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FUNDRAISER FOR CHARLES THOMAS

OCTOBER 16, 2019 THIRD WEEK VOL. 132, ISSUE 4

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Citing Misconduct, Sororities Cancel Events With Sigma Chi Stuart Buie. facebook

Fourth-Year Student Dies at Logan Center PAGE 4

Kwame Raoul. alexandra nisenoff

Raoul Commemorates Law School Grad

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Ronald McDonald House.

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Sigma Chi is located in Maclean House. brooke nagler

alexis florence

Ronald McDonald House Reopens

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EDITORIAL: As Tuition Soars, Quality of Education Declines

SPORTS: With Historic Streak, Volleyball Nabs 17th Straight Win

ARTS: Roll and Slash: Dicey Dungeons Puts a New Spin on Roguelikes

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Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/chicagomaroon and follow @chicagomaroon on Instagram and Twitter to get the latest updates on campus news.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 16, 2019

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Panhellenic Council Suspends Events With Sigma Chi Following Reports of ‘Date-Rape Drugs’ During O-Week Parties

By MATTHEW LEE and JUSTIN SMITH Deputy News Editors The University of Chicago Panhellenic Council has decided to suspend all events with Sigma Chi following reports of several incidents—including “several dangerous instances involving daterape drugs”—alleged to have occurred at the fraternity’s O-Week parties, according to an internal document distributed to sorority members.

The Panhellenic Council (Panhel) is comprised of the sororities Alpha Omicron Pi, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Pi Beta Phi. The Panhel letter states that “this string of events highlights a concerning pattern of misconduct in the fraternity.”

“Coupled with previous misconducts, these events indicate a larger issue of the fraternity not taking safety concerns seriously. These instances have brought to light glaring inadequacies in proper alcohol, safety, and risk management trainings and policies that

Sigma Chi should have in place,” the letter reads.

In a written response to Panhel, obtained by The Maroon, Sigma Chi leadership addressed Panhel’s decision to suspend events with the fraternity.

Sigma Chi leadership said that the fraternity had “hosted two events where our guests’ safety was at risk.” The response did not directly address alleged drugging incidents.

In a separate statement to The Maroon on Monday, addressing the exchange with Panhel, Sigma Chi said that “no individual member of our chapter has been accused or suspected at this time.”

The fraternity said in the statement that it is conducting an internal investigation, and that the incident has been communicated to the organization’s national headquarters. The fraternity made no mention of any external investigation by the University of Chicago administration or law enforcement.

Current University policy does not

recognize fraternities as school-affiliated organizations. As such, the University administration does not play any role in regulating or overseeing fraternity activities.

Under Illinois law, “a person who knowingly puts any substance capable of causing death or great bodily harm to a human being into any food, drug or cosmetic offered for sale or consumption” commits the crime of tampering with food, drugs, or cosmetics, a Class II felony. In other cases, drugging can be charged as a misdemeanor battery.

Sigma Chi is a signatory of Fraternities Committed to Safety (FCS), a document intended to regulate prevention and response to potential misconduct.

The agreement’s response section is dedicated to governing how fraternities respond to allegations of sexual assault amongst their own members. It does not specify a framework for adjudicating misconduct that does not involve sexual assault, or cases where the accused is not a member of an undersigning fra-

ternity.

In their statement to The Maroon, Sigma Chi officials stated that they, in conjunction with their national organization and campus sororities, would work to promote, “among others, a recommendation that the framework for responding to serious safety concerns at events be significantly expanded.”

The fraternity also wrote that it “accept[ed] and is completely supportive of the decisions made by the Panhellenic Council and the individual member sororities to cancel social events with our Organization.”

Sigma Chi has also chosen to “not hold open parties until we believe that our Risk Management Plan is to a more satisfactory standard.”

Further, the fraternity stated it is “committed to enhancing how risk management is approached, both within our chapter and across the UChicago Greek Life.”

Panhel did not respond for comment at the time this article was published.

UChicago Law School’s Black Law Students Association Unveils Plaque for Nelson Willis

By DIMITRIY LEKSANOV Senior News Reporter The University of Chicago Law School’s chapter of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) unveiled a plaque on Wednesday commemorating the life and career of Nelson Willis, the first Black graduate of the Law School (LL.B. 1918).

Willis’s plaque is directly adjacent to another plaque commemorating Earl Dickerson (J.D. 1920), who was previously recognized as the first Black graduate of the Law School. However, recent research done by Adam Hassanein, a second-year student at the Law School, revealed that Willis had overlapped with Dickerson, and had actually graduated two years earlier.

“I saw the name [of Nelson Willis] referenced a lot, went downstairs to the composite archive, and saw the pictures,” said Hassanein, when asked about the process of making this discovery.

“I saw that he was a graduate of Tougaloo, did some more googling and found out that it was a Historically Black College, and [the discovery] came from there.”

Prior to coming to the University, Willis attended Tougaloo College, a historically Black college in Jackson, Mississippi. Following his graduation from the University of Chicago Law School with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree, Willis became a prominent attorney and activist, ascending to a number of high-level positions, includ-

ing president of the Cook County Bar Association and president of the Chicago chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

According to Thomas Miles, dean of the Law School, Willis made a number of connections at the Law School which he maintained throughout his career.

For instance, he met Dickerson, who is still the first Black student to earn a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the Law School despite not being the first to graduate, and the two litigated several civil rights cases together.

The ceremony also featured comments from Kwame Raoul, the current Illinois attorney general and a graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Before assuming the office in January,

Raoul worked as a politician and practicing attorney. In 2004, he was selected to fill Barack Obama’s vacant seat in the Illinois Senate and would hold that position for over 14 years.

Both Raoul and Miles remarked on the tribulations that Willis likely faced as a Black student attending Law School more than four decades before the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. “This was 20 years after Plessy v.

Ferguson, 30 years before Brown v.

Board [of Education of Topeka],” Raoul said, adding that Willis carried a revolver to class every day due to the high rate of racist violence against Black people at the time.

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...when it comes to preventing violence...“We need to service the population with an understanding of untreated trauma.”

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that must’ve felt, and how much courage it must’ve taken,” Miles said prior to the unveiling of the plaque.

Raoul continued, “I must confess, I was previously ignorant about the history about Nelson Willis, but I am proud to be here today to recognize firsts, because firsts knock down the door.”

Prior to the unveiling of the plaque, Raoul spoke to the BLSA, discussing his judicial life and personal story. He specifically mentioned the impact of growing up in Chicago around numerous members of the judiciary, including

Jewel Lafontant (J.D. 1946), the first female deputy solicitor general of the United States, as well as the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School.

“I used to mow her lawn,” said Raoul.

“Throughout my development, I had her along the way to encourage me.”

Raoul also talked about the importance of diversity in the justice system and law enforcement, particularly when it comes to preventing violence, saying, “We need to service the population with an understanding of untreated trauma.”

Later, Raoul discussed his decision

to petition for a writ of mandamus—a legal order requiring a government organization to carry out its duties to the fullest extent—in order to potentially impose a different sentence on Jason Van Dyke, a former Chicago Police Department officer who was sentenced in January to 81 months in prison for the murder of Laquan McDonald.

Raoul’s petition ultimately failed after the Illinois Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

During a Q&A portion at the end of the talk, Raoul elaborated on his reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, as

well as his reasoning behind filing such a petition, saying, “Was I disappointed? No, I was mad. Because I knew that had the court gone to the merits, there would’ve been no choice.”

Later in the Q&A, Raoul discussed the benefits of using judicial discretion to minimize the effects of laws that are detrimental to the general public.

“I really believe in the individualized administration of justice,” said Raoul, adding, “I will use my job to inform the legislature of any unintended consequences of bad policy.”

Calloway Appeals Hairston’s Fifth Ward Election Win

By JACK CRUZ-ALVAREZ Deputy News Editor Activist William Calloway continues to fight the results of an April aldermanic runoff election against current fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston.

Calloway’s attorney, Matthew Topic, filed a brief on September 30 to the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court to appeal the results of the election, the Hyde Park Herald reported Wednesday.

Calloway lost to Hairston by a narrow margin of 176 votes, according to the Chicago Board of Elections (BOE) data. This is the first runoff election Hairston has had to face since she first won the Fifth Ward seat in 1999 against incumbent Barbara Holt.

This is not the first legal challenge Calloway has brought forward against

these election results. After the runoff, Calloway asked for a discovery recount that confirmed Hairston’s 176-vote lead. In May, Calloway filed a temporary restraining order against Hairston in an attempt to block her from being sworn in later that month. Cook County judge LaGuina Clay-Herron rejected his petition for the order and Hairston was sworn in on May 20.

Topic, the third attorney to represent Calloway in these challenges, argues that because four precincts in the Fifth Ward did not return Form 80 documents certifying the results of the election, the results in those precincts are invalid. This issue was also brought up in Calloway’s challenges from April and May. Judge LaGuina Clay-Herron has already dismissed these claims in previous rulings, asserting that these forms were not mandatory.

“When it comes down to it, there’s a suggestion here that, if the judges make a mistake or don’t complete all the paperwork, we should discount the hundreds of voters who did cast legitimate ballots,” BOE spokesman Jim Allen told the Herald.

Calloway is reportedly asking for new elections to be held in the precincts that did not return Form 80 documents: 5, 10, 17, and 35. He won precincts 5 and 10, located in Woodlawn and South Shore, tied in precinct 17 in South Shore, and lost in precinct 35 in Hyde Park.

The attorney representing Hairston, Ed Mullen, is expected to file a response to Topic’s brief. After the brief is filed, the court will rule on the case using both pieces of evidence already brought forward and briefs that have already been filed.

Activist William Calloway. sophia corning

Saieh Family Funds New Postdoctoral Program

By MADELEINE ZHOU Deputy News Editor A recent gift from University Trustee Alvaro Saieh (A.M. ’76, Ph.D. ’80) will be used to fund the Saieh Family Fellows in Economics, a new permanent postdoctoral fellows program.

The program, which will be offered through the Becker Friedman Institute of Economics, will allow early-career economists to explore research topics of their choice. Topics include applied microeconomics, the labor market, and econometrics.

The new program is an extension of

the existing Chicago Research Fellows program, established in 2017 from a gift from the Saieh Family Fund.

Saieh is the founder of CorpGroup, one of Chile’s largest banking conglomerates. After finishing his Ph.D at UChicago, he worked in the public sector, serving as an adviser to the Ministry of Housing and

Public Works and Chief Economist of the Central Bank of Chile.

Saieh joined the University’s Board of Trustees in 2012 and also serves on the Becker Friedman Institute’s Advisory Council. He is also the namesake of Saieh Hall, which houses the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics.

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Students Remember Sidra Newman, Energetic and Warm Instructor

By JINGWEN ZHANG News Reporter “Sidra was the spark of life, love and positive energy that illuminated light upon everything and everyone around her. She was our angel on earth,” described Sidra Newman’s family in an announcement of her passing. Newman, a cardio-kickboxing and yoga instructor at Ratner Gym, died on September 25.

Newman started teaching at UChicago’s group wellness program in 2008.

“She was a beloved colleague, instructor, and friend to many within the department,” wrote Brian Bock, UChicago’s associate athletic director for recreation and fitness, in an email to The Maroon.

Ph.D. student Raffaella Taylor Seymour said that at her first kickboxing class with Newman, she “sat most of the class on the bench outside trying to recover and vowed never to come back.”

Joelle Mbatchou (Ph.D. ’19) said she

felt certain that Newman was superhuman after first taking her kickboxing class. “I had never been that much physically challenged,” Mbatchou said.

Nevertheless, Newman’s kickboxing class became part of their routine. “Despite how challenging it was, Sidra just made me feel so empowered and capable of pushing beyond the limits I had set for myself,” Mbatchou said. “She had such a gentle spirit, never forcing people and always encouraging.”

Graduate students Kellie Swadba and Anne Davis were also amazed by Newman’s capability to motivate her students with only a simple smile or gesture.

“In her class, people push themselves much harder than they would otherwise,” Swadba said.

Davis said she looked forward to her morning sessions with Newman despite not being a morning person: “Her classes and her energy were just so motivating.”

Newman helped them make huge progress physically, but her compassion and generosity influenced them even more.

“Newman had the magic to make people feel known and cared for even after meeting her once.” said fourthyear College student Ruby Ross.

Seymour was surprised at how fast Newman learned new students’ faces and how often she noticed as someone improved. “She would check in with you after class, and she remembered everything—like a recent breakup or some assignment you’d been stressing over.”

Newman once told Seymour how much she liked having her near the front because Seymour was smiling all the time. “But in my mind, it was her who was always smiling,” Seymour said.

Mbatchou and Seymour ended up being close friends with Newman, chatting with her after class. Once, Newman was ill and wasn’t able to teach her class at the last minute. No one in the 30-per-

son class wanted to skip it, so Mbatchou and Seymour taught the class together.

Newman’s fitness class was a space for everyone to not only challenge themselves, but also to empower one another, Mbatchou and Seymour said.

Newman’s impact went well beyond UChicago’s campus. She received her master’s degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago in August, with her research focusing on utilizing yoga as a therapy for the youth. She also worked at Hartgrove Hospital and with the Empowering Counseling Program, which provides free school-based counseling and after-school services in Bronzeville, Woodlawn, and Englewood.

“She was a true example of a person who just loved and supported people wholeheartedly, accepting them as they were without forcing,” Mbatchou said.

A memorial service for Newman, hosted by her family, took place last week.

Fourth-Year Student Dies at Logan Center

By ELAINE CHEN Deputy Editor-in-Chief A fourth-year student died at the Logan Center for the Arts on Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner.

Dean of the College John Boyer sent a college-wide email Sunday morning announcing the death of the student, Stuart Buie.

Police spokesperson Steve Rusanov said that on Saturday afternoon, a person fell from the building and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Natalia Derevyanny, spokesperson for the medical examiner, confirmed Sunday that the person who died at the Logan Center was Buie. The death was ruled a suicide, Derevyanny said.

Buie, originally from California, was an active musician since a young age.

According to his LinkedIn, he worked as a piano teacher and as a pianist at a local coffeehouse during high school.

His father, Gregg Buie, said he not

only played songs but also composed and improvised.

During a high school talent show, “off the top of his head, he would ask someone in the audience to pick out two or three notes, and then just out of his head would just play a song using those notes or keys,” Buie’s father said.

In college, Buie played piano for the Jazz Combo run out of the University’s music department.

“He was an incredible musician, incredibly gifted with the piano and would play every night,” said Austin Regalado, a fourth-year student who roomed with Buie during their second year. “That’s my most vivid memory of him: constantly toiling away at his keyboard constructing new melodies.”

Buie participated in the University’s Neighborhood Schools Program, tutoring local elementary and middle school students one-on-one during his first two years at UChicago, according to his LinkedIn. Buie was also part of the Epsilon Club, a co-educational social organi-

zation. He served as co-chaplain of the club last school year.

“Stuart was perhaps the most universally beloved member of the Epsilon Club,” said Emilia McLennan, a master’s student at the University who served as the other co-chaplain. “You could find him at the house listening to his massive vinyl collection, or playing jazz standards on his piano, or curled up on the sofa watching Love Island with the house cat, Goose.”

“Unsurprisingly,” McLennan continued, “he was (Goose’s) favourite.”

Clara de Castro, a fourth-year student who served as president of the Epsilon Club last school year, said, “I can best describe him as bright or maybe radiant.”

“And he could shred on the penny board,” de Castro added.

The University said in a statement to The Maroon, “The University of Chicago community is greatly saddened by the death of fourth-year student Stuart Henry Buie. Our deepest sympathies are with his family and those affected

by his loss.”

The University’s Student Counseling Services are located at 5555 South Woodlawn Avenue. Students may schedule appointments by calling (773) 702–9800 or walking in during business hours (Mondays through Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

The University’s Dean-on-Call can be reached at (773) 834–4357.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-2738255.

Lee Harris contributed reporting.

Editor’s note: We hope to follow up on this article with an obituary memorializing Stuart’s life and his time as a member of the University community. We ask anyone who has memories they want to share about Stuart to please contact us at editor@chicagomaroon.com.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 16, 2019

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Community Fundraiser Raises over $7,500 for Charles Thomas’ Family

By MATTHEW LEE Deputy News Editor A fundraiser created on behalf of the parents of former UChicago student Charles “Soji” Thomas has raised over $7,500 in one week.

The fundraiser, started by one of Thomas’s college friends, aims to alleviate the financial burden on Thomas’s family relating to his ongoing legal case.

In April 2018, Thomas was shot and wounded by an officer of the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) following what his family describes as a severe mental health episode linked with his diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Thomas is facing several charges for the incident.

Then, in September of this year, Thomas disappeared for two weeks before he was ultimately located in Indiana.

At the time, Thomas was on house arrest after being released on bail during his ongoing trial. The disappearance violated the terms of his release, and his bond was revoked.

Thomas is currently being held in the Cook County Jail.

Thomas’s parents, Kathy and Wendell Thomas, live and work in Los Angeles but are trading off long stays in Chicago in order to visit their son. Through the fundraiser, supporters are seeking to cover some of the Thomas family’s expenses, including airline tickets, a place to stay in Chicago, and long leaves away from work.

In an interview with The Maroon, Thomas’s mother Kathy Thomas said “I’m so thankful and appreciative, especially of all the students who have shown their care and concern and donated. It just means so much to me that students are willing to help out.”

Kathy Thomas criticized the University and the police’s handling of her son’s case.

“The way to deal with mental illness is not putting people in jail,” she said.

“As of right now, since he’s been in Cook County—I think he was transferred there just over a week ago—he has not received any of his medication or seen a physician.”

Kathy Thomas’s concerns are echoed by many on campus.

Michelle Yang, an activist with the student group #CareNotCops, referred to a May 2019 statement released following the fatal shooting of Myles Frazier

by Chicago Police. Frazier, who was bipolar, was fatally shot by Chicago Police Department SWAT teams in an incident just south of campus on 61st Street and Kenwood Avenue.

“We maintain that police do not create safety. They only perpetuate harm,” the statement reads. “Real safety looks like centering care and acknowledging people’s capacity for growth and transformation. Real safety is created by building healthy, thriving communities, not by policing them.”

When asked for comment, University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said that “since the time of the incident with Charles Thomas, the University of Chicago community’s thoughts have been with all of the individuals involved and their families.”

Kathy Thomas also shared concerns about the University’s handling of her son’s mental health care.

“Kids, if they’re in the throes of may-

be their first manic/psychotic episode, they really don’t totally understand what’s happening with them,” she said.

“But they don’t quite know how to help themselves. By basically giving him a list of people to contact outside the University and making them wade through all of the insurance and everything, that’s not helpful. Because at that point, the student is at their most vulnerable.”

In his statement, spokesperson McSwiggan described the variety of mental health services made available to UChicago students through Student Health and Counseling Services—services that he said will be expanded following the opening of a new student wellness center in 2020 and continued expansion of counseling staff.

Further, on the issue of University policing, McSwiggan said, “all UCPD officers are required to receive 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Training in addition to regular professional training and development programs. Supporting student safety and well-being is of paramount importance.”

Mandatory O-Week Service Event Faces Logistical Issues

By OLIVIA CHILKOTI News Reporter A new, mandatory community service event during O-Week got mixed reviews from incoming first-years, some of whom said their help wasn’t needed at program sites.

The new event, entitled “Campus Life Meeting: Engage Chicago,” was described as an opportunity to participate “in meaningful service projects in the neighborhoods surrounding the University, not just as students, but as active community members.” A similar, optional event called “Engage Chicago Through Service” was offered in previous years, but this is the first year that incoming students were required to participate in community service.

The event took place from approximately 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., kicking off with an address to first-year students on the importance of service and com-

munity engagement. Students were then broken up into groups based on where they would be going, and transported to their assigned sites in school buses.

For many students, organizational kinks overshadowed the experience.

First-year Jack Dewhurst described a thoroughly frustrating experience: Upon arriving at the offices of the Neighborhood Network Alliance, his group found only one employee, who was not expecting them.

“Nobody really knew how many [students would show up] or what we were meant to be doing. So me and four other people were assigned to paint this lady’s office, despite the fact that she did not have enough paint, there was not nearly enough time, and none of us knew how to paint this office…. Unsurprisingly, it did not go well, and her office is going to need to be repainted.”

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Students participate during an O-Week day of service.

courtesy of university of chicago

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 16, 2019

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Students Unprepared to Get Dirty and Forgo Lunch CONTINUED FROM PG. 5

Dewhurst said that another group assigned to the same site had no work to do and spent over an hour sitting in an empty room until some volunteers could be found to come talk about the work they did for the Alliance.

First-year Gabi Garcia was assigned to work at the Hermitage Street Community Garden, which was founded to combat the surrounding food desert.

She says students in her group completed tasks like pulling weeds and organizing a tool shed to make the garden more functional for its users, among them many senior citizens and young

children.

Although the experience was a positive one, Garcia noticed many areas ripe for improvement. Once broken up into groups for transport, students had very little direction. The person “in charge” of Garcia’s bus was a fellow first-year who had completed a Pre-Orientation program that also did a day of service.

Students were not warned of the kind of work they would be doing and many showed up unprepared. “Luckily I had thought to wear things that I could get dirty, but I could see that for a bunch of other people that wasn’t the case,” said Garcia.

Additionally, students in Garcia’s group were provided “an apple and some pretzels” in place of lunch, despite the fact that they were completing manual labor.

However, Garcia found the overall experience to be rewarding and says she plans to return on her own. “It just really kind of hit home, the fact that I am very privileged to be at this institution…. It’s just really important to me that this community can thrive the way that the University community and Hyde Park get to.”

When asked what he thought the University was trying to achieve with

the Engage Chicago event, Dewhurst responded bluntly. “Good P.R. It seemed like the University was trying to [say] ‘Hey, 100 percent of our incoming class participated in service!,’ so they just like shoved us onto random, community organizations that were not prepared to deal with us. And it was a waste of time for everybody involved.”

So far there has been no news as to whether or not the event will be returning next year. The University News Office was contacted for comment, but did not reply to questions by the time of publication.

Ronald McDonald House Reopens After Eight Month Closure

By ALEXIS FLORENCE News Reporter The Ronald McDonald House at Comer Children’s Hospital reopened its doors this past weekend after eight months of construction. Program Director Merdelle Gundlach said she is excited to get back to building a supportive community at the House, which serves families and patients at Comer Children’s.

In February, the house experienced flooding after a frozen pipe burst, causing $3.1 million worth of damage. The reconstruction project was initially expected to take three months but ended up taking eight as the organization fixed the damage and renovated the space for families.

Gundlach acknowledges that “it

has been a difficult journey” to get the house running again, but said she is excited to welcome back families who were placed in the Hyatt Place hotel in Hyde Park while the house was being reconstructed.

“The biggest challenge was not really seeing the families all the time, because we really did not even meet them sometimes, because they would be at the hotel. So that was the part I missed the most,” Gunlach said.

Jessica Wardelle and her family, including her seven-year-old daughter Penelope and three-year-old daughter Scarlet, moved into the house the day it reopened on October 12. Scarlet recently underwent surgery for a skin condition.

Prior to the reopening of the Comer House, Wardelle and her family stayed

at the Ronald McDonald House near the Loyola University Medical Center for Scarlet’s past surgeries. Wardelle said the experience of staying in a Ronald McDonald House was not only helpful but also gratifying, thanks to the sense of community.

“It feels really good to know you are not alone and you are all going through similar situations together…. It really makes the stay a lot nicer than being isolated in a hotel,” Wardelle said.

Wardelle also says staying in the house has helped Scarlet’s recovery from surgery by making her feel more comfortable and relaxed when she is not at the hospital.

The volunteers who assist in the daily demands of running the house are another part of the Ronald McDonald House community.

Betty Butridge has volunteered at the House for over 30 years and said she is ready to get back to making meals and helping families.

Butridge was saddened when she heard that the House would be temporarily shut down, because she would miss her connections with the families that stay at the House.

Butridge urges people to come volunteer at the House as operations resume. “It is just a warm place to be and I cannot think of a better place to spend my time,” she said.

Gundlach said the goal of the House going forward is to “keep families happy and make sure we service them.” Since 15 families moved in on opening weekend, there is plenty of work to be done.

Local Teacher Wins Computer Science Award

By ADYANT KANAKAMEDALA News Reporter Hyde Park teacher Charity Freeman received an Equity Fellowship from the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) on September 18.

Freeman and nine other teachers make up the inaugural cohort of fellows. The fellowship provides support

and funding for each of the fellows to undertake a project “to promote equity in CS education.”

CSTA brings together K–12 computer science educators by providing classroom resources, curriculum outlines, and by hosting an annual national conference. Individual chapters host smaller events for local members throughout the year.

Freeman teaches computer science at Kenwood Academy, a public high and middle school in Hyde Park—Kenwood.

Along with teaching six computer science classes, Freeman also leads the school’s Girls Who Code Club, which supports female students in seventh through 12th grades by teaching them how to code and helping them develop their own projects.

After graduating with a B.S. in small business management, Freeman worked as a career advisor at a Chicago Public School. She then taught business technology before transitioning to computer science education.

Freeman is also a 2019–20 Teach Plus Illinois K–12 Teaching Policy Fellow.

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VIEWPOINTS New Business Econ Specialization Betters UChicago Economics Program Rather Than Undermining the Economics Department’s Traditional Theoretical Emphasis, the New Business Economics Specialization Supplements It, Better Preparing Students for Careers in Industry

BRINDA RAO

In June of 2018, John List, a professor in the economics department, introduced a new specialization to the major: business economics. The introduction of this new track, with its highly preprofessional emphasis, marks a shift from the Department’s traditional focus on theory, offering students a plethora of finance courses that tend to focus on industry over theoretical questions.

Many criticize this track as yet another move on the University’s part to become more preprofessional, de-emphasizing UChicago’s hallmark theoretical education.

Moreover, critics believe that the business specialization, in particular, is not up to par with the intensity of UChicago’s academics.

However, I argue that rather than undermining UChicago’s theoretical economics curriculum, this track supplements it, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to reap the benefits of both UChicago’s traditional academic experience while

also gaining key preprofessional resources.

The introduction of this business specialization actually improves the economics curriculum at UChicago, as previously, the major was lacking for students interested in pursuing careers in industry rather than academia. Theory-based lectures lack the emphasis on social elements, such as networking and communication skills, that many business classes drill into students.

Additionally, the business economics specialization allows students to take classes like Competitive Strategy and Corporation Finance, courses with direct skills that can be applied in consulting or investing jobs. Ultimately, through the new preprofessional business specialization, economics majors can now leave UChicago prepared for whatever future path they choose, whether that is in industry or academia.

Indeed, the introduction of the business specialization in the economics major is long overdue, as students at UChicago should not have to wait until graduate school to attain the resources of a school like Booth. The reality is that scores of UChicago students pursue occupational industry work for years before considering attending business

school. By enabling undergraduate students to access Booth resources, the business specialization gives UChicago students an education that will strongly benefit their professional pursuits. A number of Booth resources are available to students in the business economics track. These students can now access some Booth classes, such as Financial Statement Analysis and Behavioral Economics. Students in the business economics track are even required to take at least three courses at Booth for their electives.

The reduced quantitative requirements of the new track have been another area of concern for the specialization’s critics, as business economics students have to take significantly less math. These students need not take any math beyond Elementary Functions and Calculus II and are able to opt out of UChicago’s classic Econ 200 sequence, a long-standing pillar of the economics department at the College, which strongly emphasizes quantitative skills.

While it is true that the business economics track certainly has less of a quantitative emphasis, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing—indeed, many students chose to

study economics at the University of Chicago for a variety of reasons entirely unrelated to sharpening their quantitative skills.

Indeed, many students interested in pursuing non-quantitative aspects of finance, marketing, and consulting, have praised the new business economics program. Kyra Hill, a second-year business economics major in the College, notes, “I’ve always wanted to work in business but not as quantitatively.”

The introduction of the business economics track demonstrates that UChicago can integrate a preprofessional option for students in fields outside academia. The introduction of these tracks in no way harms the existing robust theoretical education that UChicago provides, but supplements it, offering students interested in pursuing careers in industry a range of preprofessional experiences to equip them to work in the real world. As UChicago continues to launch new preprofessional programs, like the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, which was recently introduced, critics should look to the promise of the business economics program.

Brinda Rao is a second-year in the College.

The Fiction of Neutrality While the Administration Declines to Make University-Backed Political Statements as per the Kalven Report, Its Investment Decisions Remain Inherently Political

By BEN SEGAL The University of Chicago manages a portfolio valued at approximately $14 billion, a little over $8 billion of which sits in the school’s endowment. UChicago is, by any measure, a wealthy institution, and the investment decisions it makes have significant impacts. However, despite calls at various times to divest from everything from apartheid regimes to fossil fuels, UChicago has steadfastly refused to alter its institutional investing decisions. This, we are told,

is because of the school’s commitments to free speech and neutrality, which were laid out over 50 years ago in the landmark Kalven Report.

That report argues that political statements and actions made by the University are inappropriate. It defines the institution as a site for political dialogue advanced only by individual professors and students. This is, on its face, fair enough. Arguments can be made for or against this position, but whatever its merits, the general idea is at least coherent: UChicago does not speak

as an institution about social and political topics (at least, topics that go beyond the defense of academic freedom).

This thinking has been extended to justify the school’s refusal to divest from anything, because to do so would be to make a political statement as an institution. That is, UChicago has decided that choices around spending count as speech, so divestment is at odds with the school’s core value of maintaining a politically neutral academic space.

By this logic, however, investments are just as political as divestments. The choice not

to divest is as political as the choice to divest, and thus, the University’s position is plainly incoherent and hypocritical.

Let us extend this a bit further and think about UChicago’s actual spending practices. The University proudly promotes its investment in sustainability. The school is making institution-level decisions to spend money from its endowment on things like energy-efficient buildings (even when, I’m sure, there are cheaper alternatives). As the school itself admits, UChicago values continued on pg. 8

the chicago maroon — OCTOBER 16, 2019

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“How is divestment from fossil fuels incompatible with the University’s principles?” continued FROM PG. 7

sustainability and tackling climate change, and so invests in programs, buildings, and energy sources that promote that agenda. This shows that, in practice, the rule against investment with political or social valence is both infeasible and (thankfully) not actually followed.

Given the above, how is divestment from fossil fuels incompat-

ible with the University’s principles? If spending is speech, as the University’s anti-divestment arguments imply, then maintaining an endowment is always already political and investing is never neutral. On the other hand, if the University takes the position that spending is not speech and investment decisions are outside of the Kalven Report’s scope, then UChicago’s “principled position”

against divestment has no basis at all.

There are certainly reasons to oppose specific divestment campaigns, but a blanket refusal to consider the impact of the school’s investment choices cannot be plausibly maintained on the basis of a commitment to free discourse.

UChicago’s administration should have the courage to actually make viable and consistent arguments,

or it should accept that it already makes non-neutral investment decisions and should strive to do so in a coherent and ethical manner. Hiding behind the rhetoric of neutrality and academic freedom is cowardly and nonsensical. For a university that boasts commitments to truth and honest inquiry, UChicago’s blanket opposition to divestment is laughably hypocritical.

I call on the University to reexamine the implications of the Kalven Report and to develop an investment strategy for the future that can be coherently defended.

At the very least, the University should be willing to explain its decision to be complicit in the steady wave of extinctions and societal disruptions that its investments help perpetuate.

As Tuition Soars, Quality of Education Declines Though UChicago Has Become the Most Expensive College in the Nation, Educational Support Systems Lag Behind By the maroon editorial board As of this summer, the University of Chicago’s total cost of attendance is the highest of any

college in the country. Tuition alone is $57,642, per the Office of Financial Aid’s website. Add in the $17,004 charge for living on campus, $1,800 for textbooks, and about $2,000 in personal

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expenses, and a UChicago education costs $80,000: the most expensive in the U.S. While the College’s soaring sticker price reflects a larger, decades-long trend of rising costs at public and private universities nationwide, The Maroon Editorial Board is alarmed that UChicago tops the list. The cost of attendance has risen even as the University has expanded enrollment without improving key academic resources.

The administration consistently reminds families of its generous financial aid packages, marginally increases Metcalf stipends, and assures low-income students that they will be socially and academically supported when they choose to attend this elite university. But as class sizes increase and dissatisfaction with academic advising remains widespread, higher tuition has not led to the hiring of more educators nor to markedly improved academic support for undergraduates, disproportionately affecting students from marginalized backgrounds.

The undergraduate population has grown by nearly 700 students since 2015, from 5,860 to 6,552. Class sizes are likely to increase even further: As

Dean of the College John Boyer told a group of students last fall, the College is aiming for a student body of 7,000. Despite this growth, the University has not adequately expanded infrastructure to support students.

This quarter, after the chemistry department consolidated two classes into one 303-student section, some Organic Chemistry students have to watch a live video stream of lectures from another room—even the famously large room in Kent Laboratory cannot seat so many undergrads.

Students who want to watch lec-

tures on a screen have the Internet at their disposal. An outrageously expensive degree should guarantee, at a minimum, direct engagement with instructors.

Livestreaming classes compromises students’ education by depriving them of the opportunity to ask questions and witness demonstrations firsthand (which is particularly important in the sciences). Moreover, it discourages students from attending class in the first place.

Less face time with faculty is especially detrimental to low-incontinued ON PG. 9

JESSICA XIA

the chicago maroon —OCTOBER 16, 2019

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Less face-time with faculty is especially detrimental to low income students. continued FROM PG. 8

come students. While most research revealing the benefits of small class sizes—especially for underprivileged students—addresses K–12 education, there is much reason to believe that the same applies to undergraduates, especially those at top schools.

Many students must already tackle the challenges of attending an institution made up predominantly of wealthy students.

Coupled with a high turnover rate in academic advising, students are unable to build strong relationships with those who may provide helpful guidance.

Support for low-income students is already limited on campus. The Metcalf summer internship stipend for Odyssey

Scholars has only now increased from $4,000 to $5,000— a raise that still does not match the cost of living in major cities where students intern. While increasing stipends and financial aid is a welcome start, the University must do more to improve student life in ways that go beyond building new dorms to house a growing population of students (who are newly required to live on campus for a second year, thus shelling out even more dollars to the University). The administration must ask itself: What actually happens once these students come to campus and pay more to do so? Are students’ support systems keeping up?

Problematically, soaring tuition helps maintain handsome

salaries for administrators.

President Robert Zimmer is one of the highest-paid university presidents in the country, taking home more than $2 million in the fiscal year 2017–18, the last year on record. If the University is going to continue charging distressingly high tuition rates, it must start to divert funding toward improved resources for students.

Given the tuition hike, it is also vital that the University offer more financial transparency, so students know where, exactly, their tuition dollars are going. Both current students and graduates of the University have repeatedly called on the institution to fully disclose its total operating costs and discretionary

expenses.

The #CareNotCops campaign on campus has repeatedly urged the University to #ReleaseTheBudget by disclosing the financial information of the University of Chicago Police Department, one of the nation’s largest private police forces, along with the University’s total operating budget. While a financially accountable UCPD is certainly a worthy goal, the need for transparency extends beyond just the police force.

Increasing financial transparency is critical, not only as the University’s normative responsibility, but also because we need to fully assess how students are supported.

This demand is also im-

perative because student loan debt continues to skyrocket in the U.S. Private, well-endowed colleges like UChicago have the ability to improve scholarship bundles and increase financial aid, and indeed they have. But what happens once students accept the opportunity to attend a school that costs $80,000 a year?

The Maroon Editorial Board believes that the UChicago community must be made aware of how this money is spent. But most importantly, low-income students should have access to more comprehensive advising, professional, and teaching support, improved mental health resources, and a supportive environment that makes a UChicago education fulfilling.

ARTS Midsommar Is Alright but Could Be Shorter

By Sasha Elenko Arts Reporter

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the movie.

From live-action remakes of classic animations to glorified dramatizations of the lives of legendary pop culture icons to new installments of series I wish I had forgotten when I graduated high school, the summer of 2019 seemed incapable of producing an original film. Such were my frustrations when I jaunted my way into the Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall for a 171-minute director’s cut screening of Ari Aster’s floral Scandinavian nightmare, Midsommar.

The flick did not disappoint.

In fact, beyond doing the seemingly impossible and creating a movie that does not recycle old narratives, characters, and ideas, Aster managed to startle many an

unassuming moviegoer with his highly imaginative depictions of death, sex, and other themes.

Some scenes that come to mind feature elderly folk jumping off cliffs, an inbred oracle wearing someone else’s face as he bludgeons a man to death, and a game of repeat-after-me between a girl engaged in sexual intercourse and a chorus of nude onlookers, including the girl’s mother. While Aster was not able to maintain quite this level of aesthetic absurdity for the whole three hours of the film, the rest of it is nothing to denigrate, as it sweeps the viewer on a pitch-perfect shrooms trip through a colorful pagan festival in the remote Swedish countryside.

However, once one digests the eye candy, it becomes evident that most of the titillating cinematography adds very little substance to the fairly straightforward plotline, raising the ques-

tion of whether it is even worth the two-and-a-half-hour wait for the story to pick up the pace.

The plot revolves primarily around Dani (Florence Pugh), a young woman who has just lost her entire family due to her sister’s murder-suicide. Still grieving, Dani accompanies Christian (Jack Reynor), her unavailable wet noodle of a boyfriend, and his annoying friends, Mark (Will Poulter), Josh (William Jackson Harper), and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren)—all grad students—to Pelle’s birthplace, a mysterious ancestral commune in Sweden called the Hårga. They arrive in time for Midsommar, a celebration of life, death, and nature both twisted and beautiful, which takes place once every 90 years.

As the premise suggests, the film is in part a folk-horror movie— young adults get sucked into a strange pagan ritual—and you know the rest. Mark and Josh, a

vape-addicted wannabe bro and a Ph.D.–obsessed culture vulture respectively, are so annoying that you can’t wait for the Hårga to kill them off.

In this sense, the first twothirds of the movie are somewhat boring and predictable. However, in portraying the American boys in such a negative light, Aster subversively softens us to the Hårga, who, while very into human sacrifice, also have an otherwise peaceful and harmonious way of life and are admirably mindful of their relationship to the natural world.

Dani, meanwhile, seems to be the only sensible person in the entire movie. On the one hand, she is mortified by the sacrificial customs of the Hårga, whereas Josh and Christian, both anthropologists, seem equal parts fascinated and bothered by them. On the other hand, she is also respectful of the community, in contrast to

Mark, who urinates on their ancestral tree, and Josh, who snaps pictures of their prophetic texts, despite being explicitly prohibited from doing so. Pelle, who grew up in the community, takes on the role of vapid prince of sunshine and rainbows, while also trying to flirt with Dani.

The movie takes on more of a fairytale feel as it reaches its climax, only two-and-a-half hours in, when Dani participates in and wins the maypole dance competition, making her the Hårga’s “May Queen,” and then walks right into Christian participating in a sex ritual with a Hårga girl, after having been drugged with pubic hair and menstrual blood.

At this point, a happy ending does not seem in the books for Dani.

But before long, Aster pulls the rug from beneath our feet in the most twisted way possible, revealing exactly why Midsommar is, ultimately, a horror movie.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 16, 2019

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Roll and Slash: Dicey Dungeons Puts a New Spin on Roguelikes

Dicey Dungeons. courtesy of terrycavanagh.itch.io

By ALEX ORESKES Arts Reporter

Since the release of Spelunky more than a decade ago, there’s been no shortage of roguelike games—turn-based, role-playing games involving dungeon-crawling through procedurally-generated levels—on the market. With greats like The Binding of Isaac and FTL: Faster than Light, we are experiencing something of a halcyon era of difficult, procedurally generated permadeath (meaning that a character’s death is permanent) games, more or less similar to the original Rogue. In a time when cookie-cutter roguelikes are a dime a dozen, fans of the genre need not fear that Terry Cavanagh’s Dicey Dungeons is anything but an interesting and inventive new entry.

Released on August 13, Dicey Dungeons is a dice-based roguelike where one plays as one of six contestants who have been turned into giant dice to compete for their heart’s desire on antagonist Lady Luck’s titular game show. Players may be familiar with the punishing difficulty of previous games developed by Cavanagh, such as VVVVVV and Super Hexagon. Although Dicey Dungeons is also quite difficult at times, Cavanagh appears to have

toned it down just a little bit. Additionally, Northern Irish musician Chipzel reprises her role as the composer from Super Hexagon. While this new game is very mechanically different from those titles, anyone who enjoyed their style, creativity, and challenge will find a lot to enjoy here as well.

The primary mechanic of interest in Dicey Dungeons is the central role of dice in its combat system. On their turn in combat, players roll a certain number of dice based on their level before using those dice to activate pieces of equipment. This equipment’s effects range from simply dealing the printed value on the dice to spending a die to render all enemy rolls of the same value useless. Some effects only work with even or odd dice, while others require a specific number to activate a powerful effect. And some equipment is used to support other pieces, such as a charm that requires a total roll of 10 but gives two sixes in return or a spatula that lets you flip a die to the opposite face.

While the amount of equipment gives players a lot of choices in how they approach the dungeons, the individual characters and their dice-rolling strategies provide the most variety. Each char-

acter plays through six “episodes” of Lady Luck’s game show completely unlike the others, and all bring a mechanically different and interesting way to arrange a narrative structure on a roguelike. For instance, while the Warrior focuses on rolling high numbers, the Thief focuses on rolling a large number of low-value dice. While both of these characters focus on finding a set of equipment that synergizes well, another character, the Inventor, cannot do that because she has to scrap a piece of equipment for a new ability at the end of every fight. It should be noted that these are the most normal characters offered in the game; the other three are left as a surprise to the reader.

Suffice it to say, the game’s dice-based system is complex, varied, and fun, but some of the stylistic touches also make Dicey Dungeons such a delight. Chipzel’s chiptune soundtrack is amazing, and the rocking battle tracks are great background music for long turns spent pondering one’s next move. The game show theme is fairly unusual for a roguelike, and the sounds, visuals, and writing sell the atmosphere. Some words should be spent to address just how good the character writing in this game is. All the contestants have their own introductory

cutscenes, and each one just oozes character. These cutscenes also give a wonderful stage for the game’s antagonist, Lady Luck, and her sidekick, the Jester. While all this is nice and well done, what is really special is that in any given run of Dicey Dungeons, the player will only encounter each enemy once at most because each enemy is a past contestant on the show, and is totally and captivatingly unique.

The plotline slowly unfolds across the game, with tidbits appearing every time the player beats an enemy or when an achievement is unlocked. These choices, along with a host of other smaller details, go a long way toward making the world of Dicey Dungeons lively and holistic.

Dicey Dungeons is a well-polished and innovative roguelike with a lot to offer.

For students of roguelike design or storytelling in video games, there’s certainly something to learn from this release, but anyone can enjoy the style and challenge of this game. It’s not easy: The mechanical systems can take a while to get a handle on, and some of the levels are brutally hard. However, after overcoming those challenges, players will find a game with buckets of character and some surprisingly intense strategy, despite all the dice rolls.

the chicago maroon — October 16, 2019

Monday, October 14 Israel Martínez Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Penthouse, 6 p.m., free Listen in on a conversation between curator Esteban King and artist Martínez around Martínez’s art practice, which employs sound, text, video, and public interventions as mediums for social and political critique.

Tuesday, October 15 Celebration of Oriental Institute at 100 Regenstein Library, Room 122A-B, 4:30 p.m., free The Oriental Institute and Special Collections Research Center are hosting a reception for the exhibition, “Discovery, Collection, Memory: The Oriental Institute at 100,” as well as a lecture about modern forgeries in cuneiform manuscript.

When Islam Is Not a Religion

Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, 6 p.m., free Drop by the Co-Op for a Q&A and book signing for When Islam Is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom, by Asma Uddin.

Wednesday, October 16 Tragic Magic: A History of Fatal Conjuring Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 7 p.m., free, RSVP recommended Magic’s celebrated “Renaissance Man,” Joshua Jay explores the dangerous history of magic with magicians, assistants, and spectators who have died during shows, delving into some of magic’s most compelling unsolved mysteries.

Thursday, October 17 The “Modern Child” and the Moving Image Cobb Hall, Room 307, 5 p.m., free How have the ways we understand children shaped moving-image aesthetics, theory, and culture? Join in for a lecture

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straddling history, media theory, and psychology that aims to answer this very question.

An Evening with Joshua Jay Logan Center for the Arts, Theater East, 7:30 p.m., $5 for students and staff, $10 for general admission It’s a magic show! Join master magician Jay for a night of sleight-ofhand and mind-reading and an original performance employing little more than a deck of cards and items borrowed from the audience. There will be an additional performance on Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, October 18 UChicago Presents: Julian Lage and Fred Hersch Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, 7:30 p.m., $30 with UCID Lage and Hersch, a young virtuoso and living jazz legend, respectively, will bring their improvisational duet featuring both

jazz standards and original selections to the Logan Center.

Saturday, October 19 Humanities Day Various on-campus locations, 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., free, registration required This annual October tradition hosts a variety of tours, performances, discussions, and lectures from the awardwinning faculty of the Division of the Humanities all around campus. Register at humanitiesday.uchicago.edu

The Empress: Margarita Teresa International House, Assembly Hall, 2 p.m. (pre-concert chat at 1:30 p.m.), $10 for students with UCID With an October 18 performance at the Newberry Library and an October 20 concert at Northwestern University, the Newberry Consort’s season opener is composed in honor of Empress Margarita Teresa of Spain (1651–73).

“No Professors, No Classes.”

Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies Students Push for Their Own Department

By Rory Nevins

Grey City Reporter “WHERE IN THE WORLD IS UCHICAGO’S RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES?” So ask the bold letters on the cover of the zine published by UChicago United’s Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) Working Group. The University of Chicago has dipped its feet into ethnic studies over the years, but the CRES Working Group insists that the relative-

ly new field remains undersupported.

Crucially, they say, it lacks an academic department.

It is all too easy to imagine that the list of university subjects descended from above fully formed and perfect, but the truth is that universities have always been a work in progress. A millennium ago, when universities, as we know them initially, coalesced from the cathedral schools and loose confederations of scholars that preceded them, their first curricula consisted largely of the study

of topics theology, Aristotle, and Galen. Over time, subjects like chemistry, economics, and linguistics joined the list. That expansion is not over, and the University of Chicago’s class catalog is no exception. New topics are joining the ranks, many of which the predominantly wealthy, white, and male scholars of the past could never imagine. If UChicago United’s Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) Working Group has its way, a university without robust scholarship in ethnic studies will be as much

a thing of the past as a university without economics or psychology.

Ethnic studies has been present at the University of Chicago for almost 30 years, but has not yet been institutionalized within its own department. The gradual growth of ethnic studies here, however, was only possible after its sudden and dramatic appearance at other schools.

Race and ethnic studies as an academic field was born from and into struggle.

Major demands for institutional support continued ON pg. 12

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“The biggest difference between a department and a program is that a department has hiring power.” continued from pg. 11

of ethnic studies scholarship emerged from the tumult of mid-20th-century America, drawing their energy from the civil rights movement. The earliest largescale push for ethnic studies was led by students, beginning when San Francisco State University’s Black Student Union (BSU) and Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) burst into the headlines in 1968.

After George Murray, an SFSU student and Black Panther, was suspended from his teaching position, the BSU and TWLF rapidly accelerated from smaller anti-racist and pro–ethnic studies organizing to devising a massive all-out strike.

While their efforts were not well received

by SFSU administrators, students at the nearby UC–Berkeley were inspired to follow suit, founding their own TWLF and organizing their own strike with their own demands for ethnic studies. Students kept up strikes on both campuses for months, despite fierce opposition from the administrations and hundreds of arrests. After more than four months at SFSU and nearly three at UC–Berkeley, the two schools eventually conceded in 1969 and established the first two ethnic studies departments.

Since the seminal strikes in California, higher education programs in race and ethnic studies have proliferated across the U.S., leaving in their wake a smaller number of ethnic studies classes taught in high schools. Such successes for the young field, however, have rarely come easily, and have been tempered by financial and political roadblocks. More recently, an unconstitutional 2010 bill passed in Arizona attempted to ban Mexican-American studies from being taught in high school classrooms, while even the original ethnic studies department at SFSU found itself with so little funding in 2016 that, in a dreary echo of the civil rights era protests, students were driven to organize a successful hunger strike.

Race and ethnic studies has had a less conspicuous history at the University of Chicago. With the TWLF strikes comfortably years and miles away, the process of adopting and developing ethnic studies here has moved with a slower and quieter gait. Even pinning down the path of that movement is a challenge—finding

the establishment date of the University of Chicago’s undergraduate program in African and African-American studies required the help of Nancy Spiegel, a University bibliographer. Spiegel delved into archived class catalogs for The Maroon and found that the African-American studies major first appeared in the 1991–92 academic year. In 2009, that program was absorbed into the then– newly founded comparative race and ethnic studies program, which promised a broader field of ethnic scholarship and a variety of specializations working together under one umbrella. Beyond undergraduate teaching, the University also hosts the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, an interdisciplinary research institute that bills itself as “a new type of research institute [...] that seeks to expand the study of race beyond the black-white paradigm while exploring social and identity cleavages within racialized communities.” The CSRPC, which was founded in 1996, administers the current comparative race and ethnic studies program.

The University of Chicago may thus far have a less dramatic history with ethnic studies, but that does not cleanly translate into a better relationship with the budding academic field. The move to replace the African-American studies program with comparative race and ethnic studies irked many students, and troubles with the new program have disappointed many more in the University of Chicago community. The University of Chicago did not respond to a request for comment. Within the last few years, some students and faculty have decided to act.

The CRES Working Group, a constituent group within UChicago United, forms the core of student activism on problems relating to race and ethnic studies at the University of Chicago. UChicago United itself is a young organization, having been active for no more than two years. The CRES Working Group, though present since UChicago United’s founding, has developed most of their programming within the last year. In this little time, members of the CRES Working Group have gathered grievances and developed a definite strategic goal: the establishment of a Department of Comparative Race and

Members of UChicago United’s CRES Working Group at a teach-in held in February. Avi Waldman

Ethnic Studies.

The first steps taken by the CRES Working Group were efforts to understand the experiences of their fellow ethnic studies students. To that end, they circulated surveys and hosted town halls. The picture that emerged was one of an under-resourced program that failed to live up to expectations. Liana Fu, a third-year CRES and creative writing double-major, and a member of the CRES Working Group, put the problem succinctly: “No professors, no classes.”

CRES lacks core classes, which are reliably taught every year. Students must instead make do largely with the one-off classes that flit in and out of the course catalog or cross-listed classes with dubious connection to their area of study.

“Most of it is taught with grad student labor,” added Fu. “It’s very unstable.”

The comparative race and ethnic studies program boasts five possible specializations—Africa Past and Present, African American Studies, Latina/o Studies, Asian American Studies, and Native American Studies—but the CRES Working Group contends that it is often very difficult to satisfactorily find the four classes in a single specialization that the major requires. Fu related that she had so few options for her Asian American Studies specialization that the class advisor had to improvise. “If you take any class that has the name race in it and you

wrote a paper that is somewhat related to Asian Americans, it would count as your specialization,” Fu said, paraphrasing her advisor.

Although students in all specializations have had difficulty, the CRES Working Group found that certain specializations were worse off than others.

“Native American Studies basically has nothing,” said third-year CRES major Lilly Le, another member of the CRES Working Group. “Asian American Studies doesn’t have enough classes.”

Without enough support, said Fu, students of ethnic studies aren’t being given the base of knowledge that the CRES program ostensibly advertises. The classes they find can teach them a lot, said Fu, but nothing guarantees that all CRES majors share the central skills of the discipline.

“People just don’t know how to talk about race comparatively,” she said. As it stands, the University is “conferring a degree that really shouldn’t be conferred this way.”

For the members of the CRES Working Group, all these problems point unavoidably toward a single solution: departmentalization. “According to our research,” said Le, “[an academic department] is a really important structure in order to get the appropriate funding.”

“The biggest difference between a department and a program is that a decontinued ON pg. 13

the chicago maroon — October 16, 2019

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“We envision that the appropriate support and funding of the discipline would actually result in better care and visibility and scholarship of students of color on campus.” continued from pg. 12

partment has hiring power,” Fu said.

“Currently the program has faculty affiliates, but no faculty that are just part of CRES. They have other obligations to other departments.” The CRES Working Group imagines that the power and funding of an academic department would be instrumental in resolving both sides of the “no professors, no classes” problem.

Comparing the condition at the University of Chicago with the scholarship produced by universities with established departments, Fu concluded that “we are very far behind as an institution without an ethnic studies department.”

The ideas of the CRES Working Group go beyond merely securing funding. Their plans for a prospective comparative race and ethnic studies department are thorough and particular. Both Fu and Le expressed concerns that if the University of Chicago is not careful, a new department could quickly lose track of what the CRES Working Group considers the mission of ethnic studies.

“We want a department that is community-focused [and] community-centered, especially as UChicago is located on the South Side of Chicago,” said Fu. “For example, like having an activist in residence, or classes open to the community.”

Le echoed that sentiment. “Our vision would be that the department would provide some of its resources to the broader community to address the ongoing contentious relationship between UChicago and the neighboring communities,” she said.

The CRES Working Group lays out their specific demands in their zine.

So far, CRES Working Group activities have focused mainly on raising awareness. Low awareness among students has been a significant obstacle for the CRES Working Group. Le noted that “the majority of students on campus don’t know that the [CRES] major exists.”

Ayling Zulema Dominguez, a Class of 2019 graduate who double-majored in global studies and comparative race and ethnic studies, characterized the situation as “a negative feedback loop where, because the College doesn’t invest in the major and a corresponding department

for it, not enough students show interest or are even informed about it in order to show interest, which allows the College to justify its continued lack of investment.” Dominguez was not a member of the CRES Working Group but expressed support for its policies and actions.

Beyond student-oriented organizing, members of the CRES Working Group have also reached out to faculty members at the CSRPC to coordinate efforts for improving the situation of ethnic studies at UChicago. Fu and Le both said that they appreciate the efforts of faculty members and feel that the CSRPC is aware of their concerns. The CRES Working Group, however, has its fair share of reservations about the status of faculty efforts.

In addition to citing delays, Le said that she sensed that “there is a lack of unity, they can’t agree on what they want the department to look like.”

Professor Salikoko Mufwene, the interim faculty director of the CSRPC, is primarily a linguist, though his research interests are interdisciplinary.

His experiences with the University of Chicago’s ethnic studies infrastructure corroborate the concerns of students. In fact, professor Mufwene, who said he had “reached retirement age and wanted just to invest more time into my research,” only found himself leading the CSRPC when it became clear that the University was at a loss for other suitable candidates.

Professor Mufwene recounts that he entered the position knowing little about the inner workings of either the CSRPC or the CRES program. As he gained more experience, he came to many of the same conclusions as the CRES Working Group.

“I share the frustrations of students about having a cogent program that is really aiming at producing people that are trained about race and ethnicity as academic subject matters,” he said.

What most occupied professor Mufwene’s analysis of the problem is the lack of a consistent and thorough curriculum for undergraduate students of ethnic studies. So far, he said, “not much attention had been given to what the core requirements of CRES should consist of.”

“We are confronted with a number of problems,” he said. “In the books, it said there have been 200 to 300 courses that

have been offered in CRES, but when you look at the list, many courses have been taught only once.”

Too many classes listed under CRES, said professor Mufwene, are experiments or the creations of specific faculty members. “When we are redesigning CRES, we have to make sure that the core courses are not particularly associated with individuals. There are requirements that must be taught on a regular basis and if somebody leaves then we should find somebody else to teach that course.”

When he spoke The Maroon, professor Mufwene said that he was working on the “third version of a proposal” for the future of CRES. “I think that the provost office is ready for proposals to be articulated clearly that can be considered from their point of view,” he said.

Professor Mufwene’s proposal, however, focuses more on restructuring the requirements of the CRES major and the associated classes, rather than on establishing a department. According to professor Mufwene’s outlook, students’ demands for a department may be premature: “We cannot really think about having a department,” he said, “without having a CRES program at the college level that is really up to what we promised students to receive as training.”

Moreover, professor Mufwene pointed to the “serious logistic problems” that face departmentalization, describing the obstacles as “part of the academic politics.” The questions of which academic division would adopt a new CRES department and of how such a new department would be funded stood out in his mind.

“Every approach has financial implications for the University,” said professor Mufwene, “and that is really beyond my control.”

Although his short-term strategy does not entirely align with the designs of the CRES Working Group, professor Mufwene shares their conviction about the necessity of furthering the program: “The bottom line is,” he concluded, “that the University needs a strong Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and the University needs a CRES major that the University can be proud of. We are not going to do this like amateurs.

We should do this like professionals, up

to the high standards of the University of Chicago.”

Paraphrasing a passage from “Ethnic Studies: Preparing for the Future,” by Otis L. Scott, Le said that “the formation of ethnic studies as a discipline was the most revolutionary moment in Western academia, period.”

It has been 50 years since students at San Francisco State and Berkeley dropped ethnic studies into the lap of an unwilling world of higher education.

It hasn’t been easy for the new field to approach the level of support that other academic topics receive, and there is certainly still work to be done. Even so, the students and faculty who are doing that work here on campus are determined to see their way through. “[Ethnic studies] has relevance to basically every quote unquote ‘traditional discipline’ that you can think of,” said Le when she was asked why ethnic studies is important. “It focuses so much on really looking at how knowledge is being produced, and in what ways have people of color been excluded from that process.

It places value on the knowledge and experiences and scholarship of people of color.” “[The CRES Working Group’s] broader vision,” she concluded, “has been that ethnic studies should be an integral part of the academic environment. We envision that the appropriate support and funding of the discipline would actually result in better care and visibility and scholarship of students of color on campus.”

Professor Mufwene, when asked the same question, responded in the spirit of the words above the phoenix: Crescat scientia, vita excolatur. “We are all engaged in advancing knowledge,” he said. “The University should be advancing knowledge about race and ethnicity—something that a lot of people outside the academia are affected by and are interested in. Universities are there to enlighten the population about things based on the scholarship of the academic body, professors and students included. It would be nice for the University of Chicago to be at the forefront of the advancement of knowledge about race and ethnicity.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 16, 2019

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Football Stymies Knox

By DANIEL ZEA Sports Reporter

The Maroons turned in a dominant homecoming performance this past Saturday with a convincing 37­– 6 victory over their Midwest Conference South (MWC–S) division rivals, the Knox College Prairie Fire. With overall attendance at Stagg Field totaling 1809, the Maroons played in front of an impressive and energetic crowd. Noting the positive environment, fourthyear quarterback Marco Cobian said, “There’s always a great atmosphere to Homecoming games because of the opportunity to play in front of all of the former teammates, alumni, and students who come out to support.”

UChicago entered the game as favorites, ranking higher than their opponent on both sides of the football. With strong play all around in their decisive victory against the Prairie Fire, that seems unlikely to change. UChicago now sits second in the MWC–S, trailing Illinois College by only one game after winning their last three.

Capitalizing on an impressive defensive performance, the Maroons maintained a consistent offensive attack through both halves on Saturday, totaling 410 offensive yards and scoring five touchdowns, while converting all six red zone opportunities. A strong ground game undoubtedly contributed to the Maroons offensive success, as the Maroons carried the ball for 182 yards and three rushing touchdowns. Scoring the first of these was third-year running back Vittorio Tricase, who made his season debut on Saturday after dealing with a lingering hamstring injury. After the game, Tricase expressed how glad he was to be back: “There was a lot of excitement built up and I was just happy to be back out there with the guys.” He attributed much of his success on the ground to UChicago’s offensive line, which he described as “dominating up front.” Cobian shared this sentiment, stating “I couldn’t be prouder of the way our offensive line played.”

Cobian managed two touchdowns, rushing for one and passing to fourthyear wideout Dante Nepa for the oth-

er. Nepa finished the game with 70 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The other points for the Maroons were earned through third-year Mike Martinson’s first-quarter touchdown and fourth-year kicker Daniel Ducic’s 23yard field goal.

Meanwhile, Knox College struggled to put points on the board thanks to a stifling Chicago defense, which hauled in three interceptions for the game and allowed a mere six points. Fueled by several standout performances—like that of third-year defensive tackle, Jackson Ross, who recorded a team-leading 12 tackles—the Maroons held the Prairie Fire to 228 yards on offense, of which only 61 came on the ground. Chicago also consistently stopped Knox’s offense on third down, allowing only three conversions in 13 attempts. Noting the excellent defensive performance, Tricase said, “The defense played outstanding as they have been all year.”

After Saturday’s solid victory, Cobian said, “Overall, we are very happy to be heading in the right direction and improving every week.” Tricase added, “This season has the potential to be a special one for us, but we have to keep putting in the work.” The Maroons will certainly look to do just that as they prepare to face Cornell College on the road this Saturday at 1 p.m.

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Bill Rotnicki (26) nabs an interception. courtesy of uchicago athletic department

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Ellie Alden. courtesy of uchicago athletic department CONTINUED FROM PG. 16

net. The Maroons found themselves tied 1–1 after falling in a tight second set, but coasted to a match win after uneventful third and fourth sets. The fourth set was a high mark in the Maroons attack, as they recorded 12 kills without a single error for a hitting percentage of 0.343, while the Bluejays struggled with a negative hitting percentage. The Maroons dominated the battle at the net with 12 blocks compared to the Jays’ two. Griffith recorded four block assists, in addition to 47 assists and 22 digs, and Alden led the team with five.

Stifter once again set a matchhigh with 18 kills, while Paulson added another 14. Finding themselves again the victors, the Maroons pushed their record to 18­–1.

Adekoya said, “I strongly think that this weekend was another example of our entire team being all in. Every single player on and off the court constantly kept the mentality of controlling our side and playing at our pace, a pace which we know other teams can’t keep up with. Even in tough situations, like falling in the second set to Elmhurst, we didn’t dwell on the past, but instead quite literally put the pedal to the metal in the next two sets.”

UChicago heads into a pivotal week riding high.

The team hasn’t lost a match since the first day of the season, a stretch which includes a thrilling victory over then– No. 1 Calvin, and it will look to capitalize on this momentum in some crucial, highly

ranked match-ups. First, the No. 4 Carthage Lady Reds will travel to the South Side to take on the Maroons in a Tuesday night game at 7 p.m. in Ratner Athletics Center. Then, the Chicago team will travel to Cleveland for the final slate of UAA conference play. A game against Rochester on Saturday serves as the precursor to the main event: a clash with the No. 1 Emory Eagles.

Adekoya promised, “Going forward to these next few matches, our main focus is taking each match one at a time.

We’re all excited to play Emory at the end of the week, but Carthage and Rochester are just as important to beat as Emory. It’ll for sure be a week of exciting play.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 16, 2019

16

SPORTS Maroons Race Up Rankings

By MIRANDA BURT Sports Reporter

The University of Chicago men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in in the Benedictine Invitational this past Friday, with both teams taking first place and defending their respective national rankings (Women No. 2, Men No. 11). The UChicagowomen won with 21 points, placing them 39 points ahead of second place North Central. The Maroon women took seven of the top 11 finishes in the race, led by third-year Sophie Elgamal with a 22:18.2. Elgamal not only helped defend her team’s ranking, but also defended her All-American honors she earned last year.

Just behind Elgamal was senior Claire Brockway, who also captured second place with a time of 22:24. Freshman Caitlin Jorgensen rounded out the top five with her season-best 23:02 finish. Junior Sophia Smith (6th, 23:08), Emma Dyer (8th, 23:30), Leela Sarakkai (10th, 23:35), and Katarina Birimac (11th, 23:42) rounded out the Maroon women who scored points.

On the men’s side, the Maroons scored 22 points, again beating out North Central (39 points). Senior captain Tim Koenning lead the way with a third place finish in the 8K, crossing the line at 26:29.5. The men took two more places in the top five, as sophomore Valentin Figueira (26:35) and junior Will Norton (26:40) followed closely behind. Rounding out the scorers for the men were senior Joe Previdi (7th, 26:53), and a trio of freshman Luke Collins (8th, 27:05), Olafur Oddsson Cricco (17th, 27:45), and Adam Sachs (27th, 28:02).

The entire cross country, men and women, celebrate after an early season meet. courtesy of uchicago athletic department Koenning spoke of his team’s success so far this season, and the big upcoming meets ahead. “As championship season nears, I’m really pleased with where our team is at. We took a big step forward last year, and I think that has given us some confidence this year that has allowed for us to match up well against some of the other top teams in the country. Our greatest strength right now is our depth, and that

will become even more important as the competition gets tougher in the coming weeks. With the depth of this team, we’ve seen meaningful contributions come from guys of all years, especially our first years.

I’m confident that with this group, we’ll be able to put together some pretty special races in the next few weeks.”

The Maroons will next compete in the UW—Oshkosh Invite at 10:30 a.m. central

time. This meet will be both teams’ last tune up race before a slew of meets with championship implications on the line.

Starting November 2nd, the Maroons will compete in the UAA championship, NCAA Midwest Regional, and then look forward to a very promising NCAA Division III national championship meet in Louisville on November 23rd.

With Historic Streak, Volleyball Nabs 17th Straight Win

By ALISON GILL Sports Editor

The UChicago women’s volleyball team continued their white-hot stretch over the weekend. The No. 3 Maroons dominated North Central and Elmhurst on Saturday to extend their winning streak to a program-record 17 straight.

To start the day, the Maroons faced the North Central Cardinals (5–13) and swept through the opponent with ease. In a total team effort, the team hit 0.250 and an astounding 0.519 in the first two sets, while holding the Cardinals to a negative hitting percentage.

Unsurprisingly, the Maroons walked away with set victories of 25­–12 and 25–10. In the decisive third set, North

Central rebounded to outhit the Maroons 0.324 to 0.265, but second-year Temilade Adekoya secured the match win with two straight kills to end the set, 25–20. Third-year setter Emma Griffith, who is second in the country in assists per set (11.41), tallied 33 assists and 16 digs, and fourth-year Anne Marie Stifter recorded nine kills and 11 digs. The Maroons had a solid defensive

effort with 10 blocks, led by Stifter, second-year Fredericka Paulson and firstyear Ellie Alden with two apiece, but the true decider of the match was the Maroons’ formidable, balanced offensive attack.

Next up, the Maroons defeated the Elmhurst Bluejays, dropping a single set and overwhelming the Jays at the CONTINUED ON PG. 15