in the creative process without these characteristics.

“The studio spaces in Midway provided a freedom to be messy... This same freedom has yet to be established in the Logan Center,” fourth-year Stephanie Flores said.

“That being said, this is its first quarter [the center is] being used as an arts space, and I would encourage all underclassmen to take advantage of it as I think they—moreso than the graduating seniors who have 10 weeks to work with the building—will be able to shape the kind of culture that will eventually take root there. The Logan Center has provided a space, and I think that it is up to our faculty and our students to make it into that ‘hub for arts’ that it sets out to be. Personally, I think that is both an exciting prospect and a challenge.”

provided much-needed context for the multicolored lights and projections. When the guitarist Bryan Poole jumped into the audience halfway through the encore, the rein-

of the songs, which one would hope might relieve the sensual cacophony, but in fact imbued the music with a lack of energy. He wore a frilly shirt and blue eye shadow, mere shadows of the glam-rock extravagance that typically characterizes his appearance.

The initial songs of Montreal chose to play, though unfit for a large concert, offered some intriguing segments. Barnes lent striking vocals to the mix; his screeches and shouts were electronically echoed and layered over the saxophone’s jazz iterations, creating a metallic counterpoint.

A few songs in, performers in black full-body suits released sacks of balloons into the crowd.

Having been ill-prepared for this exuberant act, the mellow audience pushed them away, rather than punching them around. A few failed attempts at crowd surfing later, the band cranked up its energy, eventually playing a finale lighter in mood and greater in feeling.

When the finale was over, the audience mustered a request for an encore, after which two performers dressed in capes and pig masks came onstage to rile the crowd. The band reappeared to play a medley of songs from its 2008 album Skeletal Lamping, to everyone’s apparent relief. The increased vigor of the percussion combined with the catchy and melodic nature of these earlier songs

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | arts | March 30, 2012

10

Media darling sells America style and substance, but not everyone’s buying Tomi Obaro Arts Editor 3.5 million. That’s how many people tuned in to watch the season five premiere of AMC’s Mad Men, currently television’s most celebrated drama. In case you’re wondering , that’s fewer than the 7.3 million people that watched the premiere of Walking Dead, which is also on AMC. And both numbers are way less than the 18.37 million people that tuned in to watch CBS’s NCIS on Tuesday, one of the most watched dramas on TV. But judging from the media blitzkrieg , you’d have thought Mad Men was the hottest show in town. It is, in a sense. The period drama following the lives of a coterie of ad executives in ’60s Manhattan has garnered a lot of media attention for its sharp writing , good acting , sexy stars, and sartorial panache. After lengthy contract negotiations kept Mad Men off the air for more than a year, it’s natural that the show’s return would generate some heat.

But wow, what heat.

Newsweek published a special issue designed in ’60s typeface in honor of the show. EW had the swarthy Jon Hamm on its cover. The New York Times and The Washington Post together published more than 30 stories devoted to the show in the immediate weeks before the premiere. GQ and Esquire had their fair share of coverage too. The question is, why? What is it about this show that makes it such a media darling?

Well, there’s the quality of the show itself, for starters. Mad Men’s last season was excellent, spawning the best episode of the whole show, “The Suitcase.� It also left quite a few interesting plot points in the air. The firm Sterling Cooper became Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, as the char-

Although Mad Men’s viewership has modestly increased since its 2007 premiere, its media coverage has skyrocketed. courtesy of allmoviephoto.com

acters bought their independence from sketchy London overlords. Don Draper ( Jon Hamm), the show’s studly, secretive protagonist proposed to his nubile secretary, shocking viewers who had enjoyed his mature, intellectually compatible affair with a psychologist, Dr. Faye Miller. Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), the show’s curvaceous redhead, became pregnant by charming ruckster Roger Sterling, while her husband was in Vietnam. Smarmy head of accounts Pete Campbell was moving to the (shudder!) suburbs.

But intriguing plot points and good acting aren’t enough to make a show so attention-grabbing—especially a show with so few viewers, yet such cultural clout. The secret of the show’s popularity among a crew of cultural tastemakers is Matthew Weiner, the creator and executive director, whose famous fastidiousness to detail, anal-retention and clear vision of this rag tag collection of characters make Mad Men so popular to the children of the characters’ real life counterparts—the show’s primary demographic. Advertising

permeates every aspect of the show; —the disappointment of illusion and the keeping up of appearances is a constant theme.

From Betty Draper’s perfectly fitted sundresses, to Joan Harris’s pained lipstick smile, these are people on the brink, trying to hold it together, trying to maintain a delicate facade as their world keeps crashing down around them. When the majority of viewers tune into Mad Men, they are not just watching a story; they are buying an image as manicured as Don Draper’s Clark Kent haircut.

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Around 1948: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Transformation

Lydia Liu

Wu Tsun Tam Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University

Legislating the Universal: P.C. Chang and the International Bill of Human Rights Thursday, April 5 Lecture: 4:00 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 5:30 p.m. w i t h recept i on to follow

Workshop: 6:00 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 7:15 p.m.

Workshop texts available at: http://franke.uchicago.edu/sawyernew-events.html

The Franke Institute for the Humanities 1100 East 57th Street, JRL S-118, Chicago, IL Co-sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Human Rights Program.

For more information, please see: around1948.uchicago.edu Open to the public. Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance are requested to call 773-702-8274 in advance.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | arts | March 30, 2012

CALEND AR 1 7

8

2

3

4

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WITH HANNAH GOLD

Do What You’re Told

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9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

p.m., $40 per four-hour session, 21+.

Saturday | March 31

Friday | March 30 Benjamin Busch, best known for his portrayal of Anthony Colicchio on HBO’s The Wire, is a photographer, an actor, an indie film director, and now also a writer, following in his novelist father’s footsteps. Busch will be at The Book Cellar signing copies of his new memoir Dust to Dust, which chronicles his childhood in upstate New York, his experience as a Marine Corps officer, and the deaths of his parents.

4736 North Lincoln Avenue. 7 p.m., free.

Chicago Careers in Journalism and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies will host a conference on recent events in the Middle East in the East Lounge of Ida Noyes. “The Arab Spring: One Year Later, A Series of Panel Discussions on the Middle East” begins shortly after a lunch at noon and will include two Pulitzer Center reporters who have covered the Arab Spring. 1212 East 59th Street. 12 p.m.–4:30p.m., free.

If you’re an impatient, eco-friendly individual for whom Earth Day (April 22) can’t arrive soon enough, then you’ve got a big green tease coming your way this weekend. Participate in Earth Hour 2012, a worldwide event that begins in New Zealand, then wends its way around the globe by turning off your lights for 60 minutes. It’s the least you can do until the real thing comes along. Everywhere.

8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Local time, save on electric bill.

Winter blues make way for springtime brews at the first ever Chicago Beer Festival at Union Station. There, you will sample yeasty delicacies from dozens of breweries including 5 Rabbit, Pipeworks, Brewery Ommegang, Spaten, Liefmans, and Abita. Make sure to get your tickets in advance and to eat a good meal beforehand (food sold separately). 210 South Canal Street. 1 p.m.–4 p.m.; 6 p.m.–9

P O H S K R O W T A S L FREE

Sunday | April 1

“And what’s the deal with airplane food?”

This question may finally be answered at the Logan Square Library where Michael Branigan, whose new book is called A History of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, will be giving a talk on how your favorite international airport, all the way at the end of the Blue Line, came to be. 3030 West Fullerton. 3 p.m.–5 p.m., free.

Why is this lecture different from all other lectures? Because David Stern (University of Pennsylvania), speaking on “The Haggadah and the Jewish Imagination,” will be kicking off a series of four talks on Haggadahs, as well as an exhibit on this book of Passover prayers, pictures, and stories, to be held in the Special Collections Research Center. That’s why. 1100 East 57th Street. 5 p.m., free.

As if you needed reminding, the 25th Annual SASA Show is taking over Mandel Hall this Saturday. 10 skits and 11 song and dance acts (Chicago Raas, PhiNix Dance Crew, and Apsara, to name a few), will follow a tasty catered meal in Bartlett. If you haven’t picked up your ticket yet, you can still get them online or at Reynolds Club this Friday before 4 p.m. 1131 East 57th Street. Dinner starts at 5:30 p.m; show starts at 7:30 p.m., $10–$20.

Chicago Neighborhood Bike Tours has organized a special 10,000 mile Liar’s Ride this weekend, approximate time three hours, no passing out allowed. If this seems odd to you, then you are well prepared for what is sure to be a fib-fueled journey this April Fool’s Day afternoon. The ride begins in front of the Ciclo Urbano bike shop, but the exact plan of the route will remain a secret until the day of, since, as Bike Tours’s website gently warns, “If you saw it, your eyes would leap from your skull in order to destroy themselves.” 2459 West Division Street. 6 p.m., free (no joke).

For Teatr Zar, life and death are musical subjects

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Company members give birth to a new type of theatrical beast. courtesy of lukasz giza

ARTS WANTS YOU

If you are interested

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writing for the arts section, contact arts@chicagomaroon.com.

TRIPTYCH continued from page 8 sion in the Christian Bible and purportedly written by such figures as Mary Magdalene. The story of Triptych examines religious rites and the sometimes gender-related pains of structured religion. All the chanting in this portion is derived from the ancient songs that Teatr Zar discovered through their research. Candles and mirrors are placed onstage to literally reflect the world and give the performers a platform for discussion.

The second part of the performance is much more cohesive than the first, despite its dismal title, “Caesarian Section: Essays on Suicide.” The plot focuses on two women struggling against oppression and death in modern times. The women feel that there is no way to escape the clever lighting design and a line of glass down center stage that together comprise the rigid world’s structure.

Eventually, the women try to subvert the system by harming themselves. The audience reacted much more positively to the second section, which served to elucidate the first part somewhat: Modern reali-

ties reveal solutions to historical problems. This act is more realistic and features modern music, adding to the drama’s potency. The section is also marked by a strong focus on images and props, like chalices. Near the end of the act, each woman spilled a glass of wine on the stage and shrieked to communicate her agony.

The work’s final portion, “Annhelli: The Calling,” pictures the end of life as a final struggle against the giant “drape” of heaven, which is literally a drape.

The drape falls on the characters and smothers them to death. In this landscape of wretchedness, a glimmer of hope emerges, for once the “sky” has fallen, the audience sees that it was only a cloth after all. It also becomes clear that the line of glass is made of small, easily separable pieces.

“I perceive life as music, to which one listens for the remnant sounds of the primordial explosion.” said Jaroslaw Fret, the company’s leader. Teatr Zar’s mysterious, melodic play asks powerful questions about life, death, and what may lie above, and provokes the idea that life is a primitive dance.

12

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | March 30, 2012

13

Jam Fest, Ratner style

By Vicente Fernandez Sports Editor You don’t hear “jumping out of the gym” and the University of Chicago’s Ratner Athletic Center mentioned in the same breath. Ever. The likes of Blake Griffin, Vince Carter, and D. Rose don’t grace the spaceship-looking hippodrome that is Ratner with their world class dunking abilities. It doesn’t happen. That’s always been the case, until this past Monday.

With the McDonald’s All American Game back in its rightful city—the Windy City—the University of Chicago got a taste of basketball elite with Ratner playing host to the Powerade Jam Fest and the best high school basketball players in the country. With the bleachers full and a steady mix of Hyde Parkers and U of C students, a fusion that is rarely seen at

Ratner, fans were jumping out of their seats for ESPN cameras, for free t-shirts, and for Shabazz Muhammad, the gem in this year’s recruiting class and the star of the Jam Fest.

Rising above all of his peers, Shabazz is set to be the LeBron James of his class, if you will. The undecided guard is every bit of 6’6”, 215 lbs, and a superstar. Almost a shoe-in as a one-and-done, and odds are a future lottery pick, Shabazz slammed hard enough to make Ratner rattle, throwing down windmills and alley-oops that garnered perfect scores and plenty of oohs and ahhs.

But even Shabazz is raw. Not only in an unbelievably talented way, but in the needsrefinement way too. If there was one thing to note at the high school dunk contest it was that these kids are just that—in high school.

Despite their blatant athletic ability and basketball talent, they are not yet the NBAready superstars they will one day become or that the media presents them as.

Monday night’s dunkers bounced high enough to put the ball behind their back, between their legs, and up and under the basket, but when they’d arrive at the rim, the ball would sail off the backboard time and time again. It took most of the Jam

BASEBALL UAA Standings

Fest’s contestants three or four tries to put down the dunks of their choice. Three female dunkers participated, but only one got the ball in the basket, which is no small feat.

With all the hype these high school seniors are receiving, they are still developing, and Monday night served as a reminder.

Even Shabazz nearly derailed the 6’0” Marcus Paige on one of his four attempts at completing the most memorable dunk of the night, a Carter-esque alley-oop, while clearing Paige’s point guard frame.

Shabazz went on to win the Jam Fest in Ratner and to completely dominate the actual McDonald’s All American Game on Wednesday, earning MVP honors and throwing down a dunk seemingly every time he touched the ball at the United Center. Even there, though, he missed a windmill on a fast break, a rare stumble on his path to an All-Star NBA career.

What fans will take away from Monday night, aside from the image of a rowdy Ratner crowd and world class athletes on the court, is the line, “Hey, I saw that guy play back when he was still missing dunks, back when he was in high school.” And for a U of C sports fan, that’s just as good as Blake Griffin jumping over a Kia.

Rank School 1 Emory 2 Washington (MO) 3 Case Western 4 Rochester 5 Brandeis 6 Chicago

Record 17–7 (7–1) 17–6 (5–3) 14–8 (4–4) 3–10 (3–5) 5–16 (1–7) 8–5 (0–0)

Batting Average

Rank Player School 1 Brandon Rogalski Washington (MO) 2 Jack Cinoman Chicago 3 J.R. Lopez Chicago 4 5

Paul Pakan Case Western Andrew Goldstick Washington (MO)

Rank 1 2 2 2 5

Home Runs

Player Paul Pakan Matt Keen Alex Caghan Sam Alexander J.R. Lopez

School Case Western Case Western Rochester Case Western Chicago

Runs Batted In

Rank Player School 1 Zach Kessinger Washington (MO) 2 Brandon Rogalski Washington (MO) 2 Jay Page Emory 4 Paul Pakan Case Western 4 Sam Alexander Case Western

Win % .708 .739 .636 .231 .238 .542

AVG .449 .419 .415 .405 .384

HR 3 2 2 2 1

RBI 21 19 19 17 17

SOFTBALL Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6

UAA Standings

School Emory

Record 25–3 (6–2)

Win % .893

Washington (MO) Rochester Case Western Brandeis Chicago

13– (4–4) 6–7 (4–4) 15–8 (3–5) 8–8 (3–5) 10–4 (0–0)

.684 .462 .652 .500 .500

Wins

Rank Player School 1 Bridget Holloway Emory 2 Rebecca Taylor Case Western 3 Kim Cygan Chicago 3 Lena Brottman Emory 3 Neal Kelsey Washington (MO)

ERA

Rank Player 1 Kim Cygan 2 Lena Brottman 3 Madeline Skellie 4 Amanda Kardys 5 Bridget Holloway

School Chicago Emory Rochester Emory Emory

Strikeouts

Rank Player 1 Rebecca Taylor 2 Bridget Holloway 3 Kim Cygan 4 Lena Brottman 5 Caroline Miller

School Case Western Emory Chicago Emory Brandeis

Wins 13 11 6 6 6

ERA 0.97 1.04 1.24 1.53 1.74

Ks 104 55 51 42 38

MEN’S TENNIS UAA Standings

Rank School 1 Emory 2 Carnegie 3 Case Western 4 Washington (MO) 5 Rochester

Record 12–0 (0–0) 9–4 (0–0) 11–6 (0–0) 7–5 (0–0) 5–8 (0–0)

Win%

6

NYU

1–2 (0–0)

.333

7

Brandeis

2–5 (0–0)

.286

8

Chicago

1–3 (0–0)

.250

1.000

.692 .647 .583 .385

WOMEN’S TENNIS UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 3 5

Members of the 2012 McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Team participate in the Powerade Jam Fest at Ratner Atheltic Center on Monday afternoon. jamie manley | the chicago maroon

School Brandeis Case Western Chicago Carnegie Emory

Record 8–1 (0–0) 13–2 (0–0) 4–1 (0–0) 12–3 (0–0) 9–3 (0–0)

Win% .889 .867 .800 .800 .750

5

Rochester

6–2 (0–0)

.750

7

Washington (MO)

7–3 (0–0)

.700

8

NYU

0–2 (0–0)

.000

Visit www.chicagomaroon.com for more Sports coverage.

14

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | March 30, 2012

Pitchers steal the show in home doubleheader Softball Derek Tsang Sports Staff Chicago (10â&#x20AC;&#x201C;4) split its home opener on Monday against Lake Forest (5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9), winning the first half of the doubleheader 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2 and losing the second 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;0, despite a dominating 11strikeout performance by third-year Kim Cygan (6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1).

In the first game, the Maroons outplayed the Foresters by more than the final score would indicate, getting 11 runners on base to Lake Forestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s five. Fourth-year pitcher Sarah Neuhaus (3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2) picked up her third win of the season with a completegame three-hitter.

The second game was scoreless through five innings in a pitcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s duel, and was decided by a single solo home run by Lake Forestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s centerfielder Nora Logue. Chicago was left to rue the opportunities missed on offense against Lake Forestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kelly Chesnut (2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3), who earned the win with a complete game shutout. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have not traditionally fared well in our â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;home openers.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; So coming out with a split, although not ideal, is simply a foundation on which we can build,â&#x20AC;? head coach Ruth Kmak said.

Coming off of a strong spring trip to Florida to start the season (9â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3), the Maroons looked to continue the dominant form that had seen them score more than nine runs five times, but ended up leaving 12 of their 15

NHL brass guides team to Stanley Cup and high attendance

baserunners stranded. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Once we are aggressive and get things started offensively, then we need to finish. We are leaving far too many runs on base by not completing our offensive innings successfully,â&#x20AC;?

Kmak said.

In the first game, Chicago got ahead early with an offensive burst in the second inning. Third-year outfielder Samantha Hobson got on base with a two-out double, and advanced to third on a single by third-year shortstop Vicky Tomaka, who advanced into scoring position with some aggressive baserunning on the defenseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s throw to third.

Second-year Kaitlyn Carpenter brought Tomaka and Hobson home with a single, before another out ended the inning.

Chicago looked primed to blow the game open the next inning, loading the bases with one out. Lake Forest managed to get a fielderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice for the second out before Hobson scored fourth-year Liz Payonk with an RBI single through the left side; Hobson would finish 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3 at the plate in the first game.

That run was all the Maroons got in the inning, but it proved to be all they needed. Neuhaus kept the Foresters hitless until the fourth, and the visitors never mounted a serious threat, despite solo home runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Neuhaus plowed through the Lake Forest lineup, finishing with eight strikeouts and the complete game win. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our staff is keeping the

opposition off-balance and doing what it takes to provide us the opportunity to win games,â&#x20AC;? said Kmak of her teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pitching.

In the first game, the excitement for the Maroons came on offense; in the nightcap, Cyganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pitching was the draw. She struck out five Lake Forest batters in the first two innings, striking out the side in the second. The Forestersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Chestnut didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have quite the same firepower, but she stifled the Chicago batters just the same. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Personally, I prefer pitching in closer games because they are more exciting, and I like pitching under pressure,â&#x20AC;? said Cygan, whose loss broke a streak of 10 straight wins or no-decisions dating back to last season. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After the solo home run, my approach was to shake it off and not let them get anything elseâ&#x20AC;Śyou canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dwell on one mistake.â&#x20AC;?

The Maroons got a runner on base in four straight innings starting in the third, but couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t string any hits together. Their best chance was in the sixth inning, when Carpenter got on base with no outs. The Maroons tried a sacrifice bunt to get her home, but the Lake Forest fielders sniffed the play out.

Despite their disappointing loss in the second game, the Maroons enjoyed the chance to play at home after their spring trip. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The home opener is always a high point,â&#x20AC;? Cygan said.

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BLACKHAWKS continued from back

Wirtzâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rhetoric may seem misplaced elsewhere, but whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notable is that he and his team were clearly able to make people believe in them, and, whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, they managed to justify that belief.

The Blackhawksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; success didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t end with their Stanley Cup win in 2010, either. They have led the NHL in average attendance in the two

seasons since their championship and are hopeful of getting back into the playoffs this year.

Where they will go from here remains uncertain, but the efficiency and efficacy of their work is undeniable and the benefits look set to last into the foreseeable future. They have found, it seems, the perfect balance between sports and business.

Low ERA, improved offense critical to teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success BASEBALL continued from back

about our approaches at the plate and what we need to do to improve our hitting,â&#x20AC;? Engel said.

This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team has different strengths and weaknesses from last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team ERA in the 2010 season was 4.76, but this year, with an improved pitching staff, it has dropped to a mere 2.35.

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it has been accompanied by a step backwards: Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team average this season is .322, compared to last

yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s .352.

Thus the team has been playing a different style of game, one that emphasizes run prevention.

There have been fewer higherscoring games than last year, but the Maroons have the potential to put together an impressive season if they manage to score a few runs, thanks to the strength of their pitching staff.

The Maroons will play two games against Rochester in a doubleheader at home on Tuesday.

Game one begins at noon.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | March 30, 2012

15

Chicago looks to regain form coming off break Track & Field Jake Walerius Sports Staff There will be no time to rest for track and field this outdoor season, and the Maroons are already at a disadvantage.

Finals week and spring break mean Chicago missed out on two weeks of training while the majority of its opponents continued to train and compete. With the outdoor conference meet only four weeks away, the Maroons are hoping to make up for lost time this Saturday at the Ted Haydon Invitational.

“The outdoor season is very short, with four meets before UAA conference, which means that we need to put down solid performances early in the game,” fourth-year Jalessa Akuoko said. “There is definitely a slight sense of urgency right now.”

“We’re trying to scramble right now to get ourselves prepped because we missed a lot of time with finals week and spring break,” head coach Chris Hall said. “Right now we’re just trying to get a feel for where we’re at and who’s come back ready to compete.”

As for this weekend, it is a chance for Hall to assess how the break has affected his squad and for individual athletes to regain the level of focus

they are going to need to compete successfully at conference.

“I want our team to be competitive this weekend. Our primary goals are just to knock the rust off a little bit. We need to get back into a competition mindset,” Hall said.

“That’s what I’m looking forward to seeing: whether or not we can step out there and get ourselves into an early season competitive frame of mind.

We don’t have a lot of weeks before the conference championships, and it’s important that people come out and give us full effort right away.”

Thirteen teams will join the Maroons at Stagg Field this weekend, and despite the team’s lack of preparation, Hall expects his team to be among the front-runners.

“I would hope our team be out front in this meet,” he said. “It’s a large meet, and whether or not we win, it is not important in the grand scheme of things, but I’d like us to be up near the front and feel like we were right in the thick of things to win it. I feel like that would be a nice confidence booster for us.”

It has been three weeks since the Maroons (excluding those who competed at the NCAA indoor championship) last competed. Still, the team is excited to kick off the outdoor season.

“It is very exciting to open the outdoor season on our home track; the

group is eagerly awaiting the chance to perform this weekend,” first-year Ben Nickerson said. “This meet has grown into one with a competitive and challenging field, but we all put in hard work over spring break and look forward to competing.”

“As a thrower, it’s nice to have a change of events and kind of have a fresh start, and it’s always nice to be outdoors when there’s good weather,” fourth-year Daniel Heck said. “I think our team’s expectations are to record lots of PRs, improve, and score as high as we can at the conference meet. From an individual perspective, I’m just going to try and go out and throw well to start the season—nothing too ambitious.

Optimally, I would throw close to my PR in all the events, and improve from there as the season goes on.”

The men’s and women’s squads both struggled with illness and injury during the indoor season, but after a few weeks off, things are looking better. Third-year Kayla McDonald and first-year Jillian Ojeda won’t compete for the women this weekend, but their injuries are expected to be short-term. For the men, the biggest fitness news is the return of third-year Dee Brizzolara to full health, which Hall described as a “big boost” for the men’s team.

The Ted Haydon Invitational gets underway at 11 a.m. this Saturday.

Fourth-year Ali Klooster sets the pace at the Chicago Duals in Henry Crown Field House. darren leow | the chicago maroon

Road trip begins for South Siders

Wheaton reigns in home opener

SOFTBALL continued from back

Sarah Langs Associate Sports Editor

Baseball

Maroons can expect a defense up to the challenge, though. “Defensively, after a somewhat rocky start [to the season], we settled in very well and have made some outstanding plays,” Kmak said.

As an unaffiliated team, meaning it is not part of a conference, Chicago needs a strong regular season to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Illinois Wesleyan is the first of the three nationally ranked teams left on the Maroons’ schedule, and while a split would reinforce that the Maroons can hang with the best of them (besides their two wins over #16 and #23 in the country, they played then-fourth ranked Eastern Connecticut closely, losing 2–0), a pair of away victories would be a substantial boon to their postseason prospects.

This weekend’s road trip marks the beginning of a string of eight straight away games, before the Maroons have 12 of their final 14 games at home.

In their home opener, the Maroons (8–5) lost to Wheaton College (10–6) by a score of 6–4 on Tuesday. After playing 12 games in Florida over spring break, Chicago returned home ready to build on their record.

Jimmy McDonald started for Wheaton, while fourth-year Alex Garcia (1–1, 2.41 ERA) took the mound for the Maroons.

The South Siders got on the board early, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first.

Third-year infielder J.R. Lopez started the rally with a single to right field, which was followed by an RBI double from fourthyear catcher Stephen Williams. Second-year Brett Huff plated Williams with a single to left field.

Wheaton came out swinging in the top of the second, eventually scoring a run after a fielding error. The run, which was scored on a groundout, was unearned. After padding

their lead in the third, Chicago surrendered one run in the top of the sixth and two in the top of the seventh, allowing Wheaton to tie the score at four runs apiece.

In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied, third-year Jack Cinoman led off with a triple. Lopez drove him in with a sacrifice fly. It seemed like the rest of the game would be smooth sailing from there for the Maroons, but instead, the same player who had started the go-ahead rally ended up giving up the deciding runs.

Cinoman (1–1, 1.93 ERA), who came in to pitch in the seventh, yielded two runs in the top of the ninth, allowing Wheaton to get ahead by a run that would hold up through the end of the game.

“Mainly, our poor approach at the plate

and our overall focus as a team [contributed to the loss],” first-year infielder Kyle Engel said.

Offensive inconsistency characterized the Maroons’ Florida trip, as they found themselves on both ends of lopsided games throughout the week. “However, we have been talking about this and working hard to improve these aspects of our game, so we should be able to easily move on and focus on the next game,” Engel added. “There is a bright future for the team.”

Overall, the loss didn’t faze the team.

“We are shaping up very well,” secondyear outfielder Ricky Troncelliti said. “Our pitching has been outstanding, and once we start hitting the way we should, we will have a very successful season.”

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The men’s baseball team plays a home game last season. jamie manley | the chicago maroon

IN QUOTES

SPORTS

“A Kentucky fan hooked up to a dialysis machine got punched the other day by a Louisville fan who, waiting for treatment, declared that his Cardinals were going to whup ’em some ass Saturday.”

—Grantland editor Bill Simmons, about an altercation between two fans at a Kentucky dialysis clinic.

In weekend contests, three’s company Softball Derek Tsang Sports Staff The line between good—a 20-win season, say—and great—an NCAA bid, perhaps?—is often a single, signature victory against quality competition.

The Maroons, who have already beaten two ranked opponents this season, have another chance at a statement win (or two) this Sunday when they travel to face Illinois Wesleyan, ranked 22nd nationally, in a doubleheader.

“Our mindset needs to be to look at these games not as challenges, but as opportunities,” said head coach Ruth Kmak, who knows a thing or two about winning: the Maroons have notched eight 20-win campaigns in her 12year tenure, and are on pace for another strong season this year.

Despite their success, or perhaps because of it, the Maroons are emphasizing “not being satisfied,” according to Kmak.

The Titans are 11–2 on the season, and have outscored their opponents 91–17 on the year. They feature second-year Molly McCready, who boasts a 0.00 ERA: she has only allowed a single unearned run in her 29 innings so far this year.

The Maroons aren’t focusing on that matchup just yet, though. Early Saturday, they’ll travel to play against Wheaton (15–5) and Calvin (5–9) in the Wheaton Invitational.

Wheaton will be looking to regain their early season form, as they’ve gone 5–5 after winning

their first 10 games.

Chicago has had no such dip in form, but will still focus on refining its skills.

“The key for us is to put all components of the game together (pitching, offense, and defense) each and every game,” Kmak said.

The Maroons will be looking to get themselves in the right mindset for their fixtures this weekend.

“It is important we refocus and get the wins by playing at our level,” said third-year pitcher Kim Cygan (6–1), who sports a 0.97 ERA over seven starts. “We play best when we are loose and relaxed.”

Wheaton features a strong, balanced offense, with six regulars in their lineup batting better than .300, led by senior outfielder Lesley Guenard and her .409 average. The Maroons can expect to face either Ainsle McCullough (7–2) or Danielle Schmidt (8–3), who have held opposing batters to averages of .201 and .220, respectively.

Calvin’s offense is not as potent, but the Knights still have threats in the front of their offense.

Pitcher Lina Avila has seven home runs on the season, more than the entire Maroons team has had all season. However, Chicago should be able to score its share of runs against Calvin’s relatively average pitching.

Of the three teams the Maroons will face this weekend, Illinois Wesleyan represents the biggest challenge offensively. Their lineup, hitting .337 and scoring about 60 percent of their baserunners, is led by freshman outfielder Audra James, who is hitting .522 (12–23) on the season.

SOFTBALL continued on page 15

The Maroons hurl heat against Beloit last season. jamie manley | the chicago maroon

Blackhawks chairman, CEO, speak on team’s rise Discourse Jake Walerius Sports Staff Blackhawks President and CEO John McDonough and Chairman W. Rockwell Wirtz discussed their success in the sports management industry and described their roles in the Blackhawks’ rise from one of the NHL’s most forgettable franchises to the 2010 Stanley Cup champions to a room full of aspiring sports professionals Wednesday night in Stuart Hall.

McDonough was appointed Chicago Blackhawks president in November 2007 and became CEO in the summer of 2011.

Wirtz, whose family bought the Blackhawks when he was two years old, took over for his father as chairman in 2007. Their impact was almost immediate.

What’s amazing about the rise of the Blackhawks team on the ice was how closely it was tied to their growing popularity off it.

And the responsibility for that popularity fell squarely at the feet of Wirtz and McDonough. The pair quickly secured partnerships with Comcast SportsNet, WGNTV Channel 9, and the radio station WGN Radio AM-720 after their takeover. A major sports team in a major city getting major television and radio deals may not seem like news, but to understand its true significance one must only glance at the numbers.

In the 2006–2007 season,

Maroons to open conference play Baseball Sarah Langs Associate Sports Editor

W. Rockwell Wirtz and John McDonough—chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Blackhawks respectively—talked about their team’s recent resurgence. griffin dennis | the chicago maroon

the Blackhawks average game attendance was 12,727. The year after it was 16,814. The next two seasons the average single game attendance for a Blackhawks game was 22,247 and 21,356, the highest average attendance in the league.

Comparing that to the Blackhawks record on the ice— 31–42–9 in the 2006–7 season and 52–22–8 three years later— it is clear that McDonough and Wirtz’s influence has affected more than just the number of fans in seats.

Scott Southern, the Head of Management & Agency for

“You had to start somewhere,” the UChicago Sports Business Team—the RSO that hosted Wirtz stated, explaining his the talk—got in touch with the team’s approach to acquiring Blackhawks’ management team sponsorships. “And if people and was able to communicate believed in you—that you were with Wirtz’s secretary. Within going to actually care about a few months McDonough and the people, care about being Wirtz were headed to the South something big, and if you were going to hire people with a singleSide.

The main aim of the talk was minded determination, that we to describe the Blackhawks’ were going to unconditionally remarkable success story and how win no matter what it takes…. it was made possible through That was the beginning of starting the business decisions of the those relationships.”

What sets the Blackhawks’ management team. It’s certainly an amazing story, and there was story apart from most others is plenty for UCSBT to take from its successful conclusion. it.

BLACKHAWKS continued on page 14

The Maroons are hungry after their loss to Wheaton on Tuesday.

“We’ve been improving ourselves in practices by scrimmaging and working on the aspects of the game that we seem to be struggling in,” first-year infielder Kyle Engel said.

“All of this should help us focus on putting forth a strong effort in our next game.”

Optimism and perseverance are the key characteristics of this team. “I expect us to come out hungry and looking to rebound from the loss with two good games against Rochester,” second-year outfielder Ricky Troncelliti said.

Their task, at least for this week, is large. Rochester is 15– 11.

They have played many more games than Chicago and have had that much more time to prepare.

With only their Florida games and last Tuesday’s game under their belts, the Maroons will be taking on a more battle-tested Rochester squad.

The Maroons recognize this disadvantage and have been working to overcome it.

“We’ve talked a lot, as a team, BASEBALL continued on page 14