FRIDAY • MAY 16, 2014
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
ISSUE 47 • VOLUME 125
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
Divestment activists meet with admin, Trustees next Sam Levine News Staff
A Solemn Occasion Fourth-year Karen Zainal braves the rain on Wednesday afternoon and hangs a yellow ribbon in remembrance of last month’s South Korea ferry accident. The event was sponsored by the Korean Student Organization on Bartlett Quad. SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON
At UCMC, docs offer long-term care Kelly Zhang Maroon Contributor Researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) are examining whether patients who receive medical care from the same doctor in both the clinic and the hospital experience better health outcomes than those that do not. The researchers believe that application of this method could reduce the cost of health care. The study, called the Comprehensive Care Program (CCP), is funded by a $6.1-million grant from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Innovation, a government organization created by the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The study focuses on Medicare patients who are frequently hospitalized and may experience the harmful effects of discontinuous care from their primary-care physicians in the clinic and hospitals. Hospitalists are in-patient physicians who provide referrals to specialists and communication with the primary-care physicians in the hospital. The CCP models the style of health
care used before the 1990s, when most primary-care physicians would treat patients in the clinic and hospital. However, as hospital admission rates for clinical patients started to decline, doctors stopped traveling to hospitals, according to David Meltzer, chief of the Section of Hospital Medicine, who came up with the idea for the CCP. Additionally, patients now tend to see their primary-care physician in better health, due to the development of preventive care innovations, which have decreased hospitalization rates. With these changes, hospitalists assumed the job of caring for patients, leading to the division of care in a clinical and hospital setting. “[Hospitalists] ought to and generally do communicate with the primarycare physician about the events of the hospitalization, but sometimes that may not happen in an ideal fashion,” Gregory Ruhnke, assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Hospital Medicine, said. “So the primary-care physician might not know, for example, why [the hospitalist] changed Medicine X to Medicine Y.”
Ruhnke said continuous care could potentially provide better care for frequent hospital users, causing them to use the ER and the hospital less frequently. In the study, Comprehensive Care doctors acted as both the primary-care physicians and hospitalists for their patients for only patients who are at a high risk of hospitalization. This allowed the doctors to develop deeper relationships with their patients that may translate into better care, according to Meltzer. Doctors in the study spend their mornings seeing their patients in the hospital and their afternoons seeing patients in the outpatient clinic. “Say things aren’t going well for the patient and it’s really time to think about end-of-life care rather than aggressive treatment,” Meltzer said. “Well, if I just met a patient, it’s going to be much harder for me to make that judgment and talk to the patient about that than it would be if I have a long-standing relationship with them and they know that I’m invested in them and want them to do well,” he added.
More than a year after students supported a referendum urging the University to consider the environmental impact of the companies it invests in, climate activists met with top University administrators for the first time on Thursday afternoon. The activists presented an argument for withdrawing portions of the University’s endowment stock from fossil fuel companies, with administrators agreeing to further meetings. Three representatives from Stop Funding Climate Change (SFCC) presented recommendations from a 60-page report outlining why the University should divest from fossil fuel companies to Chief Investment Officer Mark Schmid, Secretary of the University Darren Reisberg, Vice President for Communications Julie Peterson, and Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen. The meeting was organized by University
President Robert Zimmer, who did not attend. The meeting came at a time when momentum for divestment on college campuses may be growing. Earlier this month, Stanford University announced that it would join 11 other schools in withdrawing investments in coal companies, making it the most well-known institution to do so. SFCC representatives declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting because talks with the administrators are ongoing, but second-year SFCC co-coordinator Sam Zacher, who attended the meeting, said in a statement, “there was a strong emphasis placed on investing primarily and solely for the highest endowment returns.” The meeting was the latest development in an effort that began last spring, when 70 percent of voters (2,183 students) in last year’s SG elections supported a referendum that called on the University to “shift its DIVEST continued on page 2
Indebted RSOs under watch in new ORCSA plan Ankit Jain News Editor In an attempt to prevent Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) from incurring debt, ORCSA is instituting a new plan in the fall that has RSOs go through a three-stage process as they attempt to discharge their debt. Indebted RSOs lose access to resources over time, and failure to discharge debt within three years could result in the closure of the RSO. Arthur Lundberg, assistant director for the Student Activities Center, said that roughly 15 percent of RSOs were in debt at the end of last year.
The new plan attempts to end deficit spending and force RSOs to focus on their finances before they enter debt. “Historically, RSOs have been given freedom to spend themselves into debt, and then work to fundraise themselves out of debt. However, if an RSO is unsuccessful in paying back the debt, and their leadership graduates, the debt becomes a large burden on future RSO leaders,” Anthony Martinez, the vice chair of Graduate Council and chair of the Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC), said. “The new plan will help improve the RSO funding process by creating accountability… ORCSA continued on page 2
Construction on Vue53 to start soon William Rhee News Staff Construction of Vue53, a 13-story retail and residential building at 1330 East 53rd Street, is expected to begin in the first half of this year pending city permits, Calmetta Coleman, director of Communications for Civic Engagement, said in an e-mail. Coleman said the project is expected to be completed by fall 2015, and that University students will be “welcome
to apply” for apartments in the building. There will be retail property on the ground floor of the development. According to Mesa Development, the Chicago-based firm in charge of the development, the University owns the land Vue53 will be built on, but Mesa will own the building. The site of Vue53 used to be home to a Mobil gas station, which was demolished in the summer. Plans to begin construction come on the heels of the decision this February
by Judge Kathleen Pantle to dismiss a lawsuit filed by community group Save 53rd Street on procedural grounds, as urged by DLA Piper LLP, a private firm representing the University of Chicago. Save 53rd Street is a Hyde Park community group dedicated to opposing the Vue53 development with a motto of “sky, not skyscrapers.” The motion stated that the plaintiffs did not give sufficient notice of their challenge to the zoning ordinance to property ownVUE53 continued on page 2
Despite community efforts to halt the construction of the University’s newest residential and retail building, Vue53, work is expected to begin within the next few months. JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Communication around Confucius » Page 3
Godzilla: Bigger, badder, and better than ever » Page 6
Why baseball is the best sport
Passing over Hyde Park » Page 4
Platonic Love » Page 6
Postseason Accolades » Back Page
» Back Page
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 16, 2014
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Patients to fill empty CCD floors Ananya Pillutla Maroon Contributor The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) plans to fill the space in its new Center for Care and Discovery (CCD) by moving units from the older Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital. With the expanded space in the CCD, the Mitchell Hospital space will be repurposed as office space, clinical areas, and research laboratories, according to the UCMC’s website, though the emergency room will remain. When the UCMC opened the CCD in February 2013, many hospital functions were transferred from other areas of hospital campus to the new 10-story, 1.2-million-square-foot facility. However, at the time of the CCD’s completion, the third and fourth floors of the building were left empty. Both floors were left as “shelled space” for the hospital to use when more space was needed and more resources were
available. Currently, the CCD houses 180 medical-surgical beds and 60 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds. However, on April 17, the UCMC submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board requesting to move 122 medical-surgical beds and 32 ICU beds from the older Mitchell Hospital to the new CCD. The plan also includes increasing the number of observation beds from 15 to 46 and adding 12 ICU beds. According to the Board, the CON’s aim is to prevent unnecessary construction or renovation of health-care facilities, and a CON is required by Illinois law when a construction or renovation project in a health-care facility is proposed. With this move, the number of beds in the CCD would increase to 310 while the number of beds in the Mitchell Hospital would drop to 28, according to
Crain’s Chicago Business. The total number of medical-surgical beds in the University of Chicago Medicine system would remain at a constant 338, observation bed count would increase to 46, and ICU bed count would increase to 126. All ICU and observation beds would be moved to the CCD. The plan to move hospital beds comes only a year after University of Chicago Medicine successfully submitted another CON application last year to reactivate 38 beds at the Mitchell Hospital. Executive Director of Strategic Communications Lorna Wong said that the UCMC does not comment on CON applications. The CON application is yet to be reviewed by the Board. However, the University hopes to complete the project by September 2017. The University says on its CON application that the entire project will cost a little over $123.5 million.
Admin says it wants more conversation on divestment DIVEST continued from front
investment strategy to account for the environmental impact of oil, gas, and coal used by the companies it invests in.” Zimmer responded to the referendum by asking for a more detailed argument favoring divestment last spring, which climate activists delivered to his office in February. First-year SFCC co-coordinator Johnny Guy, who also attended yesterday’s meeting, said the meeting was constructive. “They were receptive to our arguments and both sides came out feeling we had had a good dialogue,” he said. Zacher said that SFCC reached an agreement with Reisberg to discuss setting up a meeting with the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees, which would have to approve any kind of divestment. The University has approximately 3 to 4 percent of its portfolio invested in coal and other non-sustainable forms of energy, Schmid said at a public leadership conversation event in the fall. In a statement, Peterson said that the meeting offered an opportunity for top University leaders to understand SFCC’s arguments for divestment and explain the University’s position on investments. “We came away deeply impressed with the students’ preparation and detailed thinking, and with a new appreciation for the depth of their convictions. And we agreed, together with
the students, that we would do all we could to maintain and enhance an environment in which robust inquiry into issues like climate change and divestment flourishes,” Peterson said in the statement. Before the meeting, Zacher said that the group would use it as an opportunity to gauge the opinion of top administrators on divestment and to see whether they would take a public stance on the issue. Zacher and Guy attended the meeting along with third-year Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees and SFCC member Brendan Leonard. The report makes scientific, moral, financial, and institutional cases for divestment. Among other arguments, the report suggests that the University’s mission “to do all things necessary or pertaining to” establishing and preserving opportunities for higher education necessitates that it act on climate change because the consequences of climate change would hinder opportunities for higher education. The report also argues that divestment would not violate the political neutrality demanded by the Kalven Report, because the action would be taken voluntarily and would not limit the expression of faculty or students. Editor’s Note: Sam Zacher is a Maroon Sports Editor.
Lundberg: “[We’re] really making a push to keep as many organizations from being [in debt] as possible” ORCSA continued from front
and it will also promote a healthier approach to funding initiatives, which is to fundraise up front, and only incur debt when calculated risks don’t work out.” The plan would take effect at the start of next year and increase support and penalties as RSOs advance through each stage of the debt. RSOs that end any quarter in debt would be subject to Debt Plan 1, under which, according to an ORCSA document announcing the changes, “quarterly/Ad hoc funding,” such as SGFC funds, would be unavailable until the RSO discharges its debt. RSOs would also have to file a debtreduction plan and receive additional financial training. For RSOs that enter next year already in debt, the plan would be modified on a case-bycase basis for each RSO. Debtreduction benchmarks would be set that these RSOs would have to meet to avoid advancing through the Debt Plan stages. If organizations remain in debt for three academic quarters after entering Debt Plan 1, they would enter Debt Plan 2 and would lose access to all SG funding. They would also need to have monthly meetings with their adviser, quarterly meetings
with the financial advising staff, and further financial training. Organizations that remain in debt for an additional year would enter Debt Plan 3, under which all previous support requirements would still apply and their RSO status would be frozen until they repay their debt. Failure to pay back debt within one year of entrance into Debt Plan 3 would result in potential closure of the RSO, although Lundberg, one of the writers of the plan, said there would be some flexibility in this last step. “I think that’s not sort of a robotic situation where the clock strikes and you’re done. I think it would definitely be, when talking about something as serious as that, a conversation between the financial team, the adviser, and any sort of, any progress they’ve made could potentially stave that off,” Lundberg said. Martinez said that neither SG nor RSO leaders were heavily involved in the creation of the plan and that ORCSA discussed the plan with him only after it was mostly set in place, but added that he didn’t think SG would have had much to add. Third-year Mason Heller, president of the a cappella group Voices in Your Head, which has been in debt since Heller joined
the group in his first year, said in general he supports the plan, but wishes that there was a probationary period before the penalties are enforced. He added that in addition to attempting to prevent RSOs from going into debt, he hopes that ORCSA will also work on a plan to help RSOs that are already in debt. “A debt-reduction plan should come with a reform in terms of the way in which RSOs can raise money,” he said. “The sooner that can be figured out in a way that groups can raise money easily for their projects, or their events, I think the less that there will be a tendency for groups like ours to get in debt in the first place.” Lundberg said that this plan is in line with RSO interests. “We’re not looking to hang anyone out to dry; these are all steps that we’re taking together with the groups,” he said. “Any groups that have experienced debt in the past would probably be glad to share that it’s really challenging and it makes it hard to focus on the really important things that your group is doing. So [we’re] really making a push to keep as many organizations from being in that situation as possible.”
Community group to appeal lawsuit dismissal, but University hopes to finish construction by fall of 2015 VUE53 continued from front
ers within 250 feet of the site. Michael Scott, a member of Save 53rd Street and a plaintiff in the original suit, said that Save 53rd Street plans to file an appeal within a month. “A motion to dismiss the suit on procedural grounds does not in general speak to at all the merits of the case,” Scott
said. “Our objection to [Vue53] is that we think it’s the wrong building. We are pursuing our objection to that through a lawsuit because we believe it is indeed illegal.” Scott said that Save 53rd Street supports development, but that the size of Vue53 makes it a bad fit for Hyde Park. Scott’s group alleges that the
city changed a law regarding the maximum height of new buildings specifically for the construction of Vue53. “This is significantly out of scale for this area of the neighborhood,” Scott said. “It is our contention that the zoning change which needed to be put through the city council was not legal under Illinois law.”
CRIME CORNER by Alex Hays
» May 8, Greenwood Avenue Between 54th and 55th Streets, 1:30 p.m.—An unknown male took a cell phone from the hand of a victim walking on a sidewalk off campus. This is now a CPD case. » May 10, 5200 South Lake Park Avenue, 10:55 a.m.—A male subject forcibly took a man’s vehicle at a gas station. The victim resisted the attempted theft and hung onto the car. A resulting traffic crash occurred, and the victim was struck by another vehicle. The suspect fled on foot but was located and detained by UCPD officers. The suspect was turned over to the CPD, and the victim was transported to a hospital.
» May 12, 1000 East 54th Street, 3:40 p.m.—A UCPD officer attempted to detain an individual for possession of cannabis. The suspect resisted the officer and battered him or her. The suspect was placed under arrest and charged with battery. » May 14, 5316 South Dorchester Avenue (Gaylord Apartments), 6:42 p.m.—UCPD officers arrested two males for unlawfully entering a secured off campus, but University owned building, and taking a parcel. The parcel was property of a resident. The suspects were charged with residential burglary.
May 8May 14
Since March 31
Arrest (except traffic violation)
2
19
Attempted burglary
1
2
Battery (multiple types)
1
2
Burglary
3
10
Damage to property (including vehicle)
2
13
Robbery (multiple types)
2
9
Theft (including from motor vehicle)
10
33
Trespass to property (including residence)
0
1
Type of Crime
Trends since March 31
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed MAY 16, 2014
Communication around Confucius Confucius Institute just the latest example of a larger trend of poor communication between administration and faculty As the Maroon reported this Tuesday (“Signers of Faculty Petition Raise Concerns on Confucius Institute, Faculty Freedoms,” [5/13/14]), a group of 108 faculty members signed a petition urging the Committee of the Council of the Faculty Senate to bring the continued existence of the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Chicago before the Council for a vote. The signers of the petition further urged the termination of the University’s contract with the CI. Many of the leaders in creating and publicizing this petition believe that its very existence is indicative of a chronic lack of communication with faculty in University decisionmaking processes, of which the CI is only the most recent example. In 2009, the University signed an agreement for the establishment
of the CI without involvement of the Council. Ideally, there should have been communication between administration and faculty over the CI then. But at this point the only way for the administration to begin to address its larger problematic communication is to fully engage faculty members in the University’s decision surrounding its contract with the CI now. The University’s own words and stated goals have placed faculty at the forefront of decisions concerning centers for learning. In explaining the process for establishing UChicago’s foreign centers, President Robert Zimmer told Grey City (“How Things Work: UChicago’s Global Centers,” [5/13/14]), “after faculty kind of lay out the overall scope of the plans, there’s a lot of administrative work to be done.”
He further emphasized that the establishment of these centers was mainly motivated by faculty desires to have physical locations in these areas. Even after these centers are established, administration is fairly hands-off. As Vice President for Global Engagement Ian Solomon said, “I don’t oversee very much at this University. Faculty run things here.” With regard to these global centers, the University has acknowledged the central role of faculty not only in the decisions leading up to their establishment, but in the centers’ operations thereafter. If the University has seemingly no trouble communicating with faculty in establishing UChicago centers abroad, why are there so many manifestations of faculty unrest with the establishment of centers on our own campus? The
CI petition is not the first time faculty has expressed dissatisfaction with University decision making. In 2008, over 170 faculty members petitioned against the naming of what was then the Milton Friedman Institute, arguing that Friedman’s name alone was too politically charged. The University responded by convening the faculty senate to discuss the issue, leading to the eventual name change to the Becker Friedman Institute. In 2010, another petition was signed by over 170 faculty members objecting to the growing “corporatization” of the University and protesting lack of communication over the establishment of the CI. In February of this year, a faculty committee was convened to review the potential impact of the CI and address concerns over it. In both of these
instances, communication with faculty over important University decisions has been subpar and, just as worryingly, retroactive. In regards to the CI, the best that can be done in this situation is to continue the conversation that President Zimmer started on Tuesday with the Council. This is not a change from the past pattern of communication between University administration and faculty, but at this point it is the best option. Late communication is better than none at all. But looking beyond this conversation to the next, communication needs to be initiated before important decisions are made, not after. The Editorial Board consists of the Viewpoints Editors and the Editorial Staff.
Honesty isn’t an adequate policy Minimal and moralizing rhetoric surrounding academic integrity oversimplifies the complexities of plagiarism Sam Preston Maroon Contributor Bashing this school is not a practice I usually indulge in or condone. I may not like Bartlett or South, but I doubt you can find a college where the students don’t complain about the food. The course bidding process is capricious and frustrating, but I have found the majority of professors to be accommodating during the first few weeks of classes. Although this University has plenty of flaws, I usually remind disgruntled students that the quality of education far outweighs the
often-exaggerated problems we post about on Overheard and other social media sites. However, one issue that I continually find troublesome is our approach to academic honesty. Voicing this concern with students typically invites the inappropriate, yet predictable, accusation that I plagiarized and am bitter about my past mistakes. That conclusion is unfounded and false. I understand the intricacies of our policy as a result of extensive research on the topic, conducted to satisfy the final project requirements of a public policy class called Implementation.
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During this quarter-long endeavor, I interviewed dozens of students, teachers, and administrators to learn how our policy is implemented and how it may be improved. I discovered many troubling trends that need to be addressed by the University and our student body. I asked 100 of my peers whether they read, skimmed, or even recognized Doing Honest Work in College, a helpful guidebook authored by Charles Lipson that is distributed to every first-year during OWeek. First of all, only 5 read any portion of the work. Even more disconcertingly, close to 20 somehow failed to receive a copy in the first place. And 74 of the surveyed students stashed the text on their bookshelf and never touched it again. When I was a first-year, I did the same thing. I dismissed learning about academic honesty because I believed plagiarism was always a matter of deliberate cheating. However, my research suggests that the reality is more complicated and warrants greater attention. Professors I interviewed held diverse views on what constituted the offense, and most acknowledged that different assignments demanded different standards. Collaborative work is often a fluid concept that flirts with dishonesty, and peer “editing” is a slippery slope that can inadvertently become an inappropriate practice. Plagiarism is more nuanced than you would believe. Considering a majority of students ignore Doing Honest Work in College, these subtleties need to be addressed in the classroom. However, my collection of course syllabi offers a disheartening reminder that academic honesty is consistently overlooked. These class outlines typically offer the standard foreboding rhetoric that all cases will be handled with the utmost seriousness. Few indicate that uncertainty should be addressed by asking the professor, and many fail to even in-
clude an academic honesty section in the first place. To complement my interviews and syllabus collecting, I documented how professors approached the subject in class throughout my college career. To this day, no instructor of mine has invited substantial discussion about his or her specific policies. Instead, he or she usually reiterated the “seriousness” of the offense and reminded the class of the sobering consequences. In one especially telling example, a political science professor overviewed his entire policy in one succinct sentence: “Everyone knows about it, and it’s simple. Just don’t do it.” This type of oversimplified, morally charged rhetoric inadvertently promotes the false belief that plagiarism is always a conscious decision to cheat. As a result, students regularly turn in assignments without first evaluating their work’s consistency with professors’ expectations of academic integrity. Whether it’s a problem set or a midterm paper, we often assume our understanding of permissible “collaborative work” is aligned with our teachers’. Furthermore, few students have the inclination to fully examine the nuances of academic honesty on their own time, and consequently, a dangerous disconnect can persist through academic quarters. Two students I spoke with can attest to how problematic assumptions and pervasive ignorance can result in permanent black marks. Although these individuals conceded that they were ultimately at fault, they were simply unaware of certain citation guidelines and paid dearly for their mistakes. Although I am critical of the persistent decision to frame plagiarism as a purely moral dilemma, I nonetheless understand that students have a responsibility to learn the policies before completing assignments. Every student who ac-
cidentally plagiarizes is guilty of carelessness and falls short of the expectations of a University of Chicago student. However, considering both professors and honest students want to avoid this demoralizing outcome, I believe simple practices can combat student ignorance, erase preconceived notions, and reduce the number of accidental incidents on this campus. Communication must be heightened to bridge this disconnect. First and foremost, why not implement a mandatory discussion on academic honesty during O-Week? Such a setting would be more engaging than a time-consuming 200-page book. These meetings would also de-stigmatize the issue and encourage greater discourse about this little-discussed subject. In addition, all professors should stress that plagiarism is not always a matter of conscious cheating in the classroom and reiterate the importance of clarifying any confusion throughout the quarter. Syllabi should in turn state the explicit criteria of each expected graded assignment. These are basic steps that will heighten transparency and drastically improve our approach to academic honesty. I have loved my time at the University of Chicago. I genuinely enjoy working in our admissions office, and was honored to represent this school on the soccer field for four great years. However, this place is not perfect, and I believe faculty, professors, and students need to further investigate plagiarism on our campus. Many of these cases are avoidable, and I would encourage everyone to ask their professors to go over what their plagiarism definitions are on specific assignments. Because who wants to read a book about that, right? Sam Preston is a fourth-year in the College majoring in political science.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 16, 2014
Passing over Hyde Park Engaging with this city can be as simple as taking a moment to stop and see it Kiran Misra Maroon Staff The walls have voices at 56th and Lake Park. “Well, it was here before, it was here after, and it’s going on,” they say (“it” presumably referring to the city, life, any number of institutions). “I see a lot of racism…we are all human beings so it shouldn’t really matter, but you can’t tell some of the people that.” Other statements on the wall are a little more existentially uncertain: “I don’t know where I’m going,” reads one. “I’m thinking about how to interweave the stories of genesis and evolution,” says another. These quotes were part of a mural entitled “Where We Come From...Where We’re Going” created by Olivia Gude, a UIC professor who stood outside the 56th Street Metra station and asked passersby that question and then painted the results on the underpass wall. The mural is an in-your-face reminder that each and every person getting on the train is physically and metaphysically coming from somewhere and is headed somewhere else. Though all these people are tied together by that theme, their experiences are varied, unique, and complex. The experience of seeing these sentiments on the mural strays dan-
gerously close to a standard illustration of the “Teenager Realizes That The Human Experience is a Relatable One” narrative arc (one that I certainly experienced and is significant and important as a realization, but not particularly novel). So let me say that this revelation was complemented by another, less common one: Engagement with this city and the people and struggles in it can be no more complex than just taking a second to notice my surroundings when navigating Hyde Park. On urbanist Jane Jacobs’s birthday every year, free locally-organized walking tours are led by city residents in order to get people together to explore, talk about, and celebrate their neighborhoods. And, as a walk leader, I was supposed to share my knowledge of my home for the past year—knowledge that I thought I would rediscover and review, but then realized I had never even discovered in the first place. This realization really hit home in the Metra underpass. In the span of about a block, my group and I explored and discussed three murals: “Childhood is Without Prejudice,” “Pioneer Social Work,” and “Spirit of Hyde Park.” The first is a series of interlocking children’s faces representing the potential unity of all rac-
es. The second tells the story of the struggle for suffrage and civil liberties. The last tells the story of racial injustice, segregation, and oppression through scenes including those of police violence and protests. These three illustrations tell varying yet historically and contemporarily pivotal conceptual narratives—and even though a lot of time has passed since the people on the Metra ruminated on their situation and painters put their concerns about the institutional problems in the city of Chicago on the walls, these murals remain potent and relevant, and sparked civic reflection in my group and me. The strange thing is, two of the murals are about 10 feet from the dorm room in which I sleep, eat, and study every day, yet I’ve never stopped to look at them before. Every day, I pass the wall art and never take a second glance, the scenes just vague geometric colors and shapes in my mind. It’s a pretty classic case of getting used to beauty with a twist— never noticing it was there in the first place. We were journeying down 57th on our way to the first mural when we noticed that a man was unloading crates of spraypaint cans from his truck in the alleyway between Kimbark and Kenwood. He told us that he was
working on a project that depicted the rap group Stony Island to commemorate one of the band members who had passed away in 2009. He explained the quotes on the wall (“Who’s got the nalej (knowledge) eye?” and “minds open,” two particularly famous lyrics from their songs) and talked about the care with which he analyzed the smallest details and spray-painted shadows. He epitomized Jacobs’s model that there is no more impactful way of hearing
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Kiran Misra is a first-year in the College.
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the story of a community’s history than through the people living it, recording it, and creating it. These people are all around us every day, but their stories and thoughts are also encapsulated by their ubiquitous art, so that engaging in Chicago’s history can be as easy as a Google search and a quick walk down 56th on a Sunday afternoon.
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Computer crash course Introductory computer science sequence drowns students in theory and then blindsides them with practical work David Grossman Maroon Staff My major is harder than your major. That claim is made a lot at this University, but I think it’s probably true in my case. I also have to clarify that this isn’t a point of pride for me—I wish it were otherwise. But I’m a computer science major, and thus all too familiar with the practice of turning introductory courses into a crucible to “weed out� anyone in the bottom X percent. This is in conflict with the basic goals of education: to teach us how to learn and to prepare us for the more complicated material ahead, so that we may actually master it. For premed programs, at least there’s the justification that there likely aren’t enough spots within the profession for every first-year premed, but computer science is a very accessible industry. Everyone has access to the Internet, anyone can learn how to code, and when they do they can command a high salary without a degree, purely on the basis of their technical knowledge. And yet, given this massive potential for widespread accessibility to programming, our computer science curriculum completely squanders it. At the beginning of fall quarter, my introductory honors computer science class—no prerequisites—was overbooked
with more than 70 students. Only 42 remained enrolled in the sequence the following quarter. The professor had that rare combination of genius, experience, and teaching talent, and the students were eager to help each other learn. So what went wrong ? Well, first of all, it didn’t actually introduce us to programming. This isn’t in itself a completely bad thing : It does avoid giving an advantage to those who had already programmed before. The professor decided to teach us a programming language that was sure to be completely different from anything we had ever encountered before. Called Haskell, it was a functional language based entirely on lambda calculus, eta reductions, and lazy evaluation. If you don’t know what any of these words mean, it’s basically a way to write as little explicit code as possible by leading the computer to infer an astounding number of things about how to process your code. Homework and projects, while requiring about 5 percent of the code (the correct answer was often the perfect one-liner) that would’ve been needed in another language, took 500 percent of the time. There is quite a bit of value in learning the theory behind Haskell, but in practice the difficulty of the course led to four people, at most, in the entire class learning Haskell well enough to continue using it in
their programming careers. The rest forgot it and never looked back, and many dropped out of the sequence altogether. While the first quarter was more of a theoretical computer science class than an introductory programming class, the second quarter of the intro sequence was the exact opposite. And this is where not really learning programming in your first quarter becomes a problem. In a few short months, we covered and programmed in Python, C, HTML, XML, turtle graphics, Flex, Yacc/ Bison, and XSLT. The mile-wide, inch-deep approach was only possible for me to handle because I had already been coding for many years and knew how to deal with new languages. For those who were truly new to programming, it was absolute hell—in no small part because they had no experience actually installing and getting programs in so many different languages to actually compile and execute on their computers, something that was never covered in class. To anyone taking that class with a Windows computer: I’m sorry. The implicit requirement that students in this sequence already know how to code, despite the course having no prerequisites, is even more apparent when we consider that 40 percent of every student’s grade was based on a class wiki. The wiki was supposed to
serve as a forum where we would post and solve one another’s programming assignments—which we were expected to make up on our own, because we presumably already knew how to code—and be graded on how much work we did relative to everyone else. Since there was no limit to how much work we could throw up on the wiki, and getting an A in the class was not dictated by a cutoff but rather by your performance relative to your classmates, you had to make the wiki your life. That meant spending 10 to 30 hours a week productively writing “interesting� code, aside from the rest of the coursework (which was quite time-intensive, I assure you), not to mention work for your other classes. For someone like me, who was working several part-time software jobs and could just post whatever problems my employers asked me to solve and the code for them—and thus effectively get paid to work 60 hours a week on the class wiki, this arrangement was just dandy. Of a similar opinion were those who had been programming for a long time and had several years of their own code written for previous classes or employers just lying around. The “intro� students with no such advantages, for whom this class was supposedly made, were doomed to a less desirable grade from the get-go.
To recap, the honors introductory computer science sequence has no programming experience requirements, the first quarter is a theoretical computer science class that doesn’t really teach any programming so that those with experience don’t have an advantage, and it’s almost impossible to get an A in the second quarter unless you’ve been coding since junior high. There are very intelligent students who make it through the first quarter of the sequence only to be completely blindsided by the second. This structure is absolutely FUBAR (look it up). Please, please! At least switch the order of 161 and 162 so that students are programming from day one and have a reasonable indication of whether or not they have the background necessary to complete the sequence. For those who can spend a quarter without programming and still enter the major prepared on the basis of their previous knowledge, 161 is a really interesting class taught by a truly remarkable instructor. But students don’t find out until 162 whether or not their previous knowledge is enough to complete the major. With advance warning, maybe more than two-thirds would end up actually completing the sequence. David Grossman is a firstyear in the College.
MICHAEL SPINDLER
James J. Heckman discusses The Myth of Achievement Tests
Wednesday, May 21, 6:00 pm Serena Cosgrove, Assistant Professor at Seattle University, will explore current research about the challenges of post-conict societies, especially for women and other marginalized groups.We begin with dinner at Brent House at 6 pm. Your RSVP helps us plan. For more information or to RSVP, contact us at: 773-947-8744, ofďŹ ce@brenthouse.org, or the Facebook event.
BRENT House:
May 21, 2014, 6:00 pm
Compline in commemoration of HĂŠloĂŻse d'Argenteuil Tuesday, May 20, 8:00 pm Bond Chapel
SEMINARY CO-OP BOOKSTORE 5751 S. Woodlawn Avenue ( 773) 752-4381 “A masterful synthesis of the research literature on the cognitive and character skills central to successfully navigating both school and life.�—Angela Lee Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
www.press.uchicago.edu
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
The ancient and contemplative monastic prayer service of Compline with music from both HĂŠloĂŻse and her famous love, Peter Abelard. A joint event with Brent House and members of the Motet Choir, under the leadership of Philip McGrath. For more information or to RSVP, contact us at: 773-947-8744, ofďŹ ce@brenthouse.org, or the Facebook event.
BRENT House:
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
ARTS
Heartlandia MAY 16, 2014
A contemporary Renaissance in Cobb Hall Andrew McVea Arts Staff Contrary to popular belief, the Renaissance Society is not in fact a group that participates in jousting matches, wears period costumes, and speaks in Old English. (That group is actually the Students for Creative Anachronism, and can be seen in full armor on the Midway most Sundays.) The Renaissance Society is a small museum on the fourth floor of Cobb that brings in avant-garde and contemporary artists for four exhibitions annually. From commentaries on modern youth culture to experiments in color, the Renaissance Society hosts challenging art by artists from across the globe in its unique venue, which is free and open to the public. The Renaissance Society was founded in 1915 in order to better expose the Chicago community to art and culture with an international scope. Although it has been located at the University of Chicago throughout its existence, it is an independent museum that tries to serve all of Chicago, not just the University. Its name brings to mind Renaissance painters such as da Vinci and Raphael, not contemporary art, but here the term “Renaissance” is a reference to the continuous rebirth of art that the Renaissance Society tries to show in its exhibitions. Having operated continuously for almost
a century, the museum has brought in such artistic icons as Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Juan Miró, and Piet Mondrian to display their work. Alexander Calder, whose elaborately balanced mobiles are a staple in museums across the globe, had his first solo American exhibition at the Renaissance Society back in 1934. Along with displaying art, the Renaissance Society also hosts poetry readings, movie screenings, and talks by today’s most influential artists. So far this year, the Renaissance Society has hosted a diverse group of exhibitions, ranging from Suicide Narcissus—a show that featured multiple artists all under the theme of climate change and humanity’s self-centeredness potentially causing our untimely demise—to the currently running Colour Drop, which features the sculptures and paintings of London-based artist Christina Mackie. To get a better understanding of how the Renaissance Society finds and chooses artists for their shows, I talked with Hamza Walker, a University of Chicago alum and the current associate curator and director of education for the Renaissance Society. “There’s no process in any mechanical sense,” Walker told me. “It involves being abreast of what’s going on out there in the world and talking to colleagues that include other curators [as well as] artists.” As associate curator, Walker is in
charge of finding and attracting artists from around the globe, as well as assembling the diverse lineup of shows put on each year. Walker was named one of the seven most influential curators in the United States by The New York Times, and in 2010 won the Ordway Prize, which honors curators and arts writers who have had a significant impact on the contemporary art world. He brings this expertise to helping fulfill the goals of the Renaissance Society. “Our mission is to present the work of living artists and contemporary art in all of its diversity insofar as it reflects how we live now. However, one wants to define that,” Walker said. “It’s very open-ended with respect to medium and also artists from around the world, so the work can be informed by sociopolitical events, and it’s also informed by the most recent canonical developments in contemporary art.” Since the Renaissance Society has such an international scope, a large part of Walker’s job is traveling around the world and networking with artists and other curators. Just within this past year Walker has traveled to Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York to find great art for display at the Renaissance Society. “The ability to separate work from pleasure and play is something that is extremely difficult [for me],” Walker said. “All I do, wherever I am, is try to look at some art.” And while a large portion of the art
La Cecina-22 of West 47th Street I’m starting to believe hole-in-the-wall restaurateurs are running a catch-22, or at least they’re doing so with me. The problem stems from the mix of obscurity and quality that creates the “hole”-iness that is so very lovable. The second these restaurants are “discovered,” like an indie band gone mainstream, the barriers to culinary entry are inundated and transformed by tidal waves of popularity. For this reason, I figure, patrons like me dutifully hide our favorite hole-in-the-wall spots from the rest of the world. If you don’t agree, then I can at least tell you that this is what has happened to La Cecina and me. Stationed on a fairly prominent corner of 47th Street in Back of the Yards, this isn’t a place I talk about frequently. The last thing I would want is to show up at the restaurant's front door and see a line snaking down the long home it’s built into. La Cecina specialized in food from Mexico’s Guerrero region, although the menu is decidedly panMexican. Take its namesake dish—the cecina. Strips of marinated beef are dried and then grilled, and served with
a side of homemade tortillas, pico de gallo, and guacamole. The dish is salty and powerful, but the large portions allow for the ingredients to mix. And that’s where the magic is. There are a few different variations to choose from: the cecina azteca is covered in melted cheese and salsa, and the cecina campesina is poured over
LA CECINA 1934 West 47th Street Average meal: $10-$12
with a rich sauce of cactus, onion, tomato, and cheese. The menu is also peppered with the usual items. Enchiladas, queso fundido, quesadillas, and tortas all are solid in their own right. The enchilada de mole manages a strong earthy flavor punctuated with the sweetness of the chilies and dark spices. The quesadillas con requeson are almost too rich for their own good, filled with the Mexican equivalent of ricotta cheese.
Yet what makes La Cecina stand out from its Pilsen cousins is its infusion of Guerreran variety, taking strong passes from the indigenous peoples and the area’s proximity to land and water. Fried fish (mojara) and game hen (codorniz) were surprise finds on the menu, although certainly easy to stomach. There are also a few items that add shock value. On the menu are criadillas al gusto, bull testicles for short, which are worth getting if you’re looking for something more adventurous but otherwise should be taken with reservations. And then there’s the rather expansive selection of seafood items, complimenting surprisingly well with balanced flavors and remaining, for the most part, remarkably fresh. Not everything, though, is exactly up to par here. There are a few small inconveniences. Traveling to and from the restaurant can be a hassle without a car, although the CTA is still an option for those willing with some built-in extra time. The corn tortilla chips that are served on the table are the same as anywhere else, and I venture the salsa is not CECINA continued on page 7
"Chalk," by Christina Mackie, currently on display at the Renassaince Society as part of their spring exhibition, Colour Drop. It's so blue, it's almost black. COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
displayed at the Renaissance Society comes from foreign talents, American artists, especially those from the Chicago area, can also be seen displayed at the Renaissance Society on a regular basis. Ultimately, the Renaissance Society’s function is to bring challenging, contemporary art to the Chicago
community, wherever they might find it. While each individual work of art may not make sense on its own, the exhibitions and collections brought to the museum provide a unique and exciting look into what is going on in the art world today. And who knows, the works of the next Picasso might be shown right above your Hum class.
Godzilla: Bigger, badder, and better than ever Michael Cheiken Arts Staff Godzilla finds director Gareth Edwards (who coincidentally made his directorial debut with Monsters) at his most diverse, and combines phenomenal acting performances and really fun special effects– driven action to form an extraordinary monster movie. Edwards, very familiar with the invading-monster genre and its history, seems eager to create an homage to Ishirō Honda’s 1954 film of the same name. Sure, Godzilla is just another entry in the genre’s recent revival, but by focusing on the more human elements and character development rather than rampant destruction, Godzilla sets itself apart. This diversion manifests itself as a character study with engineering expert Joe Brody (played by Bryan Cranston, of Breaking Bad fame), the film’s main (human) subject and a former physicist at the Janjira nuclear plant. While many other monster movies suffer when the monster is off-screen, here Godzilla excels: Its exploration into Joe’s psyche is directed and acted extraordinarily well, even by the astronomically high stan-
dards Cranston set for himself with Breaking Bad. After a tragic accident at the nuclear plant, Joe becomes embroiled in an enduring quest to find the truth behind the disaster. Disregarded as a crackpot professor, Joe secludes himself in a cabin—the interior design of which resembles John Nash’s shed in A Beautiful Mind. Fifteen years after the nuclear meltdown, Joe’s son, Lieutenant Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson of Kick-Ass 1 and 2), comes to bring his father back to reality and drag him back into the fray of society. When Lieutenant Brody gets sucked into his father’s search for answers, the viewer recognizes Cranston’s remarkable proficiency as a performer. Joe is too focused on his work to even ask about his son’s well-being. Yet, even through the worst stages of his near-psychotic determination and almost inhumane disregard of his son, the immense love Joe has for Lt. Brody is still evident in his weathered visage. It’s a remarkably nuanced performance by Cranston, and his execution of rookie screenwriter Max Borenstein’s overthe-top lines is masterful. As much as the first segment of the film is a well-
directed character study, the latter portion is an equally well-crafted action movie. Godzilla’s fight scenes are well-orchestrated and extremely fun. As with most other monster or action movies, the plot holes are evident, but as is the case in all of the great ones, the inconsistencies don’t matter because you’re having too much fun to care. Godzilla thrives on this. Of course, this does not mean that the action-packed portions of the film are without cinematic merit. There are countless sequences displaying Edwards’ expertise behind the camera, including a memorable shot of parachuters barreling down through the clouds with red smoke trails streaming from their feet. The film’s indulgent action, in conjunction with skillful cinematography, makes for some fantastic viewing. Edwards’ ability to make a remarkable yet intelligent film out of the classic monster movie Godzilla truly is a testament to his competency as a director. Anchored by Cranston’s dominating performance and extraordinary special effects, Godzilla proves itself a must-see movie this spring season.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 16, 2014
MAROON Crossword
“If you’ve ever wanted to enter a Mexican home that knows how to cook, well, here’s your chance” CECINA continued fron page 6
given all the attention it deserves. From the entrées and appetizers, there is a lot of inconsistency. There is at least one time I can remember the meat being completely overcooked, to the point where I was gnawing through shreds of beef in prehistoric style. But La Cecina’s exterior glory comes mostly less from its consistency than from its unique homey feel. The restaurant’s many blue chairs are filled with families from nearby, and you’ll find the
TV turned to the most recent soccer game or maybe a telenovela. There are few restaurants that have nicer staff, although going with a Spanish speaker certainly won’t hurt. The meal screams, yells, almost explodes with homeyness and satisfaction. If you’ve ever wanted to enter a Mexican home that knows how to cook, well, here’s your chance. The first time someone spoke to me about La Cecina, I misinterpreted the name of the restaurant as
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By Kyle Dolan
Difficulty:
1
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a feminine version of the Spanish word for assassin— asesino. And although La Cecina has nothing at all to do with assassins, I’ve kept it hidden like one. What’s a faster way to kill the mood of going home than having a 30-minute wait ahead of you? Yet La Cecina deserves its time in the spotlight, not to be outshone any longer by Casa-this or Nuevo-that. So I’ll gladly break the catch-22 for La Cecina. That is, as long as it can keep cranking out those tortillas.
La Cecina sits at West 47th Street and South Winchester Avenue, in Back of the Yards. COURTESY OF GOOGLE
Across 1. Drunkard 4. Poker action 8. Main roles 13. Grazed 14. Geometry figures 16. Kick out 17. Protection made of tiny rings 19. Funereal music 20. Marine eagle 21. Make a scarf, say 23. Michelin product 24. Bushels 25. Writer John ___ Passos 27. Persian, e.g. 28. Elevator stop 30. It might give you extra lives
Shulamit Ran, Artistic Director
33. Male 27-Across 34. Brutus's "Behold!" 36. Like peanuts 37. Starbucks order 39. Block from view 42. Gaelic tongue 43. Reggae relative 46. Nickname for LeBron James, with "the" 48. Offensive odor 50. "Get ___ To The Greek" (2010 film) 51. Tony winner Cariou 52. Byproduct of protein
metabolism 53. Sir's partner 55. Responds to a command, as a dog 58. Marching band member 59. Boredom 61. Han Solo's co-pilot 64. Inclined 65. Like some old houses 66. Monopoly token 67. Iranian money 68. Countless 69. Pick, with "for"
4
5 3. Place where you might have cucumber sandwiches 4. Mr. Peanut prop 5. Chair part 6. What a plumber might fix 7. Stretched out 8. ___ Zeppelin 9. Stage direction 10. Peach relative 11. Break down 12. Rained hard? 15. Playground piece 18. Excited about 22. Some speeches 24. Toward the wake 26. Says so 29. Fix, as a shoe 30. Early thirdcentury year 31. ___ of Troy 32. Johnny Manziel's new team, on the
scoreboard 35. Film festival site 37. These, in Toulouse 38. "___ you kidding?" 39. Bagel topper 40. Red on a menu 41. Bucharest's country 43. Hot, dry wind 44. Patella 45. Wanted-poster letters 47. In the cooler 49. Marching band member 54. Think (over) 56. Not us 57. "Buona ___" (Italian greeting) 58. Be a good dog 60. "___ alive!" 62. Take the prize 63. Photography, e.g.
Answers from last Friday’s puzzle
Down 1. ___ fly 2. Shakespeare's Moor
Welcome all Students and Faculty
First Impressions are everything....
TOMORROW’S NEW MUSIC TODAY II
05.16.14 FRI | 7:30 PM
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y s i How
Enjoy music by today’s finest young composers, performed by Contempo’s resident artists. This free concert includes works by UChicago doctoral candidates in composition. Julia Bentley
This concert is free! Reception to follow.
Ricardo Rivera
3
Program: Pacifica Quartet eighth blackbird Cliff Colnot, conductor Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano Ricardo Rivera, baritone Chad Sloan, baritone Jesse Langen, guitar Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, actress
• Free examinations • Special discounts for students & faculty • Convenient office hours • Quick appointments between classes • Affordable monthly payment options
Jae-Goo Lee: Ma’u˘m Tomás Gueglio: Knowledgeable Viuda Andrew McManus: Killing the Goat, an opera
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESENTS
Free admission, no reservations required 773.702.ARTS | contempo.uchicago.edu
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“…a winning combination of intriguing music and superb performers.” − Chicago Sun Times
IN QUOTES
SPORTS POSTSEASON ACCOLADES The Sports Editors
Fourth-year Brett Huff
Fourth-year Dylan Massey
COURTESY OF
COURTESY OF
UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
Fourthyear Maddie McManus
Second-year Jordan Poole
COURTESY OF
UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
COURTESY OF
UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
“I almost threw up my first time in the big leagues and I didn’t have to face the Yankees. So I thought he threw well. ” –N.Y. Mets Daniel Murphy comments on Mets prospect Rafael Montero’s first career start, which was against the N.Y. Yankees
All–UAA baseball selections, 5/13/14
All–UAA softball selections, 5/11/14
Following the end of the season for many sports, several players have been honored for their individual achievements in baseball and softball. Fourth-year baseball players Brett Huff and Dylan Massey were named to the All–UAA Second Team last Tuesday, finishing out their UChicago athletic careers on a high note despite a rough team season. Both athletes started in all 37 games of the season; Huff played in right field for the most part, while Massey contributed as designated hitter as well as in the infield. Huff finished the season with the second-best batting average on the team (.346) as well as the most RBIs (19) this season. Massey knocked in 12 RBIs while stealing eight bases and held the third-best batting average (.331). This is the first time either of them has been named to an All–UAA team. “Dylan and Brett have been solid contributors every year they’ve been here,” said second-year pitcher Alex Athenson. “They were a big part of our lineup offensively and solid everyday starters in the field. But also their leadership off the field with the younger players and the rest of the team has been great. They really helped define and shape our identity as a team.”
To cap off an already successful season for the Maroons with an NCAA appearance, fourth-year Maddie McManus and secondyear Jordan Poole were both recognized for their strong individual performances this year. McManus and Poole were named Third–Team All–Great Lakes Region by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association last Sunday, and McManus was also selected for the All– UAA Second Team and Poole named to the All-Region team. McManus played third base and was a clear standout with a team-high .375 batting average along with 21 RBIs. Out of 112 at-bats, McManus drew nine walks with just five strikeouts, demonstrating her offensive prowess. This is McManus’s second year in a row to be named All–UAA second team. “She’s an all around amazing player and person,” said first-year pitcher Alexa Hanelin. “In the dugout, she’s always relaxed and ready to go. She’s always supportive of her teammates and cheering—while spitting out seeds—for whoever is up. She’s super clutch at third base and at bat. Maddie gives her whole heart to the sport and inspires the rest of us.” Poole played as both a pitcher and a hitter this year, achieving a 15–5 record and 1.91 ERA as a pitcher with 119 Ks. Poole follows
McManus with the second-highest batting average on the team (.348) and also contributed 14 RBIs. “As a pitcher, J[ordan] plays under a lot of pressure every inning, but you wouldn’t know that when watching her play. She stays calm on the mound and throws strikes effortlessly. Her talent takes her far, but her attitude distinguishes her from the rest,” Hanelin said.
GET IN THE GAME.
WRITE FOR SPORTS. editor@chicagomaroon.com
Here comes the pitch: Why baseball’s the best sport
Sarah Langs Senior Sports Editor It’s simple: Our national pastime is the best sport. No question about it, baseball is the greatest. It is the sport of common people and intellectuals alike. Sure, baseball has a long list of rules, but that’s nowhere near the number of penalties one must memorize for football. Basketball is a great sport, and no disrespect to Mr. Zacher, but it doesn’t have enough complications, enough twists and turns. Baseball is wonderful because it is complex, and people can enjoy it no matter how much of the complexity they actually comprehend or choose to engage with. The argument for baseball’s place atop the “best sport” pedestal is multifaceted, just like the sport itself. Baseball has the longest history of any sport in this country, dating back to the 1800s. Soldiers during the Civil War relaxed by playing baseball—not football, basketball, or soccer. Granted, older doesn’t always mean better, but for a sport to have endured for this long, and to be played in a league that is still growing in this country, it has to have some merits. The great thing about baseball is that these merits are diverse and far-reaching, which is how the sport attracts so many different types of fans and such strong overall support. To start with, the baseball season
is long, running from when pitchers and catchers report to spring training in early February through the final pitch of the World Series in early November. Some might complain about this length of time, but it means that baseball gets center stage throughout the summer. As the NHL and NBA playoffs tail off, before NFL camp opens, there are about three months dedicated to baseball alone. And it’s not just about Major League Baseball— that’s also when the minor leagues, the independent leagues, and the Little League World Series are all thriving. No matter where you live, there’s some level of baseball for you to watch. And not just to watch, but also to play. There’s baseball, softball, fast-pitch, slow-pitch, and don’t forget stickball on the street, like Willie Mays played with children on the streets of New York when the Giants played there. Or the weekly game played three blocks from my house that I used to watch with my mother on Sundays when I was a kid. The baseball season is jointly for watching and for playing. What’s more picturesque than a parent and child, playing catch in the park on a summer afternoon? Nothing, I tell you. The benefits of the long season are many and varied. It allows a fan to take time off from the sport and come back, all throughout the season. While I’d personally not advocate for missing a single game, people could very feasibly attend a game in April, then check back on their team in July. This isn’t to encourage bandwagon fans. Rather, it’s important to herald the fact that baseball is accessible enough to allow for both casual fans and certified nuts. Building on the mere presence of 162 games in a season, there is room for fans to take years off from their fandom and still come right
back, without having any bearing on the team’s success. Baseball knows that life can get in the way, and that shouldn’t keep anyone from enjoying it. There are the franchise players who stick around for 10 years, but the general structure of the team is such that there is a lot of overhaul from year to year. So there are a lot of new names to learn yearly, regardless of whether it’s your first season following the team or your 40th. But baseball isn’t all about the pitches and swings, hits and outs. Part of baseball’s grounding as the best sport is that it provides the most non-game material. What do I mean by non-game material? I mean anything related to baseball that isn’t distinctly a baseball game between two teams. Baseball is widely considered “the intellectual sport,” and has generated a lot of literature as a result. There are books about baseball. There is poetry about baseball. And the quantity of these works is significantly greater than those inspired by any other sport. The books range from directly related, like Moneyball, to more tangentially related, like Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel, which uses baseball as a backdrop but is more of a satire of American literature as a whole than anything else. Not only are there literary works on baseball, but also two classes at this vaunted University that are specifically about the sport: Matthew Briones’s “Baseball and American Culture, 1840–present” and John Kelly’s “History and Culture of Baseball.” There have been other sports-related class offerings in the past, but none focusing on an individual sport other than baseball. Baseball is uniquely set in the intellectual fabric of our culture. I don’t mean to pose this in an elitist light, just to highlight what is so special about a sport that is able to inspire
these intellectual endeavors. It’s unlikely that a baseball fan could engage with the sport on a completely intellectual level and still be a perfect fan. But the number of different ways a baseball fan can engage with the sport is one of the things that make it more complex and nuanced than other sports. Not to be clichéd, but it’s more than just a game. This extends beyond the intellectual argument into a more religious one. I’m not talking about the major religions we have in this country—I’m talking about the Church of Baseball. Baseball is the one sport that is frequently compared to a religion: Ballparks are cathedrals, and those who root attend the Church of Baseball. The dedication and emotion that baseball stirs up in people is akin to the fervor associated with religion. Even those who wouldn’t go so far as to categorize their excitement over the sport as religious would still say that baseball fosters strong emotions. One could argue that we become invested in sports in general because they grab at our heartstrings. I argue that baseball does this to an exponentially higher degree: in part because of the longer season, in part because of the ways we can interact with it, and for multiple other reasons that would be impossible to list here. The fact that baseball is both a team and an individual sport at once, with the batter alone in the batter’s box trying to get a hit to help a group of 24 other men, is enthralling. We become personally invested in one player, which leads to a whole team, which leads to more players. Suddenly, you’re living and dying with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bam: emotional connection created. On a lighter note, baseball is the only sport where the manager or coach wears the exact same outfit as the players. While allowing for
this in other sports might render our brains scarred—think of Tom Coughlin in football pads or Stan Van Gundy in a Pistons uniform— it also means baseball managers are the most hardcore and the least stuff y. And that’s important (no disrespect to Jim Harbaugh’s khakis). I’ve discussed the superficial, the intellectual, and the emotional. But one final, overarching reason for baseball’s superiority remains. Consider this one my 99-mph fastball, because it’s going to pack a punch. Baseball was at the center of one of the most important social changes in this country. The beauty of the game of baseball is its capacity to be simultaneously “just a game” and a stage for progress. Jackie Robinson set foot on a major league diamond, integrating baseball, on April 15, 1947. This was a full year before the military was desegregated. I’m not going to turn this article into a history of the civil rights movement, but just think about it for a moment: Baseball was desegregated first. One of the first major American conglomerates (an intentionally vague word I’m using to encapsulate any large group of people whatsoever) to desegregate was the game of baseball. If that foresight, forward-thinking nature, and impetus toward social change alone don’t make baseball the best sport, then I think we need to have a different argument here: one about how you want progress to occur in this country. It’s a model that’s been taken up more recently in other sports, as gay players enter the arenas of the NFL and the NBA. But make no mistake: Baseball got the ball rolling on the idea of breaking a social barrier through sport. We may not have buzzer-beaters or Hail Mary passes, but we have walk-offs and defensive gems. All things considered, baseball is the best sport.