041012 Chicago Maroon

TUESDAY • APRIL 10, 2012

Hillel firing leaves Jewish students anxious Sarah Miller News Staff Jewish students are bewildered over the sudden firing late last month of the campus Hillel’s executive director, Dan Libenson, and the dismissal of his board, which left uncertain the future of Jewish life at the University and struck many as unjust treatment of an accomplished administrator.

The Jewish United Fund of Chicago ( JUF), which

Residents of Broadview Hall are raising alarms over the false fire drills that have wrenched them from bed in the middle of the night eight times in the past two weeks.

The first of the false alarms rang March 27 around 3 a.m., when one of the building’s heat sensors malfunctioned. The sensors detect sudden sharp changes in temperature.

As students filed out onto the sidewalk, fire-

University students flock to Occupy after winter hiatus

owns the building, its endowment, and the Hillel name, notified Libenson of his firing in a letter March 29. The firing comes at the end of two years of financial and philosophical tensions between the Newberger Hillel and the JUF. Libenson, who became executive director in 2006 and is a recipient of an AVI CHAI fellowship, is seen as responsible for many of the organization’s most successful efforts in recent HILLEL continued on page 2

At Broadview, faulty fire alarms ring, then ring again Lina Li News Staff

ISSUE 36 • VOLUME 123

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fighters entered the building to investigate the source of the alarm, eventually turning it off and allowing residents to return to their rooms. However, the alarm went off once more an hour later, causing residents to evacuate again and the fire department to come.

Wick House resident Mido Aly expressed frustration that the University had expediently dealt with facilities problems in Pierce Tower earlier this month but were slow to resolve the problems in Broadview.

ALARMS continued on page 2

Lab School graduate David Orlikoff (center) sounds a call to action among other Occupy Chicago protesters shortly after Saturday’s march from the Financial District to Grant Park.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Linda Qiu Associate News Editor University students gathered alongside more than 1,000 activists at Saturday’s kickoff of Chicago Spring, marking the return of the Occupy movement to its roots in street activism.

After a winter hibernation spent organizing indoors, Occupiers at neighborhood events convened at the movement’s first base at Jackson Street and LaSalle Street and marched to Grant Park.

There, hundreds participated

in an afternoon festival of workshops and discussions to mobilize against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit on May 19–21, which Occupy views as a symbol of the one percent’s power.

“What we face in Chicago is serious. They’re stealing our schools. They’re stealing our clinics. They’re stealing our free speech,” Occupy Labor Committee member Andy Manos said in an opening speech. “These are revolutionary times. We must move forward by moving towards each other. Welcome to

the Chicago Spring.”

Hyde Park demonstrations earlier in the day included Occupy the Southside’s Stop the American Genocide (StAG) campaign, a panel discussion led

by Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. at Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Kenwood, and a rally at the impending Becker Friedman Institute on East 58th Street and South University Avenue against the free market philosophy of Milton Friedman.

Sociology graduate student and UChicago Occupy member Peter Fugiel said that the Univer-

sity’s mistreatment of facilities workers, shown in its decision to cut workers’ hours rather than cut costs elsewhere, demonstrated the detrimental effects of Friedman’s ideology.

“The University models itself as a private corporation, in the legacy of ‘the market knows best.’

This ideology is very contagious, and it gets into the avenues of society that are supposedly not about profits,” he said.

Though the movement previously objected to the naming of the Becker Friedman Institute, OCCUPY continued on page 3

Uncommon Interview: John Kuhns (M.F.A. ’75), author, artist, entrepreneur John Kuhns (M.F.A. ’75), a former sculptor and MAROON staffer, is a leading investment banker and venture capitalist in the alternative energy market. He lectured on April 5 about his new novel, China Fortunes, and talked with the MAROON about creativity in investing, Chinese business culture, and his future endeavors.

John Kuhns (M.F.A. ‘75), CEO of China Hydroelectric Corp. and author of China Fortunes, discusses his business experience and how his artistic background shaped it.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

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Chicago Maroon: How has your artistic background and time on the Maroon influenced your later experiences?

John Kuhns: I would say the practical utilization of writing skills was very important for me—something I didn’t have when I arrived, but happily I improved by the time I left. Really, writing and speaking as one writes in any aspect of business is critically important because in the end, all business is about getting someone to buy your product, whatever it is, a widget or a service.

I was being interviewed when I was at Harvard Business School for a permanent position at First Boston, and the person who was interviewing me was a little stiff. [He] said to me, “What did you do before you got to Harvard?

I’m looking at your résumé. This can’t possibly

be right. It says you’re a Master of Fine Arts from University of Chicago.” I said, “That’s right.” He said, “What in God’s name would give you the idea that you could go from something like that to working at First Boston?” I said, “Well, I was told that investment banking relies on creativity, and so I thought my arts background, which obviously depends on creativity, would be helpful.”

He says, “Investment banking is evolutionary, not revolutionary.”

Well, tell that to Steve Jobs.

CM: What has motivated your career changes?

JK: Well, let me just say this about anyone looking at a career or changes in their career: Don’t ever make a decision based on money. It’s the worst possible thing one can do. What one reUNCOMMON continued on page 2

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

Prospective ideas » Page 4

Iceberg straight ahead: Iconic ship hits new dimension » Page 7

Funder pressure

Artist and RH bursts out of housing bubble

» Page 4

» Page 9

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 10, 2012

Business, Kuhns says, like In light of Pierce, Broadview residents urge action from administration “carving a piece of wood” ALARM continued from front should now function as expected. As a pre- residents to send e-mails requesting immeUNCOMMON continued from front

ally has to do, and I had an opportunity to think a lot in Midway Studios with my headphones on. I was a sculptor pounding away on a rock there, so I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do and what I concluded was the best thing I could do is do something that I was good at. Why? Because that would make the day more pleasurable. What I’ve also found as I’ve winded my way through my career is that if I’m doing something that I’m good at, the success comes.

Now, furthermore, in terms of business plans, you always have to pay attention to the world around you, just like an artist. I was a reductive sculptor, so I would take a block of stone and reduce it to an image, whereas, say, someone working with clay is an additive. But either way, you have to adjust to changes going on. So with wood, if you’re carving a piece of wood, if you get to a knot and that was where the face was supposed to be, you’re gonna have to change that figuration. And business is the same way.

CM: What are the differences between business dealings in China and in the U.S.?

JK: The assumption that most organizations that we’re familiar with here stateside are what we call triangular. In other words, there’s a hierarchy. The CEO is on the top; coming down the pyramid you have a technology officer, the CFO, etc. If the people at [a] bank ask a financial question, they don’t want the CEO to answer that question. They want the CFO to answer that question. As a matter of fact, if the CEO starts to answer a financial question, people start to get nervous.

Now let’s go to China. What’s employed over there is a system where there’s a guy, a person, called a dalaban. The dalaban makes all the decisions, provides all the information to outsiders, so the system is neither transparent nor diversified. So you haven’t got a lot of people contributing to the value of a whole. Unfortunately, you’ve only got one person. And no investor in, let’s say, international money centers [in] New York, Switzerland, London, even Hong Kong or Singapore, is going to give that organization money if that person’s investor has a choice. That is the biggest thing to try and get across to my clients and my opportunities that I invest in in China.

So the biggest challenge is not just [to] go to China, figure out where out in the hinterlands the best deals are—they’re not in Beijing or Shanghai. But once you get there, and make your deal, you’ve got to reorganize the way they think about themselves and the business.

CM: What do you see yourself doing in the future?

JK: Little sales pitch: I’m almost finished with my second novel. It’s about smuggling over the Burmese-China border in South Yunnan. Like my first novel, it’s developed from personal experience. I bought a business down there. It’s a silicon smelter, and my drivers of the charcoal trucks, who—you know, silicon smoke, you need to use charcoal in the smelting process— looked a little too affluent, and I asked the translator why that was. And it turns out they’re all smuggling on the weekends. So I obviously did a little more investigation, and it’s a fascinating thing and a fascinating topic for a novel.

If I would ever have the opportunity that John Grisham has, to sell hundreds of thousands or even millions of hardback books at 25, 35 dollars, I’d rather [do] nothing else than that. Nietzsche said the best thing a person can do is create.

He also said the best creation that me or you can do is to dream. But if you can’t do that, then the arts, writing, are useful surrogates. Most of us don’t have that luxury, and so I’m in business in China because it pays the bills and enables me to live the lifestyle I want.

I would swap all that to simply continue to write about China and other places, Burma, absolutely. On the other hand, the publishing business is very difficult—it’s unbelievably competitive. It’s not something that someone can just dive into and succeed at.

“We understand that the University has been under pressure to deal with other dorms, specifically Pierce, but, at the same time, there are some pretty serious problems with the building here that have to be addressed. It’s a shame that they aren’t being addressed as seriously,” Aly, a secondyear, said in an April 3 e-mail to Ana Campos, the interim director of Undergraduate Student Housing.

Similar incidents occurred throughout the next week, the most recent at 12:45 a.m. last Tuesday. That afternoon, Facilities Services staff consulted with the fire alarm service company to develop a plan to resolve the faulty sensor problem, and Facilities Services located and replaced an additional defective device on the fifth floor of the dormitory.

Facilities Services and the company that supplies the alarms believe that the system

caution, an engineer has been stationed to monitor the fire alarm systems overnight.

University spokesperson Steve Koppes said in an e-mail that Facilities Services will also continue to replace all alarms on the fifth and sixth floors throughout this week.

The day after Aly’s message, Campos responded to Broadview residents via email.

“After each instance in which the fire alarms have sounded, Facilities Services conducted an inspection of the heat detectors in the zone indicated on the fire panel and has replaced several faulty sensors,” Campos wrote.

Even though administrators reassured residents that the problem was being resolved, two more false alarms went off that week after they made that claim.

Frustrated, Aly encouraged Broadview

diate action to Campos and Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Students Kimberly Goff-Crews.

In his letter to administrators, Aly said he had become mistrustful of the fire detection system, that students no longer had “peace of mind,” and that these problems would hurt the University’s reputation in the long run.

“You get the sense that the building is nearing its end,” Aly said.

Third-year Wick House Resident Assistant Samantha Ngooi supported the residents’ efforts to push for action. “It’s upsetting that housing didn’t address the students until after students had sent letters,” she said.

“The administration doesn’t do anything until pushed. Housing is not preemptive in addressing student concerns: Students always have to demand.”

Jewish organizations uncertain about fate after sudden firing

Following the controversial firing of Hillel’s executive director, Dan Libenson, Jewish students convened in the McCormick Tribune Lounge last night to discuss the future of Jewish life on campus and voice their concerns.

JULIA REINITZ | THE CHICAGO MAROON HILLEL continued from front

years, including the widely attended Mega Shabbat program, an increase in Jewish internships, and the popularization of Birthright Israel.

The suddenness of the firing has been a source of misgiving for students, who are divided over how the change might impact them.

“His job was not lost in honor and not in respect for the work that he has done,” said third-year and Hillel participant Dory Fox at a general assembly last night in the McCormick Tribune Lounge. She called the firing “a stain on the Jewish community.”

Relations between the Hillel and the JUF have been strained for years, according to Doni Bloomfield, who delivered the introduction to the assembly.

The JUF bought the building 10 years ago and promptly renovated it, agreeing to absorb most costs from the resulting deficit.

However, two years ago, the JUF notified the Hillel that it would no longer be shouldering the deficit and required that the organization take out a six-year loan, which cut $25,000 into the Hillel’s operating budget, according to graduate student Adam Levine-Weinberg, who also spoke at

the assembly.

Since then, institutional divisions have emerged. Because the JUF owns the Hillel’s building, many believed that it should have continued paying down the deficit, according to Bloomfield. Libenson suggested alternatives to staff cuts as a way to offset its budget shortfall, including changes to employee compensation and building use, but the JUF was not receptive.

Finally, the Hillel’s board of directors sent a letter to the JUF on March 27 indicating that they planned to resign along with Libenson. In response, two days later they were informed by the JUF that Libenson had been fired and that the board would be dismissed presently.

Libenson’s organizational approach, which Jewish students praised for allowing them greater autonomy in leading their own organizations, might also have clashed with the JUF’s vision, Bloomfield said.

“When I first heard about the situation, I was shocked,” said second-year Jessica Green, who as president of the Jewish Students Association ( JewSA) benefited under Libenson’s tenure.

Students also are concerned about how Jewish organizations that rely on the Hil-

lel, which is financially independent from the University, will continue operating.

A few of these organizations, such as Orthodox group Yavneh, have sought out support for next year from JewSA, an RSO with access to ORCSA funding. Yavneh members, including Bloomfield, met last Wednesday to discuss the impact of Libenson’s firing and whether to take action.

However, no budget changes are foreseen this year, and the Hillel’s interim director, Paul Saiger, said in a note published to the Hillel Web site that “any suggestion that funding for the Newberger Hillel has or will decrease is simply misleading and false.”

For all of the uncertainty, not all students view Libenson’s departure as a total loss.

“Most of the strife and concern comes from whether or not the firing was unjustified. But a lot of other students feel that this is an opportunity to revolutionize Jewish life on campus,” first-year and Yavneh member Jonathan Nathan said.

Still, he said, “I’m worried the political turmoil will factionalize the Jewish community on campus.”

Another meeting on the issue will take place Wednesday.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 10, 2012

Polzik: Chicago Spring about local community as much as global issues OCCUPY continued from front

University of Chicago students and affiliates march against the ideas of Milton Friedman at the future site of his namesake institute as part of Saturday’s Occupy the Southside.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Fundamentals: Issues and Texts Announces a Public Colloquium

The

Power of Books: Some Personal Accounts Nathan Tarcov Professor of Social Thought and Political Science

Christopher Wild Professor of Germanic Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies

Wednesday, April 11 4:30 P.M. Stuart 101 Reception to follow This event is recommended for students considering a major in Fundamentals.

More information about Fundamentals will be available at the event.

Persons needing assistance should contact Jonny Thakkar (jthakkar@uchicago.edu).

Saturday’s Hyde Park rally was more a protest of Friedman’s economic theories, according to Occupy organizer David Orlikoff.

“All morning actions in Chicago are protesting Milton Friedman, whether they say so directly or not, because his ideologies have become the best excuse for the terrible direction we’ve been going,” he said.

Orlikoff, a U of C lab school graduate and Hyde Park resident, emphasized that solidarity was the larger purpose behind Chicago Spring and the Hyde Park rally, where community activists presented local movements, such as that surrounding the University of Chicago Medical Center’s trauma center.

“The whole point of Occupy is taking back your community and taking back how you’re governed,” philosophy graduate student and Occupier Dasha Polzik said.

Occupy’s main movement vacated the streets this winter for an office building in Pilsen. However, neighborhood occupations at Piccolo Elementary School, a foreclosed home on the South Side, and other locations kept protesters active.

A set of city ordinances, which critics call “Sit Down and Shut Up” laws, will tighten protest regulations, and law enforcement has purchased face shields and surveillance equipment in preparation for Occupy’s protests.

“I’m hoping that the police don’t think that this is a nuisance, that they know it’s on their behalf because they can’t come down here,” said Polzik. “There hasn’t been that much talk about arrests but, at the same time, with the new regulations that the mayor has imposed, it’s not precisely clear to me when I am and when I’m not following the law.”

Demonstrators also hosted teach-ins on civil disobedience and NATO organizing. Chicago Spring will include action on Mayday, a People’s Summit a week before NATO convenes, and demonstrations during the summits.

“We’re in the streets again,” first-year Occupier Brendan Leonard said. “Occupy’s back.”

3

Service-minded med student dies at 24 Rebecca Guterman News Editor Abhinav Kapur, a third-year medical student who dedicated his life and his studies to the service of others, died March 25 in Hyde Park. He was 24.

Kapur, who grew up in Prospect, Kentucky, graduated from Duke University in 2009 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering.

He was offered a spot in the class of 2013 at the Pritzker School of Medicine, where the admissions committee was particularly glad to hear of his acceptance, according to Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid Sylvia Robertson.

“I remember how excited and pleased admissions was when he chose us,” she said. “It’d been a real privilege to watch him grow here.”

Before and after matriculating at the U of C, Kapur strove to improve others’ lives, regardless of borders. “He came to us from Duke and had been involved in global health initiatives, and continued that here,” Robertson said. “He had a remarkable heart of service.”

Kapur also assisted free clinics through the Pritzker School, which places student volunteers at locations all over the city, often in collaboration with other Chicago-area medical schools.

Even with his accomplishments, Robertson said that Kapur always had a modesty about him that belied his talent. “He was remarkably bright. He always spoke with such energy about his leadership in the quiz bowl at Duke,” she said. “But what I remember most is his humility. He had no need for recognition.”

As with many third-year medical students, Robertson was unsure where Kapur’s education would take him. However, she is confident that he would have made a difference.

“It has been a profound loss and our community is grieving,” she said.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed APRIL 10, 2012

Prospective ideas Some of the many ways to show your prospie a good, insightful time in the coming weeks The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 JORDAN LARSON Editor-in-Chief SHARAN SHETTY Editor-in-Chief COLIN BRADLEY Managing Editor MAHMOUD BAHRANI Senior Editor DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Senior Editor SAM LEVINE Senior Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE News Editor REBECCA GUTERMAN News Editor GIOVANNI WROBEL News Editor EMILY WANG Viewpoints Editor AJAY BATRA Viewpoints Editor CHARNA ALBERT Arts Editor HANNAH GOLD Arts Editor TOMI OBARO Arts Editor DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor BELLA WU Head Designer

Spring quarter at the U of C is the time when students first emerge from the libraries after months of continuous studying—just in time to greet fresh-faced prospies arriving on campus. This week and next week in particular, hundreds of prospies will invade campus for Admitted Student Overnights. For them, these visits will be crucial to their final decisions to matriculate here or take their talents elsewhere. So what does this time mean for the rest of us? Students shouldn’t simply view the next couple of weeks as a time of mild inconveniences like extra long lines in the dining halls; rather, it should be seen as an opportunity to show prospies what life at the U of C is really like. That being said, the Maroon has a few tips for students playing host to prospective students in the coming weeks.

some of the events going on around campus. Whether it’s an a capella concert, a movie at Doc, or an art exhibit at SHoP, show them that Hyde Park can culturally compete with any other neighborhood in the city. You could also walk them through the Logan Arts Center, which is not yet a part of the official admissions tour.

1. Paint them an honest picture: In order to hold on to the best and the brightest, it’s key that students provide a personal perspective rather than the canned image of the U of C crafted by the admissions office. Answer any questions they may have about life here honestly, but try not to overdo the self-deprecation.

3. Take them to a frat party: It’s practically a foregone conclusion, and prospies get in for free anyway. But have a better alternative ready for you both to escape to afterward. Make sure to keep a close eye on your prospie; a trip to the emergency room would be an inauspicious start and may even result in a rescission. Or maybe just consider having a night in. Settlers of Catan, anyone?

2. Walk to the Point: For many, the idea of going to school in a big city seems daunting, but one of the unique things about Hyde Park is how verdant it is for an urban neighborhood. Take a pleasant walk through Hyde Park’s quaint residential areas to the Point, and enjoy an unparalleled view of the lakefront and the downtown skyline.

4. Bring them to your favorite discussion or class: Prospies are allowed full license to sit in on any class, but they have a bad habit of choosing the most yawn-inducing courses available.

Let them sit in on a class you know is worth their time.

6. Eat somewhere outside the dining halls: They’ll have hundreds of meals at South, Bartlett, or Pierce in the years ahead. Instead, explore solid and cheap options like Leona’s, Z&H, and the Snail. And for an authentic, if greasy, taste of the neighborhood, bring them to Valois or Harold’s.

5. Expose them to some Hyde Park culture: If they’re true pseudo-intellectuals like the rest of us, they’ll love

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

KEVIN WANG Web Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor DON HO Head Copy Editor JEN XIA Head Copy Editor DARREN LEOW Photo Editor JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor BEN POKROSS Assoc. News Editor

Hating the player

Funder pressure

Being an adult requires some mischievous dishonesty, but it’s not as fun as Mario

Universities too often end up in compromising positions in the search for donations

LINDA QIU Assoc. News Editor CRYSTAL TSOI Assoc. News Editor DAVID KANER Assoc. Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Assoc. Arts Editor ALICE BUCKNELL Assoc. Arts Editor SCOTTY CAMPBELL Assoc. Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Assoc. Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Assoc. Sports Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Assoc. Sports Editor DEREK TSANG, Assoc. Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS, Assoc. Sports Editor TIFFANY TAN Assoc. Photo Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager VIVIAN HUA Undergraduate Business Executive VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator SONIA DHAWAN Designer ANDREW GREEN Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER Designer SARAH LI Designer CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN Copy Editor MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor ELIZABETH BYNUM Copy Editor LISA FAN Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Copy Editor NISHANTH IYENGAR Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor KATIE MOCK Copy Editor LANE SMITH Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN 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. © 2011 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Douglas@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

By Ajay Batra Viewpoints Editor Super Mario 64 is the greatest video game ever made.

Yeah, I said it. And if you disagree, you’re wrong. If you just spat out your Froot Loops and emitted some angry sounds vaguely resembling the words “ocarina” or “portal,” I humbly request that you grant my statement as fact for the remaining 700–900 words. This can’t be that much of a stretch; who among us really dislikes Mario’s first foray into the third dimension, into a world full of Power Stars and permeable paintings?

Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll let you in on a little secret: I, someone pushing 20 years old, still play Super Mario 64 from time to time. “Time to time” usually lasts about three hours and comes every couple of weeks.

I’ve been playing this game since I was little, so racking up stars and showing Bowser what’s up is nothing new for me, and there’s no longer anything new for me to discover about the gameplay itself.

Why do I continue to play it then? I asked myself this question recently after about 15 people asked me the same, their obvious confused frustration increasing with each query as they watched me throw both my and Mario’s lives away. The first conclusion I reached is no less nerdy and pathetic than you’d expect.

Every now and again on a weekday, when I need a brief

break from unending responsibility and being outsmarted repeatedly by pieces of paper, one of the best ways for me to unfetter my mind and un-furrow my brow is to answer the distressed call of Princess Peach. Simply put, I enjoy the immersive, dishonest diversion—the feeling that, when I become the chubby yet freakishly spry plumber, I can escape the often trying realities of my life at the U of C and just be in another world where everything (myself included) kicks ass. Koopa ass, to be precise.

But it’s not quite a mindless diversion. Because I’m so, shall we say, experienced (read: forever alone), I admittedly don’t have to try all that hard anymore to get all 120 stars. What keeps things engaging, though, is merely experiencing the world that the act of playing the game opens up to me. The Mushroom Kingdom and the diverse microcosms its paintings contain are unbelievably deep and nuanced, with its intricate landscapes and seamless interactivity, along with a childish absurdity that sets it apart.

It’s an easy universe to get lost in, and I escape to it with some frequency. Lots of games have a similar appeal.

I figured this much out after a recent Mario sesh, when reality set back in: I was a little upset with myself for playing when I could’ve been working, a feeling I imagine is not uncommon in these parts. As much as chemistry can fascinate me, when I moved on to this particular problem set, it didn’t exactly move me in return. It didn’t at all, in fact. Transitioning from the mechanical yet consuming task of chasing down stars one by one to the more unfamiliar endeavor of answering questions about rovibrational spectroscopy (whatever that is) MARIO continued on page 6

By Jane Huang Viewpoints Columnist One of the things that troubles me about the higher education system in the U.S. is that the interests of alumni seem to be at odds with those of undergraduates.

Consider the admissions process: Every year, a lot of hand-wringing goes on over college admissions rates. When they rise, the administration gets called to task. For instance, The Daily Princetonian reported in 2009 that students and alumni were upset that their university’s admissions rate rose from 9.25 to 9.79 percent.

Practically speaking, I really don’t understand what the hullabaloo is about. How many people remember their class’s admissions rate down to the 10th’s place? I also doubt that an employer’s decision to hire you, or a graduate program’s decision to admit you, hinges on that small of a change in the admissions rate. Like the livestock in George Orwell’s Animal Farm who are told, “Four legs good, two legs bad!” we have been conditioned to think, “Lower admissions rate good, higher admissions rate bad!” For those who have graduated or are graduating soon, a lower admissions rate is usually viewed positively because it seems to validate their decision to attend their school.

For the incoming classes, a lower admissions rate is a good sign if it is a reflection of expanded outreach to groups that have been overlooked in the past, improvements to quality of education and

student life, and better financial aid. It is not such a good sign if it is a product of aggressive efforts to expand the applicant pool merely to one-up other universities.

In the wake of March Madness, now is also a good time to think about the place of sports in college. One of the justifications for devoting so many resources to college sports is that it strengthens alumni loyalty, which is often a euphemistic way of saying that it convinces graduates to donate more money. To a certain extent, I accept the reasoning that sports have a positive effect by providing entertainment as well as encouraging personal development and healthy habits.

However, I think it’s antithetical to a college’s mission to recruit students who don’t plan to graduate. The NCAA championship–winning Kentucky team was criticized recently in the media because several of its players are so-called “one-and-dones” who intend to leave college after completing only their first year.

From an educational standpoint, it would be frustrating to be in classes with people who have little stake in what they’re learning.

Perhaps more importantly, from a resources standpoint, the NCAA reported in 2011 that 98 out of the 120 largest athletic programs in the country lost money the previous year, with half of those schools losing more than $10 million each.

While the goal of college sports should not be to turn a profit, at least a few of those millions of dollars would be much better spent keeping the total cost of college down for other students.

Of course, not everyone attends a school with sports teams that attract athletic prodigies and massive amounts of media attention.

However, a lot of schools that are DONORS continued on page 6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 10, 2012

5

Money matters Our generation’s tendency to downplay money’s importance could have serious ramifications in the future

By Anastasia Golovashkina Viewpoints Columnist “I don’t want to make money,” Marilyn Monroe once famously said. “I just want to be wonderful.” Not a chance, Marilyn. Not a chance.

Many a student on many a campus has ventured to make a similar assertion. Time and time again, it’s the same kind of claim—that money just “doesn’t matter” because money “can’t make someone happy.”

There are two major problems with this kind of thinking. First, only those who have money can even begin to make these kinds of value judgments. Second, it’s almost always wrong.

Indeed, to claim “money doesn’t matter” is perhaps the most ignorant and most groundless of judgments someone could make, especially when that someone happens to be a U of C student, many of whom have affluent parents able to finance a college tuition at the nation’s second most expensive school, plus housing, utilities, and food.

Here’s the thing: You need to make money.

Thus, to an extent, you want to make money.

It’s unsupportable to argue otherwise, particularly from the typical privileged student’s vantage point of relative wealth and substance.

It’s true that money can’t always buy happiness, acceptance, or success. Studies have

shown that money stops having a significant impact on one’s happiness past a yearly salary of $75,000 (at which point an individual becomes able not only to live relatively well, but also to save up for the future) and that life satisfaction does not correlate with income. Lottery winners, for example, hardly have the happiest of endings; an overnight thrust into fame and fortune is seldom a pleasant endeavor.

But—and this is a big “but”—in each of these examples, money still has a significant impact. Though happiness can’t be bought, happiness can be substantially enhanced, at least up to that $75,000 mark. Likewise, though some lottery winners have descended into bankruptcy or depression, many others have used the jackpot to escape poverty or pay for their kids’ college.

So if there’s anything lending Ms. Monroe’s claim some credence, it’s that happiness can’t be bought. But that’s still light years away from implying that monetary concerns should simply be dismissed, or that striving to be “wonderful” is simply all there is to leading a good life.

Why? Because almost nothing is “wonderful” without a dependable source of ample income.

Money can buy a house, a car, a cat, a computer. In part because of the United States’ continued, inexplicable aversion to universal health care, it can also buy a longer life in the form of health insurance. It can buy a better education, relaxing vacations, and the freedom to live a life without having to budget every cent.

More importantly, that $75,000 mark is still quite a bit of money, particularly for the three-fourths of Americans who fall below this lucrative bracket. Median household in-

knowledge”—and, in more extreme cases, as “savages”—and their demands as “cosmology.” It made it easy to think that welfare programs have no impact, to disparage their recipients as “welfare queens,” and, as the federal government did in the ’80s and ’90s, to strive to “end welfare as we know it.” But these efforts all ran counter to the findings of studies which have shown that people tend to be the happiest when economic inequities are minimized.

However, perhaps the most dangerous consequence of this kind of thinking lies in its breeding of dismissive attitudes for future generations. Today’s 20-somethings are tomorrow’s leaders. Our ideas and attitudes won’t simply color tomorrow’s legislation; largely, they’ll define them. If we are to even try to present ourselves as an important generation, we should begin by recognizing and researching the problems that actually need to be solved—the correlations that we aren’t quite sure we support. Importantly, we need to stop subscribing to the reckless belief that our experiences hold true for others.

In the ideal world, it’s true—money shouldn’t, and almost certainly wouldn’t, matter. In the ideal world, earnings would correspond to talent, labor, time, and determination. There is also no doubt that the relationship between wealth and well-being is a complex labyrinth of socioeconomic hiccups and inconsistencies. Money isn’t the only answer to our problems.

But to even suggest that money isn’t an important part of the answer is narrow-minded, reckless, and wrong.

come in the United States is just $46,000.

These kinds of statistics have major consequences for government. Though the Illinois State Senate has introduced several pieces of legislation to raise the minimum wage since its last increase in 2010, they’ve all been rejected, largely on the grounds that our state already has the third-highest minimum wage. At Illinois’ minimum wage of $8.25, a full-time worker can expect to earn $17,160 per year. To put that into perspective, the national poverty line is $11,170 and $15,130 for households of one and two, respectively, putting minimum wage earners somewhere between 130 and 150 percent of the national poverty line. They fall right in the middle of that unfortunate Census-recognized category of “near poverty.”

It’s true that both sides of the minimum wage argument have comparable merit, and both sides agree that the ultimate goal is to move most workers away from depending on “minimum wages” altogether.

But to completely dismiss a perspective simply because it doesn’t align with those of other states is foolish.

This mindset also prevents the politically powerful upper-middle and upper classes from empathizing with those who struggle on low wages. Take, for example, the Great Recession of 2008–2012.

Though the downturn made a major dent in the earnings of households worldwide, it barely touched the lives of the upper economic echelon.

This approach made it easy to criticize anti-recession legislation like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or to put off implementing them until it’s too late for them to have a major impact. It made it easy to dismiss Occupy Wall Street protestors as aimless “noise” or “lack[ing ] in

Anastasia Golovashkina is a first-year in the College majoring in economics.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 10, 2012

6

Growing up means admiring your childhood enjoyments from afar MARIO continued from page 4 had an upper-then-downer effect on my mind that was too much to bear. Where the game drew me in, my work pushed me away.

This brought me to the other conclusion I reached, one which is, mercifully, not as geekish. Ultimately, I don’t play the game exclusively because I find its world fascinating, but rather because it is fascinating thanks to minimal effort on my part. After all, can I seriously claim in good conscience that some video game has more sheer potential to intrigue me than the field of chemistry? It’s not as if I was forced to take the class. Really, my repeated decisions to play Mario amount to me lying to myself—choosing, in moments of weakness, not to have my mind blown, but instead to have my mind blown as easily as I could.

All of a sudden I found myself saying, “Ajay, if you put half as much into your chemistry assignments as you did into that video game, why, you’d be a regular Einstein.�

The moment I thought this, I sat down and ploughed through my problem set, found the material more accessible and interesting than usual, and I think I became an adult.

The next time I picked up a controller, I really tried, but I couldn’t convince myself that enjoying the game alone was enough to warrant playing it. I felt guilty and quit in a few minutes. I can’t remember the last time that happened, but odds are the alternative I chose then was

Alumni at some schools have placed their influence in the way of student progress

learning how to tie my shoes or watching the latest episode of Barney. The next time I picked up my chemistry book, on the other hand, I somehow convinced myself not that I had to read it, but that I wanted to read it—that it would interest me—and I think I enjoyed it. Here I was, not only eating my broccoli, but savoring it.

While I will always maintain that Super Mario 64 is the greatest game ever made, I don’t think I’ll be admiring it anymore except from afar. You see, I’m a grown-up now, and I like making responsible decisions—staying on top of my shizz, looking for a job, sleeping early.

Sure, maybe this whole acting like an adult thing will be helpful in the long term (and even now), but I don’t necessarily recommend it. It’s the lamest form of dishonesty. The longer you can swindle yourself into doing whatever you want, the better. I’ll save you some broccoli in the meantime; it’s just as good as mushrooms, really.

Ajay Batra is a first-year in the College.

DONORS continued from page 4 like this also happen to be flagship state universities that heavily influence the way people think about higher education.

What happens at those schools matters to everyone.

Too often, it seems that colleges suffer a dilemma between doing what’s fair and doing what will garner more donations. D. H. Lawrence once wrote a short story called “The Rocking Horse Winner� about a fairly well-to-do family that was so anxious about status and money that it constantly heard the whisper, “There must be more money! There must be more money!� Perhaps administrators hear the same whisper.

A critical source of money is alumni donations, which fund scholarships, buildings, student activities, and more. However, certain kinds of projects tend to attract more interest than others. It’s a lot more appealing to help raise a building with your name on it than to quietly fund pedagogical development or, say, pay to keep the plumbing in good working order.

In the mid-20th century, alumni at elite institutions tried to use their influence to stand in the way of progress. The composition of such universities has changed dramatically from the ’60s and ’70s; more women, public school graduates, lowerincome students, and racial minorities are now admitted. However, the changes did not always come smoothly. In the 1960s, Yale University began to accept more public school–attending and Jewish applicants, which led to lower admission rates for legacy applicants and for students from its traditional feeder private schools. Many alumni protested these changes, but, fortunately, the president of the University did not back down. While universities ought

to cultivate ties with their alumni, it seems that Yale’s president knew where to draw the line. However, other schools might not always demonstrate the same foresight.

You may be wondering how the issues I have raised are relevant to our school. After all, we have yet to panic about—or even really experience—incremental changes in admissions rates and yields. We’re the school that once got rid of its football team to focus on academics. However, at the risk of sounding like a hipster, I’ve noticed that a lot of people nowadays want to make the U of C more mainstream. While I’m not the kind of person who thinks that is intrinsically condemnable, I am concerned that the University might make itself more susceptible to the same kinds of pressure currently exerted on its peer institutions.

Jane Huang is a second-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.

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John Wesley and His 18th Century Context dinner & conversation with

Kyle Rader Is religious fervor fundamentally at odds with rationality? The socalled Age of Reason would seem to suggest as much, but some of the same people who explored the possibilities and limits of reason and experience were also part of great revivals whose effects linger to this day. Come learn about one such person, and see if his way of reconciling seeming opposites offers us a lesson for today.

Wednesday, April 11, 6:00 pm A vegetarian meal is served. Bring your friends! Your RSVP is helpful: ofďŹ ce@brenthouse.org, 773-947-8744 or the Facebook event.

BRENT House:

Third annual recital in the Brian Gerrish Organ Performance Series

CAMERON CARPENTER SUNDAY APRIL 15, 5 PM $10 general students free w/ID Tickets at door or online at `]QYSTSZZS` cQVWQOU] SRc

The incomparable Cameron Carpenter brings his prodigious virtuosity to Rockefeller’s E.M. Skinner organ, with a program including selections from his own Visions of the Organ from Space (Science Fiction Series) and dazzling and unconventional arrangements of classics.

The Episcopal Center at the University of Chicago

5540 South Woodlawn Avenue • Chicago, IL 60637 www.brenthouse.org • www.facebook.com/brent.house.chicago • 773/947-8744

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ARTS

Trivial Pursuits APRIL 10, 2012

Beats & Pieces creates Legacies of sight and sound Alice Bucknell Associate Arts Editor Cables and wires coiled around bare feet, bright lights of glittering machinery, and rows of a mesmerized audience, wooed into a silent sway by hypnotic wailing vocals, graced the first floor of the Southside Hub of Production on Thursday night as part of Beats & Pieces’ Legacies exhibition.

Electroacoustic artist K. Serra opened the evening lineup with a moody, ethereal style that fused her classical training as an opera-singer-to-be with her later interests in electronic sound. The lights quickly dimmed as a ghostly background beat filled the room. The artist created loops one after the next using unconventional “instruments” such as towel racks and other household items, integrating these beats into the final song, the effect being an improvised, highly personal performance

that both shaped and encouraged audience engagement.

Legacies also featured a performance by SHoP regulars Fuzzy Moon, a jazz and alt-fusion band made up of alums from Northwestern; Dastardly, a band that puts a Chicago spin on bluegrass and jazz; and Eigenfunk, a soul and jazz group with Hyde Park roots. However, K. Serra truly captured the crowd.

As the music intensified with piercing vocals that mirrored the spiritual wailing of a church choir, any sort of audience noise faded out in awed admiration. Audience participation was still there of course, but it consisted of gentle corporeal swaying and gazes fixed unblinkingly towards the source of the music. And K. Serra did not hesitate to elicit laughs or whoops of approval through lighthearted and lively banter uttered between tracks. But as the audience resettled with each new song and let the hypnotic sound take

its full effect once more, the room’s activity quickly fell into a cyclical pattern of silent, growing appreciation punctuated with energetic bursts of claps and cheers between songs.

Sitting in the front row, no more than a couple feet from K. Serra’s massed assortment of equipment, I had a hard time pulling my gaze from another source of artistic entertainment that required arguably as much talent as the sound echoing throughout the room. With each new instrumental loop recorded and introduced into the music, every change of tempo and different background beat, K. Serra was flipping a sea of switches on and off with her bare toes. This she did mechanically, intuitively, while the rest of her focused on strumming tunes on the electric keyboard and producing enchanting vocals. K. Serra’s performance was as stunning visually as it was aurally and, through its appeal

of both sight and sound, served as an excellent representation of the theme of Legacies.

Beats & Pieces concerns itself with the integration of performance and visual arts, ultimately treating the two fields not as two separate entities, but rather two parts of a whole.

Each brings its own sensual delight—the former sound and the latter sight—but, as K. Serra and other artists demonstrated that night, it is rare that these two areas do not overlap. While musical artists awed the crowd with aural delights, spoken word artists painted stunning images with their voices; meanwhile, visual arts pieces collected especially for this exhibition from both U of C students and members of the larger Hyde Park community filled the walls and rooms of SHoP’s first floor.

The artwork and performance pieces themselves drew from a wide variety of origins, with many artists drawing

from their own personal, ethnic, and religious identities to create a collection of artistic expression mindful of its worldliness. Guests were invited to amble about the gallery space while keeping an ear open to the lush sounds produced by live bands.

During fall quarter, Beats & Pieces put on a similar exhibit at the SHoP entitled Origins. Like Legacies, Origins promoted the idea of visual and performance-based art as a symbiotic pairing, with each art form enhancing the other. Likewise, both shows made use of the SHoP’s homey interior and function as a space of communal gathering and sharing of artistic creation. However, as their titles might suggest, each annual exhibition comes with its own distinctive meaning. While Origins is presented in the beginning of the academic year, Legacies is held toward its end, and is mindful of the changes and BEATS continued on page 9

Iceberg straight ahead: Iconic ship hits new dimension Daniel Rivera Associate Arts Editor If you’d asked me at any point in my life how I felt about James Cameron’s Titanic, I would’ve told you about when I was eight and my sister 10, and we’d together sneak into the living room and grab the second of the movie’s two video cassettes.

Popping it into the VCR of our playroom, my sister and I would eagerly (and sadistically) fast-forward to the part where the ship sank, munching on our popcorn with wide eyes. Sometimes we’d stop for the boobs first and giggle, because in the movie’s exhaustive three-hour runtime, not much else stood out to us.

I can’t say my perverse, eight-year-old self is vastly different from my first-year-at-college self. I definitely haven’t grown up, and not many things have changed. One of the few things that has though is my appreciation for Cameron’s sweeping epic, thanks largely to its re-release last week in 3D. Titanic was a success from the moment its title card lit up silver screens around the world. Not only did it top the box office its opening weekend, but it held that spot for the next 14 weeks as well. It still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who had been at best Hollywood notables pre-shipwreck, became veritable superstars. DiCaprio’s bright and winning smile, captured almost as effectively as in Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, broke hearts and gave us one of the most iconic American suitors in cinema history.

Titanic landed Winslet her second Oscar nod.

TITANIC 3D James Cameron AMC River East

For the few unfamiliar with the plotline: At its core a love story, Titanic follows Jack Dawson and Rose Bukater as they connect fatally amid blurring socioeconomic lines. Jack is reckless and charming—a rope ladder dropped from the sky into the claustrophobic, high-browed trap that is Rose’s life. Yet should she choose to love Jack, despite his lack of resources, and leave her dull fiancé, her family would be financially ruined. It’s not a historically unprecedented plot, but played against the backdrop of the Titanic’s early 20th century opulence, it works.

Cameron’s meticulously wrought 3D enhances the movie in every respect. Only at one point does anything fly out towards the audience; for the film’s bulk, the extra dimension is used tastefully to add depth to the ship’s gorgeous interiors or height to its exterior. The movie’s high definition is crisper, and smartly employed to blur backgrounds and otherwise isolate its leads when the moment is appropriate. Winslet’s young Rose is heartbreakingly torn, the camera closing in on her face as she’s surrounded by a family to whom she knows she’ll never be able to relate. As the ornate first-class lounge sinks away from her and fades out of focus, Rose’s indecision about how things should go with Jack is absolutely dominating and more real than ever. Two things I thought I’d never be a fan of – 3D and Cameron’s dialogue—are here not only endurable but moving.

Only one scene of the movie bears changes from the original. Apparently, famed astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson saw the movie its opening weekend and was annoyed by its stellar inaccuracy. Word on the street is that he dogged Cameron repeatedly to change the star-scape on the night of the ship’s sinking, because new technology made it possible to see exactly how the stars had aligned back in 1912, and the movie’s depiction was way off. Ever the perfectionist, Cameron purportedly had Tyson send him a rendering of the stars’ alignment on that fateful night, and dealt the heavens their long overdue justice in the re-release.

I was a little peeved about paying to see Titanic 3D. I felt certain that my money was feeding a machine that had long since eaten its fill.

The only movie to ever outperform Titanic cumulatively at the box office is 2009’s Avatar, also directed by Cameron. Why drop cash on an ever-pricier movie ticket for a flick that’ll just help turn the Hollywood blockbuster wheel, instead of taking the Red Line to the Landmark Cinema to support an indie?

Leaving the theater, I felt I had an answer. It’s true that Cameron’s work represents cinematic monetary success, but Titanic also boasts its share of cinematic artistry. I once read an interview with Cameron saying that Avatar was infinitely easier to film than Titanic because the latter was made during a time when technology didn’t exist to supplant real life. Pandora, the magical world of the Na'vi, was rendered entirely via CGI (albeit astoundingly well), but it took Cameron weeks just to film Titanic’s famous “I’m flying, Jack!” scene, because his team needed to capture the perfect sunset. Titanic, helped along by its mas-

Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio: “I’ll never let go.”

COURTESY OF MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE

sive budget, is a lesson in not cutting corners and in creating a cinematic world so well-built that camera tricks aren’t necessary.

My eight-year-old self wasn’t captivated by that ship-sinking scene for its gore (there isn’t much) or its flashy tricks. Even back then, I was wowed by the cinematographic scope, by the panning

camera’s power to show in unflinching detail an unforgettable slice of human tragedy. To make cinematic history, to imprint even a frame of your film forever on the collective American memory, is no small feat. Cameron managed it in Titanic, and his 3D rendering etches those lines of memory deeper still.

8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 10, 2012

Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert showcases Strauss John Lisovsky Arts Contributor Last Saturday evening, I had the pleasure of listening to our own Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform two late-Romantic products of the fin-de-siècle: Richard Strauss’s 1897 tone poem Don Quixote and Rachmaninoff ’s third piano concerto (1909). Both composers were then in their 30s, the prime of their careers, and both pieces were written at least in part out of financial ambition, if not need, and for very large orchestras of 80 instrumentalists or more.

The tone poem, like Also Sprach Zarathustra (written a year prior), Don Juan (1888), and An Alpine Symphony (1915), is a work of program music, in that it seeks to evoke a specific series of events or images. It takes Cervantes’s text as its program and seeks to illustrate a few of the ad-

ventures in which the deluded wouldbe exemplar of chivalry partakes. Of these, perhaps the most colorful is the second that Strauss selects, the siegreiche Kampf gegen das Heer des großen Kaisers Alifanfaron, or “victorious fight against the great emperor Alifanfaron.” In this episode, the Don does battle with what he realizes only after the fact is actually a flock of sheep (the baaah-ing of which is created by brass instrumentalists “flutter-tonguing,” an effect more common in jazz). The work is replete with unusual but effective instrument combinations, most prominently the introduction of Sancho Panza’s theme by the tuba and bass clarinet, a pairing perhaps without precedent. The work features a solo cellist and violist, with some violin solos granted to the concertmaster, the cello representing the Knight, and the viola representing Sancho Panza.

The thick, heavy orchestrations that characterize Strauss and Rachmaninoff (and others such as Mahler and Wagner) match perfectly the strengths of the CSO and its legendary brass section. Dutoit was certainly aware of this, and made effective use of it orchestrally, though his conducting at times verged on being heavy-handed.

DUTOIT CONDUCTS STRAUSS Chicago Symphony Orchestra Through April 10

Neither John Sharp nor Charles Pikler, the respective principal cellist and violist in the orchestra, was particularly loud, and thus they were at times somewhat overwhelmed by the force that Maestro Dutoit elicited from their colleagues.

It is rather surreal to listen to a maestro conduct a work when that man’s ex-wife is its definitive interpreter. Such was the experience of listening to Charles Dutoit conduct Rachmaninoff ’s third piano concerto (known sometimes simply as “Rach 3”). The third piano concerto is among the most demanding works in the concerto repertory, so technically exigent as to inspire the Oscarwinning Shine, which tells the story of schizoaffective pianist David Helfgott attempting to learn to play the piece. (The film was a success; however, Helfgott’s actual performances cannot be recommended.) The piece’s most celebrated interpretations are Vladimir Horowitz’s 1930 and Martha Argerich’s 1982 recordings. The problem, for both the pianist and enthusiast, is that the piece has such tough demands (technical, but also interpretive) that it is almost impos-

sible not to come up short in at least some significant part.

The soloist, 39-year-old Nikolai Lugansky, is a Russian prodigy and ’94 silver-medal laureate of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He was certainly technically impressive, and he hit the ethos of the piece on the head— John van Rhein for the Chicago Tribune commented on his “long and fleet” fingers, and I heard only two very small errors in the entire 45 minutes. Furthermore, excluding Horowitz and Argerich, the interpretation was strong. Dutoit overwhelmed Lugansky as he did the previous soloists, though the conducting was lush and the final strains quite as admirably evocative of Rachmaninoff ’s Russian nostalgia as any—possibly even to the point of melodrama, though not distastefully so.

String awakening: this season’s musical high notes Scotty Campbell Associate Arts Editor There’s no better way to welcome the spring than to set up on the quad, take a nap (but not during class: I’m looking at you, Global Warming students), and listen to some good music. This season offers tunes old and new to escape the busy outside world, and—for those who don’t mind a trip on the CTA—plenty of concerts to escape Hyde Park.

Want to blend in with the hipsters? Get off Pitchfork and download Chicago-based band Maps & Atlases’ new album, Beware and Be Grateful, released for online streaming now and officially out on the 17th. Shedding their minimalistic mathrock sound, the group adds in vaguely folk, vaguely worldmusic references. This can be heard most prominently in “Old and Grey,” the album’s opener.

Muddy synths, calm drums, and monophonic chanting replace the high-speed guitar exchanges from their earlier EPs and add a welcome contrast to their usually rigorous rhythms. Despite this glimmer of originality, the rest of the album’s tracks tread the much-trodden paths of modern indie rock, with ballads like “Winter” that use standard vocal hooks and percussion lines.

Despite their “reinvention,” the album stomps their old grounds firmly.

If you prefer your indie rock live, check out British band The Wombats’ concert April 30th at the Metro in Wrigleyville.

Known for rousing performances at festivals like Glastonbury, their bright sound is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Speaking of music festivals, the lineup of Chicago’s own Lollapalooza was recently “leaked” online; bands like the perennial favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as famed performers like Jack White, are among the suspected roster of musicians, but the public won’t know for sure until the official list is posted this Wednesday.

Whether the rumors are true or not, tickets tend to sell out quickly, so be sure to pick one up

soon. Who doesn’t love mingling with thousands of other bodies in the oppressively hot and humid Chicago summer?

If this all sounds too plebeian for your tastes, there’s always classier fare to be had in the warmer months. Downtown’s Symphony Center (home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) is hosting the Australian Chamber Orchestra on April 15. Included in their intriguing program is a hodgepodge of 20th-century pieces, among them American composer George Crumb’s Black Angels, a harsh work for strings.

Even more promising is a performance of Anton Webern’s suite Five Pieces for Strings, a work that dates from 1909 but nevertheless makes a bold statement in the German composer’s intense, atonal style. Reigning opera diva Dawn Upshaw will be present to lend her soprano talents to songs

by Schumann and Schubert.

Looking for other springtime sounds? Here’s a short playlist for those in want of some music to read Freud by on a lazy weekday.

1. Steve Reich, Music for Eighteen Musicians (written in 1976).

The American minimalist composer’s classic work for chamber ensemble is perfect to chill out to; marimbas and woodwinds join percussion for an hour-long ambient daydream.

2. Nujabes, Spiritual State (2012). This final, posthumous release by the Japanese hip-hop producer offers plenty of ethereal percussion and jazz samples.

Float away on the title track or on “Sky is Tumbling,” in which a rousing kick drum rhythm and saxophone melody joins the spoken verses of Cise Star.

3. Francisco López, La Selva (1998). The Spanish phonographer and sound artist’s classic release is more than just an environmental field recording. Take that tropical spring break vacation you missed by immersing yourself in this mass of sounds recorded in the Costa Rican rainforest, from earsplitting waterfalls to calm birdsong.

Top left: Lollapalooza is an annual, three-day music festival held in Grant Park early August.

COURTESY OF MUSICOLOGY

Top right: Maps & Atlases, Beware and Be Grateful COURTESY OF BARSUK RECORDS

Bottom: Jack White, former lead vocalist for The White Stripes, will release his debut album Blunderbuss later this month.

COURTESY OF THIRD MAN RECORDS COLUMBIA

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 10, 2012

9

Artist and RH bursts out of housing bubble Emma Broder Associate Arts Editor Have you ever suspected that your RH has a secret identity?

While Charles McGhee-Hassrick might seem like a typical Resident Head who makes chocolate-banana milkshakes for study break and turns up to cheer for the house broomball team, he’s far from typical. In addition to his job in Crown House in South Campus, McGhee-Hassrick is a sculpture and installation artist who also does freelance exhibit design. He has worked at the Museum of Science and Industry and occasionally teaches at the Art Institute. He sat down to chat with Maroon Arts about some of his “crazy ideas.” Read on, dorm-dwellers, for giant bubbles, tiny woodshops, and the search for the perfect arborist.

Chicago Maroon: You have a studio at SHoP. What’s it like to hang out there all the time? How did you end up there?

Charles McGhee-Hassrick: There’s always been a huge need for studio space in Hyde Park.

Thank goodness for the SHoP! When it opened, I was so relieved because I had been looking for ages for studio space, and at

that point I was willing to work in people’s basements, with no electricity or water. The greatest thing about SHoP is that it’s not just a single gallery: There’s a library for poetry readings, a kitchen, a living room for gallery space. On the third floor, there’s a huge open room for yoga and meditation. I’m one of three or four people with studio space there. I built a little workshop for kids with a ton of wood, hammers and other tools, nails, and cardboard. Someone’s always doing something crazy there. It’s a fantastic vortex of cultural and artistic activity, and there’s not many places in Hyde Park where you can just make stuff.

drawn out of the tub. Eventually, of course, the bubble bursts.

I kept trying to project video onto the bubble, but it wasn’t working. I was getting really frustrated until I realized that I was seeing my own reflection in the giant sheet of bubble. So what I’m going to do is project video from the wall opposite the bubble, video that tells the story of an economic, technological, scientific, or real estate bubble— we have tons of cultural bubbles.

And you’ll be able to watch the video for a little while before the bubble bursts.

CM: What projects are you working on now ? Could you share one with us?

CMH: I’m working on a public outdoor sculpture, which I used a computer program to design.

On the midway there’s this huge, gorgeous oak tree, and I want to put scaffolding around it. It could give scientists and other artists a chance to access the tree in a way they usually can’t, to do whatever: take pictures, or draw, or make observations. The contrast between the organic and inorganic material is so cool. The designs actually looked beautiful on the program, and I was sort of surprised! I have a long-term idea to buy a set of scaffolding

CMH: I just finished a prototype for a kinetic sculpture. I have four bicycle wheels set up, and they’re acting as a pulley system to pull a rope up horizontally from the floor to the ceiling. The thing is, the rope starts out submerged in a shallow tub of bubbles. I looked up the recipe for the bubble mix that made the world’s largest bubble, and that’s the formula I’m using. As the rope goes to the ceiling, a large sheet of bubble is

CM: What else do you have in the works?

and do this with historically significant trees around the world, but I need to find a biologist, an arborist, and an entomologist to develop the scientific side of the project. Like, what month would be best to study this tree? I think it’ll mean different things to the scientific and artistic communities.

CM: How do you feel about the Logan Center and the difference it could make for the arts in Hyde Park?

CMH: Since SHoP is right in the middle of Hyde Park, it’s one of the key arts organizations in the area, and I feel like it really serves Hyde Park well. I hope that the Logan can help fill the void for an arts center in the area. It seems like the Logan is as much about getting people to go see what’s going on there as it’s about what’s actually going on there, but I’m hoping it will generate a lot of good energ y for the arts, and I can’t imagine it won’t. For me, it’s kinda cool because it’s two blocks from where I live. It’ll be easy for us to take students there from South Campus, almost like pick-up culture instead of a pickup soccer game. Like, “There’s a concert going on tonight, let’s go!”

Arts RSO ensures its continuation BEATS continued from page 7 developments Beats & Pieces has undergone every school year.

This year, Legacies was particularly significant as it marked the culmination of another year of Beats & Pieces’ productions: “Much of the board is graduating from the college at the end of this year, and many of the artists featured within the exhibition are also fourth-years of the college,” said Thomas George, co-president of the RSO. “Legacies was intended to sort of double as a collection of what the graduating members of the RSO and the artists involved wanted to leave behind as a legacy all of their own.”

But Beats & Pieces is far from curtain’s close: in its five-year standing, such instances of change are endemic. And with each generation’s exit, another rises up to take center stage, resulting in a club whose basic aesthetic ambitions remain the same but whose nuances are constantly developing in flavor, which is as much determined by club members themselves as by the natural changes of artwork submitted from year to year.

Despite Beats & Pieces’ own internal shifts, the show must go on—and it will. Look out for next autumn’s Origins exhibition among other events no doubt rife with art, food, music, and, of course, change.

At Max Palevsky Cinema, Girls gone mild Hannah Gold Arts Editor Last night Max Palevsky Cinema was filled with dozens of viewers eager to watch Doc Film’s preview screening of HBO’s newest original series Girls, a coming-ofage comedy about four girls in their early 20s living either together or in close proximity to each other in New York City. The show—directed, created, written, and starred in by 25-year-old Lena Dunham— has already garnered its fair share of grief and gossip from overanxious critics who have prematurely touted the show, which will premiere on April 15, as a younger, less-employable Sex and the City.

The fact that three of the four leading ladies ( Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams, and Zosia Mamet) all have famous fathers (Simon, Brian, and David) has only served to lend the show an up-and-coming, sexy mystique. Lena Dunham herself has plenty of indie cred to spare after writing, directing, and starring in 2010’s Tiny Furniture, which won Best Narrative Feature at South by Southwest that same year. Throw a couple of hit-making executive producers into the mix—Jenni Kroner (of the TV series Help Me Help You and In the Motherhood) and Judd Apatow who is well-accustomed to turning out successes like Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), and Bridesmaids (2011)—and you’ve officially got yourself an unaired, but much buzzedabout show. And if that wasn’t enough, everyone is aware that HBO knows good sex (and isn’t afraid to ask).

However, what I saw, as I laughed and cringed through the first two episodes of Girls, was anything but Sex and the City, minus 10 years and a few cosmos. What I got was a bleak look into my own future.

Okay, many college graduates’ possible futures. Lena Dunham plays Hannah Horvath, a 25-year-old unpaid intern who is four essays into writing her first book of nine essays. The next five essays are immi-

Doc Films premiered HBO’s new comedy series Girls last night. The show is scheduled to premiere Sunday the 15th.

COURTESY OF HBO

nent, but she’s writing a memoir, so she has to live them first. Hannah rooms with her best friend Marnie (Allison Williams) who is hell-bent on ending things with her insufferably nice and gentle boyfriend of four years who says things like, “I just blew up a kiss on you.” This is couple number one that has terrible, graphic, hilarious sex on Dunham’s show. There is much more of this sort of thing to come.

In the opening scene of the first episode, Hannah is out to dinner with her conservative, well-meaning parents who are in town to tell her that they’re cutting her off financially for good. “We can’t keep bankrolling your groovy lifestyle,” says her concerned and embittered mother. Later that

day, Hannah has sex with her fuck buddy (come on, this is HBO) Adam and can’t stop talking about her resume the whole time. In this regard she is less Carrie Bradshaw, more Larry David. (She also does things like make rape jokes during a job interview. As previously stated, she is currently unemployed.)

Sometimes the comedy can undermine the “real world” feel of the show. Hannah’s British, Francophile friend Jessa ( Jemima Kirke) is a free spirit who just finished a pearl-shucking gig and a brief romance with a surfer, but her antics are way too predictably random to be actually entertaining. Shoshanna, Jessa’s cousin and another one of the leads, is such a hyperbolic

caricature of a young woman in a pink jumpsuit who talks really quickly about nothing at all because she’s just that insecure, that she barely seems human: certainly not interesting.

It’s those quirky little moments though, which effortlessly blend outlandish situations with poignant, everyday emotion, that make this show worth watching, despite the noticeable dearth of Manolo Blahniks. Like the time that Adam, after having fantasy-fueled sex with Hannah in which he pretends that he is a junkie and she an 11-year-old girl, offers her a Gatorade. Or like the moment you realize that Hannah majored in English in college, Adam in comp lit.

10

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 10, 2012

Fourpeat: South Siders capture Midwest Invitational title, move to 13–4 Women’s Tennis Shayan Karbassi Sports Staff The Maroons had a dominating performance this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, winning all four of their matches and sweeping the Midwest Invitational. The sixth-ranked Maroons improved to 11–1 against DIII opponents and 13–4 overall.

En route to its fourth consecutive Midwest Invite title, the team defeated Luther College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Washington University in St. Louis, and DePauw University.

“I am very proud of each and every one of my teammates. We’ve grown a lot throughout the year, and I feel like this tournament turned our hard work into results. It was nothing surprising, it is just a matter of execution,

and this weekend every player executed their part,” said thirdyear Linden Li. Fourth-year Jennifer Kung, a co-captain, thought that the team played well overall at the invite.

“I thought we did a good job of finding ways to win, even when we weren’t playing our best or things weren’t going our way,” said Kung. “Being able to compete well under those circumstances will be important during our matches later on at UAAs and NCAAs.” On Friday, the ladies faced off against Luther College and began their weekend with a 9–0 victory.

Friday evening the #20 women from Gustavus Adolphus were subject to the same treatment, as the Chicago women swept them 9–0.

The women knew that Saturday would be crucial for their success and as a gauge of their abilities, since they would play Wash U

and DePauw.

Chicago began Saturday with another impressive performance, defeating #13 Wash U 5–0. Kung and first-year Kelsey McGillis both won their singles matches in two sets: 6–1, 6–2 and 6–1, 6–3, respectively. Fourth-years Kendra Higgins and Carmen Vaca Guzman led the way in doubles play, defeating Wash U 8–4. Their win was followed by victories from two other Chicago doubles pairs.

Saturday evening the South Siders faced the 10th-ranked DePauw Tigers for the third time this year. The Maroons had defeated the Tigers in their first encounter this year but lost to them in the second, making this an important match between the two schools. The Maroons avenged their previous loss to the Tigers with a 5–2 victory on Saturday.

Vaca Guzman led the way

for the Maroons, winning in two sets: 6–1, 6–3. Li followed suit. McGillis fell to Caroline Emhardt of DePauw in two sets, marking the first loss for Chicago all weekend. But Tang made sure the team finished singles play strong with a 6–4, 6–1 victory over DePauw’s Julie Wittwer. In doubles play, Higgins and Vaca Guzman emulated their earlier successes, defeating the Tigers 8–5, and Kung and Li were almost flawless as they cruised to victory 8–1.

Coming off of a successful weekend, the Maroons will continue to work hard as they finish their season.

“Now we will be working more than ever on our fitness, while sustaining our focus on doubles play. Every point counts, every point matters, and every point is one step closer to the big prize: the national championship,” said Li. “We did well this weekend, but

we don’t want to lose focus. We’ll face much tougher competition at UAAs and NCAAs. We need to remain dedicated to working hard and putting in the time and effort needed to prepare for those tournaments,” said Kung.

“UAAs will be really tough this year since Emory and Carnegie both have very strong teams, but I believe that if we play to our potential and keep working hard, we are capable of recapturing the UAA title this year. For now, we’re just focusing on preparing for UAAs and we don’t want to look too far ahead. However, at NCAA’s, we’ll be looking to improve on our performances over the last three years and hopefully win the national title,” she said.

On Wednesday, Chicago travels to Wheaton College for dual matches as it looks to continue its dominance heading into the UAA and NCAA tournaments.

As offense freezes, Maroons swept for first time this season SOFTBALL continued from back

Chicago’s offense was humming top to bottom, but Bohac shined in particular, getting four RBIs on a 3–3 performance at the plate to cap an impressive pair of games by the team’s three first-years: Cloud, Bohac, and Ashbridge.

“Our first-years have done a very nice job…. All three have solid work ethics and great attitudes,” said Kmak,

praising Cloud’s consistency on offense and defense, Bohac’s versatility on defense, and Ashbridge’s development on the mound.

The Maroons had their best scoring chance in their doubleheader against UW–Oshkosh in the second inning of the first game, getting Cloud and Payonk in scoring position with two outs but leaving them stranded.

“We didn’t finish when we had

runners on early…and that set the tone for us psychologically,” said Kmak.

The Titans scored both of their runs in the bottom of the third, breaking Cygan’s 21.1 scoreless innings streak and handing her the loss, even as she pitched a complete game five-hitter with both runs unearned. Cygan has now allowed only one earned run in her past 45 innings.

Neuhaus performed similarly well,

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going the distance and allowing the nightcap’s only run on a solo home run by UW–Oshkosh’s Emily Mallek in the third inning. The Maroons mustered only five hits between the two games; only Payonk had more than one. In the first game, the Titans’ Courtney Wautier (9–3) pitched the full seven innings, and in the second, Julia Sweeney (4–4) allowed only two base runners to earn the complete

game win.

The Maroons are in action at Stagg Field today at 3 p.m. for a doubleheader against North Park (17–5). In their first home game in 15 days, the Maroons will look to shake off their malaise at the plate and regain Friday’s form in what may prove to be a shootout: The Vikings have won 10 of their last 11 games and have scored just under 10 runs a game in their past six.

11

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 10, 2012

A frustrating loss to Aurora—and then redemption through Hope Baseball Sarah Langs Associate Sports Editor There’s still a lot of baseball left. Those words are perhaps the best comfort that can be offered to Chicago (12–7), who dropped yet another disappointing game to Aurora (14–4) on Friday by a final of 14–7. However, the way in which the game played out was more of a frustration than it was a demonstration of Aurora’s dominance.

Chicago played Aurora close for most of the game. It jumped on the board in the top of the first, taking advantage of thirdyear outfielder Ben Bullock’s leadoff walk. The Maroons would score three runs in the first. Though third-year starter Matt O’Connor yielded a run to Aurora in the bottom of the frame, the Maroons maintained a steady lead throughout the early innings, leading 6–1 at the end of two.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the fourth when Aurora took advantage of three Chicago errors, two by Bullock and one by first-year infielder Kyle Engel.

The Spartans scored four runs in the inning, cutting the Maroons’ lead to one.

The South Siders padded their lead in the seventh on an RBI groundout from third-year infielder Steven Schwabe. But the wheels really began to fall off in the bottom half of the inning, when

the Maroons gave up two runs in an inning that featured a hit batsman, meaning one of the runs was unearned. However, at that point, the score was still tied.

“We let the game slip away in the bottom of the eighth inning,” said Schwabe.

Here’s what he was referring to: With the score tied headed into the eighth, Chicago lost any momentum it might have had. As the pinnacle of the collapse, it gave up seven runs in the bottom of the eighth, one of which was unearned, en route to a 14–7 loss.

“Our game against Aurora was a major letdown,” said Schwabe. “We did not play up to our expectations.

It was very frustrating.”

There certainly are a number of games left, but the schedule will only get tougher from here.

The game against Aurora was the Maroons’ first road game of the season. Through May 21, when the season ends, the team will play in 11 more road contests.

“We play [Aurora] again on Wednesday,” said Schwabe, “and hopefully we can redeem ourselves.”

The Maroons redeemed themselves somewhat on Monday, coming from behind to beat Hope 10–9. “We won because of strong performances by our relief pitchers, Andrew VanWazer and Drew Nicholson,” said Engel.

“They were able to keep us in the game and give us the opportunity to come back and win.”

The Maroons were down 1–0 early, but came back in the bottom of the first with two runs. From

Fourth-year Alex Garcia pitches to fourth-year catcher Stephen Williams in last Wednesday’s game against Benedictine University.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

then on, the game went back and forth a few times, with Chicago ultimately heading to the bottom of the ninth down 9–7.

“It was an exciting finish. Jack Cinoman came through with a walk-off triple with the bases loaded

to end the game,” said Engel.

Given the disappointment that accompanied the South Siders’ loss to Aurora, it is hard to conceive of a better turnaround game than theirs against Hope.

The South Siders needed to

rebound quickly and they did.

They play three games in three straight days this week: yesterday’s contest against Hope, Tuesday on the road against Domincan, and a Wednesday rematch at home against Aurora.

Against Chicago’s finest, cohesive cast grabs sixth-place finish Women’s Track and Field Katie Burkhart Sports Contributor The Maroons finished sixth on home turf this weekend at the Chicagoland Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Northern Illinois took the championship (174), while Chicago followed Lewis (74) with an overall score of 60.50.

A sixth-place finish is certainly an impressive feat for the Maroons, who competed among 18 teams representing schools from all divisions, DI to DIII. “We didn’t walk onto the track this past Friday expecting to win, but to make important

improvements for upcoming meets,” said fourth–year sprinter Jalessa Akuoko. “The top scoring teams were DI/DII schools, so finishing sixth shows that we’re right in the fray with high-caliber teams.”

Team captains, including Akuoko as well as fourth-years Maddie Allen, Paige Peltzer, Rachel Ohman, and Sonia Khan, have led the team thus far with particular emphasis on support and cohesion among teammates. The focus is not just on individual performance on the track—an approach that, Maroon leadership admits, has not always been taken in the past.

“It’s a different dynamic that this year’s captains are creating, and it will hopefully result in us being the strongest team at

Conference,” said Akuoko.

Whether or not this new atmosphere is the driving force behind the team’s progress, the team’s successes at Chicagolands cannot be ignored.

Several standout performances and personal bests, while not firstplace finishes, have left the South Siders in a position to be serious contenders at the Conference Championships.

“There were tons of performances that would put [the team] in scoring position at Conference…. We had three 5k runners go under 18:10, which is great this time of the season,” Khan said. T hose runners were secondyears Elise Wummer, fourth-year

Ohman, and third-year Julia Sizek, with times of 18:09.76, 17:52.76, and 17:32.38, respectively.

Khan, the fourth-year cocaptain, placed fourth in the 10k run (37:12.37).

“I had a lot of help from my teammate, [fourth–year] Jane Simpson, who led me through 5k at a pace I normally wouldn’t have been comfortable with,” she said.

“We had such a good rhythm going that I was able to negative split the second half of the race by quite a bit.” Simpson went on to take seventh in the same race with a time of 37:56.37.

Other top point earners included second-year Michaela Whitelaw with a third place finish in the 1,500m run (4:45.01),

high-jumpers Peltzer (1.57m, third place) and third–year Emily Hren (1.52m, fourth place), third-year Kayla McDonald with an impressive 58.87 in the 400m dash (fourth place), and both the 4x400m (4:07.95) and 4x800m (9:54.47) relay teams each finishing fourth.

Despite an impressive performance at Chicagolands, the team remains focused on making further improvements for the long haul. “It looks like we have a lot of momentum going…Coach [Aaron] Carley and Coach [Chris] Hall were very pleased with how the meet went for us,” Whitelaw said.

Chicago will next compete at the Wheaton Invite at 1 p.m. this Saturday in Wheaton, Illinois.

Sharma: “Hopefully we can turn that [loss of interest] around and have a different perspective on the tennis club by being more serious” CLUBS continued from back

proposal was denied. However, the club has received funding from the Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC).

With a lack of funds and low participation, Estaver and Sharma came up with the idea of having a team within the club.

Members of the team would fundraise together, attend tournaments together, and be more committed as a whole.

While the idea for the team

actually originated last year, it was unable to come to fruition.

“They tried to do it last year, but there was no incentive to actually be on the team,” said Estaver.

Team members now have the added incentive of possibly getting uniforms and priority to all tournaments.

While all team members have to pay $30 every quarter, Sharma said that the 15 people that have shown interest thus far are very

receptive to the idea.

To give members added incentive, the tennis club is aggressively pursuing funds outside of campus.

Already, the Maroons have raised $5,500 for traveling through Zipcar. They have also applied for a grant through the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) Tennis on Campus program.

The Tennis on Campus program has also led to a greater

number of tournaments. This school year, the Maroons have been actively involved in five team tournaments. They will attend a new tournament at Northwestern this May and will host their own tournament later in the year.

Sharma said that a lot of the credit for the improved organization of the club has to go to current club president, fourthyear Elizabeth Beitler.

“Elizabeth is the one that has

the spirit,” said Sharma. “She makes everyone feel motivated.”

The club looks toward having more active members and thriving in the future. “[Currently] people lose interest throughout the year,” said Sharma. “Hopefully we can turn that around and have a different perspective on the tennis club by being more serious.”

Students interested in joining the tennis club should e-mail uofctennis@gmail.com.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “I love Fidel Castro.... I respect Fidel Castro. You know why?

A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that son of a bitch is still there.”

—Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen, on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Squad falters, but third-years shine at Chicagolands

Second-years Griffin Brunk (left) and Sam Butler run hurdles at the Chicagolands track meet on Saturday.

BENJAMIN TRNKA | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Men’s Track and Field Jake Walerius Associate Sports Editor Like any sport, track and field can often be hard to make sense of, and the Maroons’ performance at the Chicagoland championship last Saturday was, more than anything, a little strange.

Chicago finished ninth out of 16 at a meet in which it had hoped to finish in the top six, but its performance was characterized as much by that disappointment as it was by several outstanding Maroon performances.

“Overall, we are rather disappointed with our team’s placing,” fourth-year distance runner Brian Schlick said. “We

were stretched rather thin due to injuries, and the other teams at the meet were very good, but we are pleased with how many of our individuals, especially Bill Whitmore, performed.”

Third-year Whitmore ran the second fastest 10k time in U of C history (30:18.56s) for a second-place finish that leaves him in the top 10 in the country

at the D-III level. Third-year Isaac Dalke finished fourth in the 5,000m (15:11.72s) and is now ranked fifth in the conference, and fellow third-year Anthony Farias-Eisner’s leg of the 4x400m relay placed in the top 10 all-time in the U of C honor rolls.

“I thought there were some things we did really well,” head coach Chris Hall said. “We ran well in the steeple, the 5k, the 10k and I thought on the whole we competed very well. I would like to have placed higher. I feel like we were kind of right there, we just let a few points slip here and there.”

The Maroons finished with 46 points, nine points behind sixthplace DuPage and a massive 158 points behind the winner, North Central. Notably, 32 of Chicago’s 46 points were scored in distance and middle-distance events, and their highest-placed individual finish outside of those events was fourth-year Daniel Heck’s fourthplace performance in the hammer throw (47.85m).

“We struggled in the sprints a little, not just with regards to how we placed but our times as well,” third-year Dee Brizzolara said. “I was not very happy with my own performance, but it’s a long season.

Hopefully I’ll improve.”

What was strange about the Maroons’ performance, and

maybe a bit of a relief, was that it doesn’t seem to have had any significant impact on the conference picture. It was disappointing, yes, but it didn’t really change anything. However, not getting worse is hardly a step in the right direction.

“I don’t think we did [move forward]. I looked at the results afterward and we didn’t accomplish what we set out to do,” Hall said. “But this morning I sat down and looked at the conference honor rolls and I said, ‘We’re doing ok.’”

“We were capable of doing more this past weekend, but I think the entire UAA conference is having some struggles in the same areas we are right now. So I can’t say it was a step in the right direction.

Maybe it was lateral movement.

I can’t say we moved forward, but looking at the conference, we didn’t move backwards either.”

The Maroons will continue to examine their performance. They will look at the success of the distance runners, the disappointment of the sprinters, their injuries, and the strength—and they were strong— of the opposition, but it’s hard to draw an obvious conclusion from any of it. It was just a strange day.

A lot of encouragement, a lot of disappointment, but, it seems, very few lessons to be learned.

Tennis club restructures, looks for funding

Feast or famine in weekend outing

Clubs

Softball

Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff In a school where varsity athletic programs rarely receive attention, it comes as no surprise that many athletic clubs have low levels of participation as well.

In spite of this fact, one club— the tennis club—is undergoing a restructuring process so that it can become more widely recognized and, more importantly, have success at the tournament level.

Contrary to popular belief, the tennis club does not only participate in intra-school activities. While there are practices every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday, the club’s goal is to build a successful squad in those practices in preparation for tournaments outside the U of C. Unfortunately, while there are upwards of 20 people at practices, only about five of them are actively involved in tournaments.

In the past, the administrators of the club allowed anybody interested to participate in tournaments.

But most members would drop out, forcing students like second-year James Estaver to play over eight matches at a given tournament.

“It was hard to get people to play at tournaments previously because people came on a volunteer basis,” said Estaver. “So people dropped out at the last

minute.”

This was the case at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign tournament fall quarter, where only five members participated from the U of C. The large number of Chicago dropouts created problems off the court as well, as the club was forced to pay the costs for overbooked hotel rooms.

On top of that, with Estaver being the only male participating, Chicago had to forfeit all men’s doubles matches and ended up with only one win in the entire tournament.

Tournament after tournament, Chicago continued to have stagnant participation.

To make matters worse, because there is already a varsity tennis team, the tennis club is not an officially recognized sports club.

Therefore, it is unable to receive annual funds from the pool of money that is designated for sports clubs.

Instead, the group has to apply for annual allocations through a fund that is available to every RSO at the school.

“We get less funding than we would receive if we were a sports club,” second-year Gaelle Sharma said. “We have a small number of committed members, so we don’t get a lot of money.”

Last year, the tennis club only received funding for indoor tennis courts through annual allocations while every other CLUBS continued on page 11

Derek Tsang Associate Sports Editor What a difference a day makes.

The Maroons put together two of their best overall performances in a doubleheader at Lawrence (5–11) last Friday, with their 11–1 and 14–3 victories both so dominant that they were cut short by the mercy rule.

The next day, the Maroons (15–7) couldn’t buy a run as they fell 0–2 and 0–1 at UW–Oshkosh (15–9), marking their first consecutive losses of the season.

“[On Friday,] we played well in all facets of the game, and…played at the level we are capable of,” said head coach Ruth Kmak. “On Saturday, we had the opposite of Friday…. We did not play with the confidence that allows us to compete at our level.”

Chicago found its hitting form in the second half of their first game against Lawrence, blowing open the game with three runs in the top of the fourth to stretch their lead to five. Fourth-year Liz Payonk led the charge with four RBIs on three of the Maroons’ 16 hits. First-year Raechel Cloud and fourth-year Julia Schneider contributed another three hits each to

help fourth-year Sarah Neuhaus (5–3) earn the win for four innings of threehit ball. First-year Tabbetha Bohac pitched a scoreless final two frames.

The Maroons piled on the runs late in their first fixture with Lawrence, plating five in the sixth and final inning, and their impressive offense carried over into the nightcap. The South Siders scored three in the first inning,and didn’t have a single scoreless frame. First-year Emily Ashbridge (1– 1) picked up her first career win for her three innings of work, after third-year Kim Cygan (8–2) started the game off throwing a pair of scoreless innings.

SOFTBALL continued on page 10

First-year Raechel Cloud stands at bat during a home game against Lake Forest last quarter.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT