053014 Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • MAY 30, 2014

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

ISSUE 50 • VOLUME 125

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

Admin Elly Daugherty to leave for UConn Cairo Lewis Maroon Contributor Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Associate Dean Eleanor “Elly” J.B. Daugherty (A.B. ’97) will leave the University in June for an administrative position at the University of Connecticut. She will assume the role of associate vice president for student affairs there on August 1.

Daugherty has held her current position since 2010. Daugherty has

collaborated with many other offices at the University during her tenure, including College Alumni Relations, the Office of International Affairs, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, the College Programming Office, the University Community Service Center, and the Office of the Reynolds Club and Student Activities.

“As an alumna of the College, I am grateful to have had the chance to give ELLY continued on page 3

Columnist and founder of the It Gets Better project Dan Savage (left) and IOP fellow Ana Marie Cox (right) discuss the role of social media in activism last Thursday at the IOP. Comments made

by Savage elicited student criticism and an online student petition.

COURTESY OF RAY WHITEHOUSE, INSTITUTE OF POLITICS

UCMC to open new Comments at IOP spark controversy facility in Orland Park Christine Schmidt Associate News Editor After a terse exchange about the use of a transphobic slur between a guest speaker and student at an Institute of Politics (IOP) event last week, students in the LGBTQ community have started circulating a petition calling for a formal apology from the IOP. At press time, the petition had more than 1,100 signatures.

The event was an off-the-record Fel-

lows seminar held by Ana Marie Cox, a political columnist on U.S. politics for The Guardian. It featured Dan Savage, a relationship and sex advice columnist and founder of the It Gets Better project, as a guest speaker.

The incident occurred when, according to several sources, Savage and Cox began discussing his personal history as a gay man. According to a first-year student and member of the LGBTQ community who asked to be identified as Hex, Savage used the

slur t----- as an example in an anecdote about reclaiming words. Cox then added, “I used to make jokes about t---ies,” audience members recounted.

“That was one of the most hurtful parts,” Hex said, explaining the perceived insult was that Cox used the slur to refer to the group of people she joked about. “In that context, it was like being applied to all transgender people,” it said. (“It” is Hex’s chosen pronoun.)

IOP continued on page 5

Sam Levine News Staff The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) reached a preliminary agreement with the Village of Orland Park earlier this month to build a $61-million facility in the nearby suburb that would be the hospital’s largest off-site clinic.

The UCMC and town officials in Orland Park, a suburb approximately 45 minutes southwest of Hyde Park,

agreed to build the 120,000-squarefoot facility in a Letter of Intent that was approved by the village on May 15. In a statement, the UCMC said that the clinic will provide radiation oncology and orthopedics and could potentially offer gastroenterology, cardiology, pediatrics, women’s health services, and surgical consulting. The site will also have a 580-space parking structure, a retail pharmacy and “full diagnostic UCMC continued on page 3

New computational Memorial Day weekend sees crime spike and applied math major Ankit Jain News Editor

Kelly Zhang Maroon Contributor The Council of University Senate approved a new major in computational and applied mathematics (CAM) last Tuesday. The new interdisciplinary major combines courses from the mathematics, statistics, and computer science departments.

Mathematics professor Greg Lawler will serve as the director of undergraduate studies for CAM. Out of the 18 courses required for the new CAM major, a total of 15 must be in mathematics, statistics, and computer science. The remaining three are elective courses focusing in an area of choice like scientific computing, mathematical optimization, or economics. The College is also planning to develop elective courses related to biology.

Only one new required

course was created specifically for the new major—STAT 28000, Optimization—because professors thought that it was an important part of computational mathematics that was not covered anywhere else in the curriculum. Another new course that Lawler will teach — MATH 23500, Markov Chains, Martingales, and Brownian Motion—was also created this year to serve both students majoring in math and majoring in CAM. Other courses required for the major are made up of courses already offered by the mathematics, statistics, and computer science department.

Lawler said that the focus on more quantitative skills in fields that were not previously quantitatively based resulted in the creation of the new major. “My reason for thinking that there should be [another major] is CAM continued on page 4

Two shootings occurred in Hyde Park over Memorial Day weekend, one on Saturday night and one on Sunday night, leaving two people in critical condition and four total victims. Over the weekend police also removed large groups of high school students holding bonfires from Promontory Point, causing them to file through East 53rd and East 55th Streets and disrupt traffic.

On Saturday night at about 11:15 p.m., 20-year-old Dante Williams was shot in the back in the 5400 block of South Harper Avenue. A Chicago Police Department (CPD) public affairs officer said that Williams was in his car when the perpetrator pulled alongside and fired shots into Williams’s car. Williams drove himself to the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) and was released the next day.

Although the University does not have a Level I adult trauma center, the UCMC was required to treat Williams because he came to the hospital, UCMC spokesperson John Easton said. Easton added that not all gunshot wounds require Level I trauma care, and he was unsure what type of care

Williams’s wound required. As of Sunday night, no one was in custody for the shooting.

Two hours prior to Williams’ shooting, a large group of teenagers caused disturbances on East 53rd and East 55th Streets. The teenagers had been holding a bonfire and were removed from Prom-

ontory Point by CPD and UCPD officers after the group grew too large and rowdy.

Third-year Khatcher Margossian witnessed a large group of teenagers walking down East 53rd Street and estimated that he saw 100–200 kids. Secondyear Allen Worth witnessed VIOLENCE continued on page 4

The intersection of 54th Street and South Harper Avenue, near where Dante Williams was shot Saturday night. Two shootings occured this past weekend.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Know that you know nothing

Days of Future Past

Why swimming is the best sport

Permitting slurs does not foster open discourse » Page 9

Future shocks at Concord

Triathalon club prepares for nationals » Page 15

» Page 6

» Page 10

» Page 11

» Back Page

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 30, 2014

2

NEWS IN BRIEF Chicago Bound program to double with IOP support The University Community Service Center (UCSC) has partnered with the Institute of Politics (IOP) to double the size of Chicago Bound, the UCSC’s preorientation weeklong service program. The expansion comes in light of high demand for the two-year-old program, which received 108 applications for 20 spots for the 2013 cohort.

According to UCSC Director and Associate Dean of Students in the University Amy Chan, the UCSC began considering an expansion of the program after administering a survey to previous participants about the effect of the program on their time at the University.

“It has really encouraged the involvement in service and volunteering on and off campus,” she said.

The IOP will provide financial, programmatic, and staff support to Chicago Bound.

The IOP’s Director of Partnerships and Engagement Dillan Siegler said the IOP, now involved in planning the week, will add some site visits and will have a staff member serve as a program manager.

The program will also create the position of IOP Chicago Bound Ambassadors, students

from the cohort, to connect first-years to UCSC and IOP programming throughout the year.

Siegler said she learned of the program though her work on the UCSC advisory board and thought Chicago Bound aligns with the IOP’s mission as well as the UCSC’s.

“The UCSC designed and really built a foundation for this program, and it’s very well-run, and the Institute of Politics is able to really double the size of this program by contributing a little bit financially as well as providing some staff support, and that’s a huge value add for both of our departments as well as for the 40 students who will now have that opportunity,” she said.

2013 Chicago Bound participant and UCSC advisory board member Stephen Landry, who is also highly involved in the IOP and will serve as a Chicago Bound 2014 group leader, said he wants to further develop the relationship between the UCSC and IOP. “The IOP is obviously really new, and the UCSC is trying to expand, so I don’t think there’s a really solid relationship [between them] right now, and that’s definitely something I want to work on as a member of the Advisory Board, as a member of the Student Executive Board, establishing this really strong relationship, because there really should be one,” he said.

—Sarah Manhardt

Booth economist on recession & recovery Andrew Ahn News Staff Amir Sufi, professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, recently published a book entitled House of Debt, which he wrote with Princeton economist Atif Mian. In this book, Sufi and Mian attempted to clarify the causes of the Great Recession and provide solutions to many of America’s current macroeconomic issues. Sufi’s research has been profiled by The Economist, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. The Maroon sat down with Sufi to talk about his work, the recession, and current American economy.

Chicago Maroon: Where did your inspiration come from in trying to understand why the recession occurred and potential solutions that could address gaps in our understanding of the issue?

Amir Sufi: So I think it started off as research in the traditional sense that my coauthor and I were talking in 2005, 2006 when I first started teaching at Chicago. One of the striking features of the research in the housing wealth effect was that it was very small. That people don’t spend much more when their home val-

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ues go up. Atif and I simply thought that couldn’t be right in this huge housing boom. Both of us had an intuition that this housing boom was driving spending to a large degree, particularly among lower–credit score, lower-income individuals.

So, it started off with that very narrow focus of trying to estimate how that housing boom was contributing to household spending.

Interestingly enough, as we started getting further into the project, we realized how dangerous the expansion of subprime mortgages had been. I remember we were looking at the data in early 2007, and we started to see default rates on these subprime neighborhoods go up sharply, and this was well before the financial crisis.

We started doing research on the Great Depression, on the Panic of 1819, and other economies. And we started seeing this pattern of rising household debt and recessions to follow.

CM: When talking about the Great Recession, a lot of economists have focused their research on the banking system’s failure, rather than consumer expenditures and household debt. How do you see the banking system contributing to this problem, if at all?

AS: I think there has

been too narrow a focus on the banking crisis aspect of what I would call more broadly a financial crisis. In my view, a financial crisis is the result of two distinct patterns. One is a tremendous rise in private debt burdens. So, by private debt I mean household debt and debt to non-financial corporations. Oftentimes that becomes unsustainable and then leads to a banking crisis, because people start to default on that debt. We’re not trying to say that the banking crisis is irrelevant.

It clearly leads to financial panics, but I think that you have to recognize both of these aspects. In my view, the private debt is what drives the initial parts of the recession. It can get amplified when the banking crisis hits.

CM: With all of this said, how do you see the next recession arising, and how can we address the issues that it may present even before it happens?

AS: I don’t know where the next recession will come from specifically. But, the longer-run issue we are pointing to is a dangerous, unstable system that is very related to wealth inequality. One of the big points that we are making in this book is that when you have a very unequal wealth dis-

tribution, the poor are borrowing from the rich, essentially. We call it banking, but the rich ultimately own the claims in the bank, and then the banks are lending to the poor. We are seeing a similar dynamic right now with credit-card origination and subprime auto loans.

We are seeing a pretty large growth in these markets. I don’t mean to send off a fire alarm that this system is going to crash, but it is worrisome unless we see fundamental income growth in the lower part of the income distribution. In some sense, they are borrowing against money they don’t have. One of the things that worries us in terms of the stability of the overall macro economy is when you have a wider distribution of wealth, and you have debt in that mix, it will naturally lead to spending volatility. Anytime the banking sector decides to lend more to the poor, there are going to be booms in spending. That dynamic is dangerous.

CM: Where do you see the American economy 10, 50 years down the line, and how do you see Chicago economics contributing to that?

AS: I still have a strong foundational optimism on the U.S. economy and its SUFI continued on page 4

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 30, 2014

3

Local author Kirsten Jensen on novel, publishing, Hyde Park Natalie Friedberg News Staff Kirsten Jensen is a freelance writer and a Hyde Park resident who recently published her debut novel, a murder mystery called Painting With Fire that takes place in an alternate version of Hyde Park, Chicago.

Prior to her freelance writing career, Jensen was a journalist at The Times of Northwest Indiana. She sat down to talk with the Maroon about her novel, Hyde Park, and her experiences in self-publishing.

Chicago Maroon: Can you give us some background on the plot of your story?

Kristen Jensen: It’s a gritty urban mystery. Basically, it’s Claudia and Tom. They live in this three-story walk up on the South Side of Chicago.

One day they discover a body outside their front door, and it changes their lives, basically.

Claudia becomes very suspicious of their roommate. He’s an artist; he doesn’t talk about his past‌so she starts to wonder what he wasn’t telling her, or isn’t telling her and basically can’t let it go. She becomes very obsessed with the murder, and she has a little too much time on her hands since she’s unemployed. She starts asking her neighbors what’s going on, so that’s pretty much the

start of it. I don’t want to give away too much. It’s hard to talk about a mystery because there [are] twists and turns and you don’t want to reveal all.

CM: So your story takes place in Hyde Park. Can you talk a little more about the setting?

KJ: I say yes and no it takes place in Hyde Park. The reason I say yes and no is because I want people to be able to distinguish between fiction and reality. I don’t want to cast our neighborhood in a negative way, and the setting of a murder mystery is going to be a dark and dangerous place. So it’s kind of funny, when I picture these characters walking down the street, I picture them in Hyde Park, but at the same time I realize that this isn’t Hyde Park, and we don’t have the body count that a murdermystery novel setting has, and we shouldn’t have the body count that a murder-mystery novel setting has. It’s important to distinguish that while it’s inspired by our neighborhood and it certainly has the vibe of our neighborhood, it’s not actually our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is not this dark, terrible place where people are found dead on the corner all the time. This is an awesome, vibrant community. I definitely take‌for

example the church of 57th and Blackstone set fire to my imagination‌I take liberties, it’s a different kind of neighborhood surrounding the church, but it’s recognizable.

CM: How did you decide to set your story in Hyde Park as opposed to a fictional neighborhood or somewhere else in Chicago?

KJ: I didn’t really consciously make the decision. I think it’s a funny thing when you’re drawing inspiration from a novel‌. It just comes to you, just subconsciously filters in, the things around you and the things you experience filter in, so it wasn’t necessary a conscious decision‌. It’s more like HP inspired me while I was writing it.

CM: So you worked as a journalist, and now you’re a freelance writer. What was it like to switch from writing journalistic reports to writing a novel?

KJ: It was actually kind of challenging in that I had to stop being so hung up on the truth. Sometimes you have to take liberties to tell the story‌.

I had to let go of the truth and suspend that a little bit. I had to be like, “Well, maybe not everything is realistic because it can’t always be realistic.� But I really wanted to have an ele-

ment of realism in the story even in a fictional work.

CM: Can you talk a bit about the publishing process you went through?

KJ: Basically, there’s kind of a revolution going on in the publishing industry right now. Indie publishing is really taking off and I went‌I don’t need an agent. [It takes] years to get an agent. You go to an agent, they’ll have 10,000 queries a year, and they’ll accept maybe one of those queries, and when you start playing the odds, you start thinking is that really a good use of my time? I could just self-publish and then have time to write my next book, and I get to keep a lot more of the royalties, so it made a lot more sense for me to do it on my own. And plus, it gave me a lot of freedom. I don’t have to write the formulaic mystery novel or the detective series and promise them 10 more books that are exactly the same. I can write what I want to write, and I can oversee the editing and oversee the cover design. I actually started up my own publishing company, Crimson Clad LLC, to do it. I don’t know if I’ll publish other titles in the future– we’ll see.

CM: How has the reception been so far in Hyde Park and elsewhere?

KJ: It’s been pretty positive. I’ve gotten a lot of good reviews on Amazon, and it’s been really fun being able to share [my] daydreams with other people. I don’t usually get to do that, put them

inside my crazy little world of imagination and see what they think.

This interview has been condensed and edited. For full version see Maroon website.

K.B. Jensen talks about her process with writing and publishing her new murder-mystery novel “Painting with Fire�.

FRANK YAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Boyer & admin are arranging farewell for Daugherty ELLY continued from front

back to the students and the university community over the past four years. I am especially proud to have contributed to advancing the university’s core values of dialogue and free expression,� Daugherty said in a statement.

She highlighted the development of initiatives to promote service, civic engagement, and diversity education, including RISE, Chicago Bound, and the Student Leadership Institute.

Daugherty’s colleagues said that she will be missed. “In my role as dean of students in

the university, I have greatly benefitted from Elly1s leadership of key student life departments, her deep knowledge of the University and her extraordinary commitment to students‌Elly leaves big shoes to fill,� Michelle Rasmussen, Dean of Students in the Uni-

versity, said in a statement.

The University is currently searching for Daugherty’s replacement for the next school year, according to University spokesperson Jeremy Manier.

Representatives from Student Government added that Daugherty was helpful in con-

necting them to upper University officials. “Elly was very good at getting us involved with higherlevel administrators. For example, she was able to allow College Council to meet with Dean Boyer several times a year. She definitely served as

an excellent liaison to our organization,� second-year College Council Chair Mike Viola said.

Dean John Boyer and Daugherty’s other colleagues are arranging a farewell celebration for her. Her last day at the University is June 30.

provide many of those needed services,� the spokesperson said.

Under the proposed agreement, the University will lease 3.48 acres of public land from the village for 25 years, and then will assume ownership of the land after the

lease ends. According to the UCMC statement, the clinic will create more than 300 jobs and bring Orland Park $25 million in revenue over the 25-year lease. The hospital will contribute $58 million towards the facility, but will acquire a retail partner to fi-

nance the additional $3 million.

The UCMC has numerous off-site clinics in Chicago and in the surrounding suburbs, including seven clinics in the South Side. Officials from the UCMC hope that the hospital will open by 2016.

This is a series the Maroon publishes summarizing instances of campus crime. Each week details a few notable crimes. The focus is on crimes within the UCPD patrol area, which runs from East 37th to 65th Streets and South Cottage Grove to Lake Shore Drive. Here are a few of this week’s incidents:

UCPD officers detained a motorist after observing a person being struck by the vehicle at 59th Street and Cornell Drive.

Hospital will contribute $58 million to new facility UCMC continued from front

imaging capability onsite for MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds and mammography,� according to the statement.

In an e-mail, a UCMC spokesperson said that the majority of the hospital’s patients travel long distances to

receive specialized care, and that the new facility is part of a larger strategy to “meet the needs of patients who are referred to us and to expand in regions identified as needing specialized services because of a growing population.� “Cancer treatment, or-

Weekly Crime Report

thopedic and other health services increasingly are moving to an outpatient setting, particularly with the onset of the Affordable Care Act. The proposed Orland Park outpatient facility, which is in a central location for a region that is growing, would be able to

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> May 22, 5257 South Kenwood Avenue (Church Parking Lot), 9:00 a.m.—An unknown individual exposed himself to a person in a parking lot off campus. This is now a CPD case. > May 25, 59th Street and Blackstone Avenue, 6:39 p.m.—

> May 26, 1100 East 58th Street (Ryerson), 2:40 a.m.—Seven unauthorized individuals were found in a 5th floor office. They were escorted from the building and the case has been referred. > May 28, 970 East 58th Street (Bookstore)—Between 8:40 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. a suspect took several items from the bookstore without paying for them. The suspect was arrested by a UCPD officer after a brief foot chase.

4

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 30, 2014

Over 30 students have expressed interest in new major, according to program director Lawler CAM continued from front

[that] I wasn’t sure [existing majors were] actually satisfying the students…A lot of science and social science has changed in the last 30 years, where it has become more quantitative, [including] biology, chemistry, and economics,” Lawler said. “If one is going to be a quantitative person in an area other than mathematics, the [skills] one tends to use these days is actually a mixture of mathematics, statistics, and computer science.”

According to Lawler, the major will prepare students for doing graduate work in applied or

computational mathematics, mathematical sciences, and statistics. Students who are pursuing careers in these areas, which combine statistics and computer science, such as machine learning and theory of algorithms, would also benefit.

The first two years of study for CAM are similar to that of a math major and require the analysis sequence (MATH 20300–20500 or MATH 20700–20900), though Lawler recommends that students planning to major in CAM take computer science courses earlier on.

“It’s a pretty intensive major, which means the

students who have already done two years may have a hard time getting enough courses to do it—depending on what they’ve already taken,” said Lawler.

Second-year Austin Byers, a mathematics and computer science major, said that though he finds the major interesting, he will not have the time needed to complete the requirements.

The CAM major does not require the algebra sequence (MATH 25400–25600 or MATH 25700–25900) that is required for the math major. Due to the large number of required courses

for CAM, it is difficult to major in CAM and take the algebra sequence needed to be a math major. “‘If you want to do algebra basically, you can’t do the CAM program,’ is essentially what [Lawler] said, which means you can’t be a math major… which is not necessarily appealing to everyone— including myself because I’ve gone so far in the math major already,” Byers said.

Lawler is unsure how many students will major in CAM, but since the major was first announced a week and a half ago, he said that over 30 students have expressed interest.

Two shootings over the course of the weekend left four victims, high schoolers removed from Promontory Point VIOLENCE continued from front

a group of students walking down East 55th Street and said that he saw “hundreds” of teenagers.

CPD and UCPD officers shepherded the students west along both East 55th and East 53rd Streets and shut down parts of East 53rd Street to help direct traffic flows around the teenagers. “[The teenagers] were talking, laughing with each other, you know, pretty standard. They did seem pretty hostile to the police. At one point it looked like they were putting up what seemed like gun signs at the police,” Worth said. “By and large it was a large group of students who were

walking with some purpose, but…not a lot of purpose.”

On Sunday night at 9:45 p.m., three males were shot on East 62nd Street and South Dorchester Avenue. The victims were together outdoors when shots were fired from a passing vehicle, a CPD public affairs officer said. The shooting is being investigated as gang related.

One of the victims, a 16-year-old male, had gunshot wounds to his chest and face and was in serious condition at Northwestern Hospital as of Monday morning. A 25-year-old man had a gunshot wound to the buttocks and was also at Northwestern Hospital in serious condition.

A 17-year-old-male had a graze wound to the leg and walked to the UCMC, where he was in stable condition.

The shooting occurred about the same time as when police shut down another bonfire attended by hundreds of high schoolers. Second-year graduate student Noah Mitchell, who witnessed groups of high school students walking down East 55th Street on Saturday and Sunday nights, said that the group on Sunday was smaller than the Saturday group but still somewhat rowdy.

“They were doing teenager like things like screaming and running across the street when they didn’t have walk signs. So traffic was

Booth professor discusses the recession, the American economy, and Chicago SUFI continued from page 2

ability to have productivity, to engender growth. I think that growth theorists, who focus on productivity, are always right in the long run. The factors that drive growth are related to whether people can come up with ideas that improve peoples’ lives. What’s a

more worrisome pattern is the distribution on those gains. There is going to be tremendous income gains from new technology— it’s already happening. But who actually has a claim on that income? I’m not asking for even income distribution, but who gets the income from those technologies? Now, es-

pecially given that the facts of income distribution are out, this is on the minds of UChicago economists.

This interview has been condensed and edited. For the full version, see the Maroon website.

stopped and everything,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said that a similar incident occurred on Memorial weekend last year, when a large group of high schoolers was escorted west, away from the Point, by the police.

No security alert was issued for either incident. UCPD spokesperson Bob Mason said on Tuesday that he was not aware of any shootings over the weekend and that there were no official UCPD incident reports on the shootings.

Editor’s Note: Allen Worth has recently been appointed chief operating officer of the Maroon business team, but has not yet assumed official duties.

CORRECTIONS “North Korean defectors tell stories of escape from homeland”: This article originally misstated the language Kim’s book was originally written in and did not mention co-author Sébastien Falletti. It also misstated Kim and Jo’s age difference and did not include the sponsors of the event.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 30, 2014

5

IOP unlikely to apologize for incident at guest seminar involving transphobic slur IOP continued from front

In a statement, the IOP said, “A guest used language that provoked a spirited debate. The speaker was discussing how hurtful words can be repurposed and used to empower; at no point did he direct any slurs at anyone.”

Hex asked Savage and Cox to use the term “T-slur” instead of the actual word. According to second-year Sara Rubinstein, an executive director of QUIP (Queers United in Power), and Hex, Savage then named other slurs, asking if they were suitable to use instead. “Obviously [he attempted] to threaten me and make me feel uncomfortable in that space, which was pretty successful,” Hex said.

A dialogue about the usage of the slur between Cox, Savage, and Hex ensued, creating a tense atmosphere in the room, according to several audience members. Hex ultimately apologized to Savage for misdirecting the conversation, but was further upset when Cox started talking about gender identification and left the room in tears.

Following Hex’s exit, members of the staff and the dean on call, who had been asked to attend as a precaution due to Savage’s controversial history, quickly left to comfort it, according to Hex and a staff member.

IOP Executive Director Steve Edwards, who attended the seminar, would not provide specific details of the event, citing the off-the-record policy for Fellows seminars, but provided more context in an interview.

“Fundamentally what the conversation was about was language. One argument is that language and certain terms can be so hurtful that no matter the context, no matter the person using them, they should not be invoked, period,” he said. “The other argument was that language can be reappropriated—hurtful language can be reappropriated by groups that are directly affected by the language—and used to empower and that there’s a tradition of that.”

Some students from QUIP had prepared ques-

tions for Savage to confront some of his past writing. Rubinstein acknowledged that she went “basically to raise criticism. It was not really things related to the slurs. It was more about philosophical differences with queer politics.”

The day after the seminar, Rubinstein, Hex, second-yearKris Rosentel, and first-year Alex DiLalla—a student who is heavily involved in the IOP and attended the event—met with Edwards and Dillan Siegler (MBA ’00), the director of partnerships and engagement at the IOP to discuss the incident and planned a follow-up meeting for Tuesday.

“We listened openly and sympathetically to the concerns about language and about the dehumanizing effects of language and expressed our desire not to be a place where dehumanizing language is used,” Edwards said. “At no time did we characterize the language from the event itself.”

They also praised the students for standing up against what they perceived as an issue.

On Thursday evening after the seminar, Rubinstein and Rosentel had started drafting what would later become their petition on Change. org, calling for a formal apology from the IOP and “a commitment to preventing the use of slurs and hate speech in the future,” the petition reads.

They released the petition after Rubinstein and Hex saw the IOP’s statement during Tuesday’s follow-up meeting and were disappointed, saying that the statement didn’t accurately represent what happened at the event.

The statement, authored by the IOP staff, reads in part: “By definition, views will be expressed on occasion with which some will strongly disagree or even find deeply offensive. But we cannot remain true to our mission and be in the business of filtering guests or policing their statements to ensure they will always meet with broad agreement and approval and will not offend.”

Cox, the moderator, said the IOP statement represented her views and reaffirmed her support for Savage. “I am proud to have brought Dan Sav-

2014 Annual Cathy Heifetz Memorial Concerts The University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Motet Choir, University Chorus, Women’s Ensemble, and members of the Rockefeller Chapel Choir

N I E T S BERN

age, one of the most important gay rights activists in the past twenty years, to the University of Chicago,” she wrote in a statement. “His candidness and willingness to engage in taboo topics are among the reasons he has been able to make such a difference in so many lives.”

Despite the petition, an apology from the IOP does not appear likely. “What we are defending is the right for all of those individuals—including the other students in the room, some of whom felt very, very differently about what went on—to be able to express themselves in this forum. That’s what we’re weighing here,” Edwards said. “By not

apologizing to these students, we are not at all saying that we condone or endorse the specific views.”

The students behind the petition disagree.

“What I hope we can get is an acknowledgement that this happened, a commitment knowing that kids and students involved at the IOP aren’t going to have to face hate speech,” Hex said. “They’re going to know that they can feel comfortable.”

Edwards said the IOP is working with the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student Life to develop future training for staff and the board.

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VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed MAY 30, 2014

Know that you know nothing Great skepticism may actually further obscure what we don’t know

Eleanor Hyun

Don’t go alone Over dinner today one of my friends explained that, among her friends, she perceived two types of people— those who cannot stop asking questions, and those who are content with what they know.

For members of the former

group, the answers they find or fail to find cause dramatic reorientations of their reality and often lead them to existential free fall as they rip the floor out from under their own feet.

The latter group explores these same questions, taking jumps

into unsupported space, but at the end of the day—whether they come up with answers or not—life will go on and they will be fine. The first group she characterized as the “intellectuals” among her friends, a group in which she told me I was included.

The second group she didn’t name—I’m guessing by extension they’d be considered “non-intellectuals.” But I’ve already committed a major

faux pas by referencing someone else’s description of myself as an intellectual, and labeling others as non-intellectuals would just be the icing on this douchebag cake. I know that “intellectual” and its prefix/ suffix-modified variants are charged terms on this campus, but allow me some time to play within these structures before I break them down.

As a dubbed member of these so-called intellectuals,

perhaps my experiences may help to elucidate what this label seems to entail. Under this style of intellect, the attainment of knowledge seems influenced and/or echoed by the canon at this school—we are a school of skeptics, taught to question everything we see or think we know. Socrates replies, “I know that I know nothing” in response to the question of who the wisest man in Greece is; many of the

texts we read in our curriculum, whether they be Freud or Foucault, are concerned with reexamining existing social structures with the goal of removing their obstructions from the view of truth.

I assume at least some readers will relate to my attempts to clear conceptual landscapes, deconstructing the towers of my thoughts and perceptions down to their foundations, FALL continued on page 7

Safety in anonymity Universities need to not only survey students but also release findings Michele Beaulieux Maroon Contributor “Dartmouth has a rape problem: Find out more before you decide,” says the new ad campaign by feminist advocacy group UltraViolet.

It has certainly gotten the attention of prospective students and their parents. But where will they go to “find out more”? It’s not easy to get the facts. College guides rate and rank partying and professors, but not sexual safety. Sexual assaults have, unfortunately, been largely invisible.

Within this information abyss, UChicago has the dubious distinction of making the list of 60 schools currently under federal investigation for their handling of sexual assault. Absent other data, prospective students and their parents cannot help but factor the investigations into their college selection decisions. But, is that fair? I would wager that the practices at the 55 schools represent the norm, not the exception: those schools just got taken to task by savvy and tenacious students like UChicago’s Olivia Ortiz.

I am a typical campus rape survivor and a typical UChicago rape survivor. A man—a fellow student, a friend, and, yes, a football player—

raped me in my dorm room. I was a first-year student and incapacitated. And like most campus rape survivors, I did not tell anyone at the University. It never occurred to me to report the crime to the police.

Why not? Because I didn’t dare tell myself.

It took years of shedding deep shame and selfblame for me to acknowledge that a sexual predator had indeed raped me. Many students also don’t report incidents because they fear retaliation by the perpetrator.

According to a 2007 government study, one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. That translates to over 100 women in each graduating class at UChicago. Yet, in federally mandated 2012 statistics, UChicago reported only eight documented sexual assaults, four of which were in dorms. UChicago is not unique in this gap between actual and reported. Nationwide, institutions of higher learning reported one assault for every 10,000 women enrolled.

Anonymous student climate surveys can document all assaults, not just the tiny percentage that survivors have the wherewithal to report through official channels. The White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual

Assault urged our nation’s colleges and universities to conduct such climate surveys in order to know the extent of the problem as a first step in solving it. This is a very good idea, but the data also need to be published.

In over 75 percent of college cases, victims know their perpetrators, whether as an acquaintance, classmate, friend, or boyfriend. In tightknit campus communities, anonymous surveys allow students to be truthful without fear of reprisal. And, by asking about hypothetical scenarios, surveys can identify crimes that traumatized students may not themselves identify.

Students may answer “yes” to whether someone sexually penetrated them when they were unable to consent, but may not feel confident labeling that event “rape,” especially when it was perpetrated by a popular guy in Western Civ. This year’s Senior Survey, sent out by Dean Boyer, included no questions about sexual assault. In 2012, UChicago conducted a randomsample survey that did include questions about sexual assault and unwanted sexual contact for the National College Health Assessment. The University, however, has not released that data.

A Federal mandate to conduct surveys and

publish the results will get schools past the firstmover problem in which no school is willing to be the first to release its assault rates.

There is precedent for conducting and publishing such surveys. The U.S. Military Service Academies already monitor their sexual-assaultprevention efforts with biannual anonymous surveys. As a result, we know that young women serving our country are slightly better off at the Coast Guard Academy, where 10 percent of women experienced unwanted sexual contact, rather than at the Naval Academy, where 15 percent did.

Knowing the actual assault rates will help schools determine when prevention programs are working and when they aren’t. But the pressure is also on for transparency. Publishing the results of anonymous student climate surveys will make the invisible visible. And undeniable. It will give prospective students and their parents hard data for comparing the safety of different campuses. The necessary reforms will inevitably follow.

Michele Beaulieux is an alumnus of the class of ‘82.

Scavenging for meaning The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 Emma Broder, Editor-in-Chief Joy Crane, Editor-in-Chief Jonah Rabb, Managing Editor Daniel Rivera, Grey City Editor Harini Jaganathan, News Editor Ankit Jain, News Editor Eleanor Hyun, Viewpoints Editor Liam Leddy, Viewpoints Editor Kristin Lin, Viewpoints Editor Will Dart, Arts Editor Tatiana Fields, Sports Editor Sam Zacher, Sports Editor Nicholas Rouse, Head Designer Alexander Bake, Web Developer Ajay Batra, Senior Viewpoints Editor Emma Thurber Stone, Senior Viewpoints Editor Sarah Langs, Senior Sports Editor Matthew Schaefer, Senior Sports Editor Jake Walerius, Senior Sports Editor Sarah Manhardt, Deputy News Editor Isaac Stein, Associate News Editor Christine Schmidt, Associate News Editor Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Associate News Editor Clair Fuller, Associate Viewpoints Editor Andrew Young, Associate Viewpoints Editor Robert Sorrell, Associate Arts Editor James Mackenzie, Associate Arts Editor Tori Borengässer, Associate Arts Editor Angela Qian, Associate Arts Editor Jamie Manley, Senior Photo Editor Sydney Combs, Photo Editor Peter Tang, Photo Editor Frank Yan, Photo Editor Frank Wang, Associate Photo Editor Alan Hassler, Head Copy Editor Sherry He, Head Copy Editor Katarina Mentzelopoulos, Head Copy Editor Ben Zigterman, Head Copy Editor

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Krysten Bray, Copy Editor Katie Day, Copy Editor Sophie Downes, Copy Editor Chelsea Leu, Copy Editor Katie Leu, Copy Editor John Lotus, Copy Editor Victoria Rael, Copy Editor Hannah Rausch, Copy Editor Olivia Stovicek, Copy Editor Andy Tybout, Copy Editor Amy Wang, Copy Editor Darien Ahn, Designer Annie Cantara, Designer Emilie Chen, Designer Wei Yi Ow, Designer Molly Sevcik, Designer Tyronald Jordan, Business Manager Nathan Peereboom, Chief Financial Officer Annie Zhu, Director of External Marketing Kay Li, Director of Data Analysis Vincent McGill, Delivery Coordinator Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500.

The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2014 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637

Scav has untapped potential for affecting social change Kiran Misra Maroon Staff Recently, a grad student’s critique of Scav sparked outrage on the Overhead at UChicago Facebook page. For those that were fortunate enough to avoid that social media storm, the poster asserted something along the lines that Scav is a) annoying b) a waste of University resources and c) a waste of student resources. His point came down to this—“This place has talent and resources. Why are we wasting them on SCAV when we can use that time to do much more meaningful things? Why are we ignoring our social responsibility?”

This raises the important question that extends beyond Scav: whether we—as students at a University with a tumultuous history of social engagement, and just as citizens of the world—have, “an obligation to do something meaningful and relevant,” as the poster said.

And even more important and less clear, what constitutes meaningful and relevant? What are the implica-

tions of equating “worthwhile” with “making society better”?

As a self-proclaimed social-justice crusader, my first instinct is that the poster’s claim is not unreasonable.

However, I would argue that an obligation to consciously work for social change doesn’t exist. Individuals are entitled to be concerned with what they want to be concerned about.

In fact, this type of mentality only alienates people from involvement in social progress campaigns—the way to get people excited about social justice isn’t by shaming those who don’t partake in it.

And not only are people under no obligation to do service, people who do devote their time and energy to social justice are not necessarily living any more consequential lives than those who pursue activities that don’t aim to solve societal problems. I personally don’t feel like I can achieve morally sound fulfillment without feeling like I am giving back to society. But that opinion is specific to myself, not a mandate for every student at the University.

If creating a beautiful piece of music

or solving hard math problems gives you joy—regardless of the positive impact those things may have on many lives—that in and of itself is a good enough justification to pursue the activity, much like the reason many Scav.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Scav. The lack of a limit on monetary expenditure for the completion of items and teams with a huge number of members make it hard for passionate, but resource-lacking teams like Breckinridge and I-House to win. These problems are largely irreconcilable if we mean to keep Scav as the largest scavenger hunt in the world. But the poster’s critiques are more easily solved without compromising Scav as it is now.

How, you may ask? A working comparison is those healthy brownie recipes where moms can sneak spinach puree into the chocolate batter to get their unsuspecting children to eat their vegetables. In both of these, people think they’re doing one thing, but they’re actually doing something more.

SCAV continued on page 9

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 30, 2014

7

“‘Intellectual’ has been somewhat conflated with ‘skeptical’” FALL continued from page 6 and only then trying to painstakingly reconstruct arguments from the ground up.

And with good cause, too. There are many oppressive structures in place in our minds now that are in much need of deconstructing, and this type of critical and rigorous thought is important to the attainment of knowledge.

If we start with a blank slate, then our proofs can be written out clearly from start to finish, and once finished they stand alone—structurally sound and absolute, forever.

So I detonate my hardesthitting questions and sweep away the debris, running my hands along the smooth ground periodically to reassure myself of its purity. And then I begin to slowly lay the first floorboards of my ideas, carefully checking and double-checking the positioning of each one and its firm connections to the ground below. And over the course of a couple years I revisit my constructs, testing their soundness under my feet and, having been assured, now and then adding a couple more boards.

And this is how you gain a reputation as an intellectual—you believe nothing that is wrong, and therefore only believe what is true.

During my first quarter here, I began to attend

events hosted by Asian-American Intervarsity (AAIV), a Christian fellowship—largely because I was looking for companionship on a campus in which I felt I had no place. They welcomed me with open arms and so, although not Christian myself, I have spent a lot of time talking to Christians over the past couple years.

On a campus where we are taught to offer proofs for all that we claim, and where we quickly realize that much less than we originally thought really is provable, “intellectual” has been somewhat conflated with “skeptical.” And so it’s pretty easy to scoff at those who make claims as large as, say, “God is real” and “Jesus Christ died for our sins.”

But many of the most rigorous discussions I’ve had on campus have been with the Christians of AAIV. I have participated in their bible study groups, which have a vitality many of the discussion classes I’ve had up until now have lacked—probably because the beliefs being debated are so real to them (and everyone’s done the reading).

Questions about the Bible and God’s will are completely real and literally and unapologetically the most important things in their lives. And, charged with the immense responsibility of carrying their

beliefs, they not only go to great lengths to defend them, but also to check their veracity. I believe that some of the biggest intellectuals on campus can be found among these believers who take what they know and constantly, courageously, confront it.

But I have also met Christians who do not lay out rigorous proofs for their belief

TORI BORENGÄSSER

|

CHICAGO MAROON

Letter: Students stand by the IOP “How much we value the right of free speech is put to its severest test when the speaker is someone we disagree with most.”—American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Hate Speech on Campus Last week at the Institute of Politics (IOP), Dan Savage was a guest at a seminar hosted by Spring Fellow Ana Marie Cox. Savage is a writer and advocate on a variety of issues, particularly pertaining to LGBTQ youth with his It Gets Better project.

The goal of this project is to provide support to youths who are feeling threatened and try to stop the horror that is suicide in marginalized LGBTQcommunities. Given Cox’s seminar series on social media, Savage was invited to share his experience in using media to create an effective global campaign.

Despite this activism, Savage is a particularly controversial figure on both the right and the left.

By coining a unique definition of the word “Santorum” and complaining about the Bible, Savage has ruffled many feathers, particularly those of Christian conservatives. Some of the remarks and stances he has taken with regards to reclaiming words have also led to conflict within the LGBTQ community. When Savage came to campus, there were students who were excited to learn, to listen, and also to be challenged.

Savage and Cox led a seminar that broached many subjects that could be uncomfortable to students. They discussed issues that could have offended the sensibilities of those across the political spectrum, but did so in a manner that was clearly oriented toward learning. One of the students present was upset by the usage of the T-slur in a discussion about empowerment and reappropriation of words. At no point was the T-slur directed at a student; the word was only used in the context of discussing the power and reappropriation of language.

Immediately after the student became upset, a member of the Institute of Politics Student Executive Board, a member of the IOP staff, and the Dean on Call met with the student. That night, the IOP reached out to the concerned students and the next day they reached out to the Office of LGBTQ Student Life to set up a meeting. On the day following the incident, the Friday leading up to Memorial

before me. They are quite content to state their belief accompanied only by a conviction that they have and accept as true. And I’ve had a harder time accepting their beliefs— which don’t have satisfactory answers to my lines of questioning, and which seem so much less challenged, tested, tortured than those of the other Christians I’ve met, as

Day, the Institute staff met with the concerned students, heard their complaints, and agreed to discuss the issue in depth over the weekend before convening on Tuesday. On that day, at the third meeting in as many business days, the Institute expressed that while they wanted to ensure people felt safe and comfortable at events, they would not apologize for the controversial views or comments expressed by the guest. Without agreeing or disagreeing with his viewpoints, they believed they had acted appropriately in not intervening.

Before the incident even occurred the IOP talked to students from Queers United in Power(QUIP), UChicago’s new LGBTQ activism student group, as well as with other students who raised concerns about Dan Savage’s presence at the Institute of Politics. Following the incident, Ana Marie Cox made herself available to talk to any and all students who wanted to follow up with her after the seminar. We also know that the Institute of Politics is working to ensure they are sensitive to potential issues that could arise from events. As we can attest from working closely with them for the past year and a half, the staff at the Institute of Politics has demonstrated with both word and deed their commitment to ensuring that the IOP is a place where students feel welcome.

Following a petition put forth by some of the offended students, the IOP released a statement explaining their position. Part of the statement read: “…views will be expressed on occasion with which some will strongly disagree or even find deeply offensive. But we cannot remain true to our mission and be in the business of filtering guests or policing their statements to ensure they will always meet with broad agreement and approval and will not offend.”

All of us support the Institute of Politics because in our experience the IOP strives to represent a variety of viewpoints from across the political spectrum. The staff and students work all year to bring speakers with a diversity of ideas, programs, and backgrounds to speak on campus. But conflict and contention cannot be resolved without converIOP continued on page 8

well as my own.

One day I will return to the structures of belief I’ve carefully constructed, and as I step onto one of those familiar boards, it will creak, a hidden assumption that has somehow evaded my notice all these years. Maybe I won’t hear it the first time, but a coincidental succession of events (perhaps a play, a conversation, and then an offhand comment from my mom—I don’t know, it doesn’t take much to set me off on an existential crisis) will make it audible to my ears.

And as I kneel down to examine it the floor will break beneath my feet and suddenly I’m falling again, breaking through my meticulously placed boards and crashing through the ceilings of a city I never even realized existed below mine and, well, looks like my beautiful, personal proof of the existence of God needs some reconsidering.

So, despite my best efforts to dissemble my false preconceptions and remain devoted to the idea that it is better to believe nothing at all than something that is untrue, I’ve been unable to do both.

It turns out that it’s impossible to be a blank, blameless slate—the fact of the matter is that there are things, resting on unseen assumptions, about which I will be, not ignorant or apathetic, but full-hearted-

ly wrong.

“The only difference between you and me is, at the end of the day, I’m okay with the knowledge I have. You’re not.”

That’s my friend from the first paragraph again, who doesn’t characterize herself as one of the intellectuals she described to me. But at this point, it seems that her delineation has less to do with intellectuals versus non-intellectuals and more to do with a simple difference in anxiety levels.

Because there’s really little difference between intellectuals and, not non-intellectuals, but different intellectuals, besides that the former group is simply blissfully unaware of the untested assumptions that lie beneath their beliefs—the ones they cannot yet prove— and the latter are aware of them but have accepted them as such. And seeing as we both undoubtedly have quite a few more floors and ceilings to break through before we come up with any pure and absolute truths, I’m starting to see that there’s nothing wrong with simply seeing and accepting that—and maybe taking a second to chill on top of this unseen skyscraper before I’m ready to start falling again.

Eleanor Hyun is a secondyear in the College majoring in English.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 30, 2014

Senior sign-off What place you finish in life isn’t what’s important

Jane Huang

The Ionic Column A first-year recently asked me whether I had any words of advice to offer as a college senior.

“Don’t do drugs,” I told him. “And wear sunscreen.”

While I still think both pieces of advice were solid, the look of exasperation I got in response was probably justified. Nobody needs to go through four years of college to be reminded to wear sunscreen. So, I feel obliged to give his question another shot in this final column.

Just as people this year have been incessantly inquiring into my postgraduation plans, four years ago I was frequently fielding questions about where I was going to college. Knowing that I was interested in the physical sciences, and knowing their reputation for tough competition, some people suggested that I’d be better reconsider whether I’d be up for the competition.

And so, I briefly entertained the idea of picking a major with less baggage before I gathered up the resolve to sign up for the classes I actually wanted to take in college.

Each year in the months of May and June, distinguished people descend upon college campuses to give commencement speeches about how the bold choices they’ve made led them to the success they now enjoy. As inspiring as many of these speeches are, I think it’s a lot easier to conclude that one has made the right choices if one is a globally popular writer, a renowned scientist, or a public figure whose name will be recorded in history books. The odds are long, though, for attaining any of those distinctions. So, as nice as it is to be reassured that we’ll be able to succeed, these speakers also raise the question: How should success be evaluated?

One attitude toward success that I

have encountered might be summed up by a sentence oft-repeated by the titular character in the film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” When I was a first-year, I occasionally felt that I was expected to justify my presence in my physics class. Why bother studying something if you know that people are going to be sitting to your right on the bell curve? “Aren’t you intimidated by all the smart people in your section?” a classmate once asked. I dryly told him that I was doing OK. Certainly there are many winnertake-all scenarios in life, but at least when it comes evaluating to the undergraduate experience, Ricky Bobby’s philosophy falls short. As Ricky Bobby’s father said in response to hearing his philosophy: “You can be second, third, fourth—hell, you can even be fifth.” Imagine if every other scientist decided to pack up and go home after Isaac Newton strolled onto the scene.

With a couple dozen science credits behind me, this is usually the point in the narrative where you would probably expect me to say, “Boy, I sure

proved the naysayers from high school wrong.” It would be nice to say so. In reality, though—as cliché as it is—the hard part really hasn’t started yet. Continuing down the road toward a career in academia means that after college, there’s grad school. If that goes well, a postdoctoral position (or two) may follow. If that goes well, a tenure-track position may follow. If that goes well, tenure may follow. And so forth. That’s a lot of “ifs,” and only the cream of the crop makes it past each one. And that means that I’ll have plenty of time to ponder whether I would have been better off had I given more serious consideration during my youth to majoring in accounting. Because taxes, unlike tenure-track jobs, are one of the certain things in life.

College can be anxiety-inducing because it’s really the first time many of us have to make choices that could affect the trajectory of our lives for years to come, when we have to confront the question of “can I ‘make it’ out there?”

But whether or not one has been successful is determined by one’s own goals.

Even though I’m the type of person who carries an umbrella around on days with clear skies and plenty of sunshine, I see myself as an optimist at my core. In the end, I think that what will matter a lot to me in the long run is the knowledge that I tried. It may sound facile, but the point of choosing a class is to learn, and learning isn’t zero-sum.

Comparisons with others help set the benchmarks to measure how much one has learned, but they don’t, in any way, diminish it. I came to college to learn about some subjects I’d been looking forward to for years, and some that I didn’t even know existed. I learned about point groups and Hermitian operators and core-collapse supernovae.

College is not the place to hold back.

And so I believe (or at least very much hope) that even if my life takes a rather different direction than the one I’ve been pushing toward, the decisions I’ve made over the last four years have made sense.

Jane Huang is a fourth-year in the College majoring in chemistry.

“All of us support the IOP because it strives to represent a variety of viewpoints” IOP continued from page 7 sation. We think that in not endorsing any of the views of the speakers that it brings to campus, but enabling them to facilitate conversation, the Institute of Politics provides an invaluable service to the University of Chicago.

—Nicole Bitler, PhD Student, Yangyang Cheng, PhD Student, Chris Huff, SSA, Anastasia Kaiser, ‘15, Shayan Karbassi, ‘14, Stephen Landry, ‘17, Sarah Morell, ‘15, Kevin Shi, ‘16, Dan Simon, ‘17, Liz Stark, ‘17, Robert Vanneste, Harris, Samantha Weiss, ‘17, Lauren Weinberg, ‘17, Eric Wessan, ‘14

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words. Op-ed submissions, 800 words

Scav is an incomparable forum for problem solving SCAV continued from page 6 For Scav, this type of thing could be as simple as donating the pie each house produces in a pieathalon to a food pantry or filming a nature documentary that *also* outlines realistic conservation efforts for national environmental resources. Items such as “produce an accurate tampon commercial” already have the potential for discussions about the objectification and shaming of women’s bodily functions in the media, which can be further brought out. One commenter facetiously posted, “Next year’s Scav list: People who understand humanity with more breadth and nuance, a trauma center, a solution to the mas-

sive incarceration problem in the U.S.” While these goals are unrealistic for a bunch of college students over three days, I see no reason that they shouldn’t be included on the list. Putting items that address social issues in a document that a large faction of the student body sees and personally cares about can get people thinking about these issues, even if it won’t completely solve them. Scav fosters a unique variety of creative thought accompanied by risk-taking and ambition which has no real equivalent forum on campus. If these big problems are going to be solved, Scav is as likely a place for these ideas to start as a Big Problems class, maybe even

more.

The purpose of Scav, in its current manifestation, is not to inspire social change.

And that’s fine, but there is an untapped potential for it to spark discussion and problem-solving around some of the pressing issues in society.

There are those that choose not to be interested in these pursuits, and who will continue to Scav as they always have—and that’s fine too.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was these very people who did indeed solve the massive incarceration problem in the US in Scavenger Hunts to come.

Kiran Misra is a first-year in the College.

Got what it takes to write for Grey City?

Come to the MAROON’s summer pitch meeting this Sunday at 2 p.m. in the MAROON office.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 30, 2014

9

Permitting slurs does not foster open discourse IOP missteps offend, hinder discourse Kris Rosentel & Sara Rubenstein Maroon Contributors On Thursday, May 23, the Institute of Politics (IOP) hosted a seminar called Social Media Saving Lives with Dan Savage, a gay advice columnist who has a history of making misogynistic, biphobic, transphobic, and racist comments.

The seminar was moderated by current IOP fellow Ana Marie Cox, a blogger for The Guardian. Throughout the conversation, both Savage and Cox repeatedly used the Tslur, a hateful word targeted at transgender people. Eventually, a transgender student asked them not to use the word and explained why it was personally hurtful. Cox and Savage then proceeded to argue with the student, saying they had a right to use the word because they were “reclaiming” it.

Neither Savage nor Cox is transgender, and frankly they should not get to “reclaim” slurs for a group of which

they are not members. After being asked to stop using the T-slur, Savage continued to use it despite knowing it was making students feel unsafe, and both Cox and the IOP staff did nothing to intervene.

This action upset the objecting student to the point that they had to leave the room in a state of emotional distress. The failure of the IOP to intervene is disturbing and indicates that maintaining a safe and engaging space for students of all backgrounds is not in fact a priority for them.

What is perhaps even more disturbing is the misleading and disingenuous statement the IOP released in response to the incident this week. The statement characterized what occurred as a “spirited debate” rather than harassment.

Additionally, they claimed that “the speaker was discussing how hurtful words can be repurposed and used to empower; at no point did he direct slurs at anyone.” The

IOP then concluded that “to exclude or sanction” Savage would have been inappropriate.

In response to the IOP’s claim that the slur was not directed at anyone, we’d like to bring attention to two specific incidents at the event and give our account of them. Both Cox and Savage used the slur in a targeted and harassing manner. At one point, Cox said, “I used to make jokes about [T-slurs].” This was a case in which she was using the hateful slur rather than talking about it—a usage that was directly targeting the trans community and especially trans women. Additionally, after being asked to stop using the slur, Savage’s continued usage of the word was meant to harm the student who objected and was part of the harassment that made the student need to leave.

In a meeting with IOP staff after the event, we brought up both of these incidents

and the IOP staff recognized that they did constitute harassment, but then failed to address them in their public statement. We, as well as other students present at the meeting, will attest to the fact that IOP Executive Director Steven Edwards characterized the incidents as dehumanizing and drew a distinction between a speaker expressing an opinion that offended someone, which he said had a place in open dialogue, and a person making a statement that dehumanized them, which he said did not.

Yet, when it came to the IOP drafting a statement, this distinction was lost entirely and “dehumanization” became “spirited debate.” Additionally, Edwards has refused to acknowledge making these statements altogether to Maroon editors. The truth is, harassment and targeted uses of the slur did occur, and that is a reason intervention by the IOP would not only have

been appropriate but also necessary. However, the IOP has knowingly manipulated its recounting of events both in the public statement and with Edwards’s denial of his own words in order to defend its inaction and failure to maintain a safe climate where true open dialogue could actually occur.

The IOP needs to recognize that when it permits slurs, hate speech, and harassment at events to ostensibly foster open dialogue, it actually undermines that goal.

True open dialogue necessitates that people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to express their opinions and share their experiences and perspectives. However, when people are made to feel unsafe, like in this instance, they are often forced out of the conversation, and their voices are essentially silenced.

If the IOP is legitimately committed to the goal of fostering open dialogue, which

they claim to be, establishing stronger standards for discourse, such as prohibiting the use of slurs, is an essential start. Under this policy, guests could certainly discuss reclaiming words and the politics of language, but simply allude to them by saying T-slur, N-word, etc. Thus, it would hardly limit meaningful discussion from occurring.

Additionally, the IOP must begin to recognize instances in which slurs are used, hate speech is committed, or harassment occurs and actually intervene, which it egregiously neglected to do in this instance. It’s time for the IOP to take diversity and inclusion seriously and abandon the delusion that what is occurring now is in fact open dialogue.

Kris Rosentel and Sara Rubenstein are secondyears in the College majoringing in gender and sexuality studies and politcial science.

st

Happy 21 Birthday, (June 2nd)

Love, Mom, Dad, Joe, Annie and Wags

ARTS

Heartlandia MAY 30, 2014

Classical Entertainment Society Greeks out for spring show Sammie Spector maroon Contributor Walking into the dress rehearsal and soon-to-be main stage of Iron Bridal Feast, I found an air of excitement and mild pandemonium. The spring production for the Classical Entertainment Society (CES) is a dinner show complete with revenge cycles, bloodbaths, and puppets. Iron Bridal Feast is a new play written and adapted by fourth-year Robert Eric Shoemaker and second-year Rebecca Segall opening this weekend. Shoemaker, after the success of his musical Plath/Hughes, is fitting in one more masterpiece before he graduates this spring. He wrote Iron Bridal Feast with his good friend and co-director Segall, who will take over CES as Artistic Director next year.

The tale is set around a tragic cycle of classical violence. It traces the arc of the House of Tantalus through generations. His miserable line is seated at a dinner party in hell, summoned by the surly and self-aware chorus, including Homer, Hesiod, and Herodotus, and celebrity guests such as Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes. Murder and intrigue ensue as their fates are told, deaths are avenged, and children are cooked. The tale of Atreus and the Trojan War is portrayed through liveaction acting and shadow puppetry.

In the words of Shoemaker, “The

play is inspired by classical tragedies, which, in true CES fashion, we molded together into a new adaptation using both modern and ancient themes. All in all, there’s Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, and Chuck Mee (a modern playwright who loves classical texts, and with whom I’ve been in touch). We started out wanting to adapt Thyestes by Seneca, and it grew into an amalgam of our favorite plays—we read a bunch in one night and concocted a narrative.” Shoemaker found this work to be his most avant-garde, and perhaps his own personal revenge cycle as well: It’s the piece he’s wanted to expand on the most, and the piece on which he has struggled the most as well.

If the title sounds distant from its ancient Greek origins, that’s because it is. When asked about its namesake, Segall reveals that the title was an accident. “The script has undergone so many life cycles, three or four, that the title doesn’t really directly apply anymore. I was pretty confident that a better title would come along…but Eric maintains that he needs a title first, and this was the first title on the Word document. In the end, nothing better came along.”

When asked about why CES is unique, Segall discussed the different goals and qualities that the theater troupe comprises. “I think our project as a group is to find out how to make classically-based texts relevant

Shadow puppetry, fine dining and wood paneling combine in Iron Bridal Feast.

SYDNEY COMBS

| CHICAGO MAROON

and interesting, and really just entertaining to a modern audience. There’s a lot in Thyestes that is universally a good thing to pay for and watch; it’s horrifying and funny.” The biggest challenge the troupe members seem to face is a language barrier: Though their productions are staged in mod-

ern English, these plays are steeped in antiquity, a fact that audiences are forced to internalize before the show even begins.

Segall says that “this is overcome by the magic of theater and creativity, especially new media. As for the TV portion, I haven’t seen that done here

before. We even have a shadow puppet show, narrating the Trojan War. Whether you know about or care about the subject, it’s entertaining.

That’s the spectacle of it.” In addition to using modern technology, CES goes about making old-fashioned CES continued on page 12

Days of Future Past: A tense situation for the X-Men Zane Burton Arts Staff If you read my review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, you’re probably wondering why I even decided to go see X-Men: Days of Future Past. But while both sets of characters are fundamentally Marvel property, 20th Century Fox owns the rights to XMen films. It’s obviously a different animal.

I can’t say that the nuances of the rights to the comic book franchise informed my decision too much, though. For one, I liked the idea that Bryan Singer was returning to the X-Men franchise. I remember enjoying his work on the first two X-Men movies quite a bit, although my opinions of cinema have probably changed at least a little bit since I was 10. Secondly, the X-Men universe carries with it a hell of a lot less baggage than any of the films in the officially sanctioned Marvel Cinematic Universe (although it’s still got its fair share). Oh, and time travel’s usually pretty fun too.

So, when I arrived at Harper Theater to find a nearly sold-out showing of the latest X-Men movie (on a rainy Tuesday night, no less!), I was cautiously optimistic.

Despite my best hopes, the film still felt a little bloated at times, but considering the bifurcated nature of the plot (and the franchise as a whole), things weren’t nearly as bad as they might have been.

That film finds Kitty Pryde

(Ellen Page) sending Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time from a dystopian future to convince longtime rivals Professor X ( James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to get along just long enough to save the world from total destruction. When Wolverine lands in 1973, he’s tasked with stopping Mystique ( Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), inventor of the Sentinels, a group of evil robots that targets anyone with mutant genes.

During the course of the film, Singer deftly cuts between these two time periods, which function as a fairly obvious analog for the two phases of the X-Men franchise.

In the dystopian future corner, we’ve got the version of Magneto and Professor X that appeared in the original 2000–2006 trilogy of films (X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand), played by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, respectively. Populating the wild world of 1973 are the stars of the later spin-off series, which featured Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Professor X in XMen Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, and The Wolverine.

If this all sounds like a lot to keep track of, it is—it’s a testament to Singer’s direction that the action is as easily readable as it is, even if the scenes from the dystopian future aren’t quite as engaging as one would hope. While it’s a shame that the film doesn’t just spend all of its runtime in the re-

We're gettin' the band back together! X-Men new and old join forces in Bryan Singer's return to the franchise.

COURTESY OF

20TH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

freshingly brightly rendered 1970s (I’d pay just to see some more of those moustaches), it sets the stage for sequels to take advantage of the incredible performances that we see mere glimpses of here. Reportedly, X-Men: Apocalypse will be set in the 1980s, and it will find Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, and Jennifer Lawrence reprising their roles, with Channing Tatum joining the cast as Gambit. Perhaps the greatest achievement of X-Men: Days of Future Past is its ability to finally extinguish the horrid stink that X-Men: The Last Stand left on the franchise way back in 2006.

That’s not to say that the film

doesn’t have other merits, though.

Unusually for a comic book film of this era, the action lays its foundation upon a series of character developments that might actually come as a surprise to a viewer or two. The conflict between Magneto and Professor X has always proved to be rich from a narrative standpoint, and that is especially true here. Particularly strong among these character moments is the film’s climax, which revolves around a quiet decision on the part of Mystique.

As you would hope from a film with a reported $200-million budget, the special effects are incredible as well. Toward the middle of

the film, there’s a moment where Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver (Evan Peters) stops a gunfight in the middle of the Pentagon that convinced me that special effects artists still have a few surprises up their sleeves.

At the end of the day, X-Men: Days of Future Past sees significant benefits from Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise, along with the incredible cast that accompanies him. It’s a real shame that it took him eight years to come back into the fold, but if future films in the franchise are as carefully crafted as this one, I’ll be more than willing to forgive him for his pa st transgressions.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 30, 2014

Future shock(s) at Concord Noah Weiland maroon Contributor The better question would be what, and not who, the rapper Future is. Collecting a list of Future descriptors could be its own hobby: He’s a “bleeding cyborg” as The New York Times once labeled him, “spitballing weirdness” as Pitchfork said, and “the voice of hip-hop today,” as the Times argued in another recent feature. He makes “alien dreams”; he’s the Heinz in a “ketchup aisle that grows ever more crowded by the day.” The introduction to his latest mixtape, F.B.G.: The Movie, might offer a hint: He emits a series of sounds that devolve from simple braggadocio (“swagger on me… money on me”) into an almost incomprehensible list of words (“presidential…fifth war…fish scale…Gambino”), a celebration of unintelligibility. Formerly the oddball of popular rap music, Future has turned his trademark catalog of auto-tuned croons, vocal jabs, and raspy exclamations into a full-fledged powerhouse, dominating rap radio, releasing critically acclaimed albums, collaborating with Kanye West, and opening for Drake’s recent arena tour. He performed a breezy 50-minute set Sunday night at Concord Music Hall, just six days after he and his fiancée, the pop star Ciara, announced the birth of their first child—a boy named Future.

The first thing to notice is the voice. Future’s cadence is the musical equivalent of deckle-edge paper: coarse, gruff, elegant, and almost comforting. To trace the modulations would be foolish—there’s too much going on to map the inflections. At the show, he avoided much of the warping he employs on his records, using background vocals and the weight of his natural voice to create the necessary emphasis. With “Tony

Montana,” a breakout song with Drake in which Future’s words sound like they’re being sewn together mid-sentence, he traded the special effects for more enunciation.

During “T-Shirt” and “My Momma,” two of the most clamorous songs on his recent studio album Honest, he sounded as if he were vomiting the words into the microphone. The “My Momma” performance made use of aggressive strobe lighting, and was paired with blasts of smoke that enveloped the rapper. During “T-Shirt,” Future’s eyeballs looked ready to pop out of their sockets; his desperate “See how persistent I am?” plea at the climax of the song had the same irresistible fanaticism in person as in the recording.

Future’s use of auto-tune isn’t a maneuver to obscure his regular voice as much as a tool to inflate its urgency and soften its edges. He’s one of the few artists who’s figured out how to make auto-tune sound both insistent and forlorn. Like on Kanye’s breakthrough album 808s & Heartbreak, there’s a way to techno-croon without nettling vocal purists. His rendition of “Bugatti,” a song on which he delivers a mammoth, heavily auto-tuned hook, was so forceful that a friend turned to me mid-song with a look of complete astonishment. Future’s sound achieves an unparalleled strength: His performance of “Covered N Money” at Concord (elegant song titles have never been his forte), another roof-rattling song from Honest, demonstrated why his music has been an unrivaled presence on rap radio the last few years.

Future’s wordplay—if it can even be called that—is a version of free association.

Videos of him working in the studio show him walking into the booth and blurting out as many words as can fit in the crevFUTURE continued on page 12

11

Dinner with Three Maroons: Baba's Famous Steak and Lemonade, digested Rohan Sharma, Eleanor Hyun, and Isaac Stein Maroon Contributor, Viewpoints Editor, and Associate News Editor In the interest of ingesting copious amounts of meat, as well as seeing whether Yelp reviews for restaurants in Washington Park are legit, three Maroon affiliates hit up Baba's Famous Philly Steak and Lemonade (130 East 51st Street) for a Saturday night meal.

Rohan No tables, no chairs, and no credit cards.

Baba’s might be one of the best joints for you and your posse to hit up if you’re fixing for calories on low salaries. It is located barely a block away from Swagger Lounge, which, according to several reviews, can best be described as “ratchet.” However, Baba’s itself is a clean and friendly establishment that features a plethora of lemonade flavors, all the variations of steak sandwiches possible, and the frugality of Harold’s. Having developed an enriched palate of North Side flavors, I was excited to see what the pride of the South Side had to offer. I, along with Eleanor, opted for a crispy Philly cheesesteak sandwich with giardiniera which arrived atop a wax paper veil, under which were my hot-sauce-lathered fries. The sandwich itself struck an admirable balance between moist and crisp, juicy in all the right ways and generous with cheese. Baba’s, in their infinite wisdom, left the lettuce and tomatoes on the side so you can maximize your grease intake without having to chew through anything remotely organic. Overall, Baba’s is an-

other bulletproof glass-equipped fried-food vendor on the South Side made distinct by its Saran-wrapped lemonades and ability to severely challenge your confidence in your digestion abilities. At the end of the meal my homies were looking like, “Why, God?” when they reminisced over our food.

Eleanor Seeing as Rohan and I got the exact same exact order down to the piña-colada lemonade, and he’s the Real Arts Reviewer, maybe I should just stick with what I know best.

Because damn, I really tried to be critical while eating that deep-fried, crispy philly cheesesteak sandwich. After that first bite I paused and tried to come up with good criticisms or compliments, but my mouth was full of fried stuff, and there was hot sauce dripping onto my pants, and there didn’t seem to be anything to say. After I finished, I sat on the ground and tried to reflect on the experience, but as I crunched on the yellow ice left in my cup, all I could think was that there was a brick in my stomach.

I guess I could say something about simple joys and uncultivated indulgences, but shit, that’s not even close to novel. And to draw that conclusion doesn’t even feel truly honest. I mean, the meal was definitely both uncultivated and an indulgence, but it was the kind of meal where the first bite and sip were the best. As I acclimated to the taste each bite became a little more bland until the last bite was mostly dough and little meat, and I slowly came to the realization that not even hot sauce could save the unremarkable fries FOODcontinued on page 12

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12

"Future's cadence is the musical equivalent of deckle-edge paper" FUTURE continued from page 11

ices of his beats. His words and sentences are constantly rearranged in such a way that he can flip intonations mid-word, or use different voices in the same sentence so that his words sound like they’re melting into each other. His lyrics aren’t documents to be studied: There’s no “message,” no “narrative” to design, no “wisdom” he hopes to impart. There’s no sanctimony or didacticism. He can be refreshingly frivo-

lous. That doesn’t mean his music isn’t as challenging as some of rap music’s most forward-thinking material: Future can be as serious an artist as Drake and Kanye West.

He mines his own insecurities with just as much acuity. His performance of the pop hit “Turn on the Lights” was genuinely affecting, and even the dizzy title track of Honest was done with some warmth. He ended the show with “Blood, Sweat, and Tears,” the final song on Honest, but his ex-

Rapper Future (Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn) performs at Stanford University's "Blackfest"in 2013.

COURTESY OF MATT CRAWFORD

plots accessible to their audience through brutal self-awareness and teasing anachronisms, including using Sophocles’s words in fortune cookies. She goes on to say, “It’s challenging and charming, just making it surprising, but the actual content and material really is all there.”

Another challenge CES faces regularly is the lack of conventional theater policy.

“Sometimes it’s frustrating that CES doesn’t have access to traditional theater space, but at the same time I think that’s what makes our shows so unique. It forces us to use unconventional spaces, our designers have to adapt…it’s the magic of theater. Homespun is definitely our buzzword. Our motto basically is, ‘If you don’t know how to do something, we learn how.’ That’s how I learned how to stain wood, to sew, to dumpster dive…. It’s just part of our process,” Segall said.

As for other technological advances, Iron Bridal Feast boasts intense light displays that add modern flair to a play set in antiquity. Tiffany Wang, a newcomer to CES, was lighting director for the show. “I’m starting to constantly ask questions—that makes CES an interesting challenge. When you don’t have a board, you make a board. We’ve even made a dim-

mer. No electrocutions yet, and no electrical fires either…knock on wood.”

While asking Segall about the intended audience, I heard an accordion strikes up in the background. “Well, it’s dinner theater, it’s part of the aesthetic,” she said of the musical interlude. She was keen to spread the word that CES is quite serious about the "Feast" aspect of this production. “We’re serving food! It’s a real dinner show— it’s catered by Cedar’s, serving our ancient Mediterranean vibe. The chorus will be serving you falafel!”

Despite its lofty subject matter and involved production, ultimately the only audience requirement for Iron Bridal Feast is an openness to an enjoyable night of theater and falafel. “On the one hand, it’ll be gratifying for classicists, as we present characters from canon in a new way, but it’s really just entertaining for anybody,” she said. “You don’t really have to believe in the tension of Clytemnestra killing her husband—the jokes definitely won’t be ‘all Greek to you’.”

Iron Bridal Feast will be playing in Ida Noyes from Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets are sold online and at the door, $6 for students.

ecution was pandering.

There are other artists who have sprouted in his mold: Rappers such as Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan, and Migos, and producers such as Mike WiLL Made It, Metro Boomin, and Sonny Digital are part of a Future-inspired Atlantan rap collective that has given new life to Southern hip-hop. For a genre that’s always been attached to its beginnings, this group has effectively moved rap music away from its lyrical, textual origins to a place where the primary concern is making music that simply sounds really cool—an honorable and much more difficult task than rap’s gatekeepers would admit. Few artists aside from Future have had more say in making rap music progressive, in making it tuneful, pop-ish, sentimental, thundering, and weird.

Yet the central problem Future encountered on Sunday is a common one with live rap nowadays: With a feature-heavy discography, it’s hard to do a full show without any cornermcutting. He blazed through his features on “Tapout,” “U.O.E.N.O.,” and “Bugatti” so quickly that he forgot to compensate for them later in the show, when he could have committed more time to fulllength songs from Honest. He opened the concert with “Chosen One,” a little-known song from F.B.G. The Movie, then made an uneasy transition into what could be his strangest, most inventive rap single of the last few years: “Karate Chop.” Some of his more mercurial work, like “Sh!t,” involved Future shouting a sequence of gibberish in unison with the audience in what turned out to be a comical exhibition of confused crowd solidarity. For someone so committed to his craft, he was inexplicably cavalier with his delivery and song selection. Although Future may have a lot to say, he just never likes to spend much time saying it.

FOOD continued from page 11

from the trash.

Maybe all this means is that while this ideal entry into brick-shaped foods has its flavor elevated by the simplicity of the experience of eating it, as this particular sandwich went on, the experience began to overwhelm the actual flavor. I remembered the heft of it in my hands and the weight of it in my stomach long after I had forgotten the taste of it.

Or maybe that’s not a problem with the sandwich, but with me—after all, my job in this paper is to conceptualize and attribute undue significance to my experiences, so much so that sometimes I forget the fabric of the experiences themselves. Maybe I’m just not built for enjoying a deep fried sandwich sticky with cheese. But I’m definitely built for enjoying that sandwich in a park with four friends and a spring breeze, so if you’ll allow me to rate that experience, not the sandwich, I’d give this a five out of five.

Isaac Eating at Baba’s has the same series of outcomes as a trip to White Castle—inner satisfaction with the absurdly low price of your purchase, the inability to eat anything else for the better part of a day, and the total annihilation of the Regenstein B-level bathroom roughly seven hours later.

Baba's cheesesteak and fries.

COURTESY OF BABA'S FAMOUS STEAK AND LEMONADE

MAROON Crossword

"The chorus will be serving you falafel!"

CES continued from page 10

"Brick-shaped food"

By Kyle Dolan

Difficulty:

1

2

3

4

5 pioneer 67. Long ride?

68. What a triangle might symbolize 69. Mucho 70. Dance part 71. Advantage

Across 1. Fall in with felons 5. Traditional Easter fare 9. It connects bones 14. Music for a sitar 15. Letters above 0 16. Win by ___ (squeak by) 17. President James Polk's middle name 18. Possible response to "You were snoring!"

19. Water nymph of Greek myth 20. Beatles song written...in an igloo?

23. Turkish title 26. Play-___ 27. Spicy cuisine 28. ...on a birdwatching trip?

31. Friend of Grover 35. It fires BBs 36. Gaelic tongue 38. ___ Lingus 39. Kisses, across the pond 40. Vietnamese New Year 41. "The Sound of Music" daughter 43. Student's email suffix, often

44. Roof that lets air in 46. Title girl of a hit 1982 song 47. Recipe amount that's not measured 49. ...in a kennel?

51. "The heat ___!"

53. "___ tu" (Verdi aria) 54. It's found underground 55. ...at a cabin in the woods?

60. Old anesthetic 61. Blue-roofed eatery 62. Tree sap, e.g.

66. Electronic game

Down 1. Zoo on the water?

2. Forbid 3. Freudian concept 4. 1970's-80's Judd Hirsch sitcom 5. Vocal effect in blues or flamenco 6. Sluggishness 7. Chain mail, e.g.

8. Savory hors d'oeuvre 9. Capital on the Arabian Peninsula 10. Bad way to get caught?

11. "Touch of Evil" genre

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by ABBA 48. They may follow a trail 50. Turn into 52. Land of Damascus 55. Like some numbers 56. "The Simpsons" bus driver 57. See 58-Down 58. With 57-Down, small talk 59. "Uh-uh!"

63. ___ Spice 64. Turn sharply 65. One with a colorful ring

Answers from last Friday’s puzzle

12. Biblical twin 13. Gives a ring?

21. Get settled 22. Reasons 23. Put down 24. Witch who helps Dorothy 25. Containing gold 29. It's sometimes carried in a relay race 30. Blubbering 32. Rio Grande city 33. Light rock?

34. Vitamin C source

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 30, 2014

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LaChance Amanda Namrata avinia Anzai Jesse sse Silliman man Siddharth Narayanan Nar anan Nai Naila la Dharani Evan Evang elia Gazaki aki Joseline J omezz Krishanu K Ch M Garg Lavinia Evangelia Gomez Chatterjee Morgane Sallam Emmalin Em Jo Bradley Sh ufei Wang ng Kris Lee Cameron Cameron n Ok Martinet Melissa Gatterr Aminah Sa Emmaline Campbell John Shufei Okeke Leigh A Alon Eirene Kim aniel Ramirez-Raftree Yuhao Wang ang Alyna Katti K Sophie Holtzmann Holtzm mann ann Eleanor Elea G Greiner er Saieesh Rao N Rachel Richman Daniel Natalia Jovanovic n Cu unningham Ian Calloway Elizabeth Eliz abeth Knopf Lucy Chen Ch en Sneha Chebrolu Chebrolu Megan M Hongyan ng Xiao Luke Bertels Yoonji Kim Cameron Cunningham Tang Hongyang uri Kolchinski Cather rine Young Toscaa Lichten held G oria Wang Hannah O’G ori Grady Alex Opechowski Lena Thomer Scott Mend Mendelssohn Yuri Catherine Lichtenheld Gloria O’Grady n McCreanor Patricia Stich chnoth Alic an Hassler Hassl er Megan M n Jon Samuel Boland Anna Ron Ronen Reuben Stichnoth Alicee Ye Al Alan Matte Garrison Jones Duaa Mohamed chw Casey Kim Andrew Lu Alexandria Figueroa Nathaniel Norton Alexandra Perez-Garcia Ga Zhou Fang Matthew Schweitzer Stephen Yu Rusn Rasmussen Emily Tixier Sharon Lurye Hilary Clifford Deepak Sabada S sell Hathaway Elysia Liang Tristan Annie Zhang Miranda Means hing Xi Dai Jiaqi Jiang Samantha Karas Katherine Sacco Samuel Sam Jawad Arshad Austin Ward Jay Cushing Greene Emma Warhover Lauren h Jhonatan Marte Jane Gordon Realynn Uddyback Jennifer Jennife Hu Amber Matthews Elizabeth Terrien Capra Gautam Stroscio Lianne Seyferth icia Wright Mafaza Khan Thomas Kelly Klevin Lo L Rebecca Black Matthew Bloomfield Maya Senxi Du Haley Markbreiter Jane Huang Alicia mith Miles Witthaus Brett Bre Pepowski Michelle Lee James Robertson Maayan Malter Lewinsohn Raymond Dong Aliya Moreira Austen Smith ach Elizabeth Frank Samuel Giddins Vincente Fernandez Fer Jordan Poole Kathleen Cawley Dagny Dukach Hannah Amundsen Preston Luong L Aidan Milliff John Vaughen Janey Lee Bonnie Song Sang Gune Yoo Abby LaPier Samuel Levine James Ekstrom George Tsourdinis Hanulac Kyle Engel Karlyn Gorski Alison Thumel Rebecca Liu Stephen Pannuto Matthew nah Weller Hannah Orland Adam Getzler John Dulac Ji Kellner Christopher Deakin Natalya Samee Kareem Mohammad Zihao Jiang Nicholas Aeppel Grace Zhang Katherine Zellner Natalie ka Charles Argue Zahed Haseeb Nissa Mai Colin Bos Valia O’Donnell David Benjamin Struve Kylie Nolla Raphael Eguchi Misha Grifka hner Ashley A Joyce Lu Ryan Ahmed Sarah Bradbury Theresa Hwang Sarah Zeichner Tran Timothy Rudnicki Emily Gerdin Beatrice Hobson Weston Ungemach Suraj Malladi Aaron Pancost Sherry He Cody Weinberger Joanna Kadieva Ava Benezra Karim Pirani Wesley Lee Scott Lee Sarah Peluse Jane Fentress Daniel Povitsky Jun Hou Fung Tracy Zhang Mario Palmisano Stephanie Grach E. Nory Kaplan-Kelly Samuel Gage Taweewat Somboonpanyakul Richard Deulofeut-Manzur Katherine Rittenhouse Melissa High William Jones Taylor Coplen Douglas Vaaler Damini Sharma Zev Hurwich Shannon Cooper Jamila Picart Clara Gibbons Philip Yaure Elizabeth Brim Simion Filip Nathan Brooks Lucy Zhuo Won Huh Eric Singerman Alexander Sotiropoulos Allyson Gambardella Flavius Beca Alida Miranda-Wolff

COLLEGE HONORS AWARDS

WINNERS!

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 30, 2014

“A lot of people keep swimming years into their adult life... It isn’t just a sport—it’s a lifestyle.”

BEST continued from back

and finish your meet with a 200-meter butterfly, seeing as these events require completely different skills and mindsets on a whole different level past any versatility in basketball, which gives a distinct advantage to tall people. This isn’t so in college swimming, where height is not as important as all of the other qualifications necessary to be a good swimmer. And even though swimming does clearly favor the tall at the elite level, it is not entirely necessary. Ask Olympic gold medalist distance swim-

mer Janet Evans, who stands just 5 foot 5.

Most of the time, swimming isn’t fun. You’re not playing a game with teammates; you’re going back and forth in a pool for hours on end, staring down the tiles at the bottom of the pool, going nowhere. It’s downright pointless. Talk to any swimmers, and they’ll tell you all about their extensive love-hate relationship with swimming. On the other hand, talk to them about how they picture their lives without swimming, and they’ll tell you it’s at least very

difficult, if not impossible.

Since swimming is generally not an injury-heavy sport, a lot of people keep swimming years into their adult life, continuing even past the age of 50. It isn’t just a sport—it’s a lifestyle. The commitment swimming inspires is unlike that of any other sport, giving it its rightful place as the best sport.

This is the final installment of the Best Sport series. To cast your vote, visit chicagomaroon. com. Voting will begin Tuesday.

Results will be posted on the Maroon website.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 30, 2014

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Jovanovic leaves wide-reaching legacy Triathlon club prepares for Nationals Senior Spotlight Jenna Harris Sports Staff Natalia Jovanovic, known as Tal to her friends and teammates, is a star on and off the soccer field.

After four years at UChicago, the fourth-year forward has a lot to be proud of in terms of her accomplishments as an athlete, a student, and a member of the university community.

Reflecting on her high school years, Jovanovic exemplified attributes of a true student-athlete. In looking at colleges, she wanted a balance between academics and athletics, so when head coach Amy Reifert first contacted her during her sophomore year of high school, the University of Chicago became a tangible future for the rising star.

She recognized that she belonged with the Maroons on her recruiting trip. On the trip, one of the fourth-years took her to a research lab at the hospital where she got to participate. As a high school senior, she realized that UChicago was a place where she could play soccer and make an impact on the team right away, while also pursuing all her academic goals.

Once here, Jovanovic fulfilled every goal that she set out to achieve. In her first year, she started 17 of 18 games, demonstrated herself to be an offensive powerhouse with five goals and eight assists, and even set a school record with four assists in one game against DePauw. She was named AllUAA her third and fourth years, and made two NCAA tournament appearances with the team.

This year, she started all 19 games, was ranked second on the team in scoring with six goals and eight assists, and served as team captain.

“I’ll miss her quirky jokes, her contagious smile, her commitment to…each of her teammates,” second-year forward Mary Bittner said.

“Tal’s leadership helped strengthen our team and

Club Sports Spotlight prepare us for competition.”

The main advice she wants to leave her teammates and all student-athletes in general is to get to know other teams. She was able to experience this firsthand as president of the Women’s Athletic Association, which she describes as her greatest accomplishment.

“You can learn so much from the perspectives of athletes from other teams,” Jovanovic said.

She also advocates for the team. She says to do everything you can for your team, not yourself, because the team and the friendships you make are what truly matters.

“We have had great role models and captains on the team since my first year and so I was honored to have been one of the three senior captains this year to continue that legacy,” Jovanovic said.

“A good friend once told me the importance of sticking up for what I know and believe to be true and right and to be more concerned with character than reputation, and so I always tried to use that as a guide to make decisions in the best interest of the team. It was definitely more challenging than I had anticipated, which was good because it pushed me to become a more consistent player and leader on and off the field.”

UChicago student-athletes are some of the hardest workers at this school, and Jovanovic is a prime example as a well-rounded woman who has wholly succeeded in her four years here. In addition to her athletic accolades, Jovanovic was also recognized as a Capital One Academic AllDistrict selection, as well as an NSCAA College Division Women’s Scholar for the All-North/ Central region.

The last words she wanted to leave the school with are, “Wear your Maroon pride.” Being a Maroon was a grand experience for her, and she wishes the same will be true for all student-athletes at UChicago for years to come.

Fourth-year forward Natalia Jovanovic plays in a home game against St. Thomas on September 15, 2013.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

Fourth-year Alex Murray of the UChicago Triathlon Club competes in a past race. The Club is going to Tempe, AZ to compete in the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship.

COURTESY OF THE UCHICAGO TRIATHLON CLUB

Derek Tsang Sports Staff Every April, a few of the nation’s most “athletic” colleges gather in Tempe, Arizona, for the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship, schools such as Colorado, UCLA, Navy, and Air Force.

And, starting this year, UChicago.

Fourth-year Alex Murray resurrected the Triathlon Club at UChicago in 2012, after a previous iteration headed by Booth students disbanded in 2010. Murray, who swam in high school, built the club from what he said was originally mostly a loose group that met for swim practices to a dedicated core of 15 athletes, male and female, who train together almost every day.

“I had looked into the Midwest Triathlon Conference, and that seemed like a pretty solid network of schools competing together,” Murray said. “I wanted the university to be a part of that and have more of a team atmosphere for people to compete and come together.”

In the collegiate triathlon circuit, athletes compete in Olympic triathlons: a one-mile swim, 25mile bike ride, and 6.2-mile run. The diversity is part of the appeal, said club president Kevin O’Connor, a second-year. “I can decide if I feel like biking today, or if I feel like swimming.” And on race day, “You can have a terrible day in the water, say, and make up for it with an awesome day on the bike,” he said.

As with marathons, just finishing a triathlon is something of a feat.

“Towards the end, you’ve been on the move for an hour and a half, two hours,” O’Connor said.

“You’re just digging as deep as you can to finish strong, even though your body’s telling you you need to stop.”

There’s no skill prerequisite to compete; according to Murray, it just takes guts. Team members come from all sorts of backgrounds—runners, bikers, and high-school swimmers. The team doesn’t have a coach, so athletes chip in with advice in their areas of expertise. Several members of the triathlon

club joined having never completed a triathlon.

Once they’re veterans, though, the goal is improvement.

“It’s hard to gauge performance in a triathlon because every course is different,” said O’Connor.

“But at Nationals, all five of us had PRs [personal records]. That’s really what we’re looking for, everyone to go out there and give it their all, and show that all the work over the winter is paying off.”

Chicago isn’t the best place for triathlon training, but the club makes do. They meet for two swim practices a week in Ratner, a Thursday track workout, and a Saturday long run. Biking happens sporadically, said O’Connor, on one of Hyde Park’s handful of bike trails or on the exercise bikes in Crown or Ratner.

Triathlons may be individual competitions, but having training partners is important, said O’Connor, whose mother is a triathlete. “It’s so easy, if you’re out on an hour run by yourself, to say ‘I’m going to take it easy for a while.’ But when you have other people who aren’t thinking that, that never comes to mind.”

The club suffers through training together, but they also make it a point to refuel together. The team has a tradition of eating at Valois after long runs, and one weekend, the team ran a 7.5-mile loop to the Taco Bell on 79th and Stony Island to treat themselves to Waffle Tacos.

“The breakfasts at Valois were a foundation for our team growth,” said Murray.

This academic year is the first year the triathlon club has been an official sports club, meaning they get subsidies from the University to help them travel, pay registration fees, and acquire equipment like exercise bikes and uniforms. The team qualified for Nationals by participating in a Midwest race; Murray called representing the University at Nationals “the peak of the club’s existence so far.”

“It’s a source of pride,” said Murray. “We’re out racing, people know who we are. At the Nationals in Arizona, people were like, oh, UChicago has a triathlon team! Yes, we do.”

OOC and WAA celebrate athletes at end-of-year banquets Charlotte Franklin Sports Staff A couple weeks ago, the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) and Order of the “C” (OOC) athletic organizations held banquets to recognize outstanding Maroons for their athletic, as well as academic, endeavors.

Tuesday, May 13 was the 110th annual WAA Banquet. The head coaches of each sport spoke about their teams and announced their Most Valuable Players as voted on by the players themselves.

After the MVPs were announced, the Ballwebber Award was presented to four athletes, one from each class. The Class of 2017 recipient was Britta Nordstrom (basketball), 2016’s was Jordan Poole (softball), 2015’s was Eirene Kim (volleyball), and 2014’s was Natalia Jovanovic (soccer).

The prestigious Gertrude Dudley Medal was

given to runner Michaela Whitelaw for her leadership skills and her four stellar years on cross country and track and field. The Patricia R. Kirby Award was given to fourth-year softball player Maddie McManus for her service to the community, and the Mary Jean Mulvaney Scholar-Athlete Award was presented to fourth-year runner Sarah Peluse for maintaining the highest GPA. Twenty-five fourth-years were also nominated as Senior Blanket Winners.

The banquet concluded with the presentation of the Heart of the Team Award, which was given to fourth-year volleyball player Morgan Clark.

Second-year teammate Maren Loe was not surprised with the recognition of Clark’s accomplishments.

“I cannot think of a more deserving candidate than Morgan Clark,” Loe said. “She’s the hardest worker and best teammate, she was dedicated to WAA, and she graduated early (even as a trans-

fer) to go into the Peace Corps this spring.”

The following week’s event, on Tuesday, May 20, marked the 111th annual Order of the “C” Varsity Letterman’s Banquet. In keeping with tradition, the ceremony began with the customary signing of the book for the new Order of the “C” inductees. After the final introduction of the outgoing Executive Board came a formal introduction and ceremonial induction of the new 2013–2014 Executive Board of the OOC. Following the ceremonial induction of the new inductees, several new head coaches presented the Most Valuable Players and individual Sport Awards.

The individual Sport Awards included: the J. Kyle Anderson Award, given to fourth-year baseball player Brett Huff ; the Max Davidson Award, given to fourth-year tennis player Krishna Ravella; the Ted Haydon Medal, given to fourth-year runner Daniel Povitsky; the Joseph A. Stampf

Award, given to fourth-year basketball player Sam Gage; and the Wrobel Trophy, given to firstyear wrestling standout Charles Banaszak.

After the presentation of the Mary Jean Mulvaney Scholar-Athlete Award to fourth-year runner Samuel Butler, the OOC Rookies of the Year were announced. This honor was granted to Banaszak and first-year tennis player Sven Kranz.

In addition, 35 fourth-years were nominated as Senior Blanket Winners.

Krishna Ravella gave a moving speech and then the esteemed Amos Alonzo Stagg Medal was presented. This award, which was bestowed

by Athletic Director Erin McDermott, is traditionally given to the senior male athlete who embodies an exemplary student-athlete through devotion to his sport, as well as to his character and work ethic outside of his sport. This year, the award winner was swimmer Eric Hallman for his four exceptional seasons and admirable attitude.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “You need to keep practicing.”

–N.Y. Mets catcher Anthony Recker gives 50 Cent some feedback on his ceremonial first pitch at a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field on May 27

Bennett, Dobbs secure All-American honors at NCAAs Track & Field

First-year Michelle Dobbs placed fifth in the 800-meter at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Delaware, OH last Saturday.

COURTESY OF KELCEY BUCK

Russell Mendelson Sports Staff The conclusion of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships this past Sunday also put the final touches on what has been a memorable 2014 track and field season for the Maroon men and women.

By weekend’s end, secondyear Michael Bennett was

the runner up in the pole vaulting competition, jumping a personal best of 5.10m.

Bennett’s previous best was 4.90m, which he beat four times (4.95m, 5.00m, 5.05m, 5.10m) on Sunday.

“It was incredible PR-ing that many times,” Bennett said. “I didn’t think I could still improve by that margin in a single meet at this point in my career.”

After clearing 5.10m, the only remaining competitors were Bennett and Rick Valcin from the University of Dubuque in Iowa. As per the rules, both athletes were forced to have a jump-off for the national title with the bar set five centimeters higher at a daunting 5.15m.

Bennett commented on his mentality going into the sudden death finale.

“By the time it went to a jump-off, in my mind I was just thinking whatever happens happens, I’ll be happy with the result,” Bennett said. “I thought that if we both missed and the bar was lowered by 5 cm, I would have a chance because of my consistency, although that’s not what happened.”

Bennett did not have a chance to exhibit the consis-

tency he demonstrated over the course of the season, as Valcin was able to clear the bar on his first attempt while Bennett did not.

First-year Michelle Dobbs picked up where Bennett left off on day two of the championships by placing eighth in the 800-meter preliminaries and qualifying for the finals the following day.

“I knew that the top two in each heat qualified,” Dobbs said. “And although my heat had some other very fast runners in it, I was confident in my ability to be able to finish strong.”

At Saturday’s finals, Dobbs finished in fifth with a time of 2:09.91, almost a full two seconds faster than her time the previous day.

“I planned to get out hard and settle in behind whoever was leading, and just fight to stay in the race the rest of the way,” Dobbs said. “The race went very similarly to how I had imagined, and I was very happy with the personal best that I got out of it.”

The meet had an added significance for both athletes on top of the already charged atmosphere. This was Dobbs’s first outdoor competition on the national stage, having already raced at the indoor competition in her first season this past March. Dobbs found this

competition to be much more comfortable than her indoor nationals in Nebraska in the winter.

“There were a lot of nerves from the pressure of being at my first Nationals that came into play in Nebraska,” Dobbs said. “Outdoor, I have a much better feel for how to race.”

Bennett, meanwhile, was out to defend his top finish at the pole vault from the indoor national competition.

“I didn’t really do anything different to prepare,” Bennett said. “I knew I still wasn’t the favorite (I was the fifth seed again) and would have to really perform to be in the hunt for the title.”

Most importantly, both athletes have a significant amount of time to improve on what are already shaping up to be impressive bodies of work in the seasons ahead and hope to take their collegiate careers to even greater heights.

“Going forward, I think I’ll be more comfortable competing on a collegiate stage and know what to expect from my races,” said Dobbs. “I’m looking forward to another great season with the cross country team next fall, and we’ll have some high goals we’re striving toward throughout next year.”

Different strokes: why swimming is the best sport

Tatiana Fields Sports Editor There’s nothing the average sports fan enjoys more than arguing, and no argument is more enjoyable than the one that can’t be settled. So, this quarter the sports section is asking the ultimate unanswerable question: Which sport is the best? Over the past weeks, Maroon editors have made the case for their favorite sports. Fifth up, swimming.

I know that many people will be probably be surprised to see swimming in a series of columns on the best sport and will think it has no place next to basketball, baseball, tennis, and soccer. Calling something the “best sport” is a loaded statement, one that comes with a responsibility to show why one sport is intrinsically superior to others and is bound to draw out some intense personal opinions, not to mention that this is a statement that can’t re-

ally be proved. As a swimmer, I was told countless times that swimming wasn’t even a “real” sport. I now set out to prove to you that not only is swimming a real and challenging sport, it is also undeniably the best sport.

Unlike most of the popular sports, swimming is an individual sport, which puts massive amounts of pressure on each athlete. In other sports, individual performance is still celebrated and remains crucial to success, but you cannot succeed without at least some help from your teammates. A world-class soccer player on a crappy team will not be able to progress in her sport despite abundant individual talent, and on the flip side, having teammates on the field or the court lessens at least some of the stress of competition.

In swimming, it’s all you, on your own, sink or swim (literally). There’s no one to blame but yourself when you don’t get the time or the result

that you want, but you also don’t share the spotlight with anyone else when you finally shave a second off your 100 free. Sure, you have the support of your teammates on the sidelines and in practices, but you compete on your own. This makes swimmers very intense, driven athletes, more so than any other sport because their success is entirely and solely dependent on themselves.

There is an aspect of team competition in meets that tally team totals, but individual performance is really what matters. Even relays, which are the closest swimming gets to teamwork, actually just add a bunch of individual times together, so I don’t really see it as true “team” competition in the way that teams in other sports rely on each other and work together. After Jason Lezak chased down Frenchman Alain Bernard in the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay in the Beijing Olympics, it was his individual performance that was celebrated, even with the team gold medal that was given to the U.S. and the efforts of the other three members of the relay. Competing alone gives swimmers unique mental strength that trumps that of any other sport.

In addition, much of swimming is internal, with just you competing against your time and striving for

personal improvement against the stopwatch, which none of the previous sports can claim. Not only do you compete by yourself, you also race against yourself, which separates swimming from most every sport besides cross country and track and field. Liam Leddy’s plug for tennis in his column “Game, Set, Match: Why Tennis Is The Best Sport” (5/20/14) is mostly centered on the fact that tennis is individual, but much of tennis does depend on facing an opponent—swimming doesn’t even have that all the time, since your main competition is simply yourself.

Swimming is ruthless. You are only working to better your own times against your previous ones, but once you pass a certain threshold, it only gets harder and harder to continue to improve. In other sports, skill can be relative depending on whom you are competing against, but the stopwatch never lies. As a result of this, swimming requires immense introspection and discipline, making it more challenging than other sports.

This mental strength is also key for the extensive amount of training swimmers endure. I’m positive, and haven’t been proven wrong yet, that swimmers train more than any other athletes. Practices are morning and evening, rain or shine. The only reason to ever get out of the pool is

lightning, and even that will only get you a temporary reprieve. The Maroons’ swim team practices eight or nine times a week with each practice lasting from two to three hours, and that’s a DIII team. Swimmers spend hours in the pool each week and supplement their swim training with cross-training and weights.

Also, swimmers train and compete year-round—we don’t have “seasons” like other athletes. Even in the club swimming I did in high school, our coach would give people on the team two, maybe three weeks off from training out of the whole year. Swimmers have to have an amazing work ethic to train as much as they do, and sometimes all of this work and time is all to drop just a second or less on an event. Athletes of no other sport train as much or as hard.

Swimming also creates very versatile athletes, with events ranging in distance from 50m to 1,500m and offering choices of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, individual medley, and freestyle. Sam Zacher’s column “Points In The Paint: Why Basketball Is The Best Sport” (5/2/2014) argues that basketball is best for the different skills it requires and the versatility it allows for. In my opinion, true versatility is being able to swim a 1,500-meter freestyle race BEST continued on page 14