TUESDAY • APRIL 15, 2014
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 38 • VOLUME 125
Barnes’s cause of death released William Rhee News Staff Third-year Nicholas Barnes died of alcohol poisoning according to an e-mail from the Cook County Bureau of Administration. The manner of death was ruled an accident. An autopsy had already taken place on February 16, and early results showed no sign of foul play
or suicide. But the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office initially said that the cause and time of death would not be definitive for four to six weeks, after evidence had gone through a toxicology screening. The full toxicology report has not yet been submitted to medical records, according to the Bureau’s Public Information Officer Frank Shuftan. Barnes was found in his dorm in International House on Satur-
day, February 15, at around 4:15 p.m., according to Chicago Police Department spokesperson Hector Alfaro. Barnes was pronounced dead that same day at 4:50 p.m. A memorial service was held on campus shortly after the discovery of Barnes’s death. Friends of the family have started a fund for the Nicholas Brastins Barnes Prize at Shady Side Academy, his high school alma mater.
Hip-Hop and academia jive at panel Raymond Fang News Staff
Slam Dunk! Catcher in the Rhyme teamed up with the Logan Center for the Arts to present the Chicago GrandSLAM, connecting Catcher with poets of all ages from all corners of the city. FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Oriental Institute wins lawsuit, keeps Iranian tablets Natalie Friedberg News Staff In late March, the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute won the right to keep a collection of Iranian tablets in a court case that marked the latest chapter of a 17 year–long dispute. The conflict over the tablets originated in 1997 when a shopping mall in Jerusalem was the target of a Hamas-led terrorist attack. A group of nine American survivors filed successfully in U.S. courts for over $300 million for damages against the Republic of Iran, which has funded Hamas periodically. Iran refused to pay the damages, and the plaintiffs have since tried to get their compensation elsewhere, including by claiming a right to a collection on loan from
Iran at the Oriental Institute. The same group has also unsuccessfully attempted to seize Iranian artifacts from the Field Museum and from museums in Massachusetts and Michigan. The case has now gone to court a total of three times. In 2003, the plaintiffs won the case, but the University appealed and has won twice since then, both in 2011 and now in 2014. According to Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute, the courts shifted in favor of the defense after the fact-finding portion of the process ended and the court began to focus on legal analysis. “While it’s a tragedy what happened to the victims of this bombing in Jerusalem, [the] specific remedy that the plaintiff is trying to get is not the proper pathway to justice,” Stein OI continued on page 2
Three faculty named Guggenheim fellows Marta Bakula Maroon Contributor Last Thursday, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded three University of Chicago professors the Guggenheim Fellowship, a prestigious grant that enables professionals to take career hiatuses and pursue creative side projects. Dr. Lainie Ross, Professor Joseph
Thornton, and Professor Haun Saussy were awarded three of the 177 fellowships issued by the Guggenheim Foundation this year. “There is a lot of competition in receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship,” said Saussy, a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature. “This is definitely one of the biggest honors I’ve received.” GF continued on page 2
Prominent scholars, activists, and hip-hop artists discussed the social implications of hip-hop culture during a panel titled “America’s Most Wanted: Hip-Hop, the Media, and the Prison Industrial Complex,” held at International House on April 12. Discussion focused on Chicago’s role in shaping hip-hop, as well as how that influence affects wider constructions of “blackness” and urban life. The panelists also suggested that black communities can create counter-narratives to resist the violent image of blacks that major record labels, radio outlets, and news channels propagate in American media. Drill and trap music—subgenres of hip-hop that feature aggressive beats and violent lyrics—were featured as examples of contemporary hip-hop that have shaped public perceptions of the South Side. The panelists questioned its truth value as a reflection of inner-city life. Che “Rhymefest” Smith, co-
founder of Donda’s House, a Chicago youth arts and music program, said that drill and trap music presents an incomplete image of life in Chicago, and is mostly a moneymaking vehicle for corporate record labels. “The young people say ‘Man, this is how we are gonna get on. This is how we’re gonna get Jimmy Iovine from Interscope to come to our neighborhood, like he did for [Chicago native and trap music artist] Chief Keef, and find us. This is what’s gonna make us have an opportunity in a city where black teenage unemployment is at 92 percent,’” Smith said. The panelists also discussed ways of influencing the media. According to a Pew Center poll cited by moderator and hip-hop activist Jasiri X, 86 percent of the time that black men appear on the news, they are represented as violent individuals. Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, argued that the way to change this is for blacks to represent themselves in
a positive light, as a means of countering negative portrayals in media. “When you look at the way black people are represented in the media, it is often through the lens of violence,” Hill said. “The media becomes the way in which people develop norms for how the world works…and we have a huge responsibility to counter-narrate these stories of black people being criminals and black people being violent. We frame the crack addict as not someone with a medical problem, but as a bad person. We construct the sex worker as a bad person, such that when they get incarcerated, it makes sense for the crack addict or sex worker to be in jail, and for the CEO on cocaine to be somewhere else. We have to shift that consciousness.” Dr. Beth Richie, a professor at UIC of criminal justice and of gender studies, also indicated the need for blacks to use opportunities to engage and expand the representation of black women in the media. Richie cited Marissa Alexander, who PANEL continued on page 2
Study links early childhood programs to long-term health benefits Kelly Zhang Maroon Contributor A new study by Nobel Prize–winning University economics professor James Heckman claims that early childhood programs can help prevent the onset of chronic disease in adulthood. The study was based on data collected in a follow-up to the Abecedarian Project, an early childhood intervention experiment that comprised over 100 children from low-income families in North Carolina. The Abecedarian Project began in 1972 and was run by a group of researchers who monitored the children from birth through age five. The treatment group children received high-quality childcare that consisted
of playing educational games, as well as nutritional supplements and health screenings. The control group of children left parents to find whatever child care the parents thought was appropriate. Thirty-five years later, University of Chicago researchers found that the children who received these early childhood interventions grew into healthier adults when contrasted to control group children whose parents organized childcare on their own. The children who received the Abecedarian treatment had a lower risk for coronary heart disease in adulthood. Women in the treatment group were less likely to develop pre-hypertension and suffer from obesity; men had lower blood pressure, higher levels of “good” cholesterol, and reduced
risks for hypertension, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Treatment group adults also had healthier lifestyle behaviors: they exercised more, ate more fruit, and began to drink and smoke at older ages. Heckman believes that the discipline that the project instilled in its subjects is what led to the greater health outcomes. “[Abecedarian] offers a different way to fight costly adult chronic diseases; investing early in the development of children to build the knowledge and self-regulation necessary to prevent chronic disease and help them lead healthy, productive lives,” he said in a University press release. When University of North CaroSTUDY continued on page 2
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House of avante-garde
OLAS celebrates Latin American culture, diversity, and dance » Page 7
Fierce weekend yields split doubleheaders
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