111811 Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • NOVEMBER 18, 2011

ISSUE 15 • VOLUME 123

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

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Students, employees debate merits of Harper Court Hyatt Stephanie Xiao News Contributor

Court is now in session Donors, developers, and supporters break ground at the Harper Court development on 53rd Street Tuesday afternoon. The University-backed project aims to bolster Hyde Park commerce.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Republican leader slams Obama on home turf James DelVesco News Contributor The chairman of the Republican National Committee spoke about the role of government and criticized President Barack Obama just steps from the Law School where the president used to teach.

At Wednesday’s talk at the Harris School of Public Policy, Reince Prie-

bus alluded to Obama’s connection to the University in attacking the former senior lecturer.

“I’m working hard every day to get you your professor back,” Priebus said.

“The Republicans are working hard and taking care of the White House, and Chicago can have Professor Obama back here very quickly.”

Priebus also railed back against Obama’s claims that Republican policies

have hurt the economy.

“What have we tried to do for the economy? You wouldn’t know it from the Democrats’ talking points, but actually quite a lot. Twenty-two bills, in fact.

The House passed 22 individual bills that would promote job growth,” Priebus said. “The President ignores them.”

In a question-and-answer session after the talk, fourth-year Jonathan Rodrigues POLITICS continued on page 3

Hotel employees shared stories of unfair working conditions at Hyatt and Hilton hotels in Chicago at a “teach-in” with students Tuesday night, claiming that similar conditions will exist at the new Hyde Park Hyatt location if the employees are unable to unionize.

The excitement around the development on East 53rd Street often overshadows the project’s darker side, according to fourth-year Brita Hofwolt, a leader of the RSO Southside Solidarity Network (SSN), which organized the event.

“By bringing in the workers, we hope to expose more students to workers’ issues and let them see the face of this new development,” Hofwolt said.

The hotel employees described injuries they sustained on the job while working increasingly long hours under the constant fear of losing their jobs.

“Your body is breaking down, but they just say you should be glad to have a job,” said Jackie Smith, who has been a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency downtown for over 10 years.

The employees also objected that their wages remained low, even as their workloads grew. “[The hotel managers] don’t care if we’re hurt or not; they just care that the

rooms are clean. We are the ones who put the stars on the hotel. We deserve some of that money,” said Doris Price, a longtime employee at the Hilton Drake, which is located on the Magnificent Mile.

A particular point of contention was the possible use of public funds for the development. Currently, the Hyatt Corporation is requesting Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds from the city for the construction of the Hyde Park Hyatt.

However, the request for public funds creates a strategic opening, Hofwolt said. “The public has leverage, and the window for that is right now,” she said.

Price also urged students to action.

“Talk to your alderman. Sign a boycott. Let people know what’s going on,” Price said.

Attending students said that the workers’ claims put a human face on the development.

“I’ve never really been aware of the plight of the workers before,” secondyear Arielle Moseley said. “When I stay in a hotel with my family, I don’t really think about that.”

The 130-room Hyatt Place hotel is slated to open in 2013 at East 52nd Place and South Harper Avenue as part of the University’s redevelopment of Harper Court.

Free newspapers to return Students grill Zimmer on Harper Court, Rice talk to campus in January Patrick Fitz News Contributor

Amy Myers Senior Editor The Collegiate Readership program, which brought free copies of The New York Times and USA Today to campus last spring, will return in January.

The program will deliver about 250 to 300 copies of both papers to a select number of locations five days a week, SG President and fourth-year Youssef Kalad announced at an SG General Assembly meeting last night.

In the past, newspaper distribution locations have included the University’s graduate schools, like the Harris School of Public Policy and the Law School, but they will focus on serving an undergraduate population now.

When asked to fund a portion of the program this year, Kalad said, the graduate schools declined, even though the program was popular among graduate students.

“The grad schools really want the program, but no grad school is willing to foot the bill,” he said.

The funding for the program, which comes from the student activities fee, would cover winter and spring quarters. SG has had $18,000 set aside for the program since the beginning of the year, but held off from launching it, out of concern that it would run out of money before year’s end.

If SG pays for 300 or more copies daily, U of C students will also receive a 50 percent discount for online subscriptions to The New York Times.

Last October, a pilot program offered The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. With overwhelming support from students, the program continued through the year, though a limited allocation from the Student Government Finance Committee cut the number of copies down to 400 per day.

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President Robert Zimmer stood his ground against students’ calls for a Socially Responsible Investment Committee and asserted that the University had “no part” in postponing Monday’s talk with Condoleezza Rice at an open forum Wednesday evening.

Joined by Vice President of Campus Life Kim GoffCrews, Zimmer said that Rice made the decision to delay the talk with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson independently of the University.

“We had absolutely no part in her not attending.

We had zero interest in a postponement. This was a decision that she alone made,” Zimmer said.

Zimmer also defended the Kalven Report, a guiding document which lays out the University’s apolitical philosophy, explaining that

President Zimmer addresses questions from students at an open forum organized

by Student Government on Wednesday in McCormick Tribute Lounge.

VARSHA SUNDAR | THE CHICAGO MAROON

politically motivated investments and divestments could restrict discourse at the University to a specific set of beliefs.

“All students, all faculty, independent of what they do, are free to write what they want, believe what they want, [and] advocate what

they want,” Zimmer said.

Zimmer also touched on the University’s ongoing retail development at Harper Court in his opening remarks, expressing his hopes that Hyde Park will become a livelier commercial area.

“There should be more restaurants, more places to

IN ARTS

IN VIEWPOINTS

UT stages a rocky family reunion

Pardon the protest

Chemistry among RSOs at FOTA’s Art Lab

RSOverlooked

» Page 7

» Page 7

» Page 5 » Page 5

shop,” Zimmer said. “There should be an urban environment where people come together.”

Answering a student’s question on the University’s construction of office units at Harper Court, Zimmer alluded to a space shortage ZIMMER continued on page 4

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Priebus: Purpose of government is “fundamental question of 2012” POLITICS continued from front

Adidas, elitist?

On Wednesday, Jorge Saldaña, Lynda Lopez and Nyameche Quansah, members of Students Organizing United with Labour (SOUL) delivered a ‘giant report card’ to President Zimmer’s office regarding the University’s failure to hold Adidas responsible for neglecting to provide Indonesian workers with severance pay after a factory shut down.

VARSHA SUNDAR | THE CHICAGO MAROON

asked Priebus whether the GOP was considering changing its immigration policy. Priebus did not answer Rodrigues’s question directly.

“Listen, a fish rots at the head,” he said. “There’s someone in charge of this country that promised a whole heck of a lot four years ago, right? He did it in a bigger way, and it didn’t work out. Everything’s worse.”

In response, Melanie Roussell, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, accused Priebus of trying to sidestep criticism of ineffective Republican policies.

“If Priebus wants to change the conversation, he should call on Republican candidates to stop demonizing immigrant families and adopt sensible solutions for Hispanic communities,” Roussell said in

a statement.

Priebus called the purpose of government the “fundamental question of 2012,” and argued that government should play a limited role in the lives of Americans.

“As chairman of the Republican Party, that’s what I want Republicans to represent: a government that stands up for the American people, not one that stands in their way,” Priebus said. “Now, in my view, the other party sees things a bit differently. For them it seems to be more about guaranteeing equality of outcomes.”

Priebus was invited to speak as part of the Harris School’s “Presidency 2012: The Purposes of Government” lecture series. The series will bring presidential candidates and political strategists of all parties to discuss the role of government in the United States.

Students bring the noise to the South Side Patrick Fitz News Contributor The lack of arts education in the neighborhoods surrounding the University struck a chord with fourth-year Noah Moskowitz.

“There is a dearth of music education opportunities on the South Side,” he said.

Responding to that gap in opportunities, Moskowitz co-founded the South Side Free Music Program (SSFMP) a year and a half ago. The program partners 32 U of C students with over 60 local elementary and high school students

at three different locations: K.L.E.O Community Family Life Center near Washington Park, Sexton Elementary School in Woodlawn, and Goodspeed Hall on campus.

Unlike the case with many non-profits, funding is usually not an issue with the SSFMP, Moskowitz said. The organization only requires minimal funding since volunteers are unpaid and most of the instruments are already available.

When necessary, the program acquires funds on a quarterly basis and works with K.L.E.O, the Washington Park Consortium, and the University.

“The University is a global center of

wealth, and [is] literally across the street, people don’t have access to it. The program is a bridge of communication and contact. There’s an immense amount of talent out there,” Moskowitz said.

Moskowitz cited hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco, who began making beats on an old tape recorder he bought at a yard sale, as an example of the importance of early music education. With recent funding, the SSFMP is also in the process of launching a new audio production program aimed at older teens.

“Music is analytically intelligent yet deeply emotional and creative. It’s essential for development,” he said.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spoke at the Harris School on Wednesday morning to pinpoint the promises Obama failed to keep.

JOHNNY HUNG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 18, 2011

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Naked Economist tackles drug policy Derek Tsang News Contributor

Zimmer defers comment on Adidas contract, praises UCMC trauma center forum ZIMMER continued from front

Naked Economics author Charles Wheelan cleared some of the smoke around drug policy at a talk Tuesday night on the high costs of the War on Drugs and the seeming contradictions in American drug law.

The fight to keep illegal drugs off American streets is an issue that has stalled in spite of wide ideological agreement, according to Wheelan, a senior lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy.

“Economists all agree how we should act, but we make no progress on [the policy],” he said.

Discussing the supply and demand of illegal drugs, Wheelan emphasized how the demand for drugs is “incredibly resilient.”

Drawing a line between the current federal policy of drug crackdowns and the “War on Drugs” of the 1990s, he described the “human cost” of American drug policy and the United States’ “historically high” incarceration rates.

Wheelan highlighted marijuana’s status as a Schedule One drug, the highest classification of illegal drug, as an apparent contradiction in the law.

“To be Schedule One, a drug has to have no medical uses…and, yet, we see states passing medical marijuana laws,” he said.

“This position is untenable.”

Many issues of corporate law, regulation, and legalization that relate closely to the drug trade remain largely unexplored, Wheelan added, such as the possibility of companies legally manufacturing psychoactive drugs.

“We’ve spent decades reigning in advertising to where it is now,” he said. “What happens if [General Motors] literally can advertise crack?”

on campus.

“Due to an increasing demand for space on campus, we either have to move off-campus for academic space or consolidate space downtown and elsewhere,” he said.

A student questioned Zimmer about the University’s contract with Adidas; the RSO Students Organizing United with Labor has posted fliers calling for the termination of the contract, citing abuses at a company factory in Indonesia. Zimmer said that he would respond in greater detail at a later date when he had more information about the issue.

Zimmer also commented on the recent administrative panel discussion on the absence of a level-one trauma center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, calling the move “a step in the right direction.”

Allen Sanderson (left) and Charles Wheelan discuss US drug policy at an event organized by Chicago Society Tuesday evening at the Social Science Research building.

SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON

The Chicago Society, an RSO that organizes discussions with prominent speakers, sponsored the lecture, titled “Naked Drug Law.” During the question-and-answer session, Wheelan continued to emphasize the difficulties inherent in any public policy regarding dangerous substances, though he managed to elicit laughs from the audience.

Explaining why a pot-user might stop smoking if marijuana becomes legal, he dead-panned: “Too corporate—fight the man.”

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Feminist legal scholar argues against prostitution Jon Catlin & Alexandra Garfinkle News Contributors Legal scholar and feminist Catharine MacKinnon discussed misconceptions surrounding female prostitution and delivered a public lecture at the Law School on Monday afternoon.

In her talk, entitled “Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality,” the University of Michigan Law School professor spoke on issues raised in her widely cited book Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues, specifically those concerning prostitution and women’s rights.

MacKinnon described two common ideas about prostitution: that of “sex work” and of “sex trafficking.”

Although some say sex work allows for agency and sexual liberation for women, MacKinnon argued that nearly all forms of prostitution are actually sex trafficking. Prostitution is little more than a form of serial rape, MacKinnon said, and more than 89 percent of prostitutes want to leave “the life,” but don’t know how.

“No one fights to be a prostitute against all odds,” MacKinnon said. “She becomes a prostitute when the odds beat her.”

Throughout her field work on the streets of Calcutta, MacKinnon said she encountered many women—at an average age of 10—forced into brothels on the basis of their low social

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status, which she called “survival sex.”

“I was walking down a street in Calcutta lined with 13-year-old girls selling themselves, when I saw a six-year-old girl with her legs spread apart,” she said. “Tell me—when did she choose this life?”

We need to remove the stigma placed on prostitutes, MacKinnon said and place it instead on those who control them. Prostitutes, she said, are “guilty of the crime of being forced.”

MacKinnon, who helped coin the term “sexual harassment” and identified it as a form of sex discrimination, took to U.S. federal court to represent Bosnian women who endured Serbian sexual atrocities. That case, Kadic vs.

Karadzic, was the first decision to recognize rape as an act of genocide.

In 1999, Sweden adopted legislation that MacKinnon helped shape, which actively criminalizes clients and third-party sex-traffickers instead of prostitutes. Sweden now has the lowest rate of sex crimes in Europe, MacKinnon said.

“If you can’t imagine a world without prostitution, rest assured that the women themselves have no such trouble. They see ahead of them real love, dignity, and hope,” she said.

The event was part of the Classics in Feminist Theory series, and was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the University of Chicago Law School.

Nuclear concerns temporary, Berkeley prof says Sydney Combs News Contributor

THESE UNITS ARE SELLING AT A FRACTION OF THEIR ORIGINAL PURCHASE PRICES:

Other topics at the forum included progress on the Logan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts and the appointment of Derek Douglas as vice president of civic engagement.

SG President and fourth-year Youssef Kalad said that he was pleased with attendance at the forum; 35 students showed up out of the nearly 80 that had RSVP’d on Facebook.

“I thought that the attendance was great,” Kalad said. “I really liked the mix of people. I think it was great. They brought up issues—large and small—and I think President Zimmer and Kim did a great job addressing all of them.”

When asked whether she thought such events were productive, first-year Erin Simpson reserved judgment.

“Ask me in a quarter to see if these problems are resolved,” she said.

Fears about the safety and viability of nuclear power following the meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant are likely to falter, a UC Berkeley professor said in a talk Tuesday at the Harris School of Public Policy.

Lucas Davis, a professor at the Hoss School of Business, argued that fluctuations in energy markets and changes in tax legislation were primarily responsible for the recent lull in the nuclear power industry, rather than serious doubts about the security and viability of nuclear plants.

The Fukushima disaster precipitated a rise in public concerns about potential accidents, storage of nuclear waste, and nuclear proliferation across the globe. However, Davis pointed out that this response was a repeat of those following the meltdowns at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island reactor and the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine, which gave way to new demands for nuclear power quickly after both accidents.

“History is repeating itself,” Davis said.

Between 2007 and 2008, there were 26 applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to build nuclear reactors in the United States.

Davis claimed the surge of applications was due to proposed carbon tax legislation, a 2008 spike in natural gas prices, and increasing demand for electricity. However, when these trends took a turn in the opposite direction, and the legislation stalled, the projects were dropped.

The surge of enthusiasm before Fukushima was nothing compared to that in the ’50s and ’60s, Davis said, and the events in Japan will not be a longterm factor in what he predicts will be lower levels of enthusiasm.

“The prospects for a revival of U.S. nuclear power were dim before Fukushima…. Cost of capital is rightly high. Investment in these is risky,” Davis said. “Fukushima brought concerns to attention, but construction is the real hindrance.”

The cost of regulating risk and construction is substantial. Market variability, such as the price of natural gas, and new technological advances also make investment in nuclear energy a gamble.

However, Davis’s outlook on energy remains positive, and he argued that spikes in energy prices have always been followed by periods of innovations in energy supplies.

“We don’t have too much of a stomach for expensive environmental regulation here in the United States,” Davis said. “Put a cap on carbon and see what happens.”

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Pardon the protest The administration should protect the free speech rights of students just as much as those of speakers 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 JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor

We were all greeted by an email Sunday evening from Provost Thomas Rosenbaum and Vice President for Campus Life Kimberly Goff-Crews titled “Freedom of Expression.” On its surface, the letter paid lip service to the fundamental and uncontroversial principles of free speech that have long defined our campus. However, there was something troubling about this document: Under the surface, the letter was meant to single out the protesters who intended to exercise their freedom of speech at the Henry Paulson and Condoleezza Rice event to be held the next night.

These sentiments are ultimately contradictory—freedom of speech is protected in one case but not in the other.

As the Maroon reported Tuesday, a sizable group of students intended to vocally protest Paulson and

Rice’s speech in coordination with the Occupy protests, as many students align Paulson and Rice with institutional support of the “1%” decried by the movement. Wary of this, Rosenbaum and Goff-Crews’ letter asserted the University’s duty to “protect a speaker’s right to be heard,” while encouraging students to “challenge their ideas with honesty, rigor, and respect.”

Clearly we do not object to either of those statements; people with a wide range of views will always have a right to speak, but students will always have the right to challenge their ideas. However, it is hypocritical that a letter that ostensibly espouses freedom of expression and inclusion concludes with an overt threat to punish students who conduct themselves in a “disruptive” way.

The official University definition

of “Disruptive Conduct” in this context is behaving “in a manner likely to deprive others of the benefit or enjoyment of the [University sponsored] activity.” Given the vague construction of this statute and the heightened awareness of University officials, it would take very little disruption on the part of the protesters to incite a swift response by the University.

Even though the letter tells us that these are “longstanding policies,” the implication that disciplinary procedures regarding protests at this University are set in stone is simply not true. For instance, this past summer the University updated its disciplinary code to impose stricter restrictions on sitin and sidewalk protests—an apparent response to the housekeeper campaign waged by students last year. Administrators would have us

believe they are simply deferring to historic precedent; in reality, these policies change often, and are designed to limit the flexibility of student expressions of free speech.

It’s unquestionable that Paulson and Rice have a right to speak on this campus. Students are obligated to respect these rights at all costs and to refrain from inflammatory outbursts or interruptions. While we understand that there will always be certain limits to freedom of expression, we recognize the students’ right to peaceable demonstration, and the University’s responsibility to protect this right without threatening its students with misleading emails.

The Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Viewpoints Editors, and an additional Editorial Board member.

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 EMILY WANG Assoc. Viewpoints Editor

RSOverlooked ORCSA’s refusal to grant Occupy groups RSO status insults the movement’s legitimacy

DANIEL LEWIS Assoc. Sports Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager

Guy Mount Viewpoints Contributor

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 AMITA PRABHU Designer BELLA WU Designer CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN Copy Editor MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor ELIZABETH BYNUM Copy Editor DON HO Copy Editor JANE HUANG Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor KATIE MOCK Copy Editor LANE SMITH Copy Editor

Salvation, like democracy, is an uncertain gambit. As pundits are often fond of reminding us, “democracy is an inherently messy process.” They mean, of course, that as much as we may try, we cannot control or predict its outcome. Yet, if we give up on the process and abandon our faith in everyday people, all hope for our collective salvation in these troubled times may be lost forever.

With this in mind I feel compelled to express my profound disappointment with the cynical, callous, and utterly inconsistent decision by the University’s Office of the Reynolds Club and Student Organizations (ORCSA) to deny the Occupy groups on campus their rightful place as a Recognized Student Organiza-

tion (RSO). ORCSA gave three main reasons in its November 9th e-mail response for taking this action. First, they believe that Occupy demonstrators are “in line with a temporary political movement,” which is not “sustainable.” Second, they told Occupy members on campus that they could simply network with “Southside Solidarity Network, or similar groups.”

Third, they instructed campus Occupy groups that they could petition them on an event-by-event basis from a non-RSO status because, supposedly, they are “very flexible in working with groups (without RSO status).” If any of these excuses/reasons fails to satisfy you, then “you are the 99%.”

Given how comical this ruling is, it seems appropriate to borrow from an old Tina Fey sketch where she famously asks her audience: “Really?”

The worldwide Occupy movement

is “temporary” and “unsustainable?”

Really? How could anyone possibly know that? True, we no longer have a Whig party or a Progressive Party in America but how could anyone have predicted that when they were first emerging? As Wall Street itself reminds us, past performance is no guarantee of future returns. In this way, all political movements are bound to be temporary. Are the Democrats and Republicans somehow less temporary and more sustainable going forward because they have been around longer, and we can never imagine them as one day folding or being replaced by something better? Really? I thought our campus was the home of big ideas.

It baffles the mind that the University’s ORCSA would so flippantly presume that a global movement taking place simultaneously in over 2,400 cities across the globe, whose

participants are committed to permanent action, must somehow be a fleeting fad (like, you know, rock and roll, hip hop, personal computers, etc.). The systematic and coordinated crackdowns currently taking place against demonstrators across the nation betrays the fear that Occupy is here to stay and that the powerful want them gone.

A simple inquiry to the Occupy groups on campus (with over 100 registered members across two known listservs which are expanding every day) would have informed ORCSA that participants certainly do not think of what they are doing as a temporary set of activities or some fleeting ideology. To borrow a quote from Slavoj Zizek in his recent article for the UK Guardian, the truly unsustainable ones “are those who think OCCUPY continued on page 6

JEN XIA Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Copy Editor

Investing ourselves The new, more complex proposals of SRIC leaders will succeed with student support and input Caitlin Kearney Viewpoints Contributor

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

Some of you may know me, but most of you probably recognize me from around campus. I may have asked you to sign a petition, reminded you to vote in the spring SG elections, or asked you to take part in a delegation to President Zimmer’s office—efforts all geared toward the creation of a Socially Responsible Investment Committee (SRIC) that would set standards related to how we invest our endowment.

This fall, I may have reached out to you to encourage you to be part of an ongoing effort to ensure that our University implements socially responsible investment (SRI) practices. And, hopefully, later this year I may be able to invite you to an open forum to discuss SRI with administration.

As one of the leaders of the SRIC

initiative, I’m writing this partially in response to two Maroon editorials that consider the recent SRI proposals as betraying the vote of the student body, but I am also writing this as an open invitation for the 80 percent of the student body who voted in favor of an SRIC to take action. I’m inviting you to take action because last year I may have also let you know that as of 2008, our University—the place we call home—is invested in Arch Coal, a company that performs mountain top removal. Or, I may have mentioned our investment in HEI, a hotel management company that is cited by the NLRB as violating workers’ rights. I’m inviting you to take action because how we choose to live together as a University community affects how the rest of the world gets to live.

The major idea behind both of the proposals we discussed with administrators last week was to utilize time

with major players in University policy as effectively as possible. Last spring, in a meeting with the same administrators and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the idea of an SRIC was adamantly shut down. Regardless of whatever rhetorical abilities that I may or may not have, I’m fairly certain of my inability to change these administrators’ minds in a half hour meeting a mere four months later. Instead, the students working on the SRIC campaign, myself included, designed two proposals that are related to SRI, albeit more limited in scope. But, as I hope to show, support for the proposal and support for a SRIC aren’t mutually exclusive—they’re compatible and entirely complementary.

The first proposal discussed last week was a proposal for investment transparency on practices related to Environmental, Social, and Governance factors (ESG). Many firms that offer SRI

services utilize ESG metrics to screen investments, not only for responsible investing purposes, but for financial ones as well. For example, if an investor was paying attention to environmental metrics in 2009, they would have known to get their money out of BP before the oil spill in 2010. A common way for institutional investors, such as universities, to understand how firms are utilizing these metrics is through questionnaires. We based our questionnaire off of the one used by the New York City Employee Retirement System. As confirmed by CIO Schmid, if the University requests fund managers to fill out a questionnaire, they will. They, of all people, know to listen when money talks.

No, this questionnaire isn’t a direct request for an SRIC. And no, this proposal does not call for the University to adopt ESG screens on their investSRIC continued on page 6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 18, 2011

6

Occupy groups are not temporary clubs, but unified organizations worth recognizing OCCUPY continued from page 5 things can go on indefinitely the way they are.”

The system itself is unsustainable. Environmentally, economically, socially, and, indeed, politically, we are ‘always-already’ approaching an end.

Things cannot go on like this forever.

ORCSA’s second claim was that Occupy should simply network with Southside Solidarity Network (which, by the way, it is already doing). This implied that such an arrangement would negate any need for the funding, resources, etc. that RSO status provides. Such an argument is also a non-starter. Couldn’t this equally be argued for any applicant or group on campus?

As I was quoted in the Maroon on November 11th, this is just as silly as telling “the karate club [which is not an RSO] that they should work with the aikido club [which is an RSO].”

Perhaps more analogously to the Occupy movement, what if students wanted to start a mixed martial arts club? Would they be denied and told to just be happy with the aikido club?

Sure, there might be some crossovers but these are two totally separate systems with two totally different philosophies that cannot be neatly reduced to one another. Just as mixed martial arts is an eclectic umbrella organization that draws on a number of different pre-existing models, so too Occupy is a unifying movement that hopes to bring people together who are often already participating in other socially conscious projects to form an entirely new, all-encompassing mass movement. In this way, the Occupy movement might best be thought of as the mixed martial arts of social activism and the hip hop of political mobilization, sampling, cutting, and remixing old forms to create something new.

ORCSA’s final objection is perhaps its most absurd. Couldn’t every group on campus operate from a non-RSO status if they had to (just as Occupy is now)? Why do we even have RSOs

to begin with if not to forge institutional links within the larger campus community and provide funding for all the different student groups who are interested in thinking, playing, and acting together within small autonomous collectives? The University’s funding for student extracurricular activities is a very important part of our campus community and should not be taken lightly. Recognition does matter. ORCSA has already attracted criticism from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a nationwide non-partisan civil liberties organization, which publishes The Torch and sent a letter of condemnation to President Zimmer on Tuesday regarding the Occupy RSO decision.

Yes, the Occupy groups on campus will continue to act with or without University support.

When Condoleezza Rice and Henry Paulson eventually decide to reschedule their event, Occupy will surely be there, whether the University recognizes them or not. But does the campus really want to risk being on the wrong side of history in what has already become the most widespread political movement in America since the Civil Rights struggle? The Zombie Readiness Task Force, which I regrettably referred to as the “Zombie Task Awareness Force” in my November 11th interview (respect due), is funded by the University for the valuable work it does in keeping our campus safe from Zombie attacks.

Certainly the University can also fund the Occupy movement to help protect us all from the ideological zombies walking around campus (Paulson) who eat the living and turn them into the walking dead in pursuit of a religious devotion to laissez-faire imperial capitalism. Which is really the bigger threat to our campus and our democracy? Really.

Guy Mount is a Ph.D. student in the history department.

New SRIC alternatives will work because of higher transparency, community development SRIC continued from page 5 ments. However, far from betraying the intent of the original SRIC proposal, this one provides the University community with wanted information related to investment practices and offers the University administration space to take a step in the right direction and, more importantly, a step they’re currently comfortable taking. Furthermore, this proposal is also responsive to how our University invests its money. In the spring, we were told by administration that we don’t have any direct holdings—meaning that our money is pooled with others’ and then invested in a myriad of asset classes and companies. This is not to say that a higher level of transparency is impossible, it’s just to say that it would be much more difficult and that this level offers a good first step.

The second proposal called for the University to transfer a small portion of its endowment currently held as cash or cash-like assets into a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). And because the CDFIs we suggested are FDIC insured, there is little financial risk in doing this. If the CDFI fails, we get our money back. Since money held in banks is already low-risk, low-return, holding money in a CDFI wouldn’t hurt those returns.

While this proposal doesn’t address questionable investments the University has, it does address the questionable actions of mainstream financial institutions in which it may hold its money. It also offers a real opportunity to put capital into communities in a way that allows for those communities to remain autonomous.

In the same way that you and I don’t have control over what banks do with our money when it’s there, the University wouldn’t have control of what these CDFIs do. And because CDFIs focus on keeping capital within communities through ways such as microloans, holding money in one is an investment in communities. Most importantly, though, it creates an opportunity for the Univer-

sity to begin moving some of its money in a way that is reinforced by what the Office of Civic Engagement is already doing.

It saddens me to hear that some feel as if the SRIC movement has been co-opted by a few leaders. I love the idea the Maroon proposed of an open forum and encourage all concerned members of the University community to take part in this movement. Students working on this campaign meet every Sunday. And we don’t envision these proposals as the end, but the beginning. If you care about what the place you call our home is doing with its money, get involved. Our efforts can only be as large as the power behind them, so the more we can do together the more we can do ,period. And there is a lot we can do to gain ground in socially responsible investment at the U of C. Caitlin Kearney is a fourth-year in the College majoring in Public Policy Studies.

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.

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“I agree with the basic premise of the movement: that there is excessive greed and accumulation of wealth among the top 1% in our country. My personal feeling is that, while we are a country made up of individuals and proud of individualism, we also accomplish our greatest feats as a group, and that idea is often ignored. ” —Daniel Weissbart 3rd-Year Law, Letters and Society Major

“I’m shocked at the double standard held with the Occupy Movement against the Tea Party movement. There’s so much more support for Occupy on this campus, and yet, for the Tea Party movement, which was a much calmer movement with much less violence, where people cleaned up for themselves, there was so much less support on this campus.”

—Hannah Cook 4th-Year Psychology Major

“I’m really ambivalent about it. I support their cause, which is bringing people’s attention to the egregious gap in wealth in America. But it also feels weird because I don’t see our politics reflecting their cause at all. You just find really brutal police crackdowns and not nearly enough public outcry over them.”

—Mike Sexton 2nd-Year Mathematics Major

“I definitely approve of Occupy. There are certainly issues with it. It’s sort of unfocused. In a lot of cases it doesn’t have specific goals and there’s a danger of it petering out without accomplishing anything.

On the other hand, the basics of what they stand for and what they’re fighting for are, I think, things that most everyone can agree with.”

—Steven Lauterwasser 4th-Year History major

“I agree with the idea of Occupy Wall Street but not the actual method. I feel like what they did in the beginning was alright but now it’s just people squatting in the park with no actual purpose. They don’t do anything meaningful anymore.”

—George Dewey 3rd-Year Biology Major “For me it’s almost kind of refreshing. It’s like, okay, people are getting up and putting people in the streets and caring about something. But at the same time, it’s like, is America even ready for that? We don’t really operate on this revolutionary model, generally speaking. We’re much more reformist. ” —Erin Britton 4th-Year International Studies Major

“It was pretty exciting to take part in it. I like what they’re doing; I like what they’re trying to achieve. It’s good that they’re showing the world that something needs to be done. At the same time, it’s really disorganized; they’re getting in trouble in different places.

I don’t know how this is going to end. I like the spirit, I like the movement, but I feel like it should try to be more organized to get things done.”

—Leslie Gailloud 2nd-Year English Major “They need to go out and get a job instead of sitting in a park all day.”

—Clayton Ayers 4th-Year Mathematics major

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ARTS

Trivial Pursuits NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Chemistry among RSOs at FOTA’s Art Lab

UT stages a rocky family reunion Anastasia Golovashkina Arts Contributor This isn’t your high school homecoming.

Set in the North London slums circa the late 1950s, The Homecoming is a two-act play about a very uncomfortable, albeit, commonplace, occurrence: a man introducing his wife to his family. In this case, that man is Teddy (second-year James Fleming ), and he’s hoping to present his wife Ruth (fourth-year Kate Cornelius-Schecter), to his father, Max (third-year Graham

Kelsey Reid Arts Contributor

THE HOMECOMING Reynold’s Club, 1st fl. theater Through November 19

Albachten), his Uncle Sam (thirdyear Fred Schmidt-Arenales), and two brothers, Lenny (fourth-year Andrew Cutler) and Joey (fourthyear Kevin Popp).

The trouble is, Teddy has spent the past six years avoiding all contact with his relatives.

He didn’t bother telling them that he was planning to visit, or even that he has a wife, let alone that he’s been married for the past six years and has been working as a philosophy professor in the United States. When Teddy brings Ruth to meet his family, his father’s first reaction is to ask them how they got in, his second, to assume that Ruth is a whore: “Who asked you to bring dirty tarts into this house?” he questions Teddy. From this point on,

Sam (third-year Fred Schmidt-Arenales) and Max (third-year Graham Albachten) know that fighting is all in the family in UT’s fall production of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

the tension only grows.

Ruth is eager to bond with Teddy’s all-male family. As Ruth, Cornelius-Schecter plays an intriguing game of male enchantment. Cornelius-Schecter somehow manages to pull off a mix of feminine refinement and aggressive come-ons that is almost suggestive of multiple personality disorder. In the second scene, she’s an exhausted wife who wants nothing more than a breath of fresh air. In the third, she’s a former model who relishes taunting her brother-in-law with sexually charged ultimatums. She’s a

mother and a vixen—an enigma that defies all categorization and, yet, dares you to keep trying.

“If you take the glass,” Ruth tells Lenny a mere five minutes after meeting him, “I’ll take you.”

Teddy, on the other hand, finds himself becoming more and more of an outsider. He’s an estranged child, a runaway success story that wants nothing to do with his family and a stranger in what was once his own home. As Teddy, Fleming strikes a curious balance between success and discomfort, employing slight shifts in his posture, facial expressions, and

voice to realize his truly nervous, passive-aggressive persona.

Meanwhile, the tension between Ruth, Teddy, and Teddy’s family continues to grow. Teddy urges Ruth to leave for home, but Ruth declines. Teddy grows increasingly excluded. It’s fascinating to watch Teddy—a philosophy doctorate whose occupation consists of teaching others how to think and understand the world—fail to understand the interactions going on around him. “You’re just objects,” he lectures his family. “You just...move about. I can HOMECOMING continued on page 9

Herzog shines a compassionate light on prison abyss you’ll never compare your dorm room to a prison cell again.

Into the Abyss explores a series of murders committed by Jason Burkett and Michael Perry in small-town Texas in 2001 that led to Perry’s execution almost a decade later, in July 2010, and landed Burkett with a life sentence.

INTO THE ABYSS Werner Herzog Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Michael Perry looks at the prison wall and, perhaps, stares into the abyss, during an interview with Werner Herzog.

COURTESY OF CDTV

Emma Broder Arts Contributor The closest movie theater showing Werner Herzog’s new documentary Into the Abyss is the Landmark Century Centre Cinema in Lakeview. This stellar

location could, perhaps, account for the fact that the Landmark is filled to capacity with yuppies and other attractive people you wish you knew.

Not so fast, though: before you swipe your CTA card, you should know that Into the Abyss

is not quite the feel-good film you need to conquer those eighth week blues. In fact, Into the Abyss tugs the viewer into a narrative so bleak that it turns in on itself, tunnels through, and arrives, perversely, at a glimmer of optimism. When you’re through,

The moments and images of devastation stack up one by one through the movie’s prologue, five chapters, and epilogue: Burkett’s father, who is serving a life sentence himself, tells the story of when he appeared in court to defend Burkett. He recalls telling the jury that his son didn’t have a father. Perry, eight days away from his execution date, describes an Outward Bound canoe trip his parents sent him on, his face as open as a child’s. A ABYSS continued on page 9

For students only familiar with the materials and procedures of chemistry labs, this lab is quite different.

Festival of the Arts (FOTA) will host its Fall Fair: Art Lab from 5–8 p.m. on Saturday in the Reynolds Club. The event will feature interactive demonstrations from 11 arts RSOs and is free to students.

The RSOs involved include dance groups like Argentine Tango Club, Rhythmic Bodies in Motion, and PhiNix Dance Crew, as well as Le Vorris and Vox, Culinary Club, and Fire Escape Films. Two photographers and a filmmaker will also participate. The Classical Entertainment Society will provide props for students to choose from in order to pose and create their own portrait with

FALL FOTA FAIR Reynold’s Club November 19

Glass Eyeball, a photography RSO. Le Vorris & Vox will perform acrobatic work and teach juggling, hula hooping, and mask painting. While movement-based RSOs like Le Vorris & Vox have not usually been involved with FOTA in the past, fourth-year FOTA Programming Director Eugenia Briceno said they are a positive addition.

“Things like Circus are something creative in a new way than FOTA usually does, so we’re looking forward to having them there,” Briceno said.

Argentine Tango Club will be holding small workshops to teach the basics of the dance, including how to make contact and follow along, in addition to teaching more about tango music. Second-year Angela Wang, a member of both Argentine Tango Club and Le Vorris and Vox, said that though everything Le Vorris and Vox does is teaching- and learning-based, Saturday’s activity will be a departure from the Argentine Tango Club’s typical work.

The event is all about participation and learning. “It is not just a showcase; the groups will be showing how to do their art,” fourth-year FOTA Executive Director Shola Farber said. “I want people to walk in who’ve never done [these activities] before or never had a chance to do them, and try multiple things.

Maybe they’ll participate in the activity in the future.”

Farber said she hopes the activities engage students of varying artistic abilities. “[The event] is useful for people who haven’t tried arts in a while or haven’t had the time and want to try it at a low scale,” Farber said.

The involvement of many RSOs in the Fall Fair came about because of the Student Government (SG) Arts roundtable discussion held earlier FOTA continued on page 9

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 18, 2011

8

Beats and Pieces celebrates Origins opening Tomi Obaro Senior Arts Staff Cold weather didn’t stop more than forty students and local Hyde Parkers from attending Origins, an arts event organized by student RSO Beats & Pieces and held at the Southside Hub of Production (SHoP) last night.

The event, the brainchild of U of C alum Adama Wiltshire, celebrates the music and artwork of a diverse assortment of artists. “The idea was to have a space for multicultural art to be displayed. We want it to be a celebration of different cultures and different ethnicities,” said Michelle Bentsman, the co-president of Beats and Pieces, and a fourth-year Fundamentals major and Visual Arts minor. Bentsman put out an open call for artists and musicians on the Chicago Artist Resource, an online website for local artists, and received a lot of responses.

Beats and Pieces decided to collaborate with Laura Schaffer, proprietor of SHoP, a new arts collective that aims to “set up an independent cultural hub of

production” in Hyde Park. Schaffer was instantly enamored. The space, a cavernous mansion on South Woodlawn Avenue, was the requisite setting for such an affair. “They told us about their ideas and we thought it was an excellent way for us to bridge the community and the University and bring people together,” said Shaeffer.

The event was very casual, in the front room of the building. A makeshift stage was set up for musical acts, and, in the dining room, artwork from local artists was put on display. Chef Iccha Devi Ra, ‘The Reluctant Vegetarian,’ served plat-

ORIGINS Southside Hub of Production

ters of various hors d’oeuvres, in addition to a bowl of banging pasta. A paucity of seats made standing a necessity for most people, but having a number of rooms—as opposed to one, as Beats and

Pieces had had in past years—captured the peripatetic tone of a real art gallery.

Music was certainly at the center of the event, even taking into account all the abundance of interesting artwork.

The Beats and Pieces board chose musical acts that reflected the organization’s core mission. One act, K. Serra, used synthesizers and an old keyboard to create a signature techno sound. The AssyrianChicagoan, whose real name is Rachel Thomas, derived her stage name from the famous Spanish expression ‘que sera’.

The 27-year-old toyed with law school before joining a psychedelic rock band and hasn’t looked back since.

Other musical acts included the world music stylings of Zamin, a band comprised of Northwestern classical musicians with a penchant for Hindustani music. Lead singer, Zeshan Bagewadi, a professional opera singer, used his classical training to glorious effect, wafting on the high notes as he sang in his native Urdu. “We all come from very different backgrounds,” said Bagewadi after his set, “There are three Jewish people in the band, I’m Muslim. It’s all an aggregation

Eigenfunk trumpetist Jerome Croswell solos during a performance at Beats & Pieces’s Origins event on Thursday evening.

JAIME MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

of people that want to make wonderful music. We like to fuse the sounds of acoustic instruments with Hindustani vocals.” He’s slated to begin a three month stint at the Sarasota Operahouse in Florida shortly.

Another act was Eigenfunk, a six member band featuring the trombone, alto sax, and vibraphone, in addition to

other instruments. There was also some spoken word and fiction reading.

However, the act that most captured the spirit of the night was Zamin.

Clutching a vintage ‘egg’ microphone to his chest, Bagewadi sang in Urdu but danced like any white indie lead singer—a true amalgam of cultures in the spirit of multicultural art.

At Court Theatre, an epic 24-hour reading COMPETITIVE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR Michelle Lee Arts Staff

MARINE SCIENCE

If all 24 books of Homer’s Iliad were to be read aloud from start to finish, it would take about 24 hours to complete. This is exactly what the University of Chicago’s Classical Entertainment Society has set out to do this weekend in promotion of Court Theatre’s upcoming play, An Iliad.

HOMERATHON Court Theatre Through November 21

The reading begins at 8 p.m. this Sunday on Court Theatre’s stage and will run through Monday evening until every last word has been read. Called a “Homerathon” for obvious reasons, the event will feature several high-profile professors from the University of Chicago, including Classics professors David Wray, Alain Bresson, Clifford Ando, and Sarah Nooter, English professor Christina Von Nolcken, and Philosophy professor Agnes Callard.

“We’ve invited readers to read in any language or translation they choose,” said Court Theatre’s resident dramaturg Drew Dir. “One of the faculty members, for example, is reading...a translation by 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope. We’ve also invited participants to read it in the original ancient Greek, which many here at the University of Chicago are more than prepared to do.”

Throughout the event, various activities and movie screenings will also take place in the lobby. Movies to be featured include (but are not limited to): Troy, Helen of Troy, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Clash of the Titans, and 300. Attendees will be able to try their hand at crafting Greek vases, shields, mini Trojan horses, and clothespin gods. Refreshments will also be provided throughout the 24 hours.

“Students can come to Court Theatre at any point during the 24 hours to listen to the reading....

Students are also welcome to sign up to read available passages when they arrive if they didn’t reserve a reading in advance,” said Court Theatre’s assistant director of marketing, Kate Vangeloff.

The reading will take place on the set of Court’s upcoming production, An Iliad, which is set to premier Saturday, November 19. Directed by artistic director Charles Newell, the modern, one-man adaptation of Homer’s classic revisits the voice of the lone poet as he recounts a story of human loss and folly that resonates across three millennia.

Programs offering scholarships include: • Applied Mathematics and Computational Science (AMCS) • Bioscience (B) • Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) • Chemical Science (ChemS) • Computer Science (CS) • Earth Science and Engineering (ErSE) • Electrical Engineering (EE) • Environmental Science and Engineering (EnSE) • Marine Science (MarSE) • Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) • Mechanical Engineering (ME)

Master’s and PhD students will benefit from the extensive scholarship package that includes: • Full tuition • Monthly living allowance • Housing • Relocation support • Health and dental insurance Eligible students may apply immediately for MS/PhD programs starting in September 2012.

For complete information & details visit: www.kaust.edu.sa Email: admissions@kaust.edu.sa Phone: +966 (2) 808-3428/9

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology An international, graduate university located on the shores of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 18, 2011

H U N G E R

Testimonials give the abyss a spark of humanity

S T R I K E

At Lillie’s Q, the whole hog is half-hearted Ilyia Gutin Senior Arts Staff In the land of the BBQ, the simple pit master is king. It seems like the secret to successful barbecue is always some “simply” good meat, “simply” seasoned, and cooked to slow and “simple” perfection. Trial and error, time and experience are the currency of BBQ professionals. That’s why there’s always an air of apprehension regarding “new” BBQ restaurants like Lillie’s Q in Chicago. Sure it’s been open for over a year at this point, but compared to places like Uncle John’s on the Southside—probably open long enough that they were smoking dodos at some point in their history—it just doesn’t have that charred barbecue patina that only comes with wisdom and age. But Lillie’s Q has gone up against some tried-and-true BBQ masters in various cooking competitions and beaten them at their own game. Food & Wine named them Best New Barbecue in the Country. They even have a food truck. That’s a pretty impressive pedigree for a newcomer. So, while it was tempting to fall back on old-school Chicago standards, Wonder Bread and all, Lillie’s Q was worth a shot.

Now, the restaurant is not exactly subtle when it comes to conveying their carefully calculated “simplicity.” The down-home, barnyard aesthetic is beaten into your brain much like the captive bolt pistol that ended your porky friend’s life. Drinks are served in mason jars and food on metal trays covered in butcher’s paper. An exposed porcelain sink makes for a strange “decoration piece” which left at least one patron awkwardly standing near it debating whether or not to wash his hands. Overall though, the space does a good job of making you want to relax, clear your mind, and prepare for BBQ glory.

The menu is pleasantly straightforward and traditionally Southern. It is sincerely refreshing to see fried pickles, boiled peanuts, and hush puppies served as appetizers without any pretension or attempt at being “updated.” There’s none of that small-plate bullshit or need for the waiter to explain the menu. Same goes for the selection of meats: pulled pork, chicken, hot links, tri-tip, ribs, and a noticeable lack of unnecessarily ambitious organ meats. I’m no authority on Southern cooking, but the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality is definitely in overdrive here, right down to the “whole hog dinner” you can reserve with two days notice. The menu claims it feeds 6–8 people. All I could think was challenge accepted.

Side dishes, while about as generic as they come,

did their job filling the area of my abdominal cavity not otherwise reserved for barbecued meats. Sweet potato fries, made even sweeter with a brown sugar and maple syrup aioli, could best be described as dangerously addictive. Thankfully the baked beans are not overly sweet and not too “gloopy,” though their intense BBQ flavor had me convinced that I could smoke a piece of meat just by breathing on it. Grits, green beans, and collard greens were all pork-enhanced in some way or another, helping to round out the usual list of BBQ side suspects.

But I wasn’t here for steak, damn it, I was here for some cue, and the tri-tip lacked any distinctive BBQ quality, giving the impression that it wasn’t even smoked. Hot Links were like super-sized Slim Jims, so lean and peppery that I thought they surely replaced all of the fat with whole peppercorns. Even the pulled pork, which seems like a no-fail option, erred on the side of blandness. It was a little dry and desperately lacking some fatty juice, to the point where it could have passed for pulled chicken.

All of this could have potentially been avoided.

I’m usually not one to complain about the temperature of food at a restaurant, and, honestly, it’s not really even something I notice most of the time. But in the case of Lillie’s Q, the meat was straight-up cold. I’m a realist, and I understand that the meat isn’t being carved gyro-style right off the animal, but the kitchen could at least turn the temperature up on the heat lamps or something.

At Lillie’s Q, sauce is indeed the boss, saving the meat from the brink of utter disaster. They have two mustardy-vinegary Carolina style sauces, two more traditional smoky sauces, and the mysterious Ivory Sauce, similar to ranch, but more spicy and exotic, and less Hidden Valley. All five are at your table, within reach of your greasy hands.

It is difficult to make a final judgment call about Lillie’s Q. Normally I rip into restaurants for inconsistency, but here I have seen glimpses of true BBQ beauty. Even as I sat, desperately tearing at the tough meat before me, I couldn’t help but recognize how amazing it can be. Lillie’s Q has clearly mastered the art of spice and sauce, which is a feat unto itself, so if they want to sell their bottled goodness by the barrel, I’ll be first in line (for now I’ll have to settle with 16 oz at a time). twenty, thirty, maybe fifty degrees were all that stood between me and BBQ nirvana—so close, yet so far. Good barbecue, above all else, is just a matter of patience and attention to the details: time, temperature, technique. Add a hint of mystery, a dash of secrecy, and call it a day.

In the The Homecoming, madness emerges out of minimalism HOMECOMING continued from page 7 observe it. I can see what you do.” But the audience knows he doesn’t.

“The constant power struggle is key in the play. It leads up to a conclusion in which some of the characters have gained complete power over the others,” Fleming explains.

First written in 1964 by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, The Homecoming has since won much critical acclaim for its absurdist technique and its willingness to challenge our societal standards of “love” and “family values.”

“Absurdist theater was a stylistic break from realism, where ostensibly realistic situations become colored by unrealistic elements. The play is structured so that the actors’ realistic intentions become jarring and discomforting for the audience,” director William Bishop explains. Still, Bishop says that he tries “to ground everything in realistic intention, because this creates the most honest, powerful acting.”

But, “The Homecoming isn’t simply an absurdist play. The circumstances tend to

9

begin realistically and then progress with increasingly absurd behavior,” CorneliusSchecter points out.

Much madness is built from the minimal words, props, and settings of the play.

Albachten, in particular, uses the slightest of gestures to add incredible depth to his performance as Max. In his armchair, he’s a cunning, ominous man who doesn’t hesitate to insult and threaten his sons, but on his feet, he’s suddenly reduced to a tired, old man. He’s willful, violent and weak; he needs a cane. It’s a riveting juxtaposition of traits, and Albachten masters both.

Though both acts are set in the family’s threadbare living room, the play’s limited environment becomes a breeding ground for surprise, energy, and chaos. The ever-present cigarettes (“They’re not real,” SchmidtArenales, who plays Sam, explains.) serve as instruments of intrigue and agitation. As Ruth points out, even the movement of her lips isn’t just (and isn’t always) speech—it’s something much, much more.

It’s a creative work of minimalist absurdism. But that’s just it—it works.

ABYSS continued from page 7 clip of crime-scene footage shows that the boys’ first murder victim, Sandra Stotler, was baking cookies when she was killed.

Meanwhile, Herzog’s assertions of optimism and the triumph of the human spirit in the film sometimes feel like, well, assertions. Herzog does not narrate this film, as he does with many of his other documentaries. Though his subjects obviously fascinate him, his presence is sometimes odd or spectral (he asks one of his interviewees to “describe an encounter with a squirrel”), but he is still the good ol’ indulgent Herzog (the epilogue is called “The Urgency of Life”).

Humanity wins again, right? This is the question that the film probes with great gravity and attention to detail. As a result, Herzog’s—and, therefore, the movie’s— focus has a pendulum-like motion that swings from the minutely specific to the wildly broad and almost misses the truth

in between. The most compelling answer, of course, lies in the revealing testimony of the movie’s characters. Into the Abyss finds its strongest moments in its individuals.

They are people like Lisa Stotler-Balloun, the daughter and sister of two of the murder victims, who gives a moving account of her experience; a bartender who took a joyride in a car that Perry and Burkett stole; Burkett’s wife, who met and courted her husband over the phone while attending to his legal paperwork; a former executioner who left his job after he had to inflict capital punishment on a woman. They fall in the gray zone between the grim tragedy of the triple murder and the plucky, anxietyriddled questions of Herzog.

As the movie ended, an elegant couple bickered about which bar to visit afterwards. It was disturbing, after all, and they needed a drink. Huddled together, they stepped out of the Landmark’s plush lobby into the gritty palette of a Chicago night.

Fall Fair invites students to create and collaborate FOTA continued from page 7 this quarter. Wang, who is also a member of SG, said that SG had decided to hold the roundtable because they had realized that, while RSOs function well independently, they don’t collaborate much. “We wanted to bring RSOs together to hold bigger events, possibly fewer, bigger events,” Wang said. “So we brought all the arts people together to see if they could put some things together.”

According to Farber, this increase in collaboration among arts RSOs comes at the perfect time on campus. “It is a really great year for the

arts on campus because of the Logan Center opening and the dance groups forming a council. That interaction between groups is starting to take place.”

Though the Fall Fair is new this year, Briceno said FOTA is hoping to make it a new fall quarter tradition, as it seems to fit well with FOTA’s core principles.

“We want to facilitate student work and create an atmosphere of art for people participating in the arts in varying scope,” Farber said. “[Through the fair] we’re trying to be really open and interactive and allow people to try new things.”

(Stuff To Do)

Arts STD with Hannah Gold

Friday | November 18 When it comes to empty white walls, there’s no need to draw a blank. At the School of the Art Institute’s Holiday Art Sale, sponsored by the Campus Life and Student Association, SAIC students will sell their paintings, photography, prints, and sculptures. Go because you want to support young, struggling and talented artists; go because no amount of tape can hold up your Dalí and Escher posters any longer. (112 South Michigan Avenue, 11 a.m.–7 p.m., free) Catch Off-Off Campus’s “Slaughter House 5–0: The Epic Conclusion” before the comedy troupe goes off-off the map until the new year and laughter generally ceases as finals week sets in. Enjoy sketch, improv, and jokes about all that has happened, more or less. (5655 South University Avenue, 8:30 p.m.–11 p.m., $4)

Saturday | November 19 It’s almost 9th week—time for some hardcore curriculum. Dust off your handcuffs and head over to the CineKink Film Festival at the Leather Archives and Museum. Expect lots of quick yet pleasurable flicks like Hooka Face and the Virgin Boy, Wiggle Room, and Ms. Thing, building up to a couple of climactic feature films. (6418 North Greenview Avenue, begins at 2 p.m. $7 in advance, $10 at the door) Don’t wait for the mainstream mall mayhem of Black Friday to do your holiday shopping. Be a responsible consumer and stop by the DIY Trunk

Show, presented by the Chicago Craft Mafia, where 129 artists will showcase and sell a variety of handmade items including lamps, ceramics, wallets, body care products, and pet toys. (5917 North Broadway Avenue, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., free) Student composer Philip McGrath sets a classic American (not to mention, midwestern) writer to music. The Singing Fire Project, performed at Rockefeller Chapel, will draw upon the poetry of Carl Sandberg through a melding of reading, singing, and, of course, chamber music, complemented by works from Philip Glass, Alan Ginsberg, John Cage and others. (5850 South Woodlawn Avenue, 7 p.m.–8:30 p.m., free)

Sunday | November 20 The death of Borders makes way for new literary life at the Chicago Book Expo. More than 40 participating Chicago fiction and poetry presses—Knee-Jerk Magazine, Chicago Sketches, and Wicker Park Press among them—will vend their merchandise at a pop-up bookstore in what was once the Uptown Borders. (4720 North Broadway Avenue, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., free) Do you hunger for quality cinema, or are you just plain hungry? Satisfy both cravings at the 2011 Chicago Food Fest Awards Ceremony, where you’ll see select clips of winning films as well as Jason Lam’s How to Make a Turtle Burger. Then you get to try for yourself a genuine turtle burger (turger?) along with lemon tarts, buttermilk ice cream, ham mousse, and more. (900 North North Branch Street, noon, $20 in advance)

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 18, 2011

10 FOOTBALL UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 4

School Case Western* Washington (Mo.) Carnegie Chicago

Record 9–1 (3–0) 6–4 (2–1) 5–5 (1–2) 5–5 (0–3)

Win % .900 .600 .500 .500

Rushing Yards Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Player Patrick Blanks Chris Castelluccio Jake Nardone Manny Sicre Kenny Riordan

Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Player Dee Brizzolara Easton Knott Bryan Metlesitz Sean Lapcevic Austin Morman

Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Player Dee Brizzolara Patrick Blanks Easton Knott Chris Garcia Jake Nardone

School Carnegie Washington (Mo.) Carnegie Case Western Case Western

Yards 944 709 652 638 556

Receiving Yards School Per Game Chicago 74.3 Washington (Mo.) 10.91 Case Western 10.42 Case Western 9.70 Washington (Mo.) 8.83

Scoring Touchdowns School Chicago Carnegie Washington (Mo.) Carnegie Carnegie

TD 14 12 10 8 7

*UAA Champion

MEN’S BASKETBALL UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

School Chicago Washington (Mo.) Brandeis Emory New York Rochester Carnegie Case Western

Record 1–0 1–0 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–1

Win % 1.000 1.000 .500 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

School Case Western New York Rochester Washington (Mo.) Brandeis Carnegie Chicago Emory

Record 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–1

Win % 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .500 .000 .000 .000

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY USTFCCCA Midwest Region Rankings Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

School North Central Washington (Mo.) Wheaton UW-Oshkosh UW-La Crosse Chicago UW-Platteville Augustana UW-Stevens Point UW-Eau Claire

Conference CCIW UAA CCIW WIAC WIAC UAA WIAC CCIW WIAC WIAC

Last Week 1 2 3 4 6 5 7 8 9 10

*Repeat of last week’s standings

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY USTFCCCA Midwest Region Rankings* Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

School Washington (Mo.) UW-Eau Claire North Central UW-Stevens Point Illinois Weslyan UW-La Crosse UW-Oshkosh Chicago Monmouth (Ill.) St. Norbert

Conference UAA WIAC CCIW WIAC CCIW WIAC WIAC UAA Midwest Midwest

Last Week 1 2 3 6 10 5 8 4 NR 9

*Repeat of last week’s standings

VOLLEYBALL UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

School Washington (Mo.)* Emory Chicago Case Western Rochester New York Carnegie Brandeis

*UAA Champion

Conference 34–2 (9–1) 36–5 (9–1) 30–6 (7–3) 22–10 (5–5) 21–15 (4–6) 22–17(3–7) 15–15 (3–7) 9–21 (0–10)

Last Week .944 .878 .833 .688 .583 .564 .500 .300

Whitmore: “My goal is to finish in the top 35, All-American” CROSS COUNTRY continued from back

“The whole weekend will be a memorable experience. I’m really excited to finally be able to race against the top distance runners in the country,” Whitmore said. “After all, not many people can say they competed at the NCAA Championship.”

Hall looks forward to a good performance from Whitmore.

“Billy had a great regional meet, and if he can duplicate that performance, he will likely be an All-American this weekend.

He is a very grounded young man and will perform well and enjoy the experience instead of getting overly uptight about the atmosphere,” Hall said. “He really has the perfect mentality for this type of environment.”

Whitmore aims to become an All-American this weekend.

“My goal is to finish in the top 35, AllAmerican,” Whitmore said. “Ultimately, I want to run to the best of my ability.”

Hall also hopes for a successful meet from the women, who have four runners who ran in the Nationals last year: Sizek, Rachel Ohman, Michaela Whitelaw, and Sonia Khan.

“The women’s team has finally moved into the NCAA polls after being very underrated all season. I’m looking for them to finish somewhere between 15th and 20th right now, which would be another step up for our team,” Hall said. “We have NCAA experience with multiple members of the team that finished 10th last year. They should perform better than a year ago, when they had their first NCAA experience.

“We hope to represent the UAAs well and beat some of those competitors,” Sizek said.

Both Whitmore and the women ran at Oshkosh earlier this year, at the UW-Os-

hkosh Brooks Invitational on October 15, where Whitmore finished 23rd and the women 12th.

Sizek believes that the team can use its experience there to its advantage.

“I think that having run at Oshkosh before really will help the team,” Sizek said, “but the more important part of running at that course is the fact that it is a fast and flat course, which tends to benefit us Chicagoans, since our biggest hill is the bridge at 47th Street.”

The event, which UW-Oshkosh last hosted in 1999, has, in total, 560 runners from 134 different schools. The returning champion on the women’s side is Middlebury College, while the returning champion on the men’s side is Haverford College.

The women, previously unranked, have moved up to 24th in the country, and have the potential to rise still higher. Whitmore, too, has the chance to solidify a successful season.

At Saturday’s race, while the women’s team competes as a whole, Whitmore will be on his own. But his motivation—the team—will remain the same.

“Although I am listed as an individual, I represent the entire men’s cross country team. They have supported me all season,” he said, “and they will continue to be my primary source of motivation this weekend.”

Everything comes to an end, and this Saturday, the cross country season reaches its conclusion in Wisconsin. The women’s team and Whitmore have high hopes for their seasons, and they have reached the biggest meet of the year. The only thing remaining is how they will perform under the national spotlight.

The women’s 6000m starts at 11 a.m., and the men’s 8000m begins at noon.

A.L.L. Sports brings balanced perspective to U of C talk radio RADIO continued from back

covering such a variety of topics—topics that are often overlooked—is nice to see. “I know consciously that if this were a bigger show on a larger network, they probably wouldn’t let me talk about the Blackhawks, baseball, or, god forbid, the growth of soccer,” Linton said.

If A.L.L. sports is succeeding in bringing a more measured perspective to sports discussion, it hasn’t yet captured the imagination of the UChicago community. On a good day, A.L.L. sports will draw anywhere from 150– 200 listeners, but the vast majority of those listeners are not University of Chicago students.

This isn’t necessarily due to a lack of sports fans on campus.

“A lot of people here are interested in sports.

You walk around campus and you see a lot of people with different jerseys, different baseball caps,” Linton said. “There are obviously people that care, but people come here and they’re just so focused on other things.”

So what does A.L.L. Sports need to do to get these people listening? The first thing, Linton argues, is to spread the word within the student body. “Having more UChicago athletes and students as guests would help. Reaching out to these people and making sure they’re aware of this as an outlet…maybe even doing some live shows at sporting events.”

Linton, who is now studying for his Ph.D. in political science, believes these are realistic

visit

goals in his time here. Okafor, on the other hand, sees the show as more of a steppingstone. “For me, right now, there are more important things than making the show more popular on campus. Right now it’s more about finding a full-time job.”

Linton understands this is just the nature of a university radio show. “Over the next year, a lot of people are graduating and moving on, but we need to make sure we still have that listenership and that we start to grow it. We could do a little more advertising, to be honest, and also start to get some bigger guests,” he said.

It’s clear that a few challenges lie ahead for A.L.L. Sports, particularly with Okafor looking to move on and Smith graduating at the end of this year. But the show has dealt with every problem it’s faced so far, and Linton appears well disposed to handle those that arrive in the future.

Regardless of its popularity, a show like A.L.L. Sports is an interesting change of pace from the usual academic focus at this school.

The University of Chicago has a campus filled with sports fans, a successful (and often underappreciated) college athletics program, and hundreds of dedicated student athletes. If there is one thing true of all sports fans, especially those at the University of Chicago, it’s that they love to argue. It’s nice to see those over at the A.L.L. Sports Hour aren’t ashamed of this fact.

Ratner hosts top competition at Phoenix Invite Swim and Dive Matt Tyndale Sports Staff With the winter holidays fast approaching, the Maroons are gearing up for their largest test of the season, the Phoenix Fall Classic, with great expectations.

“I am expecting our team to win, as we should, just purely based on numbers alone,” said Maroons head coach Jason Weber. “I expect some big performances.”

Coach Weber is not alone in anticipating greatness from the Maroons over the weekend; the Maroons have high goals for themselves.

“I am expecting a huge performance from myself and the team,” fourth-year Marius Aleksa said. “Not only is our goal to win the meet, but it’s also to get some national qualifying times.”

Fellow fourth-year Robert Vanneste also looks forward to some great performances from the team.

“I think we are going to see a lot of really fast times this weekend from a lot of people on the team,” Vanneste said.

Winning the meet, however, will not be simple. The Maroons are set to face D-I and D-II teams that have the advantage of being from schools that give out athletic scholarships. Chicago, as a D-III institution, is prohibited from giving out athletic scholarships.

“This will be the first year since I’ve been here that winning this meet will not be a foregone conclusion,” said Vanneste.

“Division I University of Illinois at Chicago is bringing part of their team, and Division II Truman State and Lindenwood are both coming as well,” said fourth-year Tara Levens. “All of these programs have some fast top-end talent and will definitely keep the meet close.”

In the face of this tough competition, the Maroons still expect to perform well and to use this meet to hit NCAA qualifying standards.

“This meet is out first chance to get qualifying times for NCAAs in March. It’s a chance to put up some fast times and get ourselves into a good position going into UAAs come February,” Levens said. “Winning the meet is a goal as well, but the first priority is to put up fast times and get cuts for nationals.”

“We have a lot of swimmers who are resting and shaving and can put up some fast times,” Coach Weber said.

After the Phoenix Fall Classic, the Maroons look forward to a long break. They will not return to action until January 7, against Kalamazoo, though they will not let the lull go to waste.

“We’ve got a week off for Thanksgiving, one tough week of training before finals, low key training week during finals, and then we leave for Key Largo in Florida for our annual winter training trip December 10–18,” Coach Weber said.

“December is our time to build a solid foundation for the second half of the season and create a strong base leading up into championship season,” said Levens, who is also heading to Georgia for the USA Swimming National Championships with hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Trials.

Chicago hosts the Phoenix Fall Classic this Friday.

chicagomaroon.com chicagomaroon.com chicagomaroon.com

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 18, 2011

11

Maroons sink 14 three-pointers in win against Dominican Men’s Basketball Alex Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff

First-year Alex Pyper defends a UIC player in an exhibition game at UIC. Pyper scored 18 points Tuesday night in a game against Dominican.

COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT

Around 1948: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Transformation International Women's Human Rights: Paradoxes, Paradigms, and Possibilities

Whenever Kyle Korver of the Chicago Bulls scores a three-pointer, Bulls’ commentator Stacey King shouts emphatically, “Give me the hot sauce!”

Without an NBA season thus far, King should have come to the Ratner Center on Tuesday night. If he had articulated the saying every time a Maroon scored a shot from behind the arc, he might have lost his voice.

Chicago shot 14–28 from three-point range en route to a season opening 92–79 win against the Dominican University Stars on Tuesday night.

The win came easily for the Maroons, with 18-point shooting performances from both fourth-year guard Matt Johnson and first-year forward Alex Pyper.

Yet, head coach Mike McGrath still saw errors in his team.

“It’s a good start, but we still have a lot of room for improvement,” he said.

The Maroons were not in complete control of the game from the start. In the first 10 minutes of action, Chicago’s largest lead was at five points.

Yet, with 9:42 remaining in the first half, Pyper hit not only his first three-pointer of the game, but, also, his first three-pointer as a Maroon.

A shot from behind the corner of the arc by second-year forward Charlie Hughes created a 10-point lead which the Maroons dropped.

By the half ’s conclusion, Chicago was up by 22 points, 54–32.

Collectively, Chicago shot an even 50 percent from the field and 52.9 percent from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes. Individually, Johnson was the Maroons’ leading scorer of the half with 13 points, going 3–6 on threepoint attempts. He credits his offseason work ethic for the stellar shooting performance.

“I worked hard this offseason to improve all aspects of my game, in order to be more consistent this year,” Johnson said.

The low-post presence of fourth-year Steve Stefanou, and the long range shooting from Johnson, Pyper, fourth-year guard Michael Sustarsic, and fourth-year forward Tom Wil-

liams dramatically increased the Maroons’ lead to 36 points with 14:35 remaining in the game.

Although the lead slowly declined from that point on, an under-the-basket layup by second-year guard Derrick Davis sealed the deal for the Maroons with 11 seconds left.

Chicago won 92–79.

Pyper finished with 18 points, shooting 6–11 from behind the arc. McGrath said that, although he had never seen a performance like that by Pyper in practice or during the preseason, he had had a feeling that it was coming.

“I saw the potential from [Pyper],” McGrath said.

Johnson, being last year’s average leading scorer, added that he was impressed by Pyper’s abilities on the court.

“Alex had a great shooting performance in our first game, and I was glad he was able to see the floor for a significant amount of minutes [19],” he said. “It’s just his first year, but we have a lot of confidence in his shooting ability.”

Aside from Johnson’s and Pyper’s 18-point performances, other top scoring contributors for the Maroons included Stefanou (14), second-year forward Sam Gage (10), and Williams (10).

Looking ahead, the Maroons will play their second game of a five-game home stand against Franklin on Saturday. At the time McGrath was interviewed, he was on his way to watch Franklin play and had not done a scouting report prior to that visit.

Yet, wins for Chicago are necessary for an NCAA D-III National Tournament bid. If the Maroons do not control the UAA, then they will need to receive an at-large bid which is not only based on its conference record, but overall record, as well. Still, Johnson does not want the latter to occur.

“Our team goal at the start of the season was to win the UAA,” he said. “That’s been our focus since day one and is something that especially this senior class wants to see to completion. We know our conference is very competitive from top to bottom, but we are confident in the talent and ability to battle and put ourselves in a position to win every game.”

Saturday’s tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Ratner Center.

Samuel Moyn

Professor, Department of History, Columbia University

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 in the History of Cosmopolitanism Tuesday, November 29 Lecture: 4:00 — 5:30 p.m. wit h recep t io n to fo llow

Workshop: 6:00 — 7:15 p.m.

The Franke Institute for the Humanities 1100 East 57th Street, JRL S-118, Chicago, IL Co-sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Sawyer Seminar on "Around 1948: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Transformation" at the Franke Institute for the Humanities; and the Sawyer Seminar on "International Women's Human Rights: Paradoxes, Paradigms, and Possibilities" at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.

For more information, please see: around1948.uchicago.edu and gendersexuality.uchicago.edu/events/sawyer.shtml Open to the public. Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance are requested to call 773-702-8274 in advance.

CLASSIFIEDS Classified advertising in The Chicago Maroon is $3 for each line. Lines are 45 characters long including spaces and punctuation. Special headings are 20-character lines at $4 per line. Submit all ads in person, by e-mail, or by mail to The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, Lower Level Rm 026, 1212 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637. The Chicago Maroon accepts Mastercard & Visa. Call (773) 702-9555.

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SPORTS

IN QUOTES “LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh are now legally obligated to find something else not to be the champion of.”

—The Onion Sports Guide to the NBA Lockout.

Maroons return to Oshkosh for NCAAs

A.L.L. Sports Hour gives sports a voice on campus Jake Walerius Sports Contributer

The women’s cross country team competes at the UAA Championships at Montrose Harbor.

COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT

Cross Country Matt Schaefer Sports Contributer For the women’s cross country team, as well as for third-year men’s runner Bill Whitmore, it all comes down to one final race.

The Maroon women will be one of 32 teams that convene at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, WI this weekend for the NCAA D-III National Championship. On the men’s side, Whitmore will

compete against individuals from the top 32 men’s teams in the country, as well as 55 other individuals who, like him, advanced by virtue of being one of the top seven finishers in their Regional meet who were not members of a qualifying team.

Saturday’s event, which is hosted by UW-Oshkosh, offers the athletes a distinct and vibrant running experience.

“I feel the athletes in general are much more tense at the NCAAs. This was the ultimate goal for all the competitors, so they are really up for the meet and, at the same time, feel a lot of additional pressure

to perform against the best,” head coach Chris Hall said. “There is more electricity in the air, so to speak. More spectators, more body painting, just an intense level of emotion.”

Chicago is eagerly anticipating the race.

“I really love the atmosphere of Nationals,” third-year Julia Sizek said. “I think it’s just a really great event, and it’s really inspiring to see so many great runners.”

It will be a competitive field, as the best runners in the nation come together to compete for the ultimate prize: a national title.

CROSS COUNTRY continued on page 10

Chicago kicks off season ranked second nationally Women’s Basketball Mahmoud Bahrani Sports Editor Every championship run has to start somewhere.

For the Maroons, it begins Friday as they take on Fontbonne as part of the UChicago Tip-off Tournament.

The Tip-Off Tournament will replace the larger Midway Classic, which traditionally occurred later in the year. The replacement came as a result of Hyde Park Bank pulling its sponsorship of the Midway Classic due to the lackluster economy. The Tip-Off Tournament is a four-team affair, with the winner of the game between Chicago and Fontbonne playing the winner of Benedictine and Macalester on Saturday in the Championship game.

Chicago is the only ranked squad in the field, sitting at second in the country, behind last year’s national champions, Amherst. Head coach Aaron Roussell has been downplaying the ranking as much as possible at practice. “We don’t even talk about it,” he said. The team’s emotional leader, fourth-year Meghan Herrick, also downplayed the ranking.

“Our ranking is meaningless at this point because we have a new team this year which has not accomplished anything at this point,” Herrick said. “We have not even played a game yet, so our ranking is just a number.”

The ranking might even be a negative, as the Maroons will have a target on their backs. “If anything, the ranking has made us work harder because we know everyone will be gunning for us,” said fourthyear center Taylor Simpson, who was named a preseason All-American.

Fontbonne, which is not receiving votes in the national poll, played Wednesday against 7th-ranked Wash U, Chicago’s UAA rival. Wash U needed an 8–0 run in the second half to put the Griffins away and were buoyed by fourth-year forward Dani Hoover’s 21-point night. For the most part, Chi-

cago is ignoring the temptation to compare its performance tonight to Wash U’s on Wednesday.

“I do not compare ourselves to Wash U,” Herrick said. “I do not think it is in our best interest to compare our teams, especially at such an early stage of the season.”

“At the beginning of the season, so much of the focus is on us,” Roussell said. “I don’t care who we’re playing.”

Fourth-year guard Bryanne Halfhill, who averaged more than 12 points per game last year, reasserted the one-game-at-a-time approach that has been a mainstay of the Roussell era, but also said that the game will be taken as an emphatic first step toward a championship. “We’re looking to send a message to everyone,” Halfhill said. “Wash U will definitely be one of them!”

A new crop of first-years will also be making their

collegiate debuts. “I think, for us to have a good season, this year some of our freshmen absolutely need to step up and be key contributors,” Roussell said.

Although Roussell emphasized the importance that first-years will have on the team this season, more than likely, the game against Fontebonne will give the Chicago first-years one of their few opportunities to play extended minutes. With the entire starting line-up returning and even more depth coming off the bench (including NYU transfer third-year Maggie Ely, who led the UAA in scoring last year), finding playing time for some first-years might prove to be difficult.

“We’ve got a lot of experience back, with some people who have done it at a high level. But at the same time, this is a new season, and I think the kids understand that as well,” Roussell said. “We can’t rest on what we’ve done before.”

An abundance of sports fans isn’t generally considered one of the University of Chicago’s greatest assets. But they do exist, and courtesy of the A.L.L. Sports Hour—the University’s only radio station dedicated to sports, DJ-ed

by Allen L. Linton—they’re starting to make some noise.

A.L.L. Sports is a one-hour talk show that airs every other Thursday on the University’s radio station, WHPK. The format is simple: The three hosts—Allen Linton, Louis Smith, and Chika Okafor—sit down and discuss whatever issues they feel are relevant to the sporting world at the time. These could relate to anything from mainstream professional sports to collegiate athletics at the University of Chicago. The variety is something lead host Linton is committed to maintaining. “One of our main goals is to give people a broad perspective about what’s going on in sports, both on the field and its place in society,” said Linton. “It’s like the Core for sports.”

Linton and Smith founded A.L.L. Sports in 2008 and have been hosting the show ever since. The two met in their first year as dormmates in Snell-Hitchcock, where they were frustrated by the limited interest in sports outside of their own debates. “Lou (Smith) and I would watch sports, when not many other people would, and we’d have these arguments,” says Linton. “He was very traditional and I was more technical and into the new stats.”

Linton and Smith’s frustration extended beyond the lack of sports fans they found at the U of C. “We were frustrated by talk radio in general,” explained Linton. “They made the same dull points; ripping someone one week, saying he was the greatest the next week. And I was like, ‘Hey, why don’t we start a show?’” By the end of their second year, Smith and Linton were hosting the A.L.L. Sports Hour.

What sets it apart from most mainstream sports talk shows is its simplicity. Co-host Okafor—who joined the show after being introduced to Linton by a friend—is insistent on this point.

“It’s just an opportunity for us to talk about and discuss sports and share some information with people,” Okafor said. The simple and honest discussion of sports is a refreshing change of pace in an age of over-the-top ESPN-style sports coverage. On top of its civil style of discussion, A.L.L. Sports’s size also allows it to focus on lesser-known sports that the big stations often neglect. A.L.L. Sports’s commitment to RADIO continued on page 10

CA LEN DA R Friday

11/18

- Swimming and Diving hosts Phoenix Invite at Ratner, 6 p.m.

-Women’s Basketball vs. Fontbonne, 7 p.m.

Saturday

11/19

- Swimming and Diving hosts Phoenix Invite at Ratner, 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

- Wrestling @ Concordia (Wis.) Open, 9 a.m.

- Cross Country @ Midwest Regional, Women: 11 a.m., Men: noon - Women’s Basketball vs. TBD, 1 p.m. or 3 p.m.

- Men’s Basketball vs. Franklin, 7 p.m.

Sunday Fourth-year Meghan Herrick defends in a game last season.

COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT

11/20

- Swimming and Diving hosts Phoenix Invite at Ratner, 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.