TUESDAY • APRIL 14, 2015
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 37 • VOLUME 126
UCPD to make public information on traffic stops, field stops, and arrests Natalie Friedberg News Editor
University of Chicago’s admissions rate has dipped at a much faster rate than peer institutions. Each point in the graph displays the average percent change over an interval of three years. FORREST SILL | CHICAGO MAROON
Record-low acceptance rate as applicant numbers increase Marta Bakula Deputy News Editor This year, undergraduate acceptance rates have dropped from 8.4 percent to a record low, with only 7.8 percent of applicants admitted to the Class of 2019. The College received 30,162 applications for the incoming class and extended 2,356 offers of admission. The decline in this year’s acceptance rate continues the trend of increased selectivity in applications to UChicago, as well as many other comparable institutions.
The lower acceptance rate marks the 10th consecutive year of a decline in admission rates, beginning with a 40.3% admission rate for the 2005. Application numbers have also jumped from roughly 9,100 applicants for the Class of 2009, marking a 331% increase in the past ten years. The College also saw almost a 10% increase in applications this year, as compared to the previous year with 27,499 applicants. However, the admission cycle for the Class of 2017 still boasts the highest applicant number, with 30,369 applications re-
ceived through the Early Action and Regular Decision cycles. Acceptance rates to many other colleges also declined in comparison to previous years. Columbia accepted 6.1 percent of applicants, Stanford accepted 5.05 percent, Duke took in 10 percent, Brown extended admission to 8.5 percent, and Dartmouth had a 10.6 percent acceptance rate. Only five peer institutions (Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia in that order) reported lower rates of admission than RATE continued on page 2
Department of Energy invests $200 million for Argonne supercomputer Stephanie Williams News Staff On Wednesday, April 8, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to invest $200 million in the supercomputing efforts of Argonne National Laboratory. The investment was one of two High Performance Computing (HPC) grants awarded by the DOE, as part of an effort to advance U.S. leadership in large-scale computing. Argonne National Lab is managed by UChicago Argonne, LCC, and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., and will
be responsible for the new supercomputer project, Aurora. Argonne will collaborate with Intel and Cray to develop a next-generation supercomputer system, which is slated for completion in 2018. The supercomputer system will be used exclusively by researchers in scientific and engineering fields to assist in research on materials science (batteries and solar panels), biological science (biofuels and disease control), transportation efficiency (aerodynamics and efficient engines), and renewable energy (wind turbine design). “Aurora will deliver the sys-
tem capabilities that our users require to expand their investigations both in scale and scope,” Michael E. Papka, deputy associate laboratory director for computing, environment and life sciences at Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, said in a statement. Aurora will have more advanced supercomputing abilities than Argonne’s current project, Mira. It will exceed Mira’s computational performance by a factor of eighteen, said Susan Coghlan, deputy division director of Argonne Leadership ARGONNE continued on page 3
In an effort to increase transparency, the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) announced that it will release daily traffic stop data, field contact data, and information on arrrest records – available by request. This information will be conveniently collected in a new website set to go live in June. the creation of a new website yesterday. A field contact is a report on an incident where a UCPD officer stops someone in the street. Records of these contacts will
now be released daily, along with traffic stop data. Traffic stop data will include the race, gender, location, and justification of those stopped. Currently traffic stop data is only available on a quarterly basis. In addition, arrest records will include date, time, and charges. The website will assemble this new data as well as information on the UCPD that is already available by providing links to different sources on one web page, including a link to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s traffic stop data, a link to instructions on how to fill out an incident report with the Chicago
Police Department, the Independent Review Committee’s yearly summary of complaints against UCPD officers, the daily crime and fire log, and security alerts. “There was a positive exchange of information and that’s something that we want to continue and keep those lines of exchange open,” Marlon Lynch, chief of the UCPD, said. He added, however, that the exact mechanisms for continued community outreach and cooperation have not yet been decided on. This development comes after a ten month process of negotiations between the UCPD UCPD continued on page 3
NEWS IN BRIEF Man shot in the back one block south of campus Sunday afternoon Last Sunday, the University sent out a Security Alert to all students regarding a shooting that occurred on East 62nd Street and South Ellis Avenue, one block away from Renee Granville-Grossman Residential Commons. The shooting occurred last Sunday, April 12, at 4:30 pm. The victim, a 32-year-old man
unaffiliated with the University, was transported to Stroger Hospital by Chicago Fire Department Emergency Medical Services. The motive for the shooting and the identity of the perpetrator are both unknown. “The Chicago Police Department is the investigating law enforcement agency for
the shooting that occurred Sunday afternoon,” Bridget Malone, a University spokesperson wrote in an email. According to a representative from the CPD’s Third Police District, no new information is available about the suspect or their motivation. -Natalie Friedberg
University financial aid budget projected to increase by 5 percent Katherine Vega News Staff The University recently announced that the financial aid budget is projected to increase by approximately five percent to $117 million for the 2015–16 school year, compared to $110
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million for the 2014–15 school year. The announcement came just a few months after the University released information about a new and more comprehensive financial aid initiative, No Barriers, which the additional money will help to fund. While the financial aid bud-
get is projected to be $117 million, the exact number remains uncertain. “A major factor in projecting the financial aid budget is how much financial need students will have; we won’t know the exact figure until students enroll next fall,” UniverAID continued on page 3
| CHICAGO MAROON
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Confessions from a recovering “excellent sheep”» Page 4
Closeted/Out and a century of stories from on-campus LGBTQ history» Page 7
Order of the C teams up with youth basketball program» Page 10
One discredited rape story doest not reflect on all survivors’ stories» Page 3
Women’s Tennis knocks off two ranked oppoents» Back page