TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 8, 2011
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
ISSUE 12 • VOLUME 123
New path sought for socially responsible investments Jesse Orr News Contributor Two students will meet with President Robert Zimmer and Nim Chinniah, the University’s Chief Financial Officer, on Wednesday to discuss two new proposals to create new ethical standards for the University’s investment decisions. One proposal recommends that the University send forms to its 200 investment managers asking them how they evaluate assets based on social, environmental, and governmental factors in addition to those of profitability. A second proposal would invest a small portion of the University’s endowment into a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), which would focus on traditionally under-served populations. “The investment would only need a very small portion of the endowment. By putting the money
into a CDFI, you can bring a lot of capital into surrounding communities but also avoid financial risks,” fourth-year Caitlin Kearney, one of two students meeting with Zimmer and Chinniah, said. The original proposal, which was overwhelmingly supported in a campus-wide referendum last spring, sought to establish a committee consisting of students, faculty, and administrators to oversee the University’s investments. The committee would have been responsible for determining ethical policies to guide the University’s financial decisions. Political motivations doomed that proposal when the University invoked the Kalven Report, a guiding document which commits the University to a policy of political neutrality. “The idea behind the proposal is to engage in socially responsible investing, but also to move away INVEST continued on page 2
Starstruck at Mandel Matt Johnson of Matt & Kim plays the synthesizer for MAB’s fall show in a sold-out Mandel Hall. See full coverage of the show on page five. ALEX GLECKMAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Law students help free wrongfully accused Linda Qiu Associate News Editor Twenty years after the rape and murder of a young Illinois teenager led to the convictions of five minors, evidence brought by the Law School’s Exoneration Project has established the innocence—and secured the release—of at least one. James Harden, of Dixmoor, IL, walked free last Thursday after wrongly spending 20 years in prison, his conviction vacated by strong DNA evidence indicating his innocence. Law students in the Project had been working on the case since 2008, after Harden’s father, who passed away while Harden was in prison, contacted them for help. “Cases like this teach us that wrong
convictions do happen in the U.S.,” Thompson said. “Mr. Harden’s conviction shows us that there are more flaws in the justice system than we notice or that we’d like to admit.” Harden’s case was one of the first undertaken by the Project, one of four Law School clinics that provide pro bono legal aid in a number of areas, according to Tara Thompson (J.D. ’03), a staff attorney at the clinic and a lecturer at the Law School. Students in the Exoneration Project directed much of their energy toward refuting the incorrect DNA analysis that wrongly established Harden’s guilt, said third-year law student Eileen Ho, who has been working on the case for a year. It was the testimony of two of Harden’s co-defendants that sealed his conviction,
From left to right, Mort Smith, Tara Thompson, Craig Cooley, James Harden, Eileen Ho, and Jenni James walk away from the courthouse after Harden’s exoneration.
Ho said, even though DNA evidence found at the murder scene did not match any of the defendants. “In 1995, DNA was just starting to get noticed. It was really the O.J. Simpson trial that brought DNA evidence to the attention of the American public. It was still pretty new,” Thompson said. Investigators found that semen in Matthews’ body did not match any of the five men convicted for her rape and murder, including Harden. However, the Illinois State Attorney’s Office reasoned that the semen could have belonged to Matthews’ boyfriend, and that the failure to match Harden did not necessarily exonerate him. Thompson said that law students played a major part in litigating, researching, and developing strategies in the case. The law students were able to trace the original semen sample to the Dixmoor Police Department’s evidence storage facilities, despite a year of police insistence that the sample had been lost. Students used the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a FBI database of criminal gene profiles, to match the DNA in the semen sample with Willie Randolph, a convicted rapist who was 33 at the time of the crime and had just served a 20-year sentence for robbery. Police apprehended Randolph in April. “The State fought us at first, using the same reasons as last time,” Ho said. “It’s amazing how long it takes. It doesn’t take much to make a mistake, but the process for correcting that mistake is torturous.” Harden’s release came as a surprise, according to Thompson, though it was LAW continued on page 2
COURTESY OF THE EXONERATION PROJECT
TUES
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THURS
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Temperatures in Fahrenheit - Courtesy of The Weather Channel
Fourth-year wins statewide technology competition Stephanie Xiao News Contributor While most of the University’s sports teams were left in the dumps this weekend, one student took the gold in a statewide competition. Fourth-year Louis Wasserman came in first place at the second annual Illinois Technology Association (ITA) Fall Challenge Contest held Friday downtown, after tackling a series of applied computer science tests. He came home with $5,000 for winning the contest. Wasserman was among a group of 125 finalists selected from 1,000 regional undergraduate and graduate students who initially took an ITA qualifying test to demonstrate their programming competency to advance to the final round of the contest. “I’m actually pretty surprised, since the contest wasn’t the sort of thing I typically focus on,” Wasserman said, despite his strong background in technology. Wasserman is an active member of the University’s student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and previously participated in the International Collegiate Programming Contest for which he is now an assistant coach. “Louis has always had an interest in programming contests, and when he heard about the ITA, he was naturally drawn to it,” said Borja Sotomayor, the academic advisor for ACM. Sotomayor was responsible for bringing the ITA to campus to administer the initial round of
Fourth-year Louis Wasserman won first prize at the Illinois Technology Association 2011 Fall Challenge. DARREN LEOW | THE CHICAGO MAROON
the Fall Challenge. The ITA targets promising Illinois science and technology students like Wasserman in order to connect them with opportunities offered by regional companies. “Many students migrate to the East and West Coast thinking that’s where tech opportunities are, but many people don’t know about tech businesses here like Groupon and Grubhub,” Sotomayor said. Wasserman said he still values the opportunity to meet and connect with numerous companies through the ITA. “It was very interesting, and I certainly enjoyed the chance to get to hear about how different companies approach software development,” Wasserman said.
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Reinke brings grave inspiration to to FSC
Maroon tame Bears with dominating wins in UAA opener » Page 8
Mandel gets stuck on indie dream team » Page 5
Season closes on Senior day with loss to Wash U» Page 8
» Page 5
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 8, 2011
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Logan Arts Center robbed during construction Morris Philipson, former U of C Press director, dies at 85 Alexandra Garfinkle News Contributor
Enough copper wire to nearly stretch across the Titanic was stolen from the construction site of the future Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, located just south of the Midway on South Drexel Avenue. The two rolls of wire, one 500-feet long and one 250-feet long, were likely taken between
October 30 and 31, though the crime was not reported until November 1, according to University of Chicago Police Department spokesperson Robert Mason. The stolen wire was most likely going to be used for electricity conduction. “It is a construction site, and you’ll see a lot of people working, coming and going, [both] contractors and subcontractors,” Mason said. “There is an ongo-
ing investigation.” Copper prices hit record highs earlier this year, and opportunists have pulled similar crimes in Chicago. Last month, police arrested two men who attempted to sell dozens of stolen copper planters to a recycling plant for as much as $44,500, the Chicago Tribune reported on October 31. No arrests have been made, and there are currently no
suspects in the crime, according to Mason. The Logan Arts Center has been under construction since 2010, and was designed by the firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The Center is set to open in the spring of 2012 and will include a performance venue and rehearsal space, among other arts facilities. Turner Construction is the general contractor for the project.
Exoneration project will help Harden pursue compensation LAW continued from front
the third conviction the state has vacated based on the project’s evidence. Harden and the project team were in court for the hearing last Thursday when the state announced it would drop the case. “I’m grateful that the state could acknowledge the mistake,” Thompson said. Though Harden has been released, his case is not yet over; the
project will begin to pursue Illinois’ maximum statutory compensation. State law rules that for wrongful sentences longer than 14 years, the maximum compensation is $199,150, adjusted for any increase in annual cost of living, plus legal fees. “Everyone has been congratulating us and we’re happy—but there is still so much more work to do,” Ho said. “When I first saw him sitting in prison, I spent the
next two days crying. He’s spent the years in prison when other people are figuring out their futures. He was released with nothing. He has very little now. He wants to get his GED now.” Two other defendants, Jonathan Barr and Robert Taylor, were released in cooperation with the Innocence Project and the Center on Wrongful Conviction of Youth, who respectively represent Barr and Taylor.
Since its inception in 2007, the Exoneration Project has resolved three cases, and has seven cases pending. “The clinic has taught the value of pro bono work. When [Harden] was released, the look on his face, how he was completely floored; he’s crying—you dream of that moment as a lawyer. That type of high is incredible. It’s been a wild educational experience,” Ho said.
MacArthur Foundation VP talks women in leadership
Julia Stasch, the Vice President of the MacArthur Foundation, speaks to students about leadership and the role of women in society on Monday night. JOHNNY HUNG | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Emma Broder News Contributor Julia Stasch, the Vice President of the MacArthur Foundation, encouraged young women not to have rigid career paths at a talk sponsored by the RSO Gender, Activism, Learning, and Service (GALS) last night. “The straight, purposeful,
goal-oriented career path? No. It was serendipitous and wonderful that I was not focused on a single identity to cloak myself in,” Stasch said, stressing the importance of remaining open to career opportunities. Stasch has had an unusual career path, from a tutor on a Native American reservation to Mayor Richard M. Daley’s chief
of staff, to her current position at the MacArthur Foundation. Stasch’s point about careerism resonated with second-year Blaire Byg, a board member of GALS. “She provides an interesting perspective specifically for U of C students because they tend to be goal-oriented and competitive,” she said. Stasch stressed the importance
of women being equal players with men in leadership. “I don’t think women should feel good about their accomplishments if it has to be at the expense of men. The world needs the work of everyone,” she said. Stasch also spoke about the importance of transparency and accountability in philanthropic organizations like the MacArthur Foundation, which awards approximately 500 grants a year worth $230 million—including the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “genius grant.” “To whom is a foundation accountable? Nobody, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable,” she said. “There’s a big push for transparency in philanthropy, so that when one foundation makes a mistake, others don’t have to do the same.” Furthermore, Stasch said that, in a global context, the hundreds of millions of dollars the Foundation awards are insignificant on their own. “When you throw that at the problems of society, though, that’s like nothing,” Stasch said. GALS, which changes discussion themes each quarter, hosted Stasch as part of its programming on women and leadership.
Faculty of color discuss mentorship Anthony Gokianluy News Contributor University faculty members answered questions and shared advice with students during a multiracial panel last night at 5710 South Woodlawn Avenue. The panel consisted of Raúl Coronado, an assistant professor in the Department of English; Damon Jones, an assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies; and Agnes LugoOrtiz, an associate professor in
Latin American Literature. “Many students of color were approaching us since they found it difficult to connect with the faculty,” Assistant Director for the Office of Multicultural Students Affairs (OMSA) Jean Chen said. “It would be nice if there would be some way to meet other professors of color to ask advice on their respective field.” Eduardo Cisneros, a first-year graduate student at the Harris School of Public Policy, asked how the faculty members interact
with students of color in graduate school and beyond. Lugo-Ortiz responded by saying that it was the responsibility of faculty of color to become role models for students of color. “[We need to have the] sensitivity to orient the student and help him or her figure out what he or she wants to do,” she said. “If students of color identify with you, you need to take on the responsibility for mentoring them appropriately.” Jones added that his goal is to
help all students of color who aspire to be in his field. “I try to mentor all types of students, but I sometimes find myself in the unique position to help students of color because of common experiences,” he said. The talk, a semi-annual event, was hosted by OMSA and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. For the students that attended, the panelists ended with the same sentiment in unison: “Do what you love.”
Morris Philipson died Thursday, November 3. COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Raghav Verma News Contributor Morris Philipson (A.B. ’49, A.M. ’52), whose tenure as the longest-serving director of the University of Chicago Press introduced American readers to the writings of Claude LéviStrauss and Jacques Derrida, died on Thursday. He was 85. When Philipson retired in 2000, he left behind 32 years as an influential figure in the publishing world, never afraid to take risks and transform standards in academic publishing. “Morris was in many ways a traditionalist, but he was also intellectually fearless and put his weight behind many cuttingedge projects, from Signs, the first academic journal dedicated to women’s studies, to the translation of Jacques Derrida and other Continental philosophers,” Alan Thomas, the humanities editor of the Press, said in an e-mail. Garrett Kiely, the current
director of the Press, said in an e-mail that the impact of Philipson’s work continues to shape the publishing house. “His vision of what it meant to be a publisher of scholarly works and his devotion to quality remain the standards that we strive to achieve in all areas of the Press,” Kiely said. The scholarly work that the Press published under Philipson’s leadership remains a standout of academia to this day. Under Philipson’s leadership, the Press introduced American readers to the philosophical works of Paul Ricoeur, LéviStrauss, and Thomas Bernhard, among others. Meanwhile, Philipson did not shy from provocative works, such as John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, which won the 1980 American Book Award. Philipson has won accolades from the PEN American Center, the Association of American Publishers, and even the French government. The French Ministry of Culture deemed him a Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1984 for his work promoting French thought and literature. “Morris Philipson’s legacy is the University of Chicago Press as it is today,” Kiely wrote. “We work every day to build on it.” Also an accomplished novelist, Philipson is the author of Bourgeois Anonymous, The Wallpaper Fox, A Man in Charge, Secret Understandings, and Somebody Else’s Life. Philipson is survived by his children Nicholas, Jenny, and Alex.
New proposals would not require University to take political stance INVEST continued from front
from the highly controversial discussions that were embedded in the previous proposals,” Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees and fourth-year Nakul Singh said. “The University wouldn’t be taking any political stance by asking these questions, and the [CDFI] policy would further the university’s mission because we’re disseminating knowledge and encouraging critical inquiry.” Kearney and Singh are already looking beyond their meeting with administration
members on Wednesday. They plan on hosting a teach-in, getting speakers from the national Responsible Endowment Coalition, recruiting more students, and partnering with RSOs that have aligned goals. “We caught the administration’s attention with the initial referendum. This is something students are interested in talking about,” Kearney said. “Most universities have been very responsive to things like transparency and community investment, and we’re hoping to engage everybody with these proposals.”
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VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & OP-ED NOVEMBER 8, 2011
Not enough on our plate The Phoenix Plan’s lack of viable meal exchange options undermines its success The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 ADAM JANOFSKY Editor-in-Chief CAMILLE VAN HORNE Managing Editor AMY MYERS Senior Editor JONATHAN LAI News Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE News Editor SAM LEVINE News Editor PETER IANAKIEV Viewpoints Editor SHARAN SHETTY Viewpoints Editor JORDAN LARSON Arts Editor HANNAH GOLD Arts Editor MAHMOUD BAHRANI Sports Editor JESSICA SHEFT-ASON Sports Editor DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Head Designer KEVIN WANG Web Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor GABE VALLEY Head Copy Editor LILY YE Head Copy Editor DARREN LEOW Photo Editor
Once again, food has become a point of contention on campus. Last Friday the maroon explored the most recent shortcomings (“Dining changes encounter obstacles”) in the University’s dining options. Response to the new Phoenix Meal Plan—instituted in response to complaints last year about the lack of variety in meal plans—has been underwhelming, with a mere 183 students deciding to participate. This is in contrast to the 2,609 students using the Unlimited Meal Plan. Of course, the Phoenix Plan isn’t open to first-years. Prohibiting half of the students living in housing from participating would hurt the success of any program, much less one already saddled with numerous problems. Though administrators were wise to introduce other meal plan options, more effort should be invested in making these plans compelling and satisfy-
ing to the student body. The Phoenix Plan’s appeal is supposed to lie in its flexibility: For the same price as the Unlimited Plan, you get 150 visits to dining halls, 150 Maroon Dollars, and 15 meal exchanges. When introduced by the Campus Dining Advisory Board and administrators, the hope was that this diverse array of choices would solve all the problems identified with the Unlimited Plan. But the Phoenix Plan just isn’t up to snuff. Its main problem revolves around meal exchanges. The concept is simple: In campus cafés and certain retail restaurants, students may use one of their meal exchange swipes for pre-determined packages. However, these meal packages just aren’t satisfying or filling. For example, a Hutch meal exchange adheres to a “one entrée and one side” system. Entrées include meager meals like a junior cheeseburger, hummus wrap, or yogurt
parfait. With these paltry options, there is virtually no incentive for a student to use a meal exchange: It won’t even fill her stomach. Options in the cafes are no more substantive, and they make dining hall portions look like a feast. An even more pressing problem is the dearth of attractive meal exchange locations. The available locations consist of Hutch and the non–student run cafés on campus. Hyde Park favorites like Z&H or Harold’s are nowhere to be found. Expanding the program to popular restaurants and non-affiliated cafes would increase the appeal of the Phoenix option. This being said, meal exchanges are worthless everywhere if staff members aren’t aware of the program. It’s not rare to request a meal exchange and receive a blank stare from the cashier in return. Training staff to know about these programs, especially in places like Hutch, is
critical in establishing them as a viable option for the student body. It’s understandable that a brand-new program is relatively unknown, but if administrators want it to catch on, educating staff about the system is a necessity. The recent success of Fourth Meal proves that the administration genuinely cares about student dining needs; they went through an extensive testing period to deliver a popular and satisfying addition to campus culture. But we’re hungry for more: The satisfaction and convenience of meal exchanges should be heavily considered when rethinking the Phoenix Plan. To do any less would be to deliver another half-baked option to the student body.
The Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Viewpoints Editors, and an additional Editorial Board member.
JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor REBECCA GUTERMAN Assoc. News Editor LINDA QIU Assoc. News Editor CRYSTAL TSOI Assoc. News Editor GIOVANNI WROBEL Assoc. News Editor COLIN BRADLEY Assoc. Viewpoints Editor
Don’t be afraid of the park Hyde Park’s horror stories are as extensive and historic as its coffee shops
EMILY WANG Assoc. Viewpoints Editor DANIEL LEWIS Assoc. Sports Editor TERENCE LEE Assoc. Photo Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager VIVIAN HUA Undergraduate Business Executive VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator HAYLEY LAMBERSON Ed. Board Member HYEONG-SUN CHO Designer SONIA DHAWAN Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER Designer SARAH LI Designer AUTUMN NI Designer
By David Kaner Viewpoints Columnist
AMITA PRABHU Designer BELLA WU Designer CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor
It was Halloween, and I was looking forward to hosting a friend of mine
from back home the next weekend. He’s thinking about coming here for college, so I knew it was my duty to show him what a great place Hyde Park is. And it is, in some ways: leafy, cozy, great architecture, and ample coffee shops. But exciting? Not so much. Or is it? In the spirit of All Hallows’ Eve, I decided to plan an alternative tour, one the admissions office probably won’t be jumping to offer any time soon. Instead of praising its beauty, charm, and academic glory, I wanted to focus on the dark side of our patch of Chicago. Along the way, I dug up tragedy, chills…
and maybe even a ghost or two. This alternate vision of the neighborhood starts on its southern boundary, the Midway. Now a greenway, it was once the heart of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The Exposition gave us the Ferris wheel, Cracker Jack, Shredded Wheat—and the University of Chicago’s first brush with a murderer. In the shadow of the then newlyconstructed Cobb Hall, H.H. Holmes, one of this country’s first modern serial killers, once lurked at the fair. He had a habit of inviting fairgoers, usually young HORRORS continued on page 4
AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN Copy Editor MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor ELIZABETH BYNUM Copy Editor DON HO Copy Editor JANE HUANG Copy Editor
Life of the vine The subtle strategies of wine tasting can be applied to our education
MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor KATIE MOCK Copy Editor LANE SMITH Copy Editor JEN XIA Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Copy Editor
By Chris Stavitsky Viewpoints Columnist 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. © 2011 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Douglas@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com
The classroom transformed itself into a banquet hall sometime between the hours of 2 and 3 p.m. The room, which greeted me and my classmates with 16 plates of cheese, empty wine glasses, and a smiling Frenchman, was nearly unrecognizable. I was so overwhelmed by all of this that I could remember the names of only two out of five cheeses (chèvre and Liverot) and none of the wines by the time the tasting was over. I’m not upset. A person’s first wine tasting isn’t meant to let him show off his (un)refined palate: It’s less about judging immediately and more about learning what sorts of criteria are commonly considered. For example, “wine tasting” is a bit of a misnomer; in addition to taste, the temperature, scent, and look of wine are
very important. Our host explained to us how to hold the glass up to the light, wedge its base between our thumbs and the lengths of our index fingers, and then swirl around the wine inside in order to let it breathe. As I swished and swirled, general facts about wine floated into my ears. Wine leaves a residue on the sides of the glass when the cup is moved in a circular motion; the more noticeable the ring of residue, the higher the alcohol content of the wine. Wine glasses are shaped in a certain way so as to allow the wine’s scent to carry directly to the nose. Heavier wines have deeper colors. Not all the lessons were verbal. As my classmates and I sipped through five different glasses of wine—some white, some red—we watched our host spit out every single drop he put into his mouth. He would swish the wine around inside his mouth, slightly more gently than he would a mouthwash, then take a giant bucket—or spittoon; I’m not sure what the proper terminology is— and spit the wine into the bucket. Despite the fact that wine is a drink, at no point did he actually drink it. Yet, somehow, he was getting more out of those swishes and spits than any of us were by drinking. Without ever actually swal-
lowing any wine, our host consumed qualities of the wine in a way that made his own experience much more meaningful than our own. Whenever you consume something, you aren’t really looking to consume the thing itself. You are trying to consume particular qualities of the thing. If you eat a bowl of chili during the winter, you aren’t just consuming a bowl of chili. You’re consuming the heat of the chili, as well as, maybe, memories of childhood, winter, sledding, and the pleasant contrast of cold weather and heat inside your mouth. You savor it; you don’t gulp. I maintain that the best reason to hold yourself to the twenty-chewsbefore-you-swallow rule is not to make sure your food is properly digested, but rather to confirm that you have actually tasted and appreciated it. Consuming the qualities of things rather than the things themselves isn’t limited to edibles. The same thing is possible with knowledge. When you listen to a lecture or read a book, why are you learning a particular thing? Is it because you have to? From a practical standpoint, it makes sense—as much as eating three pizza pies (in one sitting, without vomiting, no time constraint) WINE continued on page 4
Letter: Core Bio needs immediate reform Your recent editorial (“Useless to the Core”) is, unfortunately, probably the least controversial opinion ever expressed on this campus. The criticism of Core Bio, that it “sucks,” is old news to undergraduates, and sadly appears more like fact than opinion. To fuse some analogies, we are like deer following each other off the cliff in search of the oncoming headlights. Even though we know Core Bio will be even worse than our Hum writing seminars, we click “request” for the class without putting up much of a fight and alter our remaining schedules accordingly. Certainly there is no doubt that biology deserves a place in our busy Core education. We ought to know how we “grow from more to more,” and through what processes can “life be enriched.” In keeping with our motto, our traditional liberal arts education comes with a rich history of academic integrity, intellectual investigation, and serious, meaningful inquiry. As your editorial notes, Core Bio and many physical sciences classes are simply not currently upholding these educational values. As a course with widespread structural confusion, a misguided pedagogy, and a glaring identity crisis, the current iteration of Core Bio does not merit its place in our core curriculum. Furthermore, besides devaluing our time and energy as serious scholars, Core Bio discredits the discipline of biology, dulling its value and repelling potential biologists. These sentiments are hardly controversial among enrollees of the course. Up until now, however, this antagonism to Core Bio has remained just that: A simple and unproductive sentiment, expressed mostly passively and occasionally aggressively. To continue to reiterate these feelings though, as all of us “deer” have, will not result in the evolution of the course. Instead there must be productive action, spurred LETTER continued on page 4
THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 8, 2011
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Knowledge must be consumed like a fine wine WINE continued from page 3 for $1,000 does. Reading in order to cram every extra bit of useless knowledge into your brain— “useless” here denoting the kind of knowledge you aren’t interested in, but which you know will allow you to make more money in the future—is equivalent to shoving too much pizza down your throat for a mediocre payoff. At least try to get a taste of it while it’s on the way down. Naturally, at some, if not all, points during your college career, you will be forced to read things you aren’t interested in. These are the anchovies and the sauerkrauts of life. They are the acquired tastes that may never be acquired no matter how many times you’ve eaten them. Your mother could force-feed you nothing but sauerkraut until you were 26-years -old, and you still wouldn’t like the taste of it. Fortunately, you’re in college—why not find something that does appeal to you? One way to do this is by holding figurative wine tastings with your friends of different majors. Ask them to teach you the basics of something with no pressure to do anything but be there and listen. The parts you like will stick with you. Maybe you’ll never mention the subject again, or maybe you’ll find yourself so inspired that you’ll pick up the subject yourself, whether as a career or simply an interest. Our host’s career started with a wine tasting: Will yours?
Robie House ghost, Swift Hall shooting provide spooks within walking distance HORRORS continued from page 3 women from out of town, back to his hotel. None left. By the end of the Exposition, up to 200 people had been gassed, burned, doused in acid, or even dissected and sold to medical schools. But you don’t need to take the Green Line the few stops to the site of Holmes’ “murder castle,” to find a crime scene. Walk onto the Quad, enter Swift Hall, and go up to the third floor men’s bathroom. On a beautiful May day in 1991, Div School professor Ioan Culianu was shot execution-style in one of the stalls. One intriguing possibility raised was that the murder had something to do with his research into Gnosticism and the occult. More likely, someone from his native Romania didn’t like his criticism of its government, both pre- and post-Communism. Either way, this shocking crime remains unsolved. Just two blocks away, at East 58th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, the Robie House may be host to something truly otherworldly. Frank Lloyd Wright may have created a masterpiece of architecture that proved long-lasting, but many of its residents did not. The first owner’s father died in the house, leaving so much debt his son went broke within the year and had to sell. The second owner lasted an even shorter time, dying in terrible agony from kidney disease. The third owners must have been glad to buy a house so close to where their
daughter, a Maroon, was attending college—until, just a few years after she graduated, they found themselves hosting her wake in the living room. Museum guides at the Robie House have occasionally let slip that they’ve felt “presences.” They’ve also heard footsteps and slamming doors while alone. There are even hints of spectral images spooking visitors. There are no reports of any truly malicious acts by the spirits. But then again, perhaps the staff just doesn’t want to scare away the tourists. Anyone looking for more persistent rumors of haunting can head east, all the way to the Museum of Science and Industry. Pay careful attention to the back steps. Many claim to have seen a silent, dapper gentleman in 1930s dress there. He is thought to be Clarence Darrow, the famous “Attorney of the Damned,” who upon his death had his ashes scattered in the Jackson Park lagoon. Darrow is also the suspected cause of the strange fogs and orbs said to ruin photos of tourists at the museum. Two of Darrow’s most famous clients, of course, were Leopold and Loeb. Neither the first nor the last University of Chicago students to overestimate their own intelligence, the pair nearly achieved their goal of committing the perfect crime. They fell apart under police interrogation, but Darrow’s legal skills saved them from the electric chair. Both boys’ Hyde Park mansions were torn down years ago, but the home of their victim,
Bobby Franks, still stands at East Hyde Park Boulevard and Ellis Avenue. Deserted by Franks’s family and, chillingly, used as a preschool for many years, it remains abandoned to this day. End your tour at its sad, boarded up windows, and count yourself lucky that you haven’t been a victim of Hyde Park’s tortured, scary history. Yet. David Kaner is a second-year in the College majoring in Law, Letters, and Society.
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.
Chris Stavitsky is a third-year in the College studying abroad in Paris.
Student support critical to resolving problems with Core science LETTER continued from page 3 by an educated discourse, by students (and for students) in order to actually change the current stasis. I want to credit the maroon for publicly igniting this important discourse. Suggestions as to course re-structuring, area focusing, and great text approaches are invaluable first steps to changing the status quo. Still, more needs to be done; luckily, more students than just the maroon Editorial Board have strong views regarding Core Bio. Accordingly, as a matter of interest to a substantial proportion of the campus, there ought to be more than enough support to begin a real reform of this aspect of our education. Working groups, investigative and research committees, open forums, faculty consultation, lobbying of the administration, and reform proposals are all possible components of the path to a better biology requirement. Surely we can apply the valuable skills taught in the other Core classes to fix this problem. But unlike our other classes, this project will require more than our educated thinking—it will require educated action. To be sure, there are students who will disagree with me, and who have disagreed with their peers and the maroon on the status of Core Bio. Many will say that the class has ups and downs, certainly some flaws, but on the whole is “OK”. To these students, I would note that as students at this University, we expect far more than an “OK” education. We expect that our attendance, and our mammoth tuition costs, will be answered by more than mediocrity. A student should have the opportunity to be amazed and shaped by the brilliance of Darwin, and not just Marx. There is no reason to wallow in misery any longer: I have already had enough halfway through the quarter. If you would like to help change the future of Core Bio, of the curriculum, and of our campus and student body, then act on those intentions. To join the action, send an e-mail to chicagocorebio@gmail.com, and let us begin to make the appreciation of Core Bio just a bit more controversial. Stephen Lurie, Class of 2013
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ARTS
Trivial Pursuits NOVEMBER 8, 2011
Blue Scholars teach hip-hop a lesson
Mandel gets stuck on indie dream team
Jennifer Standish Arts Contributor
This past Saturday, as eager fans piled into Mandel Hall to see Matt & Kim, the snobby New Yorker in me got an intense reality check. In retrospect, I had been incredibly naïve. Having survived the vicious mosh pits of New York, I figured that a concert in the Reynolds Club, open to anyone with a UC ID, must be pretty tame in comparison, right? The battle wounds on my left shin beg to differ. The doors opened at 7 p.m. We arrived at 7:02, cursing ourselves for being on-time, and dreading the inevitable waiting in an empty auditorium until the fashionably late people came. The room was, in fact, almost empty, but not due to a lack of people; there were about 50 people who had somehow managed to squeeze themselves into Mandel Hall in the past two minutes, and had then, in a blatant disregard of the concept of personal space, piled into a mass of people, about two feet thick, in front of the stage. So it was 7:02, and we had 58 minutes to wait. Being true conformists, we also piled into this layer of people, and, within seconds, had no way out, seeing as a mass of people pushed in behind us. At approximately 7:04, I got uncomfortably well-acquainted with the tall, sweaty man in front of me. Since my head was about level with his shoulder, I got up-close and personal with his moist shirt and right elbow. It’s 7:05, and I’m already bored. Not to mention that the people collecting tickets had confiscated the $2.64worth of candy on which we had each splurged at Bart Mart in anticipation of the long wait. Finally, as the clock struck 8 p.m.,
The prolific and political group Blue Scholars brought a taste of Pacific Northwest hip-hop to Chicago last Saturday night. The multi-talented rap group provided longtime fans and newcomers alike with a high-quality, musical performance at Schubas Tavern in Belmont. Although the headline act, Blue Scholars, and Bambu, the second group to take the stage, gave an overall impressive performance, the first performer, rapper Grynch, based out of Seattle, was a little disheartening. His rap flow and the instrumentals were respectable, but it was often hard to understand what he was saying, which took away a great deal from his performance. Even the discernible lyrics lacked the depth characteristic of most underground hip-hop. Many of his songs, on topics such as smoking marijuana and his Volvo, were disappointing since they reinforced the stereotype that contemporary hip-hop is mainly about partying and getting women. This focus was exemplified by one of his latest songs, the one he chose to the leave the audience with, “All I Wanna Do,” in which the main message was “All I wanna do is sit in my room and party.” The following act was a completely different story and went beyond the more trivial message given in the first performance. Bambu, on tour with Blue Scholars this fall, focuses his music around social change and, as he puts it, “serious shit.” His lyrics were not only comprehensible, they were also powerful. His thought-provoking raps about subjects ranging from the degradation of women to social class divisions easily reached the audience through his strong voice and impressive rapid-fire lyrics. By far the most intense and effective song of his show, “Something,” addressed the issue of domestic violence and how it gets passed down from generation to generation. This song, with instrumentals that draw upon a mash-up of Adele’s song “Someone Like You” and a heavy, monotonous beat, was accompanied by a disturbing music video and successfully got the audience to feel the indignation he was trying to evoke through his lyrics. Near the end of his show, Bambu told his audience that “hip-hop is about revealing the messy” so that we can go and change it, and his music most certainly did that. Finally, two hours after the start of the show, Blue Scholars duo emcee Geologic (Geo) and DJ Sabzi finally took the stage, clearly ready for an energetic performance. Starting the set with their newest album’s title song “Cinemetropolis,” the group set an upbeat tone with a lot of dancing and movement, instantly absorbing the audience into their show. Later, the audience was literally able to be a part of the show when Geo invited everyone from Seattle onstage to dance and rap one of the numbers BLUE continued on page 6
Eliana Polimeni Arts Contributor
a man in a yellow Hawaiian shirt emerged from behind the curtain. Delusional from the exhaustion of standing, my immediate response was “That must be Matt!” But, then another three guys emerged from the opposite curtain. You would think that the fact that Matt & Kim is a two-person band, consisting of one man and one woman, would tip me off. But, no. Neither did the fact that Matt & Kim use only drums and keyboard, while the group before me was busily tuning their guitars. Then I suddenly remembered that I had seen one of the band members on the quad the previous morning— that’s because this was Squat the Condos, a band made up of U of C students. We swayed a bit to the music, and chuckled when they played the song “Burn Down Pierce.” But we kept checking our watches, waiting for the real reason for which we had paid five whole dollars to arrive. Things were still tame when Squat the Condos left the stage. But, suddenly, an enthusiastic Matt marched on stage, followed by Kim, sporting Converse and tattoos, who made her entrance by jumping on her drum set. As they stationed themselves at their instruments, Matt at his keyboard and Kim at her drum set, the duo from Brooklyn, New York, was greeted by ear-splitting shrieks from the sea of students. That was when the violence began. Mandel Hall was filled to its capacity of a thousand people. Most of them were packed into the approximately eight feet of space between the first row of seats and the stage. They were all dancing. You do the math. I’m not even sure it can be called dancing; it more closely resembled thrashing, like how those whales in movies jump out of the water and thrash in the air.
Kim Schifino of Matt & Kim waves through the daylight of Mandel Hall. DARREN LEOW | CHICAGO MAROON
During the first song, all of my energy went into standing. As the crowd thrashed, I found myself, at times, not even supporting my own weight. It became a mess of sweat and getting too close for comfort to that girl from math class to whom I had never talked before. I figured that, since there was no way out, anyway, I might as well channel my inner New Yorker and become one with the mosh pit. And mosh, I
did. Matt & Kim played songs like “Lessons Learned” and “Cameras,” among others, interrupting their songs only to jump on their instruments and dance. Just in case the crowd didn’t love them quite enough, Matt stopped to say that they had just played at Northwestern, and that they had been nowhere near as crazy as the crowd at the U of C. One fan was so CONCERT continued on page 6
Reinke brings grave inspiration to FSC
“Regarding the Pain of Susan Sontag (Notes on Camp),” 2006. COURTESY OF THE FILM STUDIES CENTER
Tiantian Zhang Arts Contributor This past Friday, Steve Reinke gave me a delirious and peculiar, yet engaging experience, which, in some ways, led to some self-realization. Reinke, a Canadian writer, painter, video artist, and recipient of the 2006 Bell Canada Video Award, presented his film My Rectum is Not a Grave, composed of 18 short pieces, at the Film Studies Center this past Friday. An incredibly prolific artist, Reinke has had his work collected in various museums and festivals around the world, including the New York Museum of Modern
Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Sundance Film Festival. To my surprise, Reinke started his introduction by modestly saying that there wasn’t much to say—he preferred that the audience watch the film first and let it speak for itself. Reinke’s film is eclectic and disjointed, covering a variety of topics without a cohesive subject. It’s a collection of unrelated ideas and all kinds of observations from daily life. The film jumps around quite a bit, from a man who uses ashtrays as musical instruments (“Squeezing Sorrows from an Ashtray”), to a short piece that is just a series of highly taboo images (“Black Heart”).
The genre of the pieces also vary greatly. The title piece “My Rectum is Not a Grave” is an abstract and angsty piece; “Everybody” is an animated piece that depicts a conversation among animals (an antelope, a jackal, a bat, etc). At first, I wondered what the aim was of showing a group of short films whose style and substance vary so greatly. Was there really any connection among them? But as the film went on, I realized that no matter how diverse the topics were, the films all seemed to focus on and raise questions about human instincts, desires, and our relationship to cinematic images. In “Request,” Reinke asked a few men to take off their clothes and go completely naked. In “Testimonials,” he asked several men and women to imagine and depict in detail what it would be like to have sex with him (none of them had actually slept with Reinke). These films invite us to appreciate the beauty of the human body and rethink the fundamentals of human life. In “My Rectum is Not a Grave,” Reinke uses Ivan Besse’s late 1930s black-and white footage shots in South Dakota, overlaying them with his own voice and interpretations, and further exploring issues of sin and inner turmoil. Noteworthy is his footage of a
football player, playing in a game, during which we hear this voice over: “I do not know what I am doing. I do not do what I want, but what I hate; that is what I do.... Nothing good lives in me, that is, lives in my flesh. It is my power to want the good, but not to do the good.” Reinke’s work is not focused on technology but rather on the fundamentals of human nature. It is as disconcerting as it is enjoyable to watch him assault our expectations with just a camera and his wicked sense of humor. What is especially remarkable is his voice, which is low, personal, spontaneous, and dispassionate, giving the film a dull, yet comical effect. The absurdity provoked waves of laughs from the audience just as often as it led to self-reflection. After presenting his film, Reinke concluded the event by describing it as a “compelling childish pleasure.” He mentioned in particular that he really loved how the University’s Film Studies Center combined all the pieces together into one. He explained that this resulted in the preservation of the work’s originality, which had often been compromised in the past due to the number of times the films were banned or not cut to Reinke’s satisfaction.
6
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 8, 2011
Matt & Kim bring student body closer CONCERT continued from page 5
thrilled, he asked Kim to have his children. The duo interacted with the crowd during most of the concert. At one point, Kim announced that she was going to walk on the crowd and dance on their hands. She was dropped. She congratulated Chicago on being the first city to ever drop her. Our excuse? We’re intellectually strong. At some point, the sweat, the aching feet, and the random guy behind me who couldn’t support the weight of his own hand and found my shoulder to be a convenient resting place for it, became irrelevant. I immersed myself in the blasting music, played with the balloons they had tossed into the crowd, and moshed.
Hard. They closed the show with their most famous song, “Daylight.” After they promised an encore, if anything to give us a shot at redemption for dropping Kim, they rather unceremoniously left the stage. As we emerged into the brisk night, drenched in sweat and feeling as though we had just suffered a beating, we couldn’t help but wish we could do it all over again. Even for those who weren’t die-hard Matt & Kim fans, it was a performance to be remembered, not only for the music, but for the theatrics as well. In response to Matt’s “We’ll be back if you’ll have us,” we most definitely will have you back. Next time, with some football padding.
Seattle-based rappers synthesize social issues BLUE continued from page 5
with them. This interactive experience was carried on throughout the show with Sabzi’s hilarious, understatedly-delivered anecdotes, including a nonchalant warning against doing “blow,” an attempt to start a “microphone stand” crowd surf, and multiple tangents about their clearly beloved city of Seattle. The audience was even treated to what we were told was the longest conversation on the Occupy Chicago movement and social class division ever to be included in one of their shows. Although Blue Scholars’ message is much less explicit, their performance remains true to Bambu’s definition of hip-hop as a way to raise awareness of “the messy,” which in the Blue Scholars’ case are the struggles of the Filipino island natives in the Pacific Northwest. Throughout the show, the group projected various short video clips, highlighting each song’s theme and enhancing its mood without taking away from the performance. Other simple visuals illuminated the songs’ subjects: a spot-
light sun during their song “Marion Sunshine” about weather in Seattle, and Geo pretending to shoot pictures with a camera during “Shoot the Cops,” a song addressing the need to make the police accountable for their actions. This, along with their unique synth sound and Geo’s impressive vocals, forced the audience to pay attention to the passionate, conscious content of Blue Scholars’ music. With an encore performance of “Blue School,” a track from their first album, Blue Scholars left their audience with a song that exemplifies their mindful ideology and energetic sound. After having the chance to personally congratulate Bambu on his performance and see other audience members mingle with Geo and Sabzi, I exited Schubas Tavern, remembering why I love underground hip-hop. Using passionate, meaningful lyrics, an energetic, addictive sound, and an audience-geared attitude, these performers connect the Northwest and Midwest through a love for what Geo simply calls “good rap music.”
CROSSWORD
with Jamie Mermelstein
DA MMIT, I’M MAD! Across 1 Indy 500 vehicle* 8 Bashful 11 Pro 14 Spring from 15 “The ___ of Pooh” 16 Kind of wit 17 “Rock’n’Roll” playwright 19 Roots application 20 Singular 21 Boxer “Happy” 22 “___’s dead, baby” 24 Celestial object 25 “_____ you so!” 27 Even out* 31 Whitewater boat* 33 Letter ender 35 “My own” in Latin 37 Tell a tale 38 Dark, in verse 41 Thus follower 43 Iditarod city 44 Femme fatale 46 Shipping letters 48 Parsons or R.I.S.D. 50 Police car feature* 54 Common Honda model* 55 Whacked 57 “Who ____ you?” 58 Arabian Nights character ___ Baba 60 Slugger Cabell 61 Fed. income supplement program 62 Tiny carpenter 65 They declare ownership 68 Flare signal letters 69 Charged particle 70 Continental, or United 71 It goes to 11 in This is Spinal Tap 72 Utah summer hrs. 73 Shoulder muscle* Down 1 Photographed again 2 Egyptian sun god 3 Stopped over 4 Star Trek extras 5 Feline 6 On_____ (spreeing) 7 Lithos, e.g. 8 Acela stop, abbr. 9 German mountain range 10 Mountain warbler 11 Calculate 12 Overreact to spilt milk
13 Peacock feather feature* 18 What the starred clues, and today’s date, are examples of 23 Wraparound porch veranda 26 Genetic inits. 28 Overrule 29 K—5, perhaps? 30 Dissolve, as cells 32 Blackout 34 Edit out of a picture 36 Court promise 38 Apple originally marketed to schools 39 Italian port 40 In prime time, perhaps 42 Modernists 45 Praise 47 Job for the mailroom 49 Type of palm leaf manuscript 51 Lil Wayne song “You ___” 52 Poisonous element: prefix 53 Mad About You costar Paul
56 Road ____ Hope-Crosby flick 59 Apple with tunes 62 Simile center* 63 Good eat 64 Baking measure 66 Niagara Falls prov. 67 Mao’s group
Tuesday 11/01/11
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 8, 2011
Win over Chicago gives Wash U share of UAA title with Case Western SOCCER continued from back
this loss and our previous wins,” Wiercinski said. Late into the first period, Wash U second-year Jeremy Kirkwood scored his fifth goal of the season, angling a tough shot into the net’s upper corner. Kirkwood had missed the team’s last two games with an injury before returning to face the Maroons. The score did not match the shots taken, however, with Chicago actually outshooting Wash U 7–5 in the first half. “We played good soccer, passed the ball well, and competed hard. They are a really good team and put away the chances we gave them. That is what it comes down to sometimes, they finished their chances and we did not,” Coville said. The Maroons struggled a bit in the final 45 minutes after their solid first half. “In the second half, we didn’t quite execute the plays the way we hoped. That made it less of a complete performance and made it difficult to come back after giving up the first goal,” Wiercinski said. The go-ahead score for the Bears came in the 72nd minute, when Wash U fourthyear Cody Costakis made a long-ball pass to first-year Pay Estakhri, who kicked Wash U’s insurance goal into the back of the net. Despite Chicago’s total shots on goal advantage of 16–12, Wash U controlled the game’s tempo with a 7–1 lead in corner kicks. The win against Chicago grants Washington a share of the UAA title with Case Western, a team that the Maroons defeated just a few games ago. There to lighten the loss for Chicago were family, friends, and fans in support of
the 2011 Maroon team. The fans on Saturday displayed exactly the sort of family environment that the UChicago program and the UAA conference pride themselves on. “It’s a great group that really contributes positively to the overall feel of the program and really helps us put the program and wins and losses in a little bit better perspective when, obviously, we’re upset. Getting to spend time with our family softens the blow a little bit,” Wiercinski said. The crowd was primarily there to support the fourth-years in their last game on Stagg Field and in Maroon uniforms. “We’re certainly going to miss them. They are a group of six guys that have contributed a ton over the past four years in terms of their work ethic, in terms of their leadership, in terms of their play on the field, and through their relationships off the field as well that they’ve had with their teammates and the coaches, including myself,” Wiercinski said. After a successful season, the 2011 fourthyears are not only leaving behind a winning legacy, but a foundation to build on. “I think, in a lot of ways, it was a very good season, in that we proved to ourselves and to a lot of other people that we’re competitive with everyone, but it’s not just good enough to be competitive,” Wiercinski said. Their four years of playing soccer with the program has had a mutually positive effect on the other players. “I have made friends for life and experienced things that I never could have otherwise; every one of these guys means more than can be put into words. I think we have truly left the program in a good place, and that is something we can all be proud of,” Coville said.
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After 3–0 start, fall season concludes with Phoenix Fall Invitational at Ratner ens said. “The team performed great, and really stepped up against a big rival.” Levens added, “3–0 is definitely expected at this point.” Now the Maroons look ahead to ending their fall season at the Phoenix Fall Invitational. As head coach Alex Weber said after the Maroons first dual meet of the season, the goal of the squads during this early season is to “keep training and competing hard and to work on things [they] did not do well.” “I think everyone, at this point, is pumped for the upcoming Phoenix Fall Invitational,” first-year Tiffany Ho said. “Everyone is ready for hard work to pay off.” The Maroons return to action November 18 in Chicago at the Phoenix Fall Invitational.
SWIMMING continued from back
year Marius Aleksa won both the 50- and 100-yard free. While the men had strong support from young blood, upperclassmen led the way for the women. Second-years Cathy Chen and Vivian Yuen took one and two wins respectively, third-years Tatum Stewart and Kathleen Taylor won their events, with fellow third-year Becky Schmidt winning both the one- and three-meter dives, and Levens recorded a win in the 100-yard backstroke. The first-years were also well represented, with Bizzy Millen winning the 100- and 200-yard freestyle and Jennifer Hill winning the 200-yard breaststroke. “We were very satisfied with these wins,” Lev-
NCAA tournament begins Friday in St. Louis for the national championship tournament. Given the UAA’s reputation as a tough conference, the Maroons would, almost certainly, garner one of the at-large bids. On Monday, they received the good news that they would face 21st–ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater, champions of the WIAC. The Maroons will almost certainly have to play to character to prevail, and their defense will be the robust core of such character. They will have to rely on the defense that topped conference leaders, Emory and Wash U, in digs and blocks. “We have stressed defense and blocking since the beginning of the year,” Walby said. “It is the philosophy that our staff and team lives by. I feel that are offense rolls off of our defense. We are a good offensive team, as well. We are just now playing tougher competition and it is going to be more difficult to find kills.” For the Maroons to keep their place in the sun, this defense will surely need to come out swinging in order to defeat Wisconsin-Whitewater. Chicago remains winless against nationally-ranked opponents this season, and if they can power through Wisconsin-Whitewater, they will, once again, encounter that behemoth that plugs the Gateway to the West, Wash U.
VOLLEYBALL continued from back
Brown leading with 31. The final score rested at 18–25, 21–25, 25–12, 25–15, 15–11, Chicago. “I knew that our match against Case was going to be tough,” Walby said. “We had beaten them earlier in the year in five games, so I knew they would want revenge. They came out and played that way, as well. Our girls had to elevate their game significantly to make a turnaround against this team.” “The Case game was a great win for us as a team,” second-year Morgan Clark said. “Not only did it earn us third place in the UAA, but it also showed us how to dig deep and play under pressure. We really grew together as a team, made our minds up, and accomplished what we needed to do.” The Maroons emerged from the bedlam with a hard-fought third place in the conference, a standing that, along with their national ranking, would surely propel them into the national tourney. “I have thought from the beginning of the season that we are definitely a top three team, so I am glad that we finished in the top three,” Walby said. Chicago had to wait two days for the NCAA selection committee to reveal the full bracket
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Before
SPORTS
IN QUOTES “I just came out that motherfucking press conference up there and all they fucking wanna talk about is golf and you know what I said? Motherfuck golf.” —Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington in a leaked clubhouse speech before Game 7 of the World Series.
Maroons tame Bears with dominating wins in UAA opener Swim and Dive Matthew Tyndale Sports Staff Traditionally, the term “team sports” conjures images of glory on the gridiron or in the diamond, but definitely not in the swimming pool. Don’t tell that to the Maroons. “We have grown to be a great team and can stand up to much greater competition than we could four years ago,” fourth-year Tara Levens said. “Across the board we had great swims. This was really a team effort, and we saw people step up in every event to score critical points.” The Maroons displayed a strong team effort, indeed, over the weekend as both squads defeated rival Wash U in dual meet competition, defending and expanding their flawless dual meet record to 3–0. The men overcame the Bears by just over 30 points with a 164–134 victory, while the women dominated the meet by 80 points, for a score of 187–107. For most Chicago students, and
for the sporting world at large, these scores communicate very little, because the team aspect of swim and dive is overshadowed by the individual perception of the sport. Swim and dive is scored by awarding points based off race finish, and the team with the highest score wins the meet. Thus, a team effort is critical to earn the win, for one strong swimmer alone cannot win a meet. The Maroons took control of this meet in powerful fashion, with the men taking first in nine of the 14 events and one relay, and with the women netting 11 of the 14 events and a relay. The men were led by strong performances by first-years, with Andrew Salomon and Andrew Angeles winning two events each, and with fellow first–year Matt Staab also marking a win in the 3-meter dive. Angeles continued his seasonal dominance, winning the 100-yard breaststroke by over two seconds and the 200-yard breaststroke by nearly five seconds. Third-years Bobby Morales and Charles Du also recorded one win each, and fourthSWIMMING continued on page 7
Fourth-year Robert Vanneste kicks off the 200-yard medley relay, which finished second this weekend. TERENCE LEE | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Season closes on Senior day with loss to Wash U Chicago takes third at UAAs, earns NCAA berth Volleyball Charles Fang Senior Sports Staff
Fourth-year Stanton Coville chases the ball at a game against Case earlier this season. SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Men’s Soccer Vicente Fernandez Senior Sports Staff Seasons don’t always have a fairy tale ending. They don’t always conclude with rings or a trophy or a white picket fence. Sometimes the biggest wins from a season aren’t in the final record, but in the players who achieved it. “The atmosphere around Senior Day was very emotional, and Wash U is always a big game. It had big implications for both teams, so it was crucial, which is exactly the atmosphere you want to play in on Senior Day,” fourth-year midfield-
er Stanton Coville said. Saturday was the conclusion to the Chicago’s (9–7–2, 2–5) season. They played their conference rival, 18th ranked Wash U (14– 3–1, 5–2), on Senior Day and they lost, but not everything. “I didn’t think Wash U, or really any team that we’ve lost to, for that matter, was better than we are. We just made mistakes that they didn’t and they were able to punish us for it,” head coach Scott Wiercinski said. “[The] big change going into next year will be to minimize those, and hopefully a year of maturity and a year of growth through those tough, difficult times will assure that next
year, those same mistakes won’t happen and will have a major impact on what the final record looks like at the end of 2012.” Saturday’s game ended with a score of 2–0 and with Wash U as the victor. The Bears ran into some trouble early against the Maroons, but finally pulled out a score in the 39th minute and went on to win the game. Despite the score, Chicago did play solid soccer. “I felt Wash U really played a good game. They had a decent game plan and executed pretty well. I think that was probably the biggest difference between SOCCER continued on page 7
In the throes of combat, it is often said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The words of George Santayana provide an adequate lens through which to view the UAA Championship over the weekend, and an appropriate adage to guide our narrative of volleyball. The 16th-ranked Maroons stepped to the battlegrounds of the conference championships with high hopes and can continue to hold their heads high after an animated performance that led to an at-large berth in the NCAA national championship later this week, their second in as many years. During the course of the UAA tournament, the Maroons found themselves revising history, since they encountered three opponents they had faced in regular season conference play. The Maroons cruised past Rochester in their first match of the tournament 25-17, 25-22, 25-20, much as they had done in a straight set win at the first UAA Round Robin a month ago. Third-year middle Caroline Brander led the charge with 11 kills and fourthyear stalwart Isis Smalls added eight more. Samantha Brown recorded 15 digs, a usual day’s work for the conference leader in this category. With a notch on their belt, Chicago hit a wall in the form of Wash U later that Friday. A fortnight ago, Chicago had failed to prevail over then–secondranked Wash U even after coming out strong and winning the first set. This time around, the “Harvard of the Midwest” came with a crimson fury that permitted little hope, slashing through Chicago in straight sets, 25–15,
25–20, 25–11. The Bears stifled the Maroons’ capable offense to the tune of only 25 kills total and a negative hit percentage in the third and final game of the match. Smalls led Chicago with nine kills but the Maroons’ defense was little able to contain the Washington onslaught. Washington would eventually go on to upset first-seeded Emory for the conference championship. “Washington University came out to play against us,” head coach Vanessa Walby said. “They were aggressive from the start. You could tell that they were on a mission to win this conference tournament.“ The next day, Chicago returned to the field of calamity on a soul-stirring note, with a dauntless, resurgent conquest of Case Western in the thirdplace game on Saturday to finish the tournament. Chicago had fallen into a stupor in its earlier encounter with Case before clawing back for a 3–2 victory. Therefore, the expectation this time around was a fiercely contended five-game match against a scrappy, defensive team that had looked up enviously at Chicago throughout the season. The match did not disappoint, as a strong Case squad put the Maroons on the brink by taking the first two games behind a string of accurate hitting and stout defense. But the Maroons recovered and played to the standard that they had set for themselves all season, a level of quality that was beyond the maximum Case could put forward. Chicago won the third and fourth games by margins of 10 or more. Amidst the carnage, Chicago amassed 62 kills, 62 set assists, 97 digs, and 13 total team blocks. Four players recorded double-digit kills, led by Colleen Belak with 16, while five players mined double-digit digs with superstar libero VOLLEYBALL continued on page 7