040414 Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • APRIL 4, 2014

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 35 • VOLUME 125

Admissions rate reaches new low despite drop in applications Harini Jaganathan News Editor The acceptance rate to the College has reached yet another record low at 8.38 percent for the Class of 2018.

2,304 students were admitted to the College this year out of a total of 27,503 applicants. This decreased acceptance rate comes in spite of a 9.5 percent decrease in the total number of applicants as compared to last year’s application cycle.

University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said that this discrepancy is due to the University’s prediction of a higher yield rate than that of previous years. The yield rate is the number of students who

choose to attend the University out of those who were accepted.

Manier said that the University predicts the class size to be around 1420, which would require around a 62 percent yield rate. The yield rate for the class of 2017 was 53 percent and the yield rate for the class of 2016 was 47 percent.

The acceptance rates for peer institutions this year were similar to those of UChicago. Northwestern accepted 12.9 percent of applicants for the class of 2018, UPenn took in 9.9 percent, Columbia’s acceptance was 7 percent, Duke’s was 9 percent, and Brown accepted 8.6 percent of applicants.

In recent years, the University has cited developments like the Institute for Molecular Engineering,

the Logan Center for the Arts, and UChicago Promise scholarships—which allow recipients to graduate debt-free—as reasons for the increasing popularity of the College.

Patrick Andrade, a senior from the north side of Chicago, applied regular decision to the College and was offered a full-tuition Chicago Police and Fire Department scholarship but has not committed to UChicago. Andrade said that he was not originally planning on applying but decided to apply when he found out about the Institute of Molecular Engineering’s new undergraduate major.

“To be a guinea pig for the program is kind of interesting,” he ADMIT continued on page 3

Applicants

Class of

Percent Admitted

2018 8.4

27,499

2017 8.8

30,396

2016

25,227

2015

21,774 19,370

2014

13.3 15.8 18.4

13,600

2013

26.8

12,418

2012

27.8

Delhi Center to play Campus sees effects of new gun law host to Pune program Ankit Jain News Editor

Victoria Rael Maroon Contributor The Center in Delhi opened on Saturday, March 29, in an official ribbon-cutting ceremony headed by University President Robert J. Zimmer, U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy J. Powell, and other distinguished guests. It joins the Centers in Beijing and Paris as a focus of international University education and as a location of undergraduate studyabroad programs.

The Center in Delhi will house research and educational programs for faculty, graduate

students, and undergraduate students, with the goal of allowing collaboration between members of the UChicago community and major universities in India.

“We take great pride in this facility and in the commitment it represents to collaboration in India and Asia, and to the University’s larger global engagement,” Zimmer said at the opening ceremony.

According to a call for proposals from the faculty director of the new center, professor Gary Tubb, the center will also host conferences, workshops, events, DELHI continued on page 3

The University posted signs on doors across campus this week which state that firearms are not allowed on University property, in compliance with Illinois’s re-

cently passed concealed carry legislation. However, those with a concealed carry permit will be allowed to carry firearms just outside campus boundaries as a consequence of the new law.

In December 2012, the 7th Cir-

cuit Court of Appeals declared Illinois’s law banning the carrying of guns in public unconstitutional. The Court required the Illinois legislature to write a law allowing firearms to be carried in GUN continued on page 2

Caffeinated aesthetics: Plein Air Café opens Isaac Stein Associate News Editor For months, the sign in front of the building located at 5751 South Woodlawn Avenue, which houses the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, hinted at the existence of the Plein

Air Café. However, it was only on March 24 that the café opened to the public.

According to Plein Air co-owner Soo Choi, the gap between the opening of the recently-relocated Co-Op and the opening of Plein Air was not a strategic maneuver

but rather had to do with the process of meeting food licensing requirements.

“The University wanted us to open at the same time as the bookstore did, but books and food are two completely different businessPLEIN continued on page 2

UCPD seeks CALEA accreditation, student activists cry foul Sarah Manhardt Associate News Editor

Third-year Ava Benezra voices her concerns about the UCPD requesting accreditation from the Commission of Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) at the public meeting on Wednesday.

SIDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

The University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) held an open forum as a part of its efforts to attain accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) on Wednesday. The student group Coalition for Equitable Policing (CEP) dominated the forum, which 30–40 people attended, representing the majority of speakers and expressing its dissatisfaction with the UCPD. The CALEA, the self-described “gold standard in public safety,” is an independent accrediting authority established by law enforcement agencies that certifies all varieties of police departments.

The CALEA’s accreditation is based on evaluating an agency according to its

482 standards, which address all aspects of the police department.

The UCPD is in the final stages of the process of CALEA certification, according to Assistant Chief of Police Gloria Graham. After enrolling in the process about a year ago, the UCPD reviewed CALEA standards and conducted a self-assessment. The open forum is a part of the CALEA’s on-site assessment, in which assessors, who are also members of law enforcement, visit the police department under review. The on-site assessment culminates in a report that is passed to the Commission’s Agency Review Committee, which decides whether the department receives CALEA certification.

Graham said that CALEA certification benefits the community more than the UCPD itself.

“It’s basically a certification that your

police department in your community is meeting industry standards… that we’re looking at what nationally are the things that have been tried and proven to be true, and we’ve adopted those things,” she said.

CEP members contended that the UCPD did not publicize the hearing adequately in an attempt to avoid student and community input. An announcement of the forum was posted on the UChicago News website on March 20.

The CALEA’s standards are copyrighted and not available on its website, so members of the CEP went to UCPD headquarters in order to read and analyze the standards, according to Aerik Francis, fourth-year CEP member.

“We found out about this knowledge rather late, and we only had a couple of days to work with. Even getting access to UCPD continued on page 2

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Viewpoints has no new points » Page 6

Trance Talk » Page 11

Squad looks to carry momentum from indoors to outdoors » Back Page

Detroit CA trek disappoints » Page 7

Future Islands wows at Lincoln Hall » Page 12

Despite losing streak, South Siders still team to beat » Page 14

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 4, 2014

2

Plein Air aims to offer “cohesive” experience PLEIN continued from front

es. We needed the proper food licenses in order to open; it just took this long to acquire all of the necessary administrative approval. That is why we opened when we did,” Choi said.

In addition to serving various café beverages, including coffee, tea, and espresso, Plein Air features table service, full meals, and ambient music. However, Choi sees

Plein Air as distinct from existing on-campus and local cafés not because of any one of these features, but because the entire operation is driven by the owners’ vision of the aesthetics of the dining experience.

“The difference between this café and others in the area is that [Plein Air] is conceptually well–thought out at every point. It’s not just that it isn’t dingy and

there is no patchwork furniture; the entire experience is designed to be cohesive at every point. Food, atmosphere, everything,” Choi said.

The Plein Air Café is open on Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Plein Air does not accept Maroon Dollars, the currency issued

by UChicago Dining.

Concealed carry now legal just outside campus GUN continued from front

which was passed in July 2013. The law went into effect in January 2014.

The law still bans the carrying of firearms on university campuses and requires all universities to post signs on the doors to every campus building informing residents that guns are not allowed on campus. UChicago posted the signs as required by law on Tuesday.

To reduce the shock value of the new signs, administrators posted no-smoking signs next to the no-guns signs, computational and applied mathematics professor Todd Dupont said.

“The no-smoking sign I don’t think is shocking to anybody, so maybe it makes

people feel a little less like we’re in the middle of a war zone,” he said. Dupont said he was told this at a meeting he attended in which University officials talked about their response to the law.

The concealed carry law prohibits the carrying of guns in “any building, classroom, laboratory…and any real property, including parking areas, sidewalks, and common areas under the control of a public or private community college, college or university.” However, this does not include public sidewalks adjacent to campus, University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said.

This would mean that firearms could be carried on the sidewalk of 55th Street, for

example. Manier also pointed out that the campus is not contiguous.

The University appointed a committee comprised of “representatives from Legal, Facilities, UCPD, the Provost’s Office, Finance and Administration, and Communications” to help implement the law, Manier said.

Dupont said that he does not expect the new law to have a large effect on safety at the University one way or the other. “I feel like the campus is pretty safe because we have a very large, well-armed police force and concealed carry might affect that in some ways, but I’m not really expecting it to change things very much,” he said.

UCPD defends scheduling of open forum UCPD continued from front

[the standards] was a task in and of itself and difficult, so we literally had to hand-copy standards we thought were applicable to our cause and our demands,” he said.

Graham stated that the UCPD acted in compliance with CALEA’s requirements for the open forum, which was scheduled by CALEA and not the UCPD. “If I give you a week, two weeks in advance of when something is, either you can attend it or you can’t attend it. Some peoples’ schedules are never going to work, and that’s just the reality of

any kind of meeting,” she said.

She also noted that CALEA took e-mails, letters, and phone calls from community members in addition to the open forum.

Comments by attendees of the meeting focused on CALEA standards that they believe the UCPD is not in compliance with, as well as personal experiences with the UCPD. Members of CEP specifically brought up standards concerning racial profiling, anonymous complaints, and distributing field reports that they believe the UCPD was not following.

About half of the speakers

spoke of personal encounters with the UCPD. Complaints ranged from instances of racial profiling to unprofessionalism in reporting sexual assault to a general lack of respect for the Hyde Park community.

According to CALEA Head Assessor William Buckbee, it’s “hard to benchmark” the relative size of the UCPD’s open forum in comparison to previous ones he’s assessed in his 12 years with CALEA due to the diversity of police departments CALEA assesses.

“If there are no issues people tend not to come out,” he said.

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ARTS COUNCIL & UCIJAM METCALF SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS $1,500 for original projects in Journalism, Arts, and Media (CCC Job #ID 41174) Due Date, May 2 Working on a screenplay? Writing a long-form reported narrative? Composing a string quartet? These fellowships will support students undertaking original projects over the summer, which might involve original reporting, choreography, sculpture, painting, multi-media, music composition, script-writing, and translation.

UCIJAM METCALF GRANT $4,000 for unpaid internships in Journalism, Arts, or Media Due May 11 (CCC Job ID# 41173) UCIJAM grants fund unpaid journalism, arts, or media internships globally. Students must secure their own internship and then apply for the grant. Must complete 400 hours of service between June 1st and September 15th .

For more information, e-mail Klingensmith Program Director, Ben Waltzer at waltzer@uchicago.edu

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Visit the Career Advancement website: careeradvancement.uchicago. edu/uchicago-careers-in/ journalism-arts-media

Submission deadline: April 22, 2014

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 4, 2014

3

NEWS IN BRIEF

Levey decries current journalistic ethic

Ratner pool to close during summer The Myers-McLoraine Pool at the Ratner Athletic Center will be closing for the summer as it undergoes extensive renovations, according to an announcement posted on the University Athletics website.

For fifteen weeks between June 2 and September 12, the pool will be closed to “address issues” with the hand-hold structure around the interior pe-

rimeter of the pool and the tiles in the pool basin and on the pool deck, according to the announcement.

The maintenance work will require the pool to be drained and refilled several times, which necessitates the long closure.

Since opening in 2003, the pool typically has been closed for only one week a year to perform minor maintenance. This project has been in the works for two years, but this does not mean that recent pool

visitors were swimming in hazardous conditions, Jason Weber, the director of aquatics at the University, said in an e-mail. “[There are] no structural issues with the pool or leaks of any kind. We would never put our students and patrons in any type of harm or risk by using our facility,” Weber wrote.

University spokesperson Jeremy Manier declined to give an estimate for the price of the renovation.

—Christine Schmidt

Delhi center to host Metcalfs, admissions events Bob Levey (AB ’66), former Washington Post columnist, speaks on the effects of the Watergate scandal on contemporary journalism at the Institute of Politics Thursday night.

FRANK WANG | CHICAGO MAROON

Alice Xiao News Staff Bob Levey, former Washington Post columnist and reporter, explored journalism’s contentious relationship to politics and social media last night as part of the featuredspeaker series at the UChicago Institute of Politics.

According to Levey, the morals of modern journalism culture have become degraded. As a personal acquaintance and coworker of Woodward and Bernstein, the writers of the Watergate stories, Levey provided insight on the ironic role the successful Watergate investigation has played in fostering this degradation.

“Watergate was perhaps the biggest triumph in the history of journalism, but it has caused a lot of downstream difficulties for journalists, and consequently their audiences.

Since Watergate, journalists

get into the business for reasons of vengeance, not for the sake of journalism,” Levey explained. Levey said although the core intention of journalism is to provide unbiased news, people misinterpreted the Watergate publications as a “Democratic hit job.”

As a result, they went into the business with the wrong intentions, seeking to attack rather than to accurately report on their subjects.

Levey said that politicians are less willing to divulge information about themselves to the press today as a result.

Whereas decades ago it would have been easy to get an interview with a prominent political figure, now “nobody talks to the press except when they think it’ll work to their advantage. There is no friendship [between the press and the political realm]—the relationship is very cynical on both sides,” Levey said.

Levey also spoke about how the Internet and modern social media exacerbate the clash between the agendas of journalists and politicians. He said that the modern journalist’s obsession with “search engine optimization,” or the attempt to get as many hits on an article as possible, compromises the factual and news value of articles in favor of more popular but less relevant character drama.

Concurrently, he said the Internet’s speed of disclosure encourages increased quantities of updates at the expense of thoroughness, and as a result politicians are reluctant to disclose more than one Twitter sentence at a time.

“Now it’s up to the consumer to demand the return of accurate journalism of the old days.... True journalism should be done deliberately, accurately, and ethically,” Levey said.

BREAKING: What: MAROON Reader v. Reporter Q&A Where: McCormick Tribune Lounge, Reynolds Club When: Tuesday April 8, 7 p.m.

Reader! Come to the CHICAGO MAROON Roundtable Event and tell us what you really think of the newspaper. We want to hear you tell it like it is.

Bring ideas and criticisms to this honest discussion on how the MAROON can better cater to you! The MAROON’s editorial leadership and section editors will listen, respond, and clarify anything that’s on your mind—no holds barred.

Want to know more about the MAROON or get involved?

This is your chance. Designers, photographers, writers, cartoonists, videographers, business experts, and the curious: come see what you’re missing out on. Spring is the perfect time to join the Maroon.

FOOD WILL BE SERVED.

Executive director of the UChicago Center in Delhi, Bharath Visweswariah (left), and professor Gary Tubb commemorate the new Delhi Center at the end of last month.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

DELHI continued from front

lectures, and collaborative projects between researchers based in Hyde Park and researchers in India.

For undergraduates, the Center will host the College’s South Asian Civilization study-abroad program in part. Previously the first seven weeks of the program took place in Pune and the last three weeks took place farther south at an archaeological site. According to second-year Jasmine Solola, who will take part in the program this fall, the first seven weeks of next year’s program will still take place in Pune. After that, the program will continue in the Center in Delhi, though the specific number of weeks students will spend in Delhi has not yet been decided.

Tubb said that the Center has no current plans to host a full study-abroad program, but added that they are “open to anything we can do that will be useful to the University.” He noted the potential for language programs and undergraduate research participation at the Center in the future as programs and logistics, such as student housing, are worked out.

In addition, the Center, in partnership with the College Admissions Office, has started holding events for prospective undergraduate and graduate students, giving them information on the University and the opportunity to meet with both current and recent students in the Delhi area.

The first of these admission events took place on

April 3, during which graduate students were also able to Skype with the Dean of Students of the Division of the Humanities in Chicago. The Center will also host Metcalf internships and treks offered by the University’s Office of Career Advancement, according to the Center’s website.

Tubb praised the location of the Center, saying that it is situated in a burgeoning section of the city.

“The new Delhi center is really ideally located in terms of accessibility and visibility. It’s in a very vibrant neighborhood that’s easy to get to by Metro,” Tubb said. “It’s a rather difficult location in terms of [housing ], and that’s something that we’re working on and trying to gradually line up places.”

Univ. expects jump in yield for class of 2018 ADMIT continued from front

said. “I know how the University focuses on the core program; I wouldn’t only be doing engineering, [but] also getting a full liberal arts education.”

Maura Joyce, a resident of the southwest side of

Chicago who was accepted Early Action and has committed, said that she is also interested in the College’s Core curriculum and the possibility of taking classes at Booth.

Dahlia Leffel, a student from New Haven, Connect-

icut, was also accepted Early Action and committed to the school in January. She said that when she visited campus she found that “the atmosphere seemed different from other colleges….

The community seemed really close and unique.”

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed APRIL 4, 2014

Letter from the editors Dear Reader, The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 EMMA BRODER Editor-in-Chief JOY CRANE Editor-in-Chief JONAH RABB Managing Editor AJAY BATRA Senior Editor DANIEL LEWIS Senior Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Senior Editor EMMA THURBER STONE Senior Editor THOMAS CHOI News Editor MARINA FANG News Editor HARINI JAGANATHAN News Editor ELEANOR HYUN Viewpoints Editor LIAM LEDDY Viewpoints Editor KRISTIN LIN Viewpoints Editor ALICE BUCKNELL Arts Editor WILL DART Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Sports Editor SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor MARA MCCOLLOM Social Media Editor ALAN HASSLER Head Copy Editor SHERRY HE Head Copy Editor KATARINAMENTZELOPOULOSHeadCopyEditor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy Editor SYDNEY COMBS Photo Editor JULIA REINITZ Photo Editor

Do you really need the Maroon?

As it stands, there’s more than one answer to that question—and that bothers us. Each member of our team of over 100 UChicago students is devoted to providing a service which our fellow students value, and on which they rely.

Spring quarter is always a time of change for the Maroon.

In keeping with that spirit of change, we will be rolling out a series of new offerings this quarter aimed at better tailoring our coverage to the needs of a student body that is ever more deeply engaged with and aware of its surroundings.

This spring, before you finish your midterms, the Maroon will launch a new website, complete with features that will broaden both the scope of our coverage and the range of tools with which we deliver it. Namely, the new site will reflect a serious devotion to multimedia journal-

ism, such as video stories and a weekly podcast. Along with this digital overhaul will come an unprecedented emphasis on investigative reporting in order to bring you the stories that you need, and rightly demand, to read. To that end, writers will have, in addition to the usual writing responsibilities of our biweekly schedule, longer-term investigative projects involving new levels of in-depth reporting and dedication.

The stories we will strive to provide in each issue will be those that affect not just our campus, but also the South Side and this city. Indeed, this newsroom believes that the health of any community stems from the health of its public space and public discourse. Simply put, the so-called “Life of the Mind” at times fails to unite the diverse population here at UChicago, and in turn cleaves our fragmented collective from the larger community and city we live in.

As distinct from other toptier U.S. universities, UChicago’s sense of collective identity is dor-

mant, if not completely stillborn: Because of this, at some point, each and every one of us has borne injury. We firmly believe the Maroon has a role to play in building, and mending, these senses of community. A student newspaper can and should, after all, pressure, excavate, and elevate the diverse voices and concerns its community brings to the table.

And so we feel that our commitment to that project will begin in earnest when we sit down with you. This upcoming Tuesday, April 8, we will host a lively roundtable in McCormick Tribune Lounge in the Reynolds Club from 7–8 p.m. Face to face, reporter to reader, let’s retool the Maroon’s mission, efforts, and objectives such that they dovetail with the standards to which you rightly hold us. All are welcome: Come critical, and come engaged.

We acknowledge, of course, that the question with which we started this letter will never be fully resolved—and perhaps that’s the way it should be. A reality that accompanies the running

of an honest, accountable student newspaper is that we won’t agree on all the headlines. Yet, in pursuit of an independent student voice, we can be in chorus. The Chicago Maroon seeks to be a leader in this pursuit, in the service of its student body.

Whether you’re an avid reader or this is the first issue you’ve picked up, we implore you to come next Tuesday to this honest conversation. The Maroon recognizes both the great responsibility that comes with our commitment to a collective truth immanent in our individual stories and that we can never fully attend to this responsibility without your valued input.

The Chicago Maroon needs you. And you need the Maroon.

Sincerely, Emma Broder and Joy Crane Editors-in-Chief

PETER TANG Photo Editor FRANK YAN Photo Editor COLIN BRADLEY Grey City Editor SINDHUGNANASAMBANDAN Assoc.NewsEditor ALEX HAYS Assoc. News Editor

Stressing success

Viewpoints has no new points

While we’re stuck in the college limbo, we invent short-term substitutions for success

The MAROON’s Op-Ed section is subpar, but readers carry the responsibility of improving it

STEPHANIE XIAO Assoc. News Editor CLAIR FULLER Assoc. Viewpoints Editor TATIANA FIELDS Assoc. Sports Editor SAM ZACHER Assoc. Sports Editor

Benjamin Gammage Viewpoints Contributor

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

Grace Koh

No Airs and Graces

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

The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500.

The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2014 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

With 12 classes, no required courses, and a long list of crosslisted classes to choose from, the political science major is one of the most flexible in the College.

Thus the oft-repeated conversation: “Oh, but you’re a poli sci major, so it’s not that bad.”

“What? No, it’s not; it’s actually really hard.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I had like 35 pages’ worth of papers to write last finals week.”

The perception that some majors are easier or harder than others is often a sensitive subject for those who fall into the “easy” category. Why is it that I often feel the need to defend my major by saying that I, too, am stressed and have late nights?

We place great value on hard work and achievement. We respect people who have overcome adversity and who have wrestled with difficulty. We get emotional when we see montages of our favorite protagonists fighting against all odds, pouring time and effort into achieving their dreams. But this conflation of stress with success—or in the very least this idea that great stress leads to great success—creates a culture that begins to admire

stress itself rather than the accomplishments that follow from it. Students in particular seem to draw this connection conflating stress and success because we are not yet in the “real world,” and yet are constantly reminded that it’s coming and that we need to prepare.

Hard as we may try, no amount of researching careers or postgraduate plans will make time move any faster. Our dreams of success dangle tauntingly before our eyes like a mobile above us, infants helplessly tossing and turning, confined in this giant crib bound by 61st Street and Lake Shore Drive.

Stuck in this limbo of sorts, we opt for stress as a means to compensate for the fact that we cannot yet attain success.

We ensure that we live life overwhelmed and stressed, because when we feel stressed, we feel somewhat closer to tasting success. In the midst of extra lectures and RSOs, feeling successful and feeling stressed become one and the same. Stress becomes the indicator of success, and worrying about not being successful enough becomes the same thing as worrying that we’re not stressed enough. But what if true WORK continued on page 6

A couple years ago, I read a hilarious article in the Onion about a college student studying abroad in Paris who realizes, as he pisses in a Parisian toilet, that “Hemingway and Miller once stood in this exact same place and were doing this exact same thing” (emphasis his), and yet he is nevertheless disappointed to find the experience insufficiently transformative. The piece captured with the Onion’s renowned fidelity the complacent, whiny entitlement of a college student studying abroad. There was only one problem with the piece: it didn’t run in the Onion; it ran in the Chicago Maroon.

As long as I’ve been a student at this university, the Viewpoints section has rarely been a credit to the Maroon, being all too often filled with the smug pronouncements and imbecilic ramblings of cocksure college students who are inexplicably certain that their inane prattle deserves a spot in the best public forum this college has.

I don’t want to single out the article mentioned above, since it at least made me laugh, which is more than I can say for the countless other unartful genres eternally retold in the Viewpoints section: the failure narratives, in which formerly straight-A high schoolers bemoan the experience of being challenged for the first time; the meandering rumi-

nations on contemporary geopolitics by too-eager first-year political science majors; the aging narratives, in which the occasion of “dropping the deuce” (in the words of one particularly inscrutable column) prompts a rambling stream of consciousness totally devoid of introspection or self-reflection; and too many other sorts to list. Twice a week I slam down the paper in frustration and rage.

In response to these sentiments, a prevailing attitude on campus is, “So what?” or “Why do you keep reading the Maroon if it makes you angry?” These questions have the same answer: The Viewpoints section matters, for a couple of important reasons.

First, the Viewpoints section, in showcasing the mood on campus, shapes public opinion of this university. Just as pieces like the Harvard Crimson’s recent “Fifteen Hottest Freshmen” (among them: the fancifully named Archibald I. H. Stonehill, whom I suspect is a Thomas Pynchon character) confirm common suspicions about Harvard’s culture of status and materiality, so too do our opinion columnists publicly present the prevailing opinions and debates happening among college students here.

The stakes are especially high here at the University of Chicago. There is a proud tradition of belief here that our college is exceptional, one of the last bastions of serious academic rigor OP-ED continued on page 6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 4, 2014

5

Two-sided Bitcoin Bitcoin’s “Achilles’ heel (or saving grace, depending on how you look at it)” is not being a recognized global currency David Grossman Viewpoints Staff In the years following the 2008 financial meltdown, there was a massive move away from anything with speculative value: derivatives, stocks, bonds, you name it. Many investors, doubtful of world currencies and the credit of the troubled governments issuing them, even went a step further and reallocated capital to gold. Now, gold certainly has its merits. Since its value is determined by the market and no single entity can “print” gold for personal use, as the U.S. Treasury can with the dollar at the instruction of the Fed, there is an added layer of financial protection for those who own it. On the other hand, it’s clunky. As a physical asset, it has to be stored, protected, and kept track of, all of which wastes money over time. Well, in the age of technical innovation, these drawbacks have been circumvented by the advent of cryptocurrencies, tenders which only exist online and are protected by a community of hackers who agree on a common code to enable exchange of these currencies, while making it impossible for anyone to

hack the system. The most successful of these cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin, whose supporting development community has grown exponentially and whose total value now exceeds $1.5 billion. All of this raises the question: Is Bitcoin the new and improved gold?

In the Bitcoin system, one uses an electronic account number that can instantaneously exchange virtual currency with any other in a matter of keystrokes. The currency’s main advantage, just like gold’s, is that its value is independent of the financial stability of any one country. However, this is a two-faced coin. The flip side is that since its value isn’t pegged at some constant ratio to a recognized asset or traded commodity, the market price of a Bitcoin is determined in a vacuum, which can potentially lead to wide fluctuations.

Gold has been around for a long time, so even though its price is not supported by anything else of recognized value, like a constant ratio of gold ounces to Subway sandwiches, the price of gold falls within a narrow expected band. In contrast, Bitcoin is but a five-yearold baby with unpredictable interactions between supply

and demand.

In this relationship, it’s not the supply side that’s the problem. Bitcoins are generated by computer “miners,” which use brute force to solve algorithms randomly issued by a server. When one of these computers solves the algorithm, after billions and billions of calculations documented by a “proof of work,” it is awarded a Bitcoin. The more Bitcoins are created, the more difficult they become for the miners to create. As more and more computers have been turned into Bitcoin miners, mining for Bitcoins has become more expensive than the electricity needed to keep the computers running ; the only remaining Bitcoin miners are actually machines that have been maliciously hacked to do so by a third party that can deposit the earned Bitcoins in its own account without having to foot the utility bill, and even that’s going out of style.

The real threat to stable prices is the demand. As more and more companies have begun accepting bitcoin as a valid medium of exchange over the past 24 months, its price has grown steadily to meet the need for increased circulation, as is only natural. Then,

in November of last year, financial speculators (primarily Chinese banks) unleashed a roller coaster of volatility, quintupling the price of a Bitcoin in a matter of months, followed by a half-price crash, followed by another rise to near-record highs. While this may be good for Wall Street gamblers—or whatever the Chinese equivalent is, since mainstream investment groups have so far been unwilling to touch Bitcoin with a 10-foot digital pole—this type of volatility is no good for those actually using Bitcoin as intended.

Imagine running a business which accepts Bitcoins but purchases supplies with dollars, and then learning the day after you’ve been paid in Bitcoins that due to a crash they can only be traded in for half as many dollars as before. No good. As of now, there have been more booms than busts so few have suffered, but the uncertainty of future prices weighs heavily on the credibility of Bitcoin as a legitimate global currency.

Closely related to Bitcoin’s claim to legitimacy is its Achilles’ heel (or saving grace, depending on how you look at it) of not being a recognized global cur-

rency. That is, no government authority regulates it.

Whereas it takes paperwork, credibility, and approval from the government to set up a bank, pretty much anyone can declare herself a Bitcoin trader. One such trader was Mt. Gox, a Japanese Magic-The-Gatheringturned-Bitcoin-Exchange that last month reported a hack that resulted in $350 million in missing Bitcoins and promptly filed for bankruptcy. Of course, all financial institutions are under constant risk of attack, but the lack of regulation means that depositors are left completely unprotected. Mt. Gox, the largest in its field, offered no written insurance or assurances on a user’s account, and any lawsuits are impractical since they would have to be filed under international law. This is because, again, these exchanges are not monitored internally by local governments since Bitcoin is not recognized as a real currency.

If Bitcoin is to quickly become a currency on par with mainstream currencies such as the dollar, governments need to recognize that the advantages of cryptocurrencies mean that they are here to stay, despite any growing pains. It is important to

recognize that government regulation of Bitcoin isn’t anathema to the economic benefits of its open-source principles, foremost of which is that new Bitcoins are issued predictably and automatically, rather than at the behest of a government that might have bills to pay.

But what about imposing regulations on Bitcoin exchanges such as insurance mandates and solvency-ratio floors? Stability is something Bitcoin desperately needs, and if it is to become more than just a speculative asset, someone outside the free market will have to provide it. The more governments recognize Bitcoin, the more businesses will start accepting it alongside their country’s currencies, and the more stable Bitcoin prices will become as they become pegged at the quoted ratios to the goods sold by these businesses.

The outcome? The first truly global currency. The dollar was a reasonable postWWII substitute, but we’re in the 21st century now. Unless you’re only as tech-savvy as your grandparents, it’s worth the effort to jump on the tech train.

David Grossman is a firstyear in the College.

Detroit CA trek disappoints CALLING ALL DESIGNERS!

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Careers Trek was a missed opportunity for both the city and UChicago students Phillip Brown Viewpoints Contributor This past College Break Day I took off to Detroit on a Career Advancement (CA) Business trek.

I hoped that the trek would give students a new view of Detroit: creativity instead of decay, entrepreneurial success rather than municipal bankruptcy. But the trip was short and the highlights few. We “trekked” to Detroit but hardly explored anything. For a struggling city that could appeal to the business- and creativeminded alike, it was an unfair showing.

We arrived on Thursday evening at a hotel 20 miles north of the city. Our survey of Detroit’s social scene was limited to delivery pizza at a suburban Holiday Inn. Early Friday morning we toured Chrysler, where the weight of the brand name was more exciting than the content of the presentations or available positions.

After Chrysler, we finally arrived in the city at D:hive, a community center that helps guide Detroiters to jobs, cultural amenities, and places to live. There we saw two brief slideshows, one regarding a state-sponsored job search program and the other showcasing restaurants, bars, music venues, living spaces, and other attractions we didn’t get to see for ourselves. Next was the highlight of the trip, Quicken Loans, where

the offices look more like ones you’d expect at Google than at an online mortgage lender, prompting comments like, “I would expect this in San Francisco, but not in Detroit.” But the Quicken Loans tour was rushed due to time constraints, and after 18 hours in Metro Detroit, we trekked right back to Hyde Park.

What we missed was the Detroit Creative Corridor Center, which offers consulting to creative small businesses. And Detroit Venture Partners, a tech-centered venture capital firm. And Shinola, the high-end watchmaker that recently started manufacturing in Detroit. And Data Driven Detroit, a research and analysis firm that provides useful information to businesses, grassroots leaders, and city officials. And numerous other nonprofits involved in developing the community and economy.

We also missed Sweetwater Tavern, where the wings will make you forget about Harold’s. And the nationally recognized Slows Bar-B-Q. And all of the available living arrangements that could entice a UChicago alum.

I’ll admit I’m a homer. Coming from the Detroit area, I often encourage my peers to go explore Detroit, see what’s there, and form their own opinions of the ill-reputed city. I’d love to see some of UChicago’s best go to the Motor City and contribute to its revitalization, which is exactly

why the Detroit Business trek frustrated me so much.

If the goal of a CA Business trek is to show students what it might be like to live, work, and play in a city, the Detroit trek failed.

We left without any idea of the breadth of opportunities the city offers, moving in and out so fast I can’t imagine students gained any impression of Detroit whatsoever. With more time, money, and planning, the Detroit trek could have been meaningful both to ambitious UChicago students and to the companies who would love to hire them in the Motor City.

Perhaps Detroit simply doesn’t yet have enough appeal or opportunity for UChicago students.

Cincinnati or Austin, two other cities recently visited by CA, might be more livable and reputable. And CA probably doesn’t want to spend much money on a trip that garnered 13 participants.

But if we were going to take a shitty trip where we didn’t experience the city in any meaningful way, why did we even go at all?

A recent visit to Milwaukee not sponsored by CA was impressively fun, affordable, and showed me some cool career opportunities there. So I think I’ll plan my own career trips from now on. With that said, if you’re interested in Detroit, let’s make the trek.

Phillip Brown is a third-year in the college majoring in Geography.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 4, 2014

6

Give auditing some credit Auditing separates learning from the preprofessional context and perhaps reminds us why we came here in the first place Kiran Misra Viewpoints Staff This time last quarter I was blissfully unaware of both how freezing and hectic winter quarter would be. After a generally sunny fall quarter, ample free time to just hang out in Bartlett, and the opportunity to sign up for too many RSOs, I was naively optimistic about the next three months. In the first quarter of college, I had learned way more than I ever had in high school and had met some of the most interesting people I’d ever met. I couldn’t wait to take, if not hundreds, at least 30ish more classes at UChicago. Inspired and excited by the new prospect of taking pretty much whatever courses I wanted in college, I dreamed of throwing caution to the gale-force winds when class registration opened.

And then I remembered the Core.

And graduating with, you know, a major.

So I signed up for Hum and Sosc, and resigned myself to a quarter of laboring through problem sets for Math 152. The arrival of my tuition bill prompted my quarterly existential crisis—was I putting the resources of the University to full use? Was I really getting my money’s worth?

The fear that I wasn’t, combined with an opportune moment of extreme optimism, led to my signing up for a fifth class—chamber music.

The easiest part was emailing the professor before the quarter started, basically asking her to grade my papers and read my practice logs even though I a) wasn’t actually taking the class for a grade or credit, b) wasn’t majoring in music, and c) didn’t actually know anything about music theory. Surprisingly, she agreed. The hard part was actually lasting the

quarter, making the trek to class each day through the polar vortices, writing essays for a class that would never end up on my transcript while trying to pass my finals in classes that would actually have a loud say in my success after college. I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider skipping class every week when I began the 1.2-mile trek from Stony Island to Logan for rehearsal in the dead of winter with my violin, which somehow turned into some sort of wind conductor whenever I tried crossing the Midway.

These days there is so much pressure to choose a major that is “marketable” and start preprofessional training as early as possible, spending summers on intensive internships and joining whatever consulting groups will get you ahead after graduation. In this economy and job market with millions of qualified graduates, this empha-

Sucess can be realized in the present WORK continued from page 4 success isn’t something to be achieved in the distant future, but instead something that can be found on a day-to-day basis? Then each moment wouldn’t just be a piece of a greater puzzle that we hope to complete years down the line, but rather a whole picture to be explored and realized for what it is on its own. Even reflecting on just yesterday, for example, I see so much that I could have possibly improved. I could have thought about how to adjust my fingers to make a sweeter sound while practicing violin. I could have reconsidered the lecture for my History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict class and pondered the complexities of the situation in the Middle East. I could have wondered about my own hypocrisy in being ashamed of the reactions people have when I wear my “I like Jesus” T-shirt.

Each day holds so many opportunities to consider, goals to work toward.

Foresight and planning are legitimate disciplines, but our disproportionately heavy interest in the future relative to that of the

present can often result in unnecessarily overworked lifestyles plagued by constant anxiety.

When we ignore the infinite possibilities of the present, we are operating under the impression that success is exclusively a future-based entity. Under this constraint, success can only ever be a distant idea contingent upon yet uncertain circumstances. But when we entertain the idea that success may be some-

“

...we are under the impression that success is exclusively futurebased.

”

thing that can be found in the present, we allow for a completely new, much more multifaceted definition of success—one that is tailored to individuals and allows them to get a full night’s rest without feeling

For more viewpoints visit our blog at maroonviewpoints.tumblr.com

guilt.

Despite the fact that I am a political science major, this past quarter’s classes have required many late night s. I’ll admit that I have, at times, derived a masochistic pleasure from how stressed I feel because I finally feel like I’m moving forward like the rest of my busy peers. And I have found myself still anxiously attempting to measure up to these standards of success.

But there are also moments, like tonight, when I find myself genuinely interested in my textbook.

I notice that it’s almost 3 a.m., but I’m not thinking about feeling validated because I’m staying up late or how this must mean I finally belong at this University. For a second, it could have been 3 p.m., and it wouldn’t have changed a thing, because I am so completely lost in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For a second, even though I am still a broke college student without any hopes of a summer internship, I feel successful.

Grace Koh is a second-year in the college.

sis makes a lot of sense. But it’s not unrealistic to dream of a situation in which you can take all the classes that will prepare you for your future and still try your hand at courses unrelated to your supremely employable triple major. That’s where auditing comes in.

At literally no additional cost, you can learn about modern chamber music, or the traditionalist theory of human rights, or really anything.

That fact that I was “musically illiterate” (my high school violin teacher’s way of putting it) due to my lack of training in music theory didn’t matter.

I wasn’t getting graded.

And if I turned in a less than stellar final paper because I had a mock trial competition that weekend? That was OK, too—it would never show in my GPA. And on top of that, the class was actually a lot of fun. Whether we were listening to cool modern

music or learning that the phrase “pass the goddamn butter” was a magic trick for handling polyrhythms, it wasn’t all 8 a.m. rehearsals and complex readings.

Auditing a class isn’t some sort of magical solution to all of your Core-related angst. It’s a lot of hard work. In my case, once I was in, there was no backing out without really letting my assigned Beethoven trio down. And even then, it was hard doing the readings knowing that there were no academic repercussions for not doing so. Many Friday mornings I talked myself in and out of sleeping in at the cost of submitting my weekly practice log.

But even if quitting had been easier, I would have regretted it. I got myself up Friday mornings by telling myself why I signed up: to learn about music. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t getting credit—that wasn’t why I was doing this.

Getting good grades is

important. Really important. But what’s more important is using the four short years of college to become the most multifaceted and learned version of yourself that you want to be. Though I can’t talk about mixed meter and atonality in any job interview, whenever I go to a concert I know how to better appreciate the orchestral cohesiveness. I also now know how to calm my own preperformance nerves and put emotion into a work through physical movement. And those are skills which are important and valuable to me, and which I’m glad I have.

So if you feel stifled by the cold and the Core, and the warmer weather has made you opportunely optimistic, try enrolling in a Korean class, or one in feminist theory. It might even end up being a lot of fun.

Kiran Misra is a first-year in the College.

“...demand more from the Viewpoints section.”

OP-ED continued from page 4 and the life of the mind in a time when such ideas are quickly losing popularity.

Such beliefs are belied by the quality of the Viewpoints section: If we’re all so focused on studying, how can the Viewpoints page be so often peopled by the seemingly illiterate? As a believer in the greatness of this college, I suspect that we can do better.

Second, and more importantly, the Viewpoints section of the Maroon is a truly democratic forum, open to all students of the University, for issues of interest and import to this campus. By “democratic” I do not mean, as some former editors of the Viewpoints section seem to have believed, that Viewpoints ought to be open to any idiot with a 20th birthday or a pointless anecdote. Rather, the Viewpoints section is open to anyone who is able

to stimulate dialogue in a productive manner. All of us at the University of Chicago are united in a shared quest for wisdom, and I am certainly not alone in believing the Socratic maxim that such a quest requires a shared engagement in discourse and dialectic.

And there is no better source for promoting discourse on campus than the Maroon. The Viewpoints section could use more authors like Emma Thurber Stone, whose columns are not only well-written but also insightful, leading to productive dialogue on campus about contemporary feminisms. I ought also to laud Eliora Katz, whose bold, provocative pieces have in their own way instigated a great deal of valuable discussion.

Without columns that offer thoughtful, assertive, or at least opinionated stands on matters relevant to stu-

dents here, the Viewpoints section has no reason to exist and will eventually collapse under the weight of a thousand banal slices of life.

It is our responsibility to demand more from the Viewpoints section. Instead of sighing wistfully when we encounter yet another aimless, thoughtless Viewpoints column, we ought to agitate, to complain to the Maroon, or to lend our own voices to the paper. This college is full of vibrant, enthusiastic conversations, and I’m sure that many of these would find a natural home in the Chicago Maroon. Unless we work together to make our newspaper better, we’ll continue to get the Viewpoints section we deserve. And that’s a frightening prospect.

Benjamin Gammage is a fourth-year in the College.

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.

7

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 4, 2014

DESIGN.

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

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ARTS

Heartlandia APRIL 4, 2014

Brass on the bayou as Dirt Red takes its talents to the Big Easy Side. You may have heard the band’s dulcet tones at various campus events, or at one of their much-discussed apartment ragers. But now this New Orleans–style brass band can finally say it has actually played in New Orleans. Over spring break, 15 of the band’s members traveled to the home of many of their musical inspirations to serenade the Crescent City with their

Kristin Zodrow Maroon Contributor “We play New Orleans– style jazz,” Dirt Red Brass Band’s Facebook page says.

“Sometimes we play Beyoncé. We march around. We play parties.”

It’s true: Since its inception last year, Dirt Red has played at events and gettogethers of all sorts from Hyde Park to the North

own take on its trademark sound.

The idea for the trip started with what a few of the officers call a casual, almost joking suggestion. At first it sounded far-fetched, but with help from the Student Government Finance Committee, the Dean’s Fund for Student Life, and fundraising of their own they got the chance to make DIRT continued on page 11 Cloud Nothings are, from left: Jayson Gerycz, TJ Duke and Dylan Baldi. The indie rock trio is coming off the success of its last release, Attack on Memory, released in early 2012.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL CHEN

Cloud Nothings on cloud nine with Here and Nowhere Else Zane Burton Arts Staff

Rub some Dirt on it! Dirt Red Brass Band confuses spectators at Alpha Kappa Psi’s annual Game Night this past winter quarter.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL CHEN

MAROON Crossword

By Kyle Dolan

Difficulty:

Across 1. Part of T.G.I.F. 4. Crown and Ratner, e.g.

8. Denver setting: Abbr.

11. Pasty-faced 15. Badminton need 16. Float base 18. Something entered

1

2

3

in court 19. Circle of life?

21. Sound of thunder 22. Give or take 23. Supreme Court Justice Kagan 24. CEO of Beats Electronics 25. Caroled

4

5

26. Damp 27. Petting zoo sound 28. Fried rice ingredient 29. Fraternity letter 30. Live side by side 34. Heavy cream holder?

38. Eater of eucalyptus leaves 40. New Orleans sand-

Cloud Nothings exists at a particularly interesting intersection of genres. While its instrumentation obviously has strong roots in the punk scene, it’s somehow too beholden to melodic hooks to fit within such a neat classification. On Here and Nowhere Else, this dichotomy is

wich 41. Docile 42. Place for a mike 43. Rubber rollers 44. Hamlet and Claudius 45. Radio’s Glass and others 46. Poor 47. “OK!” 48. “The curry could use more flavoring”, e.g.?

51. Conducts a sting, say 52. Orange or lime 53. Uno + uno 56. Sample 57. Massachusetts governor Patrick 60. Cancún coin 61. Bundle of paper 64. Collegian’s staple 65. Hedgehog of classic video games 66. Tablet 67. Bizet heroine in a tobacco factory?

69. ___ mater 70. 312 or 773, for Chicago 71. Backgammon impossibility 72. Word before ring or swing 73. Flower’s home 74. Comprehend 75. “C’___ la vie!”

more present than ever—the album boasts the catchiest hooks the band members have recorded since their humble beginnings as a oneman project in Dylan Baldi’s parents’ basement, yet it also manages to pack in some of their most urgent songs to date.

On the band’s fantastic 2012 release Attack on Memory, considerations

Down 1. If 2. Holder of aromatic leaves 3. Like espresso 4. Small cavern, poetically 5. Hither’s partner 6. Relocate 7. Vodka brand, familiarly 8. Destined 9. Creator of 65-Across 10. Uno + due 11. Not quite exact 12. Iditarod carrier 13. “___ no evil...”

14. Blue Ivy? 17. Tournament passes 20. Spy’s device 24. Thinker’s counterpart, maybe 26. Actress Rooney of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” 27. Start of a classic novel title 29. Big and ___ (men’s store section) 30. Corp. money managers 31. Ancient British tribe 32. Shooting game 33. Sounds of disapproval

of retaining old recording methods were effectively non-existent—the album’s nearly nine-minute opener “No Future / No Past” effectively threw the old formula that defined Cloud Nothings and Turning On out the window. What remained was a bold statement that exchanged the closeted pop sensibilities of the earlier CLOUD continued on page 12

34. Dish sometimes topped with chicken 35. Poppy product 36. Like Thor 37. Is a good dog, perhaps 38. Donna of fashion 39. Pictures that can make you dizzy 42. Head case?

43. Tiny dogs 44. Venetian title 46. Reindeer herder 47. Scene of a famous Roman campaign 49. Ragamuffin 50. River of Ireland 53. Indicate 54. Husband of Isis

55. Eye holder 57. Didn’t choose truth, maybe 58. Austen heroine 59. Family name in Chicago baseball 60. Comic book punch sound 61. Emails regarding inherited fortunes, often 62. Hawaiian port 63. “Sesame Street” character 64. Like some books 65. Brood 67. “L” alternative 68. Big fuss

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 4, 2014

11

Trance talk: A light conversation with rock band Papadosio Robert Sorrell Associate Arts Editor Anthony Thogmartin is the lead singer and guitarist of the Asheville, NC trance rock band Papadosio, known for its “high-energy, technologically perplexing, and utterly engaging” experimental performances involving complex lighting and video presentations. The band is touring after the recent release of its new double album To End the Illusion of Separation (T.E.T.I.O.S.).

Chicago Maroon: Who and what is Papadosio?

Anthony Thogmartin: We’ve been a band for about eight years. We played our first show all the way back in 2006. We basically play everything from experimental all the way to pop; I guess the best way to describe us is... we’re kind of a variety show.

The only unifying factor, I suppose, is that all of our music is kind of dance music.

Other than that, we really don’t have a genre that we really want to stick to.

CM: On your website you say “the information age has a sound.” Are you that sound, or if not, what do you think that sound is?

AT: That was actually written about us. We get a lot of influence not just from musical sources, but sometimes from public speakers, folk philosophers, things like that.

And one of our favorites, Paul Stamets, said that “the earth created the internet for its own benefit so that everyone could connect with each other and figure out a way to save the biosphere.” And so we really have interesting outlooks on what it means to be a band, and be artists, at this point and time in history, and we’re trying to honor

that idea...We see these things (digital technology and the environment) as being able to thrive together. But right now it seems that those two aspects are at odds with each other.

CM: I like the title of your new album To End the Illusion of Separation. How does music play into that idea?

AT: Really almost every song on that album, if not every song that we write, touches on the theme that we’re not so different from each other.

You start to get it right away when you get to a faraway city and see the same music posters on someone’s wall. We

wanted to write this album as our contribution to that idea.

CM: So I’ve seen videos of your concerts–they’re quite a spectacle. How do you describe your performance in five words?

AT: Well, let’s go with, “audio visual stimulation super improvisation”. What’s unique about us is that a lot of artists that have video, or artists that are doing video in general, don’t have necessarily a guy behind the helm; it’s all scripted. They get to a certain part of the song and this happens or that happens. Well, in our band, both the lighting and the video are run by

a separate person. So on the visual side we have two guys reacting to our improvisation.

In our music there’s verses and choruses, but between that we’ll come up with stuff on the spot. They’re reacting to that at the same time.

No show is ever going to be alike. Sometimes things happen in the crowd and we react to them. Instead of coming to see something that’s prescripted night after night, you’re coming to see something fresh.

CM: What’s the funniest or strangest thing that’s ever happened at one of your concerts?

AT: There are incalculably too many to explain, but I recently thought it would be pretty fun to get a little GoPro camera and stick it on my mic stand so I could watch the front row. It’s just endlessly funny, night after night. One time there were these two girls who were very enthusiastic about the show, and one was kind of short and round, and the other was kind of tall and thin, and the short round one got up on the tall and thin one’s shoulders. And they were very top-heavy and started swaying back and forth, and it was getting really bad. I stopped playing and put my hands out

and eventually people came to help. Things like that happen nightly.

CM: So for those who can’t make it to the show Saturday, do you have any plans to play Chicago again soon?

AT: Yeah, we will always play Chicago at least once a year. Sometimes we get into a festival and sometimes we do other things, but we’ll be back.

(Papadosio will be playing at the Concord Music Hall, 2047 N. Milwaukee Ave. this Saturday, April 5. Tickets are $14.50 in advance or $16 at the door).

“We’re kind of a variety show,” says Papadosio front man Anthony Thogmartin. On tonight’s program: Lights, lights, and more lights!

COURTESY OF JASON CHARME

“You can just go grab your band and find a street corner”: Dirt Red finally visits jazz homeland DIRT continued from page 9

their way to the Big Easy. “[Ivan] brought it up, and we all just half-jokingly were like, ‘Oh, yeah, one day we will make like a bazillion dollars, and all of us can go to New Orleans,’” said thirdyear Special Projects Coordinator and vocalist Himabindu Poroori.

“At the end of last year, we decided to become an RSO to hold auditions, keep the institution running even after we left. People were like, ‘You’re a band, that’s weird’ but then they [ORCSA] were like, ‘That’s fine’ and they let us became an RSO. Then the idea of possibly going to New Orleans became so much more real.”

Despite having RSO status, the band remains pretty flexible, which seemed to mesh nicely with the culture in New Orleans. Having no plans for gigs prior to their arrival, Dirt Red played on street corners to crowds of 40 to 50 people at all times of the day.

“Most of the days, we were just

playing on the street,” current Musical Director, violin player, and third-year Kevin Schwarzwald said. “That’s one of the greatest things we saw in New Orleans. It’s a place where you can just go grab your band and find a street corner, and people appreciate you just playing there.”

With plans to rehearse every day and play wherever they could, the band stumbled onto an opportunity to play at New Orleans’s House of Blues. While playing in Jackson Square, a guy, properly outfitted with a beret, approached Schwarzwald and invited Dirt Red to play at an event that night.

Third-year Anna Tam, a current officer and euphonium player, said there was a fear that they would be tourists playing to a bunch of tourists, so this nod of recognition from an individual entrenched in the local scene was great. The trip’s spontaneity and turn of good luck didn’t stop there, either.

“The coolest night we had, one

professional brass band contacted, and they said they were playing the after-party of one of the concerts we were going to for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which is one of the people we respect a lot,” Schwarzwald said. “They are the name in brass band music in New Orleans at this time. They told us we were welcome to play in the second line with them, which is the New Orleans tradition of marching down the street with grass music going. We met up with this band Pocket Aces and played with them on the way to the official after-party and, from what they heard of us play marching down there, they invited us up to play the last half-hour of the biggest brass band concert for the month in New Orleans.”

For the group, the trip was a sort of revival of their origins in traditional New Orleans brass music. While staying true to this tradition, Dirt Red’s repertoire has been influenced by funk,

soul, R&B, and early jazz. One of their favorites to perform is actually “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé, not exactly a brass-band standard.

Poroori called the band a 20-yearold’s idea of a New Orleans band.

“We play some Top 40, and stuff from all over the place,” she said. “But that’s one of the things about the trip: It reminded us that one of the things we love to play the most is the New Orleans standards because they are simple, they loop, you can do whatever you want with them, you can jump up and down, you can march, and all of those songs are designed to be fun. We rediscovered how much fun those standards are.”

Now back in Chicago, there are plans for an outdoor, end-of-year concert, an open jam session, and other shows to help Dirt become an even greater part of the music scene on campus. The group holds annual fall auditions, and this year Dirt Red welcomed five new members into a group of already

distinct and mixed personalities.

Poroori told a story of the band’s “casual collaboration” at one rehearsal. “No one in the band plays piano, but there is a piano in our rehearsal room. Someone will go and sit down and start plinking something out, and someone else joins in, then someone else joins in and, before we know it, we are playing CeeLo Green or Duffy.

We’ve come up with so much stuff just being in the same rehearsal room. We’ve written songs like that too.”

And, cheesy though it may sound, the consensus seems to be that the music is really what brings them all together. “[In New Orleans] we had rehearsal every morning for two hours to work on our sound,” Tam said. “There was this time we split up into groups, and we just made our own songs. We just created a song in like 20 minutes. That’s what we’re all about: Making music.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 4, 2014

12

How I Met Your Mother finale is less than legen - wait for it - dary Sammie Spector Maroon Contributor Some people devote nine years of their life toward graduate school, working up the corporate ladder, or raising kids. The past nine of my life were spent avidly watching How I Met Your Mother.

And these past nine years of sitting at that booth at MacClaren’s just culminated Monday night in a hurricane of old age, mourning, and reality checks.

After nine seasons, 208 episodes, an actual Bro Code and Playbook, and 29 women who weren’t the mother, How I Met Your Mother came to its finale, showing what lies in store for each main character leading up to and after the year 2030. The audience, at one point numbering over 12 million viewers, remained consistent and probably more faithful than most of Ted’s girlfriends. With 28 Emmy nominations, there is no doubt as to how much the show was loved. It was this final episode that was supposed to provide nine years of closure to a story beginning in 2005, although I’m not sure who needed it more—Ted’s kids, or the audience.

Let’s first put aside Ted’s relationship with the mother, who finally has a name (Tracy), a disposition (sweet), and a personality (just as corny as Ted’s). There were so many other wrap-ups and character transformations crammed into the hour-long episode that it was hard to wrap my head around it. The episode’s huge shocker was Barney’s finally falling in love—not with some barroom floozy, but with his own newborn daughter.

Still, there was something distinctly uncomfortable about not knowing how he met the mother, or who she even was. While the moment in the hospital was tender, I wish I could have seen more of their dynamic. Robin, meanwhile, completely withdrew her presence from the gang, and left me wondering whether it was because of the divorce or her love for Ted. If I had seen more of her character, maybe I would have thought more about her decisions rather than her increasingly drastic hairstyles.

Marshall and Lily seemed to be the only main characters that remained pretty static, the only difference being one more pregnancy. For me, the

The cast of How I Met Your Mother concluded their ninth and final season on Monday. Spoiler alert: We finally met the mother (or did we?).

COURTESY OF

20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION

most heartbreaking change was when Marshall and Lily waved a final good-bye to their old apartment. When Ted moved out, that was a change that I accepted, and even the year Marshall and Lily spent in Italy was fine—but losing the apartment altogether really proved the fact that the characters were moving on, for real this time.

Now to the heart of the episode, and series: Ted’s epic narrative of how he met his children’s mother.

When we meet her briefly, she’s lovely and perfect, but she doesn’t stay for long. Something in the past few episodes gave everyone an uneasy feeling that Ted might be telling this story to his kids because their mother is now dead. What follows in the finale fulfills everyone’s sorrowful prophecy. I kept repeating to myself that it couldn’t just end like

this. Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, the show’s creators and executive producers, wouldn’t make it depressing. They couldn’t. Not after all Ted had gone through…not after all we’d gone through.

But we see Tracy sick in the hospital, and our worst fears are confirmed.

What follows this revelation is the jaw-dropping moment of reconciliation, but maybe we knew it was coming. Ted’s kids spell it out for us: Robin was there all along. While the writers in no way try to diminish Ted’s love for the mother, she is now no longer a part of the story, and was never the main point. The story had always been about Ted and Robin.

In some ways, I resisted this ending, out of shock and overstimulation from all the loose ends

Future Islands wows at Lincoln Hall Tori Borengässer Associate Arts Editor If you’ve heard about Future Islands recently, it’s probably because of the band’s performance on The Late Show with David Letterman early last month that made its rounds on the Internet.

The band delivered a fervent performance that blew away Letterman himself, who closed his show grinning ear to ear and complimenting the band. Letterman even attempted to turn the band into a meme the next night during his monologue, by intermittently shouting, “Let’s dance!” and showing clips of singer Samuel T. Herring’s dancing again. Bringing those same infamous dance moves, the synthpop group hailing from North Carolina stopped

by Lincoln Hall last Wednesday to promote its new album, Singles.

Ed Schrader’s Music Beat opened the show with a charismatic garagepunk performance, switching between slow and heavy tracks like “Right” and screechy, fast-paced songs like “Sermon.” The band members paused between their set to joke with the audience, elaborating on their recent travels abroad as well as trips to Home Depot.

The band was pretty minimalist—composed of drummer and vocalist Ed Schrader and bassist Devlin Rice—and instead of opting for the venue’s light system it used its own setup of small lights

onstage, which band members controlled with foot pedals while they played. Despite having a bare-bones setup, the duo managed to really captivate the audience with its seemingly endless energ y.

Future Islands finally emerged onstage and immediately broke into the pulsating “Back In The Tall Grass” from its newest release. If Letterman himself was in the audience, he certainly wouldn’t have been disappointed—Herring gave the same intensity in his performance onstage that the band is notorious for.

The group even won the Developing Act Prize at the SXSW music festival last month for the eight performances it gave in four days. The award is given to artists who are breaking new ground with their creativity and show the most promise in achieving their career goals, and Future Islands has certainly been doing that.

Herring’s vocals are also one of the most notable parts of the band; his soulful, deep voice is matched well by the fluttery synths and prominent bass, but every once in a while he throws in what can only be described as a death metal–y growl. It sounds bizarre in concept, but everything about the band is so genuine that the odd combination really works together. Tracks like “Tin Man” and “Inch of Dust” from its early albums make a lot of use of this guttural snarl, which contrasts

nicely with the otherwise bright instrumentals.

Synthpop is one of those genres that gets laughed off a lot for its typically lighthearted qualities and heavy keyboards reminiscent of the ’80s, but Future Islands really throws a wrench into those assumptions. As he sings Herring makes gestures as if he is pleading with the audience: He crouches low, clenches his fist, pounds his chest, and reaches out his hand to the sky, which makes the raw emotion that he invests into his lyrics wonderfully tangible. The music is danceable, but still has a serious and solemn quality to it.

The band played new tracks like “Spirit” and “Sun In The Morning” as well as old crowd favorites like “A Song for Our Grandfathers” and “Walking Through That Door.” And no matter where the audience was situated, the band managed to get people dancing. People in the balcony danced furiously during the encore while those at the front of the stage jumped and sang loudly along with the lyrics, patting Herring on the back as he hunched over onto the ground. Whether the audience was comprised of new fans who’d got wind of The Late Show performance or those that had been following the band since its first release, it didn’t seem to matter. Based on its passionate performances and heartfelt music, what lies ahead for Future Islands is guaranteed to be success.

suddenly coming together (except, of course, “The Pineapple Incident”). While the lead-up for the past nine years has been all about how Ted meets his kids’ mother, I was left disappointed in these final scenes—when Ted finally meets the longawaited mother, she is short-lived, and Robin’s reentry comes too quickly to process.

Still, this finale seemed to be the only way for Ted’s adventure to pan out, no matter how bittersweet. You might be crying out in shock and criticism, or you might be crying tears of joy over this inevitable rekindling of Ted and Robin. No matter what you thought of the finale, it’s hard not to shed a tear as the credits roll: Ted’s long and involved story of how he met the mother has finally come to an end.

“Cloud Nothings won’t ever really be tied down.”

CLOUD continued from page 9

solo records for wide-open spaces and a relentless driving energy.

On their latest album, Baldi and crew trade these larger soundscapes for a more intimate approach that still finds a way to hit just as hard.

While their instrumentation might be less expansive and their songs might be shorter this time around, they still manage to retain all of the fight that made Attack on Memory such a joy to behold. On songs like “Giving into Seeing,” it becomes clear that Cloud Nothings won’t ever really be tied down, even if it makes songs that make you want to sing along rather than yell in the middle of a pit (not that there won’t still be lots of yelling when the band comes to town).

John Congleton gets production credits on the record, and he certainly has some hand in the band’s further refined sound. His recent work on St. Vincent’s latest selftitled album lent her work a newfound brazenness, and he works to a similar end with this record as well—the songs here are much leaner and meaner than they’ve ever been before. Throughout the record, Jayson Gerycz’s drums are much higher in the mix, and they lend the songs urgency and purpose. This works especially well on “Psychic Trauma”—the song clocks in just short of three minutes, and after about 50 seconds, it erupts into pounding drums and

rhythm guitars.

From a lyrical standpoint as well, Here and Nowhere Else is a much more straightforward record. On opening track “Now Here In,” Baldi repeats, “I can feel your pain/ And I feel alright ’bout it.”

Throughout the record, questions of sanity and mental illness are broached much more frankly than on earlier albums. When Baldi sings, “I’m not telling you all I’m going through/ I feel fine” on “I’m Not Part of Me,” we sense that he’s been dealing with these issues for years. Whereas these personal issues have been alluded to on earlier records, on Here and Nowhere Else, they’ve been brought to the fore of the record’s thematic concerns. As a whole, the album’s songs are able to paint a nuanced portrait of what exactly it is Baldi is going through, even as he tells us that he won’t.

“I’m Not Part of Me” isn’t just notable for its lyrical themes, though. As the album’s closer, it points toward a refined direction that the band can move toward on future records, one that embraces Baldi’s surprising vocal chops while maintaining the band’s driving energy. Together, these elements make up what is one of the band’s strongest songs to date. If Cloud Nothings can manage to capture a similar sound on future releases, it’ll be able to effectively expand its reach to a crowd with more pop sensibilities.

13

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 4, 2014

Best and brightest display their talent at annual Jam Fest Powerade Jam Fest Alex Sotiropoulos Sports Staff Fans may not know it yet, but they may have been graced by the likes of the future Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, and LeBron James.

Those three NBA superstars were once McDonald’s All-Americans and competed in the annual skills, three-point, and dunk competitions that came with the honor.

For the third year in a row, those competitions, now known as the Powerade Jam Fest, were held at the University of Chicago on Monday.

The top 48 high school boys and girls basketball players in the country displayed their fundamentals and athleticism at Ratner Athletic Center.

But it was Grayson Allen that took over the show.

After showing his shootthree-point ing skills in the three point competition and finishing in the top four, the six-footfour, 195-pound guard from Florida displayed one of the best dunks in the contest’s history.

“I don’t know many players that can drain it from behind the arc and throw it down too,” first-year observer Max Grad said. “All the other players were seri-

ously taking it to the rim as they practiced while Allen was playing it a bit conservatively.”

Keeping in mind that former Duke star and Chicago Bull Jay Williams was broadcasting the competition, the future Blue Devil Allen grabbed a Williams jersey and cautiously wore it with the help of fellow All-Americans and future Duke teammates Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow.

Then another future Duke teammate—and former teammate of second-year UChicago basketball players Nate Brooks and Jordan Smith at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School—sixfoot-ten Jahlil Okafor casually put on a Blue Devils hat and stood several feet in front of the far hoop.

Starting just outside the three-point line, Allen quickly shuffled his feet before taking five strides, befo leaping over the gigantic Okafor, and emphatically jamming the ball with his right hand—bringing the crowd to its feet.

“After what I saw at Ratner, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Grayson Allen’s going to turn some heads and drop some jaws at Duke next year,” Grad said.

As a roar rang through

the usually solemn Ratner Center, the McDonald’s All-Americans scurried over to Allen, and Jay Williams uncharacteristically took off his broadcasting headset to congratulate the prolific dunker. Surprisingly, the dunk only received a 68 out of 70 points. Still, Allen was crowned the champion.

“I’ve gone the past few years, and it’s cool to see the future stars of college basketball and the NBA,” thirdyear Marty Maldonado said.

“I thought the dunk contest was excellent, and I’m excited to see how Grayson Allen does in the future.”

History was made on the girls’ end as well. Alexa Middleton won both the skills and the three-point competitions, making her the only player to do so in the history of the event. Middleton will attend the University of Tennessee in the fall.

Last year, McDonald’s AllAmericans Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle, and Andrew Wiggins took center stage at the Ratner Center. Now, after successful freshmen college basketball campaigns, they look to make a strong impact in the NBA. Only time will tell if Ratner witnessed the next Jabari Parker or even LeBron James.

McDonald’s All-American Grayson Allen leaps over 6-foot-10 Jahlil Okafor in the dunk contest portion of the Jam Fest at Ratner last Monday night.

COURTESY OF MCDONALD’S

Chicago hits the ground running with undefeated record Softball Jenna Harris Sports Staff With an undefeated record of 10–0, Chicago charges into the 2014 season head on and ready to win.

Most students spent their spring breaks on the beach or catching up on sleep at

70

home, but the South Siders had no such respite. Playing 10 games over the course of one week, the team was victorious and embodied the saying “sun’s out, guns out” by taking Florida by storm, marking names and swiping bases.

Second-year pitcher Jor-

dan Poole, who was named UAA Athlete of the Week this past week, shone with a 5–0 record in six appearances with a 0.41 ERA. She struck out 34 batters in 34 innings and limited hitters to a .149 batting average.

Poole threw a no-hitter in a SBALL continued on page 15

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 4, 2014

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Adam Freymiller Sports Staff Spring break did not go according to plan for the Maroons (5–6) as they slumped to three consecutive defeats against No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (12–7), No. 2 Williams (11–0), and No. 8 Middlebury (6–2). While there’s certainly no shame in defeat against this caliber of opposition, head coach Jay Tee believes that the team will need greater consistency throughout its matches to take down such programs.

“To beat teams of this quality you need everyone playing well on the same day, and we didn’t do that.

We had a few moments where we looked like we could compete with our opponents but we weren’t able to sustain it throughout the matches,” Tee said. “In the future we will need to do a better job of sticking to our game plans and not allowing ourselves to improvise when the scores get close.”

In its first match against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 12 Chicago had a dis-

appointing outing, losing five of its six singles matches in straight sets to result in an 8–1 defeat. Its next matchup, against a Williams program that has won the past six NCAA DIII titles, was always going to be a stiff challenge. The red-hot Ephs extended their winning streak to seven matches with a 9–0 victory in Whittier. While it was a comprehensive victory for Williams, third-year No. 1 singles veteran Megan Tang turned in a resolute performance against the Ephs’ No. 1 fourth-year Kara Shoemaker, an All-American in 2012, but was on the opposite end of a 6–4, 6–4 score line.

The final match of the trip against Middlebury offered little reprieve for the Maroons, as the Panthers served up an 8–1 victory, but one of the main positives of the day, and throughout the trek, was the performance of secondyear Stephanie Lee in the sixth slot. Lee, who also won her Claremont match in straight sets, turned in a solid performance against

Middlebury’s second-year Lauren Amos. She claimed her first pair of singles victories in four attempts on the season thus far, filling in capably following an injury to second-year Sruthi Ramaswami.

Fortunately for the Maroons, their upcoming schedule will be much more navigable, according to Tee. “We know that we probably won’t face a team as good as the last three we played until the NCAAs. We can get back into regional play knowing we’ve faced the toughest teams in the country, and now we have that experience to rely on when we travel to Madison. We go into this weekend with confidence, however, knowing we’re the defending champion and proving that we are still the team to beat in the Central,” Tee said.

The South Siders will have an excellent opportunity to snap their four-game losing streak in this weekend’s Midwest Invitational, where they will play against Hope (6–2–1) and other teams to be determined.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 4, 2014

Maroons confident for April after tough California competition Men’s Tennis Bronagh Daly Maroon Contributor Chicago travels to Kalamazoo this weekend with the hopes of hitting the ground running after spring break competition in California. This seems likely, based on the team’s morale. “The guys are heading into the remainder of our season with a ton of confidence and motivation,� head coach Jay Tee said.

Even before the trip, though, the team was hungry for competition. “We got out there and were more fired up than ever,� first-year Peter Muncey said.

The squad had a disappointing loss as it began its

first match of the trip, falling 8–1 to No. 13 PomonaPitzer. Even with this overall loss, the team gained one win, as first-year Brian Sun was able to conquer his opponent 6–0, 6–2 at No. 4 singles.

This only served to inspire Chicago, as the members of the team put aside their disappointments and readied themselves for their match against California Lutheran University. “That [loss] was frustrating, and I’d be lying if I said we weren’t pissed off,�

Muncey said. “But rather than complain about how they have the courts and the climate, we pushed those excuses aside and decided together that our next

match against No. 20 Cal Lutheran was ours.�

Going into the match, the squad was able to predict its own success. “Our team chant is usually ‘1‌2‌3‌ Fight!’ But something about that day was different. Our captain [fourth-year Krishna Ravella] told us today it would be ‘win’ on three. And that’s what we did,â€? Muncey said.

The team fought its way to a 5–4 victory, improving its record to 6–5 in monumental fashion. “[This was] our first win over a top-20 program in nearly three years,� Tee said.

After this exciting win, the Maroons were not able to continue their success and fell to the University

of California, San Diego (UCSD) 6–3. This match could’ve proved discouraging for Chicago, but instead, it was motivating. “We then lost 3–6 to UCSD, a top-10 team in DII. But discouraged was the last thing we were,�

Muncey said. “After four days of being able to play as much as top teams, we were competing at their level.

And we still weren’t satisfied—we were hungry for more.�

The team intends to use this hunger as it continues with its preparation for its match against Kalamazoo, improving on those aspects that were lacking in matches over spring break. “We know that we need

to get better at doubles and to improve our fitness, so that’s an area we’re attacking right now,� Tee said. “We know that if we are able to take a 2–1 or 3–0 lead into singles, we are a very, very tough team to beat, especially if our stamina is there. Now that the guys have tasted some success, I think they’re buying in even more because they see their hard work paying off.�

Head coach Tee also spoke of the importance of preparation to continue as a strongly united team. “We will need all 14 players on the roster to come to practice every day with the right mindset if we hope to improve our results and

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move further up the rankings,� Tee said.

Muncey had similar sentiments. “As a team, we are looking to improve how well we fight, finish high-pressure points, and enjoy the game we love,� Muncey said.

What both agreed on most, though, was the overall goal to make it to the NCAA tournament once again. “It’s going to take a great effort, but if we continue to work hard and believe in our abilities, we will give ourselves a chance,� Tee said.

Chicago takes its confidence to the courts at Kalamazoo at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Poole: “We are really gelling well together.�

SBALL continued from page 13

1–0 victory over then-ranked No. 16 Carthage on March 23. Poole has also contributed offensively, hitting at a .526 clip and amassing a .737 slugging percentage. “I think the Florida trip really showed us what was possible as a team. It made us hungry to keep winning,� Poole said.

The team is thriving, which Poole attributed to the Maroons’ varied strengths. “I think we have a lot of chemistry, and most importantly, everyone has a role and is enthusiastic about performing to the best of their ability,� Poole said. “We are really gelling well together.�

This is the mindset the Maroons are going to bat with for the start of their spring season.

Their original schedule had the South Siders playing Aurora University (7–7) yesterday afternoon, but the game has been rescheduled to Wednesday, April 23 due to rain.

With April showers constantly looming, the Maroons are still prepared. “We have been trying to keep practice loose, to not get complacent, and to work hard to prepare for the next game, whoever that might be with the weather,� Poole said.

This weekend, however, still sees Chicago facing Lawrence University (7–5) and Beloit College (3–12). The Maroons can only hope to see the extension of their win streak as they head to Wisconsin. “I expect our excitement to stay up and for us to keep picking up wins as we go on to the weekend,� Poole said.

The South Siders face Lawrence University on Saturday, April 5 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and Beloit College on Sunday, April 6 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

GET IN THE GAME.

Nicholas Epley is the John T. Keller Professor of Behavior Science at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business. Epley’s research on the experimental study of social cognition, perspective taking, and intuitive human judgment has been published in over two dozen journals and featured by Wall Street Journal, CNN, Wired, and NPR among others.

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We have room on our bandwagon if you’re interested” —UConn Huskies men’s basketball tweet their NCAA March Madness success at the President

Erdmann places first, team finishes set records at NCAAs Swimming & Diving

From left to right, first-year Maya Scheidl, first-year Abby Erdmann, first-year Alison Wall, and third-year team captain Jenny Hill placed eighth in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the NCAA DIII Championships last month. In addition, Erdmann was crowned national champion in the 200-yard butterfly.

COURTESY OF MAYA SCHEIDL

Charlotte Franklin Sports Staff Both the men’s and women’s swim teams finished in 10th place at the NCAA DIII Championships in Indianapolis, which took

place March 19–22.

The men scored a total of 146 points while the women put up 122 points, and both achieved a remarkable number of All-American awards. Kenyon College won the men’s division with

a total of 480 points, and the winner on the women’s side was Emory University with 595.5.

Prior to this season, the South Siders’ best NCAA performance was a 28thplace finish for the men and

a 21st-place for women. Also noteworthy was the record number of Maroons who qualified for Nationals—22 swimmers and divers— considerably larger than ever before.

While the 10th-place

titles were impressive for the teams, firstyear Abby Erdmann unquestionably deserves the most outstanding accomplishment of the weekend. Erdmann swam a lifetime best by more than 2.5 seconds in the 200yard butterfly and finished first overall, claiming a national title. She is only one of fifteen individuals in Maroon sports history to win a national championship, and the first title from the pool since 1989.

First-years Alison Wall, Jonas Fowler, and Cara LoPiano, and fourth-year Eric Hallman all improved their times in at least one event. In addition, thirdyear divers Matt Staab and Tony Restaino both placed in the top eight in the 3-meter dive.

In preparation for the championship meet, the athletes trained just as they would for any competition.

For many of the athletes, the mental preparation presented more of a challenge since they were left with a month to prepare after their regular season. It was crucial they maintained full focus and enthusiasm for the period prior to

NCAAs. In total, the year ended with UChicago achieving a record-shattering 53 All-American honors, which is why each NCAAqualified athlete had high expectations for Nationals.

“This year we had a large number of returning swimmers who fully expected to qualify and were looking to score instead.

That change in attitude makes a huge difference,” Hallman said.

Hallman, the only fourthyear to qualify for NCAAs, acknowledged the immense effort the team will have to put forth to place higher next season. Still, the potential of the young team inspires confidence in him since he believes the team can realize this goal after his graduation. The men’s team may be one of the best DIII teams in the nation next year.

In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Though they have reached the end of this year’s competition, their sights for next season are set high.

Squad looks to carry momentum from indoors to outdoors Track & Field Isaac Stern Sports Staff The indoor season gave the track and field teams quite a cause for celebration. Secondyear Michael Bennett took home first place in the pole vault at the DIII National Championship, and the women’s squad brought home a conference title this past season.

Now, the Maroons transition from the indoor to outdoor season, beginning with the Ted Haydon Invitational this weekend.

“The transition from indoor to outdoor is mostly a mental challenge,” head coach Chris Hall said. “Trying to adjust to the outdoor weather conditions and understanding that we may not be able to have lifetime-best performances until it improves can cause athletes that are not as mentally tough to give up a little. I feel we will make the adjustment well, as we have tough kids.”

The Maroons do not have much time to adjust, since the outdoor season is particularly short this year, with the conference meet only five weeks away. Chicago’s quarter system puts the Maroons at

a disadvantage because their outdoor season starts later than many other schools’ do.

“We are behind the other teams in our conference who have all already competed,” Hall said. “Many of the teams have already had two meets. However, I feel we have time to prepare for the conference meet and afterwards to focus on personal goals.”

In addition, Chicago’s weather poses a unique challenge to the Maroons. While the rest of the conference traditionally enjoys more stable and warmer weather, the Maroons will be forced to endure near-freezing temperatures one day and hotter climates the next. “[Weather is] clearly a factor,” Hall said. “I do not want people to use weather as an excuse, but at the same time, we need to understand that we will not be able to perform at our highest level in terms of times, distances, [and] heights until it improves a little.”

However, as Chicago will play host to the conference championship this year, the weather could also be an unusual advantage. While the Maroons will not enjoy the cold and rainy conditions typical of

early spring in Chicago, a cold and rainy day during the UAA championship could swing the scales in Chicago’s favor.

“We enjoy hosting,” Hall said. “There are some great advantages to being at home.

It allows us to enter more athletes, and if we get poor Chicago weather, it is to our advantage. We compete well at home.”

Despite the weather’s importance to the Maroons’ season, Chicago’s research community has not yet discovered how to control the weather. Thus, the South Siders will have to focus on nursing injuries sustained during the late indoor season and improving conditioning and speed that may have been lost over spring break.

“This [Saturday’s] meet marks the start to the outdoor season,” Hall added. “I really want to find people dialed in and ready to compete. We cannot waste meet opportunities, so I have high expectations of our athletes to show up ready to compete.”

The Ted Haydon Invitational will take place this Saturday Second-year pole vaulter Michael Bennett prepares to compete during the at 11 a.m. at Haydon Track, UChicago Duals last season. located behind Ratner.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS