APRIL 19, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
SHUTTLES WILL RUN TO O’HARE THIS QUARTER
Executive Slate Candidates Launch Campaigns BY EMILY FEIGENBAUM SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Candidates for this spring’s Student Government (SG) elections were announced this past Friday. Voting, which will be conducted electronically via Blueprint, begins on May 2 at 10:00 a.m. and closes May 4 at 4:30 p.m. The four Slates in the running this year are: United Progress for UChicago (UP), Our Campus, Unite and Support for UChicago (U&S), and the traditionally satirical Delta Upsilon-backed Moose Party. The Executive Slate consists of three positions: president, vice president for administration, and
vice president for student affairs. “They represent graduate and undergraduate concerns to the University administration, oversee organizational projects and initiatives, and are responsible for the management of the SG budget,” reads the SG website. This year’s UP Slate is led by second-year Eric Holmberg, firstyear Salma Elkhaoudi, and firstyear Ph.D. student Cody Jones. Holmberg, current College Council (CC) Chair and prospective SG president, stated that UP’s platform seeks to maximize SG support of undergraduate and graduate student life by making RSO events, Continued on page 4
Mathematics Professor Explains Time Travel to Writers and Illustrators BY GREG ROSS MAROON CONTRIBUTOR
Last Thursday evening, Professor of Mathematics Danny Calegari explained the basics of space and time travel to a packed room of children’s book writers at 57th Street Books. Calegari is an author of several short stories himself. Calegari, sporting a coat and tie nearly as bright as a star, focused on the “science” in science fiction. He tailored his talk to help the audience—populated by members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators— accurately portray outer space in their books. The subject was particularly relevant in an age of climate concerns and space exploration. From The Martian to Interstellar, there has been a recent proliferation of extraterrestrial themes in popular culture. Some members of the audience had written space and time travel stories in the past, while others attended the event to gather information for future book projects. Citing Hubble, Gödel, and Einstein, Calegari laid down the basics of spacetime, relativity, and black holes to explain that time travel is indeed possible, within certain constraints. When Calegari delved into the
Personal History Page 6
BY EMILY FEIGENBAUM SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
Feng Ye
P r o fe s s o r C r a i g Fu t t e r m a n e l a b o r a t e s o n t h e d i s t r u s t C h i cago South Side youths feel towards the police in a Harper Lecture at the University Club of Chicago on April 14.
Law Professor Discusses Report on Police-Youth Interactions BY ISAAC EASTON NEWS STAFF
On Thursday evening, Craig Futterman, clinical professor of law at the Law School, delivered a lecture at the University Club downtown about his research investigating the relationship between young black people and the police on the South Side of Chicago. The research project, co-au-
theoretical properties of wormholes—which could act as a tunnel between distant points in space— some audience members uttered murmurs of disbelief. After Calegari’s talk, an attendee hoping to write a children’s book admitted that she was intimidated by the prospect of navigating the nebulous sphere of outer space with pen and paper. Calegari concurred with this puzzled sentiment. With respect to the time-bending effects of space travel, he said, “It’s kind of strange, but that’s just how the universe works.” BY PETE GRIEVE Yet the often-baffling concept of DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR relativity doesn’t mean time travel is off-limits in the world of chilLast week, President Zimmer dren’s books. After the event, one met with editors of THE MAROON for attendee remarked, “The uncer- a quarterly hour-long meeting. He tainty of outer space gives writers answered questions on issues from room to build whatever world we College Council’s (CC) divestment want. It allows for some creativity.” vote to construction-related finanIn a Q&A session following cial borrowing to development in the talk, when asked if unreal- Washington Park. istic sci-fi literature or movies Vice President for Campus Life bother his academic sensibilities, Karen Coleman and Vice President Calegari—who said his favor- for Communications John Longite TV show is the British sci-fi brake also attended. classic Doctor Who—responded, We learned Zimmer has a “pet” “Mathematicians care about con- theater project, Dean Boyer wasn’t sistency. From my point of view offended by THE M AROON calling as a consumer, as long as the his presentation to CC last week story’s [scientific] rules are inter- “anticlimactic,” and Longbrake frenally consistent, I’m satisfied.” quents Yik Yak.
thored by Chaclyn Hunt and Jamie Kalven of the Invisible Institute, is entitled “They Have All the Power”: Youth/Police Encounters on Chicago’s South Side. The paper, after which the talk was named, was presented at the Chicago Public Law and Legal Theory workshop at the University’s Law School this March. Futterman prefaced his talk by clarifying that his goal was not Continued on page 4
Zimmer Talks Student Life, New Initiatives, Obama Library in Quarterly Meeting Divestment Zimmer reacted briefly to College Council’s call for the University to partially divest from ten major corporations active in Israel, which U of C Divest says are complicit in human rights abuses against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. “I think we have to just be clear, clear about that, that this has absolutely nothing to do with the University’s position, which has been quite clear over time,” Zimmer said. “I don’t think it’s a mystery as to what it is,” he added. Prior to the divestment debate and vote at the CC meeting, Dean of the College John Boyer and Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen gave updates on Continued on page 3
GATSBY: The Musical a Roaring Good Time
Warm Weather Spurs Encouraging Results
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The set-up was simple, with a piano in the corner and seven music stands for the characters.
The Men’s and Women’s track teams performed in the Wheaton Twilight meet. The men finished fifth and the women finished second.
Alex’s Food Journal: Dos Urban Cantina Page 10
Oral histories connect us to our cultures and identities.
VOL. 127, ISSUE 40
Dos Urban Cantina takes the spotlight in an otherwise sparsely populated block on Armitage.
On March 15, Student Government (SG) announced that it was discontinuing the end-of-quarter airport shuttle program. On April 18, SG’s Executive Slate announced that the program will be reinstated for students travelling to O’Hare Airport. The shuttle service was cancelled during finals week and without advance notice. A College Council (CC) resolution passed on March 29 objected to the lack of notice and consultation prior to the decision and called for its reinstatement. “[T]he Student Government Slate abruptly cancelled this service without input from the Executive Committee or Assembly and announced the cancellation on Tuesday, March 15, only three days before the end of winter quarter 2016 and two days before shuttle service usually begins,” the resolution read. In the resolution, CC called upon Slate to reinstate the shuttle program for Spring Quarter. Citing the popularity of the shuttle program and students’ reliance on the service, the resolution stated that providing this service is a “reasonable task” for Slate, as it has sufficient funding. “After discussion with the College Council and members of the student body, Executive Slate plans to reinstate the end-of-quarter airport shuttle program to O’Hare Airport for Spring 2016,” the statement began. “While still noting the cost of the program, we recognize the important role it plays in reducing transportation costs for students, particularly those traveling to O’Hare Airport.” The statement also touched upon the role of U-Pass in the future of the shuttle service program. “The future of the program, given the College’s future participation in the U-Pass program, will be subject to the approval of the College and Graduate Councils as a part of SG’s budgeting process for the 20162017 academic year,” it read.
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