CHICAGO
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Voices, page 6
TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 38 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM
STUDENT LIFE
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
HYDE PARK
Free newspapers return despite funding setbacks
SG elections underway
Population shifts could spur fifth ward divide
Slate and liaison candidates debate budget, transparency
By Hans Glick Senior News Staff
By Linda Qiu News Staff
As The New York Times rolls out an online pay-to-read plan, U of C students can still get “All the News That’s Fit to Print” for free. After a quarter-long hiatus, Student Government (SG) is bringing free copies of The New York Times back to campus, but a $5,000 budget shortfall has limited the quantity of copies and the availability of other publications. A total of 400 copies of the newspaper will be available each weekday during spring quarter, down from the 600 copies offered during fall quarter’s four-week pilot program. The budget shortfall originated with the SG Finance Committee’s (SGFC) decision to allocate only $5,000 to the program, rather than the $10,000 the Committee had originally hoped to set aside, according to fourth-year SG President Greg Nance. “We thought that $5,000 was all that the SGFC could support,” said fourth-year SGFC Chair Marie Joh, who also noted that no other event or budget had received over $10,000 in funding. The remaining $5,000 was contributed by the Graduate Council
and others who joined with cheering and mockery. Continuing last year’s initiative, audience members were encouraged to submit written questions prior to the debate instead of directly addressing the candidates, which helped keep to schedule. Like last year, there was no candidate for the Graduate Liaison position.
Th e C h i c a g o C i t y C o u n c i l could redistrict its fifth ward this fall, following the release of 2010 Census data reflecting a population decline in several South Side neighborhoods. The current fifth ward boundaries include large parts of Hyde Park, running west from South Cottage Grove Avenue to Lake Michigan, and stretching as far north as East 53rd Street. According to Alderman Leslie Hairston, the fifth ward will most likely expand further north to include parts of Kenwood—currently Alderman Will Burns’ fourth ward—and possibly Alderman Robert Fioretti’s second ward, closer to the South Loop. Hairston said redistricting will not affect her leadership role. “I’ll continue to serve the people, whoever they may be,” Hairston said. Gentrification led to declines in the Lower West Side’s Hispanic population of about 25 percent and in Woodlawn’s black population of about 19 percent, according to the February 25 Chicago
DEBATE continued on page 2
FIFTH WARD continued on page 3
READERSHIP continued on page 2
Third-year David Akinin from the United Students Alliance party speaks to the audience at the Student Government slate debate Monday afternoon at the McCormick Tribune Lounge. DARREN LEOW/MAROON
By Gio Wrobel News Staff Students and administrators filled the McCormick Tribune Lounge last night, where the four parties running for Student Government (SG) executive slate and candidates for undergraduate liaison to the Board of Trustees and Community Government Liaison debated on a
DISCOURSE
wide array of student issues. The debate was the first event in preparation for the SG elections taking place from April 19-21. Campus and city transportation initiatives along with technology overhauls and budgetary issues dominated the discussion. The atmosphere of the debate remained lighthearted, despite interjections from rowdy fraternity brothers
DISCOURSE
Conference inspires Gates wannabes Vagina Monologues author talks gender By Jake Smith News Contributor Over 100 members of the University community poured into Kent Hall last Friday for the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, where messages of “Make it Happen!” and “Get Awesome!” replaced the usual chemical equations on the blackboards. The ins and outs of modern entrepreneurship were discussed during the four-hour conference, which included a series of presentations from successful young
businesspeople, a workshop for students’ ideas, and networking opportunities. According to the Tour’s coowner Arel Moodie, the group travels around the country to inspire students by presenting images of success to which they can relate. “Most of the time when entrepreneurship speakers come in, it’s the Bill Gates’, the Jeff Bezos’,” he said—individuals who are “very successful, but usually fifty, sixty years old.”
As part of an ongoing effort to collaborate with students from other Chicago universities, the U of C students will protest home foreclosures that they call unfair in front of Bank of America’s main downtown branch and then march to Senator Mark Kirk’s office. The organizations aim to address
On any other night at the International House, there might not be anything special about hearing stories from China, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Sunday, however, Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, returned to Chicago for the first time in four years, bringing with her female voices from around the globe. Ensler read from I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, her newest bestseller. While writing her new book, Ensler said she discovered that the same gender problems persist across international lines. “It seemed to me that the central dilemma was that girls were being taught to please somebody other than themselves,” she said. “Writing Emotional Creature has really been a profound experience, but putting it out to the world and spending time with teenage girls has been an even more amazing experience,” Ensler added. Ensler’s experiences and messages resonated with several members of the audience, including a 14-year-old girl who said she found her voice through
PROTEST continued on page 2
ENSLER continued on page 2
ENTREPRENEUR continued on page 3
PROTEST
U of C students join foreclosure protest By Lynda Lopez News Contributor Some U of C students are trying to break the bank today in a protest led by the Southside Solidarity Network (S S N), Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), and the Interstate Regional Organizing Network (IRON).
By Crystal Tsoj Senior News Staff
Female rights activist Eve Ensler reads from her newest book, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, at a talk at I-House on Sunday. JAMIE MANLEY/MAROON
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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 12, 2011
Moose Party proposes required taste testing by Aramark board member
Ensler, an author, playwright and activist, focuses on the commonalities between women across the globe ENSLER continued from front page
The Student Government Candidate Reception and Slate/Liaison Debate was held Monday afternoon at the McCormick Tribune Lounge. DARREN LEOW/MAROON
DEBATE continued from front page Second-year Angela Wang runs unopposed for Community Government Liaison, a position introduced last spring. Four executive slates, Uncommon Fun, LIVEChicago, UNITED Students Alliance, and the Moose Party pinpointed a few current problems with SG during the debate, including the scope, budget, and accountability of the current SG initiatives. Uncommon Fun specifically targeted SG excessive spending. “It’s our feeling that Student Government takes up far too much of the student life fee. I’ll give you an example from this campaign: Who ordered $300 for copying? Do we need 700 flyers?” third-year and presidential candidate of the Uncommon Fun slate Adam Hemmings said. Instead, UNITED Students Alliance proposed SG expansion to control the SG budget. The slate would add an SG treasurer to balance the budget over the course of the slate’s proposed technology overhaul. “This treasurer will take hold of a database that controls an excel spreadsheet of all the numbers of all the funds in one centralized system,” said third-year presidential candidate of the UNITED slate David Akinin. “There is no need for Student Government to meet for six hours anymore to try and figure out where the money is going.” Some popular issues such as campus housing and dining seemed to fall to the wayside, receiving only token attention by the Moose Party. “The CEO of Aramark is on the board of UChicago, and we’re willing to let him continue his contract if he eats at Bartlett for a year,”
third-year Moose Party candidate William Robert Dorsett said. First-year Xiafei Zhang, first-year Katie Burkhart, and third-year Nakul Singh are all vying for the position of undergraduate liaison to the Board of Trustees. Each candidate shared a desire to convey the needs of the student body to the Board, the major task of the liaison. Zhang criticized the inefficiency of SG’s current use of online polls, and a lack of publicity initiatives by University administration. “We are not as prestigious as other universities just because we don’t do a simple thing like publicizing,” he said. He pointed to a lack of University recognition as a problem for recent graduates in the job market. Singh praised the current work of the Socially Responsible Investment Committee, a coalition of RSOs seeking socially conscious investments by the University. Unlike Zhang, Singh argued that social media was essential in tapping into the student body on these issues. “More importantly, I think that we need to separate from the more traditional approaches, and I think we need to do more with social media. People don’t really like coming out to physical events. People like staying in their rooms and participating on Facebook,” Singh said. Despite the criticisms raised during the event, third-year College Council representative Sohrab Kohli remains confident in SG. “If I was to give any parting advice it would be to break up the work and make things less complicated. We need to actually zoom in on some of these projects, instead of having a broad platform.”
U of C protestors aim to expand social justice work beyond Hyde Park PROTEST continued from front page social issues that not only affect the South Side and University community, but also hurt struggling home-owners across the country. “We are speaking out against the sad state the Bank of America leaves foreclosed homes in,” said Olivia Woollam, secondyear and SSN member. The three organizations all co-sponsored an April 3rd social justice forum attended by U of C students, as well as students from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Columbia College, and the Lutheran School of Technology.
“Getting involved is important because it really does allow you to start thinking about what your role as students is in the city,” Woollam said. “It’s part of the bigger picture beyond Hyde Park. We are talented, intelligent students and we have the time and effort to make things happen,” she added. While the next city-wide social justice forum is not until the end of the quarter, Woollam said that there are other ways that interested students can get involved. “Something as small as going to one meeting or getting to know people in other parts of the city you wouldn’t normally meet is the right way to start,” Woollam said.
CORRECTIONS » The April 8 article, “Possible Fermilab finding may alter physics,” misrepresented the significance of physicists’ observations. There is less than a 0.07% chance that their observations would occur by chance, not that they are statistically significant. » The April 8 article, “Four slates vie for SG control,” misstated the number of slates campaigning and did not include the Uncommon Fun slate. The MAROON is committed to correcting mistakes for the record. If you suspect the MAROON has made an error, please alert the newspaper by e-mailing Editor@
ChicagoMaroon.com.
Ensler’s writings. “I thought I couldn’t be loved,” she said to Ensler, “but I read your book and I met amazing people this year, and you’re my hero because you’ve inspired me so much.” “No, you’re my hero,” Ensler replied. The feminist playwright spoke about V-Day, her foundation that is devoted to ending violence against women and girls worldwide. The international movement has spread to the U of C campus in recent years: U of C women will perform The Vagina Monologues April 30th. “I want to honor the University of Chicago. I know you’re new to V-Day and that you’ve only been doing V-Day for two to three years, but I hear that you’re doing an amazing job,” Ensler said. Ensler’s newest book approaches feminism from a global perspective, a common theme in the evening’s reading. Drawing from her experiences in places like Haiti, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and China, Ensler emphasized the way the message of V-Day transcends geopolitical lines. “I get to fly around the world and meet the most amazing women who’ve done the most extraordinary things,” Ensler said. “I can say that the women in Haiti are the fiercest, most generous, most alive people and are doing all kinds of extraordinary things there.” Ensler said she hopes her message will also reach men. “We all have a girl in us,” Ensler said. “I love the way V-Day works in that universities support local women and local women become partners and so that we’re all in this together, one world supporting each other.” The talk was part of I-House’s Global Voices Author Night Series and co-sponsored by International House Global Voices Program, Seminary Cooperative Bookstores Inc., and the UChicago Global Affairs Leadership Society.
SG searches for long-term funding for readership program, hoping to prove high student demand READERSHIP continued from front page ($1,000), the Harris School of Public Policy ($1,000), and the SG Cabinet ($3,000), according to second-year and Vice-President for Student Affairs Patrick Ip. These funds will cover 400 weekday subscriptions for 10 weeks under a reduced rate offered through the Times’ education program. SG is now seeking the support and funding necessary to sustain the program in the longterm. “We are approaching the administration for long-term funding now that we have demonstrated solid student demand for accessible newspapers,” Nance wrote in an email. In particular, SG is exploring the quarterly Student Life Fee that all students pay as a possible source of funding. Currently, the fee for students in the college is $301 per quarter. “We can make it sustainable for about a $6.80 increase per student,” Nance said in February. Student support for such a measure seems to be well-established. When an online petition in favor of raising next year’s Student Life Fee by seven dollars went online, 360 people signed in support within 10 hours. A separate SG survey conducted in the final week of the pilot program indicated that 70 percent of students would be willing to pay 10 dollars for the program to continue. Nearly 80 percent said they were willing to pay five dollars. Nance said that SG will use the petition to demonstrate student support for the program
when it approaches University administrators for additional funding. “We are using Spring Quarter to rally support for the project and demonstrate its enriching value to campus,” Nance said. He added that if SG can secure sufficient long-term funding, it will try to increase the number and variety of publications offered. In the pilot program, SG offered free copies of the Chicago Tribune and USA Today, in addition to The New York Times. This time around, however, SG elected to offer The New York Times exclusively due to the limited funding. The New York Times was the most popular of the three newspapers offered in the fall. SG reported in February that all 600 copies were taken daily. Students took 75 percent of the 300 copies each of USA Today and The Chicago Tribune that were available, and SG expects similar levels of consumption this quarter. SG hopes to expand the program by reintroducing USA Today at a three-to-one ratio, Nance said. (The papers are made available through the Collegiate Readership Program, a national print distribution program run by USA Today owner Gannett Company, Inc.) Students can grab papers from four sites located in the Regenstein Library, Reynolds Club, Harris School of Public Policy, and the South Campus Dining Hall. Nance said that the number of newsstands was whittled down from the six tested during the pilot period according to foot traffic.
M
NEWS
WANTS
YOU
All students interested in writing for the MAROON News section should come to our meeting at 3:00 p.m. Sunday in the basement of Ida Noyes Hall.
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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 12, 2011
The possible incorporation of Hyde Park into a larger ward raises concerns over losing a tradition of independence
Event organizer points to growing trend of U of C start-ups as evidence for a new entrepreneurial interest
Author of the book Your Starting Point for Student Success, Arel Moodie hosts the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour event at the University Friday afternoon at Kent Hall. DARREN LEOW/MAROON
ENTREPRENEUR continued from front page Moodie challenged attendees to examine the “paradigm you might have about what is possible for you, what is happening right now in this economy, and the steps you can take to move forward.” One of the Tour’s main messages was that a start-up business venture is “not something I can do someday, this is something I can do today,” Moodie said. Started in 2006 by New York University graduate students Sheena Lindahl and Michael Simmons, the Tour aims to show students that entrepreneurship is always a viable option, at any age. Third-year and head organizer for the event
FIFTH WARD continued from front page Tribune article, “Census shows changing neighborhoods.” However, while the Tribune article attributed the population shift to gentrification, both Hairston and Hyde Park Progress—a community blog with an anti-Hairston slant—argue that gentrification alone is not responsible for the redistricting. “There is no gentrification in the fifth ward. Nothing was torn down. People just leave. People move in and out of neighborhoods all the time,” Hairston said. While Hyde Park Progress blogger David Hoyt agrees that gentrification is not a direct cause of the ward’s population decline, he does acknowledge a correlation. “It may be easier for middle class and affluent whites to make it [in the fifth ward] than poor blacks which would be separate from a distinct relationship from one group kicking out another,” Hoyt said. Richard Gill, another contributor to Hyde Park Progress, said in an email that aldermen will likely attempt to manipulate the redistricting process in an effort to improve their reelection chances. “I believe the present redistricting process is going to be a real battle,” Gill wrote. “There will be winners and losers, and coalitions of aldermen united to get the ward boundaries in their collective favor.” However, according to Hairston’s publicist Carole Parks, the aldermen are not involved in the redistricting process. When the City Council finalizes the new districts the changes go into effect for the next aldermanic elections. Wi t h 4 6 , 2 6 3 c o n s t i t u e n t s , t h e f i f t h ward is now only larger than the third, ninth, 16th, and 17th wards in population, according to figures cited in the February 22 Chicago Business article, “Census finds huge changes in Chicago wards’ population.” The new boundaries will be drawn so that each of the affected wards consist of roughly 54,000 people.
Hoyt said he fears that, if Hyde Park is incorporated into a larger ward, it will be harder to take any kind of political action beyond the local community. “Chances are [redistricting] will make it harder than ever before for the neighb orhood’s tradition of ‘independent’ politics...to get translated into action on a city-wide level,” he wrote in a February 23 post titled “South Side Politics is About to Change Big Time.” Still, both Hairston and Hyde Park Progress writers acknowledge the possibility that redistricting could benefit Hyde Park in the long run. “Hyde Park will remain Hyde Park and racially diverse, but it will be a good change to introduce new constituents and expand,” Hairston said. Hoyt believes that Hyde Park’s location straddling the fourth and fifth wards have allowed politics to split the community. “You have two aldermen in two wards who have to deal with more or less the same community and it would be good if Hyde Park would be represented in a single ward,” Hoyt said. Hairston has held her position for 12 years and has witnessed one previous ward redistribution. She is skeptical that new boundaries will change the community’s political makeup. “New wards simply mean that Obama used to live in the fifth ward, but now his house is in the fourth when he’s not in Washington, D.C.,” Hairston said. Elizabeth Fama, a contributor to Hyde Park Progress, sees a “huge political implication” in the way redistribution will affect U of C’s relationships with the community, as well as Hyde Park’s representation in City Hall. “It could make the University too powerful, or not powerful enough, because the University [currently] has to spend its time courting two separate aldermen, and that has its disadvantages,” she said in an email. —Additional reporting by Vincent Yu
Ted Gonder encouraged Simmons to visit campus after noticing a crop of new start-ups and ventures by U of C students. “The campus is in the midst of becoming more entrepreneurial, it’s kind of a culture shift that’s going on,” Gonder said. To date, the Tour has held over 400 events and keynotes in 43 states. It is sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with additional contributions from the National Chamber Foundation and various corporate sponsors. The University of Chicago visit was part of a nine-school tour of Chicagoland area colleges funded by the Coleman Foundation.
PART II OF THE 2010-11 BRENNAN CENTER JORDE SYMPOSIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
THE RISE AND FALL OF JUDICIAL SELF-RESTRAINT JUDGE RICHARD A. POSNER
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Thursday, April 14, 2011 4:30 p.m. Weymouth Kirkland Courtroom University of Chicago Law School 1111 East 60th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637
RECEPTION FOLLOWING This symposium is free and open to the public. No response is required but seating is limited. For special assistance or needs, please contact Rebecca Klaff at 773.834.4326 or rklaff@law.uchicago.edu.
WITH COMMENTATORS LEE EPSTEIN, the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law
AZIZ HUQ, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIAL & OP-ED APRIL 12, 2011
EDITORIAL
CHICAGO MAROON
The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892
ADAM JANOFSKY, Editor-in-Chief CAMILLE VAN HORNE, Managing Editor AMY MYERS, News Editor CHRISTINA PILLSBURY, News Editor PETER IANAKIEV, Viewpoints Editor ALISON HOWARD, Viewpoints Editor JORDAN LARSON, Voices Editor MAHMOUD BAHRANI, Sports Editor JESSICA SHEFT-ASON, Sports Editor VICTORIA KRAFT, Head Copy Editor MONIKA LAGAARD, Head Copy Editor HOLLY LAWSON, Head Copy Editor DARREN LEOW, Photo Editor LLOYD LEE, Photo Editor IVY PEREZ, Head Designer ABRAHAM NEBEN, Web Editor KEVIN WANG, Web Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE, Assoc. News Editor JONATHAN LAI, Assoc. News Editor SHARAN SHETTY, Assoc. Viewpoints Editor ILIYA GUTIN, Assoc. Voices Editor CHARNA ALBERT, Assoc. Voices Editor VINCENT McGILL, Delivery Coordinator HAYLEY LAMBERSON, Ed. Board Member DOUGLAS EVERSON, Designer ANDREW GREEN, Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER, Designer ALYSSA MARTIN, Designer VINCENT YU, Designer SABINA BREMNER, Artist AMISHI BAJAJ, Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN, Copy Editor MERU BHANOT, Copy Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD, Copy Editor HUNTER BUCKWORTH, Copy Editor MARCELLO DELGADO, Copy Editor DANIELLE GLAZER, Copy Editor DON HO, Copy Editor JANE HUANG, Copy Editor ALISON HUNG, Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE, Copy Editor TARA NOOTEBOOM, Copy Editor JULIA PEI, Copy Editor LANE SMITH, Copy Editor ANNA AKERS-PECHT, Copy Editor ALEX WARBURTON, Copy Editor BELLA WU, Copy Editor LILY YE, Copy Editor The CHICAGO MAROON is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters. Circulation: 6,500 The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the MAROON.
©2011 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
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Easy to stomach Late-night dining is worth another shot, if issues with location and hours are addressed When the Campus Dining Advisory Board (C DAB) meets with administrators next week to discuss the modification of the late night dining program, one proposal on the table has the potential to cook up a storm. Having late night dining in the residential dining halls instead of Hutch Commons could go a long way to meet a longstanding student need for snacking after hours. Though unsuccessful attempts have been tested over the past year, we think this new idea deserves a chance. Admittedly, this plan could very well end up a failure. As the current late -night effort (which has failed to reach a quarter of its needed attendance) has shown, students won’t have an appetite if the location and menu are not right. However, the CDAB should
be commended and encouraged for its commitment to providing a service that has intense demand among the student body. The new idea to offer late night dining in the dining halls tackles the biggest problem with the current plan: its location. Hutch Commons may be nearby for dinner or lunch when students are on the quad, but save for a few fraternities and the Reg, it isn’t anywhere near where students are late at night. Offering late -night dining at the dining halls, which are adjacent to the biggest dorms on campus, would be a huge step towards solving this problem. Students returning home from a study session in Harper, for instance, would be much more likely to stop by the South Campus dining hall on their way back to their rooms.
Pierce students who want a midnight snack would be more likely to walk the few feet downstairs than hike out to Hutch. Another consideration for latenight dining is how late it should stay open. Presently, Midway Market and Bart Mart remain the only on-campus options left after midnight. While midnight may seem late to some, for many partygoers and night owls, it’s relatively early. It would be best for the University to consider keeping late night dining open until Bart Mart and Midway Market’s 3 a.m. closing time. Ta k i n g t h e s e f a c t o r s i n t o account, student input on menus and hours should be a prerequisite if C DAB implements late night dining hall programs. Such an effort could ensure the attendance needed to procure sus-
OP-ED
tained funding and avoid a repeat of Hutch’s lackluster turnout. No matter the results, though, it will still only be a small step to resolving Hyde Park’s underlying late night dining problem. For one, the ideas on the table would not address late night dining off campus, where stores close notoriously early. It also might not be a financial success. But the CDAB deserves credit for looking at ways to quench this student demand instead of quitting after unsuccessful initiatives. By trying out these ideas for late night dining near the dorms, they would be making a good bet on student satisfaction. The Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Viewpoints Editors, and an additional editorial board member.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Take a walk on the wild side
Hookups and life of the mind not Students should occasionally avoid public transport and just walk and the uneven earth, as the beasts sound of shuffling hooves blocked mutually exclusive By Chris Stavitsky Viewpoints Contributor I’ve always been a walker, the type who goes out of his way to enjoy a mosey down 55th Street, even (and especially) the occasional jaunt to the Point. I take the bus to save time when I have to, but I’m of the opinion that reliance on the bus system can make anyone the worst kind of traveler: a mule person. I’ve harbored a secret grudge against the mule people ever since I hiked the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago. I could hear them coming before I saw them; their thick throats brayed complaints about the heat, the loose saddles,
beneath them hung their heads in shameful silence. The sun glinted off the gold watches draped around their wrists and tinted Ray-Bans hung from the pockets of their Burberry button-downs. The mule people were the canyon bourgeoisie, there to remind me in voice and vision that the world belonged to them. I found their sense of entitlement baffling. I had been walking for four miles so far on a precariously sinuous path, with a gallon of water strapped to my back and a beaten pair of boots, the same reddish color as the surrounding rock, strapped to my feet. The
out the canyon’s ponderous silence more and more and more, until the noise grew so loud that I was finally forced to step off the path and make way. The mule people had arrived. I imagine they would have been on their cell phones talking shop had they not been so busy trying to keep their sneakers free of dust with frantic, off-balanced swipes. They tilted their straw cowboy hats at ridiculous angles as their blind eyes ignored the beautiful jags and juts of the canyon. I am still unsure whether any of them actually saw me, and when the last one had
One has to acknowledge that the current system is not sustainable. Federal spending obligations are capricious, as no state can predict what its Medicaid costs will be for its citizens each year. So, the government does waste money on these variable costs. And there are some advantages to block grants—less state incentive to increase spending and more predictable federal spending on health care. But what costs do these potential b enefits come w i t h ? Fo r o n e t h i n g , r e d u c e d Medicaid eligibility, as well as strained beneficiaries and states. The block grants essentially trans-
Last week, the Maroon published a letter from a U of C alum, Mark Meador, regarding the new website, UChicagoHookups (now known as eduHookups). Mr. Meador stated that it was “shameful and morally repugnant that such a site is being run by and for UChicago students,” and went on to lament the “debaucherous detritus” of a university that is losing its unique nature. However, what Mr. Meador was really criticizing was not the website itself, but sex—or, rather, the fact that it happens. Since UChicagoHookups, due to all of the publicity and media coverage, brought attention to this fact, it became the object of his criticism. However, since Mr. Meador attended the University of Chicago, I hope he understands that hookups, in particular, and sex, in general, happen on any college campus, including this one. The University of Chicago prides itself on having unique, intelligent students, but those students, too, attend parties, drink, and have sex. By criticizing UChicagoHookups, Mr. Meador is acting as if this website has suddenly made sex possible where it was previously impossible, but this is clearly absurd. This evidences a rather naïve, but widely shared, view towards sex. As a society, we have an immature attitude towards sex as an immoral act and a taboo on talking about it as a way of pretending it does not happen. Thus, when the fact that it does happen is thrust in our faces, we react in an immature way. And yet sex, like eating, drinking, and sleeping, is a perfectly ordinary human act. We
BUDGET continued on page 5
LETTER continued on page 5
WALKING continued on page 5
OP-ED
A deficit of compassion Republican reforms to Medicaid will hurt those most in need By Suchin Gururangan Viewpoints Contributor Under these difficult economic circumstances, the American people have seen proposal after proposal from politicians of all sides. Some of the proposed solutions have been good, but most have been terrible. Unfortunately, the recent Republican budget proposal, introduced by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, features a series of reforms to Medicaid that fall within the latter category. Under Ryan’s budget plan, the federal government will allot states a fixed annual block grant
of $11,000 per Medicaid beneficiary to use as they please. This is in contrast to the “pay-as-you-go” system under which Medicaid currently operates; the government guarantees that it will cover the costs of the states no matter how high they are. The key flaw in Ryan’s plan is that it underestimates future health care costs, which have the potential to fluctuate incredibly. With a standard federal allotment of money, the burden of health care costs would shift onto the b eneficiaries and states much more because the government would not guarantee that it would cover their expenses.
CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 12, 2011
Political considerations, not policy are motivating force behind budget proposal BUDGET continued from page 4 ly transfer all of the federal government’s baggage to the lower tiers of society, which solves nothing. Is the only way to reduce the deficit to limit access to health care for American citizens? Do we have to choose between our people’s health and a sound economy? An even more fundamental question: Why even go through with a plan that won’t b e passed? The Democrats will obviously not allow its authorization in the Senate. It seems like these audacious bills arrive on the table with the goal of merely making a political and ideological point rather than concretely fixing things. Because this bill will be presented as part of a larger Republican initiative to reduce the crippling debt, Obama’s image as being proactive on the budget will be further tarnished ahead of the 2 012 election. However, a strong possibility exists that this plan will lead to a backlash against the Republicans, as they have alienated the significant subset of the population that cherishes Medicaid. Either way, hostile politics are getting in the way of real progress, and superficial, impractical political gestures are replacing meaningful debate and reform.
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DAY IN THE LIFE
I am wholeheartedly convinced that further investments in research, education, and technology should be among the primary strategies for reducing the deficit. Leading the green energy industry, investing in advanced and efficient informational health systems, reinforcing our infrastructure and educational system, increasing our ability to survey and mitigate waste, and supporting students and entrepreneurs should be what our politicians strive for. Investments in new technologies and education not only make the system more efficient, but they also create the jobs needed to spur the economy. What ever happened to “Winning the Future?” It has been said so many times that it has almost become a cliché: Stop with the games. Now is the most crucial time for an innovative, courageous, and effective leader to rise up and combat these crises. President Obama must assume that role by going forward with the crucial investments in education and technology that he has called for many times but not yet followed through with. We cannot be preoccupied with inefficient solutions and expect to come out of this budget problem alive and well. Suchin Gururangan is a first-year in the College.
SABINA BREMNER/MAROON
Walking allows students to develop Criticism of eduHookups caused by an intimate familiarity with misunderstanding of role of their community sex in ordinary life WALKING continued from page 4
LETTER continued from page 4
passed, I raised a hand to shade my eyes from the sun, watching tails whip rhythmically back and forth until I could no longer hear even the faintest hoofbeats. You might be a mule person if O-Week was the last time you heard the haunting echo of Rockefeller bells. You’re probably a mule person if you can walk down 55th Street blindfolded with ease but you’re lost on 53rd east of Kimbark Plaza. You’re definitely a mule person if you’re willing to stand and wait for the bus for half an hour instead of taking a ten minute walk. I used to try to give bus riders the benefit of the doubt. I sometimes still imagine that they take the bus because they believe the roads to be made of lava (the free lava ferries that come around every quarter-hour prevent lethal burns), but I feel that this credits their creativity far too much. They’re just your standard mule people. You may have noticed that they’ll sneak onto the 171 for a Treasure Island trip even during a beautiful spring day when the ground is undeniably lava-free. Frequent walks lead to intimate familiarity with a broad area. If you take the same bus every day, you’ll know that route—but that route alone—extremely well. Walking is about exploration, about taking the path previously untraveled because a spire on a Kenwood Street house catches your eye. Walking is about alley shortcuts and sitting down in a trash-chair to try to imagine what it would look like in your apartment’s living room. It’s about finding the houses where the cutest dogs stand guard in the yard and finding the stores that give you a free drink with your UCID. It’s about learning what it’s like at midnight behind the boarded-up church on Blackstone and staying just long enough to hear the eerie creaks that reverberate inside. So what are you waiting for? There’s always a pair of lava-proof shoes sitting right next to you. Now pull them on and get to walking.
aren’t afraid to talk about stuffing our face or sleeping for 20 hours–why are we afraid to talk about screwing? Sex does not prevent us from being rational, thinking human beings. Some of the world’s greatest thinkers have led promiscuous lives, and some of the greatest works of literature are full of sexual content. Yet while we admire these thinkers and consider these classics to be high culture, we pretend that the “low,” explicit aspects of them do not exist. Everyone considers Shakespeare a master–yet how many students in their high school classes learned about all the sex jokes in the first act of Romeo and Juliet, in addition to discussing love, hate, and fate? Furthermore, if Mr. Meador is so concerned with the University of Chicago losing its status as a “unique” and “uncommon” institution, I doubt that the website endangers that status. UChicago appears to be one of the few universities with such a hookup site. In my experience, hookups often happen at parties, bars, or other social situations where the two parties may have been drinking or know little of each other. This website, however, offers a safer alternative in which two parties, both of them sober, work out what they want and give their consent. And if Mr. Meador is lamenting the downhill slide in quality, perhaps he would be interested to know that most of the people who are posting on the website are looking for someone who is intelligent and interesting, not someone who is “hot,” which he is free to interpret as a reaffirmation of the values of the University of Chicago’s students. This entire issue is the result of an immature attitude towards sex. While I think that sex is a serious act for people who mean something to each other, I recognize that it is something people are free to choose to do or not to do, for whatever reason, and that choice does not make them any more worthless in other aspects of their lives. Mr. Meador should understand that his judgmental attitude towards the website is based on his evaluation of sex, and that evaluation does not do justice to the individuals who commit the act.
Chris Stavitsky is a second-year majoring in economics and English.
Ana Klimchynskaya Class of 2013
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VOICES
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 12, 2011
MUSIC
Local rapper keeps Chicago fresh Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Twista, and a lot of others who have really made an impact on the industry. What we haven’t had is representation of the younger generation of Chicago rap. I want to stay on track to be that—representing Chicago as part of the younger generation.
By Will Sims Voices King of Chicago Nineteen-year-old rapper Rockie Fresh has taken the independent hip-hop community by storm since the release of his 2009 mixtape Rockie’s Modern Life, appearing on popular blogs like 2dopeboyz and Nahright, and even performing in last month’s South by Southwest festival. His latest mixtape, The Otherside, has a musically refined flow that has been compared to Drake and fellow Chicagoan Kanye West. He took a minute out of his busy touring schedule to talk to the Maroon about how a skinny, church-going kid is quickly becoming the face of a new generation of Chicago hip-hop.
Rockie Fresh, a local 19-year-old rapper, has become a new face of Chicago hip-hop only two years after the release of his debut mixtape, Rockie's Modern Life. COURTESY OF BIG HASSLE MEDIA
ROCKIE FRESH The Shrine Wednesday, April 20
C HICAGO MAROON: So you started rapping at sixteen. Now you’re 19, you’re playing sold-out shows, you’ve released two mixtapes, and you’re receiving a lot of critical acclaim. Walk me through these past three years. Rockie Fresh: 16 was when I first started playing around with rap, but I first started getting seri-
ous about it when I was 17. When I was 17 I had my first day of college, and realized that school may not have been for me, but I felt that if I chose to pursue music instead of school, my parents would have been disappointed. So I started work on my first project, Rockie’s Modern Life, while still attending school, and it ended up becoming very successful. I had a lot of shows, especially in 2010, and it became mandatory for me to choose between traveling or school. I decided to go with music, and it really had
a snowball effect—I released The Otherside last December, and it has 40,000 downloads online, and then I started getting a lot more shows on my own and opening for bigger artists, and that’s where I am now. CM: Now that you’re becoming successful as a musician, have your parents become more accepting of your choice? RF: Definitely. My parents have been much more supportive than I had expected when I first started rapping. I grew up in a Christian
household, and the things that I rap about—especially what I was rapping about when I first got started—[were] far out from what they know, or even what they know I know, but they have still supported me and everything I’ve been doing musically. CM: As an up-and-coming artist, how do you see your relationship with the music industry? R F: With me being so young and so new, I’m slowly but surely growing into the industry. I’m from Chicago, and we’ve had
C M : How has growing up in Chicago influenced the music that you make? RF: Well, for me, I grew up in the city of Chicago from grade school until the eighth grade. And being in the city really influenced my lifestyle. I moved to the suburbs when I was a freshman in high school, and that’s what really began to inspire my music. I was in a very diverse neighborhood with lots of different music, and rather than picking and choosing, I listened to everything, and I think that those influences all add to my sound. As far as how I carry myself as an artist, being from Chicago means that I have to go through a lot more to become relevant. In this city they have a number of blogs and it’s really a process getting credibility on them. The first record that I got posted on a blog is a song called “Rockie Fresh” off my first mixtape, and it took me six months to get it posted. Getting your song posted on a
ROCKIE continued on page 7
MOVIES
Hanna's female leads transcend genre By Tomi Obaro Voices Femme Fatale Saoirse Ronan has one of the most intriguing faces in cinema today. Pale and freckled with piercing blue eyes framed by long, white eyelashes, it’s sometimes disarmingly beautiful, bewitchingly alien, or both at once. Ronan’s distinctive face helped her become one of the youngest actresses ever to receive an Oscar nomination for her work in Atonement (2007), and made her a shoe in as Susie Salmon, the murdered protagonist of The Lovely Bones (2009). It’s also the only face that could ever play the titular role of Hanna with just the right amount of approachable oddity, for Hanna is a very odd child. Hanna lives with her father (brown-eyed hunk Eric Bana) in an arctic forest. She hunts caribou with a bow and arrow. She uses weapons like an expert marksman. She can speak at least five different languages and recite random facts, like the number of people living in Rabat, Morocco and the number of muscles you use when you kiss someone. This litany of skills is just one
reason that top intelligence agent Mariss a Wiegler (played with icy perfection by the impeccable Cate Blanchett) wants her captured.
HANNA Joe Wright AMC River East
Hanna is a fun movie. Joe Wr i g h t , m o s t w e l l - k n o w n f o r directing Atonement and Pride and Prejudice (2005), is fantastic at capturing the mood and ambiance of a film. Atonement and Pride were period dramas—slow in pace, lush in feel, with sweeping string scores and long shots of sunsets. Hanna, however, is an adrenaline-fueled action thriller and Wright proves he’s at ease in both genres. The techno music score throbs and pulses over crisply filmed action sequences. The sound editing crew in Hanna is impressive—a sharp knife blade digging into squelching flesh, the whir of a flying arrow, the rattle of a tea kettle—and they depict these noises expertly and are sure
to get an Oscar nomination. Though Wright’s jump from Jane Austen fare to this highly stylized thriller may be hard to connect at first, the stunning visuals made famous in his earlier films can also be seen in Hanna. Glorious long shots of a rock-filled desert and a closeup of Saorise Ronan’s face with specks of blood mingling among her pale brown freckles remind you that this was the same man who made Keira Knightley and a certain backless green dress forever memorialized in pop culture history. Hanna has some truly beautiful sequences and is a testament to Wright’s keen artistic eye. It’s in the plot, however, that Hanna falls short. While the concept is certainly fascinating and the film keeps you on the edge of your seat, the ending is unsatisfying. The revelation about Hanna’s past is cliché and predictable, and interesting secondary characters (such as the hilariously bohemian British family) are quickly discarded after their comedic relief has been expended. Additionally, little is done to explain or contextualize Wiegler’s cold-blood-
Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is an assassin who has spent her entire life training for a single mission. COURTESY OF FOCUS FEATURES
edness, and you’re left wondering why capturing Hanna matters so damn much, even after the great plot twist is revealed. But in a genre frequently rife only with trite, secondary roles for women, it was nice to finally see them kick some major butt. It was hard to decide what made the first fight sequence so impressive, its clever stunts or the ferocity of its leading lady. Hanna is also refreshing for its lack of
heterosexual male gaze; there are no gratuitous naked showers or slow motion shots of breasts jostling up and down in tight spacesuits. (Although the cameras are generous with the shots of Eric Bana’s abs, for which all the Bana-inclined are eternally grateful.) Hanna has little use for the unnecessarily lewd scenes so prevalent in action movies. It stays focused, like it should, on Saoirse’s fascinating face.
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CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | April 12, 2011
Rockie Fresh raps about more than just money and swag ROCKIE continued from page 6 blog is so beneficial. It proves your worth as an artist, and it helped me get put on other bills around the city. It really helps build character in artists, and helps them gain awareness of their surroundings and of other up-and-coming artists in the area. CM: What are you currently working on? RF: I’m currently working on my next mixtape. There’s no title or release date set so far, but I’ve got a couple records and I’m working on some more. I’m also working on The Otherside Redux, which should come out in mid-May. It’s got a bunch of remixes to The Otherside with some other artists—Lil B, and a couple other up-and-coming guys. CM: What is your creative process like? RF: Music is a 24/7 thing. It’s not something where I’ll designate time to sit down and write. I find inspiration in the world— wherever I am. I’ll always have my iPhone, and I’ll be in the car or something and I see a billboard that inspires me and I’ll start writing and by the end of the ride I have a full sixteen [one verse]. It’s a very natural process. CM: Has that always been the case for your rapping? RF: Absolutely. Originally, the way I discovered that I could rap was just through freestyling with my friends, and they started telling me, “Man, this is dope,” and that inspired me to push it further. At the same time it was still just me and my friends having fun with it, trying to keep it as natural as possible. CM: Now that you’re becoming more successful as a musician, is it difficult to main-
tain that natural, relevant focus? RF: I feel like...the rap game, for lack of a better term, now makes it easier for artists to stay true because you’ve got ways to do it yourself. I started this video series called Life on the Otherside. We’ve got two episodes right now, which basically just [show] my day-to-day life—recording in the studio, doing shows, and everything. By putting myself out there like that, people can appreciate what I’m doing and my fans can know how I really am, which makes it harder to not stay real. CM: What are you listening to right now? RF: A lot of older rap—Nas, some early Jay-Z, Biggie, Cam’ron. With me being young and also not really listening to a lot of hip-hop till high school, I missed out on a lot of really influential rap, and so I’m just listening and learning from them. CM: Can we expect more of a classic hiphop influence in your future work? RF: Not instrumentally, but they have a lot to offer lyrically. Back then, the substance in the lyrics was so much more meaningful than now. Rap is such a great platform to make a difference in a lot of situations. Listening to them inspires me to use music to send out a message.
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CM: What message are you trying to send? RF: I feel like as rappers, there is... a standard that is set that our listeners might not always appreciate. There’s a lot of rap about swag, or how much money you have, or how hard you stunt, which isn’t everyone’s day-to-day. I want to send a message that at the end of the day, whether you’ve got money or not, there are always certain issues that we can relate on, things we all go through.
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CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | April 12, 2011
Fill your metaphysical void at Nhu Lan's Bakery “It has been well said that a hungry man is more interested in four sandwiches than four freedoms.” – Henry Cabot Lodge We don’t have very much to say about freedoms, but we have a lot to say about sandwiches. Sandwiches are a lot like people. There are a whole bunch of different kinds of sandwiches. Some sandwiches
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are really big and some sandwiches are really little. Sandwiches are full of things that are interesting and tasty in their own right. Are sandwiches bigger than the sum of their parts? Physically, yes, they are. And what is there to a sandwich besides its physicality? We will answer this question with some different questions: Why would we ask this question? Why can’t we be content with the sandwich? Why can’t we just eat it and be happy? Why must we continue to analyze the sandwich into oblivion? The sandwich is not an idea, friends. It is not a war or a coronation or a
baby. There is no need to understand why it happens. The sandwich is inscrutable, like something of an obscure nature that you can’t look at too closely, or like something written in extremely small words. Sandwiches fill a metaphysical void in a man. They are dark and necessary and mysterious. Sometimes we think that soup works this way as well, but other times we’re not so sure. This column is supposed to make you want to eat sandwiches. Specifically, it is supposed to make you want to eat sandwiches from Nhu Lan’s Bakery, which is a very high-quality sandwich shop. Nhu Lan’s makes very complicated Vietnamese sandwiches, each distinct and tasty and filled with interesting flavors and highquality ingredients. The amount of different things in each sandwich is really rather ridiculous, and it is probably best that you go to their website and read about them there. Yes, you can ask for fermented basilseed-drink on your pork belly. That being said, most sandwiches include pâté. These are just the facts of the matter. We don’t know if we can be any more transparent than this. Their sandwiches are great. There’s not really anything else to say. You should go there, unless you
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don’t want to, in which case you shouldn’t. But really, what are you doing that’s so goddamn important that you couldn’t stop and hop on the Red Line or bother that friend you have with a car and go get a really great sandwich? Your homework can wait. You weren’t really going to do it right now anyway. Netflix Instant will be there when you get back. You don’t have to apply for that internship until Thursday at midnight. You have plenty of time, so why not pamper yourself? You’ve earned it, or, even better, why the hell should you have to earn it? It’s a sandwich, for Christ’s sweet sake, and you’re hungry. Get out of that goddamn chair and go get a sandwich. You won’t regret it, or if you do, it almost certainly won’t be the sandwiches’ fault. Why do you keep taking out your personal shit on the sandwiches? The sandwiches don’t know about your mayor’s ailment or about how you aren’t really sure of the situation between you and that cute girl with the really adorable smile who you met at a party last weekend, and they don’t care. They forgive you; they forgive you automatically. That is what sandwiches do. Sounds comforting, right? It is. We’ve had it with you. Either you go get
a sandwich or you don’t. It’s none of our business. We’re just writing this column. Monday mornings we have to sit down and write a column about food that we ate over the weekend and whether it was good or not. That’s it. We’ve done our part. We don’t need you. We don’t even know why we’re bothering to give you this great fucking advice. You might be a total dillweed. I mean, we were interested in that girl that you met at that party way before you were. Is it our fault that you have a great party presence? You’ve got ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is, and maybe we don’t. Maybe the only thing we have going for us right now is that we eat way, way better sandwiches than you. The experience we had eating sandwiches at Nhu Lan’s was spiritual, really. It was great. We just drove around with our friends and drank mangosteen juice and had a great time being young in the modern world. Are you really going to take that away from us? Who are you? Fine. We don’t care. Do whatever. Farewell, stay well, eat well. This week we will be respecting the request of SS, one of our dear readers, who thought it best that we “stop using that grid for [our] reviews.” So, for this week, we will. Next week the entire review will be a set of about 13 coordinate planes.
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CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | April 12, 2011
The Fun Corner. "The Case of the Missing Childhood"
Across 1 “August:___ County” 6 They in Thierry 9 ___ it like it’s hot 13 America’s Diner, apparently 15 Laptop sleeve material 17 Pooh’s pessimistic pal 18 Someone who solemnly swears they are up to no good 19 Naturalist detectives 21 Firm 22 Astringent in red wine 23 Keanu in The Matrix 24 She has a little lamb 25 Title for Paul McCartney 26 Wilde’s Grey 28 Epic hero 31 Bar Mitzvah boogie 32 Phonographic and photographic sleuth 35 “Stack ____ Blues,” (John Hurt Song) 37 Make a toast to 38 2 or 3, to 6 41 Chicagoland Park 42 Lon of Cambodia 45 Mitsubishi make 46 An ass’s jaw, to Samson
Solution to 4/8 puzzle
49 Dickens or Gulliver suffix 50 Vicious investigators? 53 Neon, for one 54 ___ It Kills Me 55 Jefferson Airplane asked you to remember what he said 56 Studio behind Star Trek 57 Third of the North Carolina state motto 58 Martha Stewart’s stock? 59 Wait stall Down 1 The Swan Princess 2 “___ they run” 3 Who can play Guitar, to Radiohead 4 World traveler in Amélie 5 Jaguarundi (anagram of YEAR) 6 Hero of Cold Mountain 7 Study 8 Avaricious 9 Wipe the floor with, so to speak 10 Common salad ingredient 11 Orbit time 12 Pee-Wee Herman, for one
14 Poetic form 16 “___ attention to that” 20 Sororities, to Fraternities, perhaps? 25 With Triple, a type of liquor 27 First Korean President 28 “Leaving on ____ plane” 29 Puzzlers’ favorite album 30 Wild West watering hole 32 Cipher crackers 33 Subtle 34 Swanky NYC steak house 35 Soccer penalty 36 La Raza 39 Words about “up” 40 It’s often cinnamon flavored 42 Aslan’s land 43 “The Iceman Cometh” playwright 44 Allowed lawful 47 “Stop being such ___” 48 90’s Toyota coupe 49 In other words, to Nero 51 46 across, in France 52 St. Laurent of fashion
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10
CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 12, 2011
Zhang: Our season is far from over TENNIS continued from back page Maroons impressive resumé and give them determination going into larger tournaments. “Winning the Midwest Invite only solidified our confidence for the UAA and NCAA tournaments. It is just one baby step closer to our ultimate goal of winning the national championship. Every point counts,” Li said. For the men, Sunday’s dual against North Central captured the best of Chicago tennis. Despite North Central’s 5–7 record, the Maroons were determined to not overlook the Cardinals and to continue to play their best tennis. “North Central could have been a potentially dangerous team, especially at the top of their lineup, so it was important to not let our big win from last weekend get the best of us and keep our focus as the season moves on,” first-year Krishna Ravella said. While first-year Zsolt Szabo did not play due to an injury, head coach Marty Perry decided to continue with the tactics he used
against Wash U in last week’s thrilling upset. In place of Szabo, second-year Harrison Abrams paired with Ravella at second doubles, while first-year Alex Golovin stayed with thirdyear Jan Stefanski at first doubles and thirdyear Troy Brinker stayed with first-year Neil Karandikar at second doubles. Once again, the strategy worked as all three doubles teams saw commanding victories. “Our doubles are exactly where we need them to be right now. After sweeping Wash U’s doubles, I strongly feel that we can now go into each doubles match with the best chance of winning at every position,” Brinker said. The Maroons continued their dominance at singles. In spite of a 6-2, 6-3 loss at first singles by fourth-year Will Zhang, the team had utmost confidence after the win. “I think we stayed composed this match even after our big win last week,” Zhang said. “We just need to continue to play tough as a team, because our season is far from over.”
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Bach’s masterpiece in the 1749 version arranged before his death in 1750, performed by Rockefeller Chapel Choir, Motet Choir, orchestra, and soloists Matthew Anderson, Christine Buras, Matthew Dean, Lon Ellenberger, Andrew Schultze and Mark Winston, directed by James Kallembach. Preconcert Lecture, Sunday April 17, 2 pm Musicologist Michael Marissen, author of Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach’s St. John Passion, will address the issues experienced by contemporary audiences with regard to the passion texts as set by Bach. This free lecture will be in Ida Noyes Hall (1212 E. 59th St.). Tickets for St. John Passion in advance are $32 front nave; $22 general; $8 students and are available in person during business hours or by calling 773.702.2100 or at the door ($35/$25/$10).
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CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 12, 2011
Maroons finally return home after 22 games on the road
Sizek, Ohman, Eaves score 24 of Chicago’s 77 overall points TRACK continued from back page
Second-year Glynis Fagan pitches to Illinois Wesleyan last Wednesday at Stagg Field. Chicago started its season with 22 games on the road. SHAHZAD AHSAN/MAROON
SOFTBALL continued from back page I knew in the second game that the defense was behind me ready to make the big plays in order to get us out of tough innings.” “We recognize, though, that it should not take a loss for that intensity to emerge, and we’re working on that,” Hobson said. “We defi nitely need to work on our small ball for games when all of our shots seem to go straight to the other players’ gloves.” “We are capable and will improve [our execution] moving forward,” Kmak said. “The team is focused moving forward and committed to finding a way to win the close
games.” With this doubleheader out of the way, the Maroons will be on the road only once more this season. “It will be nice to play at home following 22 games on the road!” Kmak said. “[Though] I don’t think the road games have worn on us psychologically.” The Maroons keeping their eyes set on a five-game homestand starting with Wheaton today. “I am looking forward to our upcoming slate of home games, beginning with Wheaton,” Kmak said. “Wheaton traditionally plays us tough, so our home opener looks to be a competitive matchup.”
the men’s team, with his victory in the 5000meter run. At the women’s meet, Constantine stood alone in the winner’s circle for Chicago. The fourth-year thrower placed first in the hammer throw, beating out the competition by less than half a meter with her 48.95 m throw. She also took fifth place in shot put. Despite their lack of first-place finishes, the women’s team enjoyed a trio of secondplace finishes that played an important role in their overall finish. Fourth-year Ashley Eaves finished second in the 400-meter hurdles, third-year Rachel Ohman in the 10000-meter run, and Sizek in the 5000-meter run. Eaves, Ohman, and Sizek combined to score 24 of Chicago’s 77 overall points at the meet. This year’s Chicagoland meet featured time standards to limit the number of competitors at the meet, but the Maroons were able to use the standards to their advantage. “I believe that the time standards were really an asset for our team,” Sizek said. “We were still able to enter many individuals in our races.” The Maroons will take their success at Chicagolands and look forward to the UAA Championships on April 22-23 at Emory. “The Chicagolands meet is big, but our most important event is the UAA meet, so we won’t be backing off of our training until next week in order to peak for Atlanta,” Andreycak said. The Maroons were expected to compete this Saturday at the Wheaton Twilight Meet. However, snowstorms in the extended forecast pushed the meet to Wednesday night, giving the Maroons precious little rest after competing Friday and Saturday nights. The earlier meet will also give the Maroons an extended rest prior to UAAs, which should work in their favor.
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Join us at one of the many events taking place throughout Chicago this spring including:
Neil Gaiman in conversation with Audrey Niffenegger Tuesday, April 12 at 6:00 p.m., Harold Washington Library Center
photo by Stephen Desantis
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Neil Gaiman Reading and Lecture Wednesday, April 13 at 6:00 p.m., University of Chicago, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. For details on additional One Book, One Chicago discussions and events, pick up a resource guide at your local library or bookstore, visit chipublib.org or call (312) 747-8191.
IN QUOTES
SPORTS
“I hope Manny’s in a better place. I heard he’s going to be traveling.”
—Rays outfielder Johhny Damon after learning that Manny Ramirez was retiring from baseball. Ramirez is retiring after being notified of a violation of the MLB’s drug policy.
TENNIS
SOFTBALL
Best in the Midwest
Maroons split doubleheader against Warhawks
By Alexander Sotiropoulos Sports Staff Men’s and women’s tennis could not be stopped this past weekend. The women were victorious against 27th-ranked UW-Whitewater, 17thranked Wash U, and sixth-ranked Denison to earn the title at the prestigious Midwest Invitational. After their victories, the men smoothly defeated North Central 8–1 on Sunday. The wins continue to increase the momentum of both teams going into the UAA Championships. For the women, Friday evening’s clash against U W-Whitewater proved to be the most difficult match en route to the title. Secondyear Linden Li and third-year Carmen VacaGuzman paired to play first doubles, a change from their normal second doubles spot. The pair, however, was not nervous about the match. “We knew all we had to do was play our aggressive game and everything would turn out fine,” Li said. By returning serves to their opponents’ feet, Li and VacaGuzman were able to pull away from a tight score of 5–4 to win 8–4. The trend continued at second doubles as third-years Aswani Krishnan and Jennifer Kung rattled their opponents off the court with a score of 8-3. In singles, wins by five of the six Maroons secured
By Charles Fang Sports Staff
think that the team responded well. We really had some great performances on both sides.” The men’s team boasted three national qualifying performances, two of which made their way into Chicago record books. Fourthyears Andrew Wells-Qu and Brian Andreycak set school records in the 800-meter run and the 110-meter hurdles, respectively, qualifying for nationals along the way. Fellow fourth-year Arthur Baptist also qualified for nationals with his time of 31:08 in the 10000-meter run. “The men’s team had an excellent meet on Saturday,” Andreycak said. “It’s no small feat to have three national qualifiers this early in the season.” “At this point in our training, we’re still putting a heavy burden on our bodies, especially with three days a week of weightlifting, so we don’t expect our best times yet,” Wells-Qu said. “When I run a school record, it just means that there’s more to come.” We l l s - Q u , A n d r e y c a k , a n d Baptist will join fourth-year Kristin Constantine as the four Maroons to have posted nationally qualifying performances thus far in the outdoor season. Second-year Isaac Dalke was the only other Maroon to finish first for
Chicago is coming home after that long road trip. On Sunday, they split a doubleheader with University of WisconsinWhitewater (19–5) in their penultimate regular season away game. “Whitewater is always a strong team,” coach Ruth Kmak said. “ Th e i r n u m b e r e i g h t r a n k i n g speaks to the talent they have.” However, the team felt that Whitewater was beatable. “I’m pretty disappointed with our split with Whitewater,” second-year Samantha Hobson said. “We definitely should have beat them; they were not a better team.” In the first game, All-American pitcher, senior Jessica Stang, threw a three-hit shutout for Wisconsin while Chicago’s second-year Kim Cygan allowed just two runs on three hits. The Maroons’ bats could not get much aluminum on the ball, striking out seven times in the process. However, Cygan kept them in the game, matching Stang virtually inning for inning and tallying six K’s of her own. Whitewater got an early run when fi rst-year centerfielder Amanda Ramirez got on with a single, promptly stole second, and was brought around on an RBI single by second-year catcher Emily Epifanio. Epifanio would later add a solo shot for insurance as Wisconsin closed out the 2-0 victory. “We regrouped in between the games and simply stated, ‘We will win this next game,’” Kmak said. “We committed to winning it.” The bats for the U of C certainly came alive in the second game of the doubleheader, with the Maroons collecting nine hits. Hobson, Sara Whaley, and Maddie McManus each contributed two RBIs, with Hobson’s and McManus’s coming via homers in a big four run fourth. This time the run support enabled second-year Melissa Collins to record the win after pitching a superb shutout with two punchouts and allowing just four hits. “I don’t think it was the difference in pitching in the second game, but rather our focus and intensity,” Hobson said. “After we lost the fi rst game, we came out harder and stronger than ever.” “Our execution was lacking in both the loss and the win,” Kmak said. “[But] we overcame our lack of execution in the win with some big hits from Sara Whaley and Sam Hobson, in addition to Maddie McManus’s first career home run. “Kim Cygan, who pitched the fi rst game, really did a great job shutting down the Whitewater hitters with help from our strong defensive play,” Collins said. “So
TRACK continued on page 11
SOFTBALL continued on page 11
Third-year Jennifer Kung teamed up with fellow third-year Aswani Krishnan to win their second doubles match by a score of 8-3. SHANE COUGHLAN/MAROON
the victory. Because of this, Chicago clinched a spot in Saturday morning’s semifinal against UAA foe Wash U. In spite of the minimal rest between matches, the South Siders
were not fatigued after their win against UW-Whitewater. “After the Friday match, we had a good afternoon rest and were completely prepared to take on the next
two matches,” Li said. Chicago streamed past Wash U 5-2 and clinched the title, beating Denison 5-1. The wins add to the
TENNIS continued on page 10
TRACK AND FIELD
Four qualify for NCAAs after solid Chicagoland outing
Fourth-year Brian Andreycak competes in the 110 meter hurdles during the Chicagoland Championship on Saturday. Three of the top six 110 hurdlers in the country are in the UAA. PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL SELLON
By Daniel Lewis Sports Staff Track and field featured impressive individual performances in a respectable showing at the Chicagoland Championships in Hyde Park over the weekend. The
men’s team finished third out of 20 teams on Saturday, while the women’s team finished fifth out of 21 teams Friday. Chicago did not finish in the top spot as they did last week at the Ted Haydon Invitational. The elevated competition led to a lower
finish, but also to more impressive results. “I think that the meet went significantly better than our first meet,” said second-year Julia Sizek, who placed second in the 5000-meter run for the women’s team. “The competition was much better, and I