FRIDAY • NOVEMBER 20, 2015
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 15 • VOLUME 127
Students studying abroad in Paris react to terrorist attacks Feng Ye Maroon Contributor All 58 UChicago students studying abroad in Paris, as well as affiliated faculty, are confirmed safe after last Friday’s terrorist attacks. Academic programs have been minimally affected.
Isaac Stein Senior News Reporter
Students hold vigil for victims of terror around the world About 100 students attended a “Vigil for All Victims of Terrorism” on the Main Quad on Thursday in response to recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Ankara, Baghdad, Beirut, and Garissa, among others. UChicago Spiritual Life, the French Club, and the Turkish Students Association sponsored the event, in which students gathered to
mourn victims everywhere. Attendees lit candles around bouquets of roses and signs pleading for peace in an effort to raise awareness about each attack. The half-hour long vigil included words from second-year event organizers Rajiv Hurhangee and Asya Akça, the heads of each participating RSO, and Kevin Bales, the Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights. A moment of silence followed, until a single man
in the crowd began to sing “Let it Be,” and a handful of crowd members joined in. Hurhangee and Akça believe that although terrorism affects civilians all over the world, the global media has been disproportionately focused on the November 13 deaths in Paris. “What happened in Paris two days ago was obviously very tragic, but we think that there wasn’t as much attention for other instances of VIGIL continued on page 3
Non-tenured faculty will begin voting on unionization today Lorentz Hansen Associate News Editor Non-tenure-track faculty members at the University will begin voting today to decide whether to elect the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 73, to represent them in collective bargaining negotiations with the University administration. The faculty members voting in the election are certain full-time and part-time non-tenure track academic appointees at the University, who comprise the bargaining unit that the union
would represent should they successfully win the election. The bargaining unit includes nearly 175 academic appointees, reduced from the nearly 400-member bargaining unit that was proposed in the election petition. SEIU filed the election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on October 29, which stated their desire to represent UChicago’s non-tenure track faculty in collective bargaining negotiations with the University administration. Before the election petition could be
IN VIEWPOINTS
Reflections from Paris » Page 7 BLACKLIGHTXMAROON: Black off campus» Page 8
just finished the second of three courses of the quarter, and were about to begin a one-week break. Some had already left Paris to travel, while others were going to depart on Saturday. The University’s Center in Paris contacted study PARIS continued on page 3
Trauma center protesters banned by University speak on campus
On Thursday, November 19, students came together on the main quad to express solidarity with victims of terrorism across the world. ALEXA LUBORSKY | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Isaac Troncoso Maroon Contributor
There are four study abroad programs for undergraduate students at the UChicago Center in Paris this quarter, including European Civilizations, African Civilizations, Human Evolution, and Classics of Social and Political Thought. Last Friday, students had
filed, SEIU needed to obtain written declarations of support for unionization from at least 30 percent of the non-tenure track faculty. Non-tenure track faculty in support of unionization are seeking better compensation, benefits, job security, and access to professional development funds at the University, according to the UChicago Faculty Forward website. SEIU currently represents over 2 million workers across North America, and in recent years has been leading a movement to unionize UNION continued on page 2
On Wednesday evening, a crowd of more than 60 people gathered in the basement of Stuart Hall for a teach-in held by the Trauma Center Coalition (TCC) on the recent history of its protests. Though the police could have entered the building at any point to remove the TCC members
who are legally banned from the University, the event proceeded without incident. TCC is an umbrella activist group that includes the RSO Students for Health Equity (SHE), Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), and Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP). Last June, nine TCC members were arrested at a protest for the construction of an Adult Level I
Trauma Center at The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), at which they barricaded themselves into Levi Hall. After the arrests, the University’s Office of Legal Counsel invoked its “No Trespass (Ban) Policy” to order eight of the protesters, who were not current University students, to not return to PROTEST continued on page 4
Saturday dinner program undersubscribed, despite University efforts Cairo Lewis News Staff On November 14, the University of Chicago’s Dining Committee held its third Saturday Night Social Club in the Ida Noyes Theatre. UChicago Dining has so far experienced consistently low turnouts for all three dining events but is looking toward using the quarter’s pilot experience to improve the program for the rest of the school year. One hundred fifty students signed up for the first dinner, though only 51 attended. One hundred forty seven and 145 signed up for the latter two, but 105 and 107 showed up, respectively. Based on feedback from the diners, Executive Director of Dining Richard Mason said that he gathered that students want Dining to continue to develop the program. “Feeding students is important, but another one of our intentions is to foster a community while feeding
IN ARTS
students. At the University of Chicago, dining is more than eating—it’s eating and sharing ideas and thoughts. This really is the best way to provide a community dining experience, and as with any pilot experience, you learn a lot,” Mason said. As a result of the low turnout, UChicago Dining is now looking toward improving and expanding the program. Some suggestions involve offering more dinners per quarter and holding them closer to events that are happening on campus. Other options involve enabling students to use guest-swipes to bring friends to the dinner and allowing students who live off-campus to use Maroon Dollars to pay for the dinner. “It would specifically be great to collaborate with RSOs and houses on-campus to see if we can tailor dinners to their events. In terms of advertising and making ourselves more accessible, we are working on posting calendars
with the dinners listed so students can plan their activities around them,” Mason said. He added that the Committee will review the feedback from students’ comment cards and will take suggestions from the University’s Student Advisory Committee. Wickham also offered some solutions that he thinks would better support the University’s initiative to provide more dining options for students. “The first thing the University could do to better advertise this program would be to reach out to students who are on financial aid first. Additionally, there could be better collaboration with student groups, programs, and RSOs that are dedicated to lowincome and first-generation college students such as SDA, QuestBridge Scholars Network (QSN), and CAAP.” Some students around the University believe that these low turnouts are representative of larger problems at SOCIAL continued on page 3
IN SPORTS
Greetings from yesteryear: Exhibit showcases postcards from University’s history» Page 9
X-COUNTRY: Men and women compete at Nationals this weekend
Alum competes in Survivor: Cambodia, Second Chances
SWIMMING & DIVING: Phoenix Fall Classic runs through Sunday
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 20, 2015
Size of bargaining unit substantially reduced in agreement between University and union UNION continued from front
adjunct faculty members at universities across the country. In response to the petition to unionize, University Provost Eric Isaacs said in an e-mail to faculty this week: “I have shared my concerns about the effect that a unionized teaching staff might have on the broad community of scholars, teachers, and students who, whatever their many differences in discipline, role, or professional ambitions, are held together by the shared values and commitments which have defined the University. The choice is ultimately up to the voters…The University of Chicago respects the lawful right of employees to form a union.” Isaacs also explained the decision to alter the bargaining unit in an e-mail to tenure-track and nontenure-track faculty. “The original proposed bargaining unit and hence set of eligible voters was a heterogeneous group with very different roles within the scope of the University’s academic activities. Accordingly, the University and SEIU have agreed to exclude a number of appointees from the election,” he said. The SEIU confirmed that after being excluded from the bargaining unit, the Harper-Schmidt Fellows filed a separate petition for union election on Tuesday, November 17. Harper-Schmidt Fellows teach two courses per quarter in humanities, social sciences, and Western Civilizations core at the College during four-year appointments as collegiate assistant professors. Fellows for the 2016–2017 school year will receive an annual salary
of $66,000 and will be eligible for one quarter of research sabbatical, according to the Harper-Schmidt Fellows website. The new bargaining unit includes all full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate nontenure-track academic appointees and non-supervisory senior lecturers in the following departments: the Marathi Language Program, the Practicum in the undergraduate Public Policy Program, the Persian Language Program, the applied mathematics component of the undergraduate Biology Program, the Yiddish Language Program, the introductory and intermediate part of the SALC Hindi Language Program, career advising and the coordination of internships in the MAPSS Program, and the Ecology and Evolution Programs for undergraduates not majoring in biology. Those included in the bargaining unit must currently teach at least one credit-bearing course in a degree-granting program at the University’s main campus, School of Social Service Administration, Divinity School, or the Harris School. “The University and the union mutually agreed to exclude some individuals and groups, such as those who have supervisory responsibilities or otherwise do not share a ‘community of interest’ with the majority of the proposed unit. (Under long-established labor law, members of a bargaining unit are supposed to form a ‘community of interest,’ which can be established by numerous factors including common work duties.)” News Officer Jeremy Manier said in an e-mail.
Some questioned the decision to change the bargaining unit, as well as the method for selecting members of the new bargaining unit. “My understanding is that the administration wanted to exclude as many people as possible. I mean we see among different departments there’s really no rhyme or reason, when everybody is full time non-tenure-track faculty, for why some people are in and why some people aren’t in,” said Senior Lecturer in Hindi Jason Grunebaum, who is involved with the organizing committee of UChicago Faculty Forward and a member of the bargaining unit. Both the Harper Schmidt Fellows and the non-tenure track faculty seek representation with SEIU, Local 73. However, the two would comprise separate bargaining units. Janet Sedlar, senior lecturer in Spanish and member of UChicago’s Faculty Forward organizing committee, remarked on the solidarity between the two bargaining units. “A union is more than a legal process or an election, it’s fundamentally about people standing together. As the Harper-Schmidt Fellows showed through their filing this week, UChicago faculty are able to overcome attempts to divide us,” Sedlar said in an e-mail. Members of the University’s Faculty Forward chapter, which has organized the unionization efforts on campus over the past year, have been encouraging union supporters to discuss the unionization effort with their colleagues. Isaacs has also encouraged faculty members to educate themselves about
unionization and discuss the issues with their colleagues. Both Faculty Forward and Isaacs have created Unionization Information and FAQ pages on their respective websites to provide information on unions, collective bargaining, and the election process. Martha Roth, Jason Merchant, and Christopher Wild, who are deans in the College’s Humanities Division, hosted an open forum on unionization on Monday. Roth, Merchant, and Wild sent the invitation to non-tenure-track faculty in the humanities, since the majority of those included in the bargaining unit are in the Humanities Division, said Jason Merchant, deputy dean for languages and instruction. “Martha [Roth] had the idea for the forum,” Merchant said in an interview. “I think a lot of us had questions about the technicalities of what it means—what the steps are towards unionization and what it would mean afterwards, some of which we can’t answer right now… we weren’t there to make a statement, we were just there to bounce ideas around and hear what people had to say, which for me was very useful.” Merchant, who is also chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, raised concerns about the possible effects of union representation on the University’s distinct pedagogy and learning environment. He questioned whether the smaller language courses, which can sometimes have as few as two students per class, would be subject to changes under union representation. Although he agreed that some
improvements could be made, Merchant said that compensation and job stability at the University are comparable to or better than many peer institutions. “Most of our lecturers in the humanities, in the humanities collegiate division, have three-year contracts; and they roll over, so they’re renewable. Some of them have five-year contracts, and some have one-year contracts. Sort of the first step is one-year, and then we evaluate the teaching, and if we can, we try to offer the person a three-year contract then we do…we want that stability.” Grunebaum, who was one of approximately 40 people to attend the forum, saw the discussion as a good sign for future negotiations. “It did give me hope that we would be able to work together as allies with common goals of maintaining and even strengthening the first-rate teaching that we offer to students, while also working to secure more equitable conditions of employment,” he said. Those eligible to vote in the election will receive ballots today, Friday, November 20, to be filled out and returned by the close of business on December 8, 2015. The election is a secret-ballot election, meaning eligible voters will return the ballots in a postage-paid envelope included with the ballot mailed to them by the NLRB. The election will be decided by a majority of those who vote, not by a majority of those eligible to vote. The NLRB will then count the votes and announce the results on December 9.
Potentially major finding in computer science department Bryan Brickman Maroon Contributor
On November 10, László Babai, the George and Elizabeth Yovovich Professor in the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science, presented the first of three seminars outlining a new algorithm. If confirmed, the algorithm will solve the Graph Isomorphism (GI) problem, one of the most prominent open problems in theoretical computer science, in quasipolynomial time. Scott Aaronson, associate professor of computer science at MIT, described Babai’s finding on his blog as “what might be the theoretical computer science result of the decade.” The GI problem is as follows: Given two finite graphs (sets of points connected with lines), does an isomorphism exist between the graphs? To understand isomorphism between two graphs, consider the analogy of a social network within a dormitory. If we assume that each student occupies a single room in a dorm, then his or her room can be considered a vertex in a graph. Then imagine each relationship as being represented by a line connecting the room of the two students involved. This representation forms a graph. Now imagine
Diagram A and B depict isomorphic graphs. COURTESY OF BACI WEILER
that all of the students moved into a different dorm. If all of the relationships are retained, then the graph of the new dorm is considered isomorphic to the original dorm’s graph, even though the positional arrangement of the students may have changed. According to this analogy, the graph isomorphism problem can then be restated as follows: Prove or disprove that the original dorm described and another dorm are isomorphic and, therefore, represent the same social network. That is, the vertexes, or students, are
connected by relationships in the same way. Consider the lines in Figure A. These lines are different in shape, but they represent the same relationship between the points; the same connections between points exist in both graphs, so this simple graph is isomorphic. Let’s consider a more complicated graph. (Figure B) The graph in Figure C is also isomorphic, though less obviously so. Although the peer review process is just beginning, the algorithm, if confirmed, constitutes a
Diagram C depicts a less obviously isomorphic graph. COURTESY OF BACI WEILER
major breakthrough in the fields of theoretical computer science and combinatorics.
Previously, the most efficient algorithm, also formulated by Babai RESULT continued on page 4
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 20, 2015
All UChicago students and faculty in Paris confirmed safe after attacks
Dining looking to improve Saturday night dinner program in response to low turnout SOCIAL continued from front
PARIS continued from front
abroad students immediately after news of the Paris attacks broke on Friday evening. The safety of all students had been confirmed by Saturday, according to Sarah Walter, director of study abroad and associate dean for international education in the College. At 1:45 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, Walter sent an email to students and parents, asking students to keep updating the program administrators with their travel plans, and to be responsive to messages from the study abroad program and other University staff. “We are…closely in touch with our colleagues at the Cité Universitaire Residence campus, who have implemented increased security measures in the houses. While we do not presently anticipate the need to make adjustments to the academic schedule in Paris (which has classes resuming on Monday, November 23), we will continue to monitor events and are prepared to make changes if needed,” Walter said in the e-mail. “Any student who wishes
to return home is of course entitled to do so, and we will be glad to offer support with logistics,” Walter continued. After his finals at the Paris center and a visit to Musée Guimet, third-year Hansong Li, a student of the European Civilization sequence, originally planned to go to Canal Saint-Martin, near which some of the attacks took place. But he instead chose to come back to rest in his dorm in Cité Universitaire de Paris, located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. “Immediately after I came back to my dorm, I saw the news that the attacks happened near the canal,” Li said. Li planned to travel to Italy during his break. He said when he took the Metro to the airport the train was almost empty. “You [could] feel the sadness in the atmosphere and you [could] feel how the city was so silent when it used to be so lively,” Li said. Third-year Elisabeth Huh, in the same program, had been getting ready to leave for her one-week break in Morocco when the attacks occurred.
“I felt a horrible sense of guilt at the idea of leaving Paris. I felt that the city had truly become like a second home over the five months I had stayed here…The idea of leaving on a vacation the day after the event felt disrespectful. It felt like an act of abandonment,” Huh said. Students had previously visited many of the places where the attacks happened. Canal Saint-Martin, for example, was where they just had a class session during the week of the attack, according to Li. “Le Petit Cambodge, one of the restaurants that was targeted, was one I had visited with a few friends in Chicago back in August,” Huh said. The academic program will resume next week as scheduled, and students are expected to travel back to Paris. “I have no expectations for any particular policy in response to the Paris attacks, but I do hope that the vibrant cultural environment will resume, and Paris will recover from its wound as soon as possible,” Li said.
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hand: under-advertising of the program, the $10 fee that even low-income students who live off campus would have to pay, and the overarching notion that providing food in a space that also allows students to socialize for three Saturdays out of the quarter is sufficient. So far, the $10 fee goes toward funding the program along with UChicago Dining’s yearly budget. Mason said that keeping one of the University dining halls open would be much more costly than hosting the Saturday dinners. In a Maroon Viewpoints article published November 9 by Socioeconomic Diversity Alliance (SDA) members Kyle Wickham, Stephanie Diaz, Derek Caquelin, and Claire Moore, the SDA expressed dissatisfaction with the current program. “[W] hat low-income students really need is simple: to have the dining halls open on Saturday nights.” Wickham attended the very first Social Club dinner, and although he enjoyed it, he believes that the dinner’s seeming exclusivity and unfamiliar environment are contributing factors to the program’s poor turnout.
“Capping the dinner at 100 students makes the dinner seem exclusive and might discourage students from signing up.” Wickham also said that the three course meal with servers “may seem enticing to most,” but that, “it can make many students feel uncomfortable and out of their element. A more relaxed and natural dining experience would accommodate the needs of more students and would most likely encourage more students to attend.” This most recent dinner was more formal than the previous buffet-style one. Students were seated in groups of 10 as servers brought out family style three-course meals and side dishes, which featured roast beef, tofu, spicy baked sweet potatoes, and chocolate mousse cake. The event lasted an hour, and students had the opportunity to offer suggestions for improvement by filling out comment cards on the tables. Many of the students enjoyed the event and said they would attend again. “I like the relaxed vibe, and the servers were really nice. The food was really good— the dessert was exquisite. It was also nice to meet new
people and see some new faces,” first-year Sam David said. Second-year New Grad resident Casey Mulroy attended two out of the three dinners. She said she was encouraged as a member of Orientation staff and Midway’s House Council to try the new dining option. “I like the idea of having the dinners being event-themed. The first time I went, it was Day of the Dead themed, and one of the chefs was specifically trained in Mexican-style cooking, so he was really excited to do it and was in charge of all of it,” Mulroy said after the third social club event. Rosemary Ho, a secondyear Broadview resident, suggested several improvements to better appeal to students. “I’m not sure if it would work, but maybe just having people sit where they want, instead of at round table and have dinner served family style like that. They should also find way to prioritize low income students and should have more publicity for the event.” Students can sign up for the Saturday Night Social Club on UChicago Dining’s website. Annie Guo contributed reporting.
UChicago Spiritual Life, the French Club, and the Turkish Students Association sponsored the event VIGIL continued from front
terrorism happening around the world. This is not to say that the attention paid to the Paris attacks is wrong, but we think that the same should be happening to all these other cases,” Hurhangee said. In some cases, this frustration with a single-issue news cycle arose from students’ personal connections to those affected areas that they believe have been overlooked. “For me, the Ankara attacks hit really close to home—in fact, they hit in my home country. It took an emotional toll on me, and
there was no sort of ceremony or form of closure that I had as an individual, so that was the impetus to plan this event,” Akça said. Because the vigil was dedicated to all victims of terror, controversy arose on the event’s Facebook page over whether it should include those affected by fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. “We talked extensively about the definition of terrorism, because some people had asked us, ‘why did you include these cases over those?’ It was not supposed to be a comprehensive list; it was just supposed to
show that terrorism is not a phenomenon that only affects Paris,” Hurhangee said. Bales advocated for an approach emphasizing forgiveness. “It is a myth that there is such a thing as ‘redemptive violence.’ This is the most powerful and destructive myth in our lives—that if you confront evil with violence, you can somehow redeem violence. No, violence begets violence. Our real challenge is to break the change of damage that echoes and echoes through Paris, through Chicago, through all the parts of our world,” Bales said.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 20, 2015
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Law School, nonprofit release CPD complaint database after long litigation Katherine Vega Senior News Reporter The University of Chicago Law School’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project (PAP) partnered with the Invisible Institute, a South Side nonprofit, to release a database of Chicago Police Department (CPD) complaints to the public. PAP faculty and students helped conduct the 13 years of litigation and Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA) requests that led to the creation of the Citizens Police Data Project (CPDP). Craig Futterman, a clinical law professor at the Law School, worked for years on various cases related to the production of the CPDP. He pursued litigation against the city in order to obtain the records of decades’ worth of police complaints. He was helped by a team of law students at PAP, which he founded as part of the Law School’s Mandel Legal Aid Clinic in Fall 2000. Jamie Kalven, a journalist and activist with the Invisible Institute, spearheaded the initiative. According to Chaclyn Hunt, a civil rights attorney who directs the Youth/Police Project at the Invisible institute, there was over a decade of collaboration between Futterman and Kalven. Kalven became interested in police brutality and accountability while reporting on tenant experiences from Stateway Gardens, a large public housing project that has since been demolished. In the summer of 2000 he met Futterman, who had recently moved to the city to take up a position at the law school. When Futterman started his clinic at the law school, his students immediately started working with the Invisible Institute out of a vacant apartment. The collaboration is ongoing. In 2003, one of the tenants at Stateway Gardens, Diane Bond, was
allegedly assaulted by a group of police officers. Futterman filed a civil lawsuit against the officers for Bond in 2004. During the case, Futterman requested access to the complaints against repeat offenders on the force. Although he was able to obtain them, they were under a protective order that barred him from releasing them to the public. The case was settled out of court in 2007, although the City admitted no wrongdoing. In an effort to make those complaints public, Kalven intervened as a journalist on behalf of the public, and Kalven’s lawyers succeeded in overturning the protective order. However, the court’s decision was soon overruled. Kalven and his lawyers, now including Futterman, continued with their case in 2009 after Kalven’s Freedom of Information Act requests to the CPD were denied. In 2014, they won. In *Kalven v. the City of Chicago*, the court ruled that “the documents listing the police officers with the most complaints…and the documents related to completed investigations into allegations of misconduct against five officers…were subject to disclosure.” Based on that list of names, Futterman and Kalven’s other lawyers took advantage of FOIA laws and obtained the complaint data that they needed to create the database. “Basically, once we received the ruling in 2014, we began crafting a FOIA request, and the answer to that request became the current database. Building the tools to enable citizens to access the data and make it useful required a tremendous effort and coordination across technical, legal, and journalistic practices,” Hunt wrote in an e-mail. Futterman knows that there is still work to be done. After his victory, police unions are fighting to have records more than a few years old destroyed, meaning thousands
of records from 1967 onward could be lost. “If we…don’t act to change the law, to make sure that police misconduct records are not destroyed, we’re at great risk of all of these records going up in smoke. There’s lots more to be done,” he said. While Futterman works to keep the records extant and public, the Invisible Institute will continue updating its database frequently, accepting suggestions, and looking into discrepancies. “For the toolkit to be useful, it must be an expanding resource that facilitates connections and resources between lawyers, journalists, researchers and citizens,” Hunt wrote. Futterman noted that the process has been a learning experience for his students, who get to work on cases at the PAP clinic. “Where does the role of litigation as one part of lawyering fit into lawyering more broadly and work to change the world? Litigation—and this a great example of it, and this is what students involved with the project are learning—is a very powerful tool but not the end-all be-all.” Futterman recognizes that the creation of the database was partially a result of a decade of litigation, but he claims that the only way to ultimately create change is to have people who care about the issue use the data provided. “It is an incredibly powerful tool, fundamentally opening up the police department to the public… It’s a transfer of power from the state and police department to the public. But it doesn’t by itself automatically remedy sexism or racism in the police department. It doesn’t automatically address matters of police abuse in black and brown communities. It doesn’t magically get rid of the cover of silence…But it does create the conditions for each and every one of those things to happen,” he said.
Banned trauma center activists allege racism, police misconduct PROTEST continued from front
campus, or potentially face arrest for trespassing. The policy states that “the University exercises its right to deny access to some or all University property” if it determines that an individual “has engaged, or is reasonably likely to engage, in criminal activity [or] a violation of University policy.” The policy also states that banned individuals may file a written request for a review of their “no- trespass warning,” but third-year Natalie Naculich, a member of SHE, said that “[none] of the banned activists have petitioned to have the ban removed.” For Veronica Morris-Moore, a member of FLY who was arrested and received a ban order, an ongoing ban for urging the UCMC to build a trauma center in Hyde Park is contrary to its stated interest in expanding trauma services. In September, the UCMC announced that it plans to co-sponsor the same type of facility at Holy Cross Hospital in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. She added her belief that both the University of Chicago Police (UCPD) and the Chicago Police Department (CPD) mistreated her during the June arrest, and that University administrators’ indifference to the protesters was racially motivated. “Usually, when you get arrested at a protest, you’re processed within 10 hours for a misdemeanor, and are released. But we were chained to a wall for seven hours before we were even sent to lockup; in total, we spent 48 hours in jail. I can assure you that if [trauma care on the South Side] was an issue that affected young white people, the administration would have taken our demands seriously,” Morris-Moore said.
Marla Bramble, a TCC member who, at a separate protest last June, was punched by Russ Zajtchuk, an alumnus who previously served as the president of the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association, added that she thinks that the bans on TCC members should be lifted because the University police did not uphold rule of law when she was assaulted. “He punched me in the chest, and then just walked away, and got onto a bus. Had there not been a number of our brave [TCC members] to line up in front of the bus, he would have gotten away. There was a UCPD officer a few feet away, but he didn’t do anything, despite me asking him three times to apprehend [Zajtchuk],” Bramble said. After discussing its recent past, TCC said that it does not have any plans for protests related to the proposed trauma center at Holy Cross Hospital. Its next protest, which aims to pressure the UCMC to immediately follow through with its 2014 announcement that it will raise the maximum age of pediatric trauma patients that it accepts at its Hyde Park facility from 15 to 17 years of age, will take place on December 3 at noon. Morris-Moore added that she cares strongly about the issue, in part because Damian Turner, her friend and fellow FLY activist, exceeded the age limit for transport to the UCMC when he was fatally shot in 2010. “We live in the ‘hood, we’re poor, some of us don’t even have high school educations, but we commit, we dedicate, and we do what needs to be done. My friend was gunned down, and that was one of the things I carried.”
“Might be the theoretical computer science result of the decade”
NEWS IN BRIEF Petition concerning University sexual assault policy circulates online A petition urging the University of Chicago administration to address sexual assault was recently posted and advertised on Facebook by Breakthrough U.S., a non-profit global human rights organization that seeks to combat violence and discrimination against women. The letter asks President Zimmer to commit to campus safety by implementing sexual assault prevention programs, funding sexual assault response services for survivors,
evaluating and reforming “rape culture” on campus, and maintaining transparency in the administration as these efforts are made. The petition states, “We want our school to stand as a beacon of campus safety. The University of Chicago is a prestigious institution where all students have the chance to fulfill our personal and professional aspirations and reach our greatest potential. To be successful we must know that our safety here is a priority.”
According to Joe Samalin, a senior program manager at Breakthrough, the petition currently has 47 signatures. “We’re just getting started,” Samalin said. “We invite students from across UChicago to join us, and thousands of other students around the country who are inviting their campus presidents to create a firestorm of positive change—together.” -Emily Kramer
László Babai lays out his findings in a lecture last week. CHRISTINA CANO | THE CHICAGO MAROON RESULT continued from page 2
UCMC to merge with south-suburban hospital On November 12, the University of Chicago Medicine and Ingalls Health System signed a non-binding agreement to merge to create an integrated health delivery system. The merger will further extend UChicago Medicine’s reach into the Chicago suburbs, and help Ingalls cut costs. Ingalls, an independent hospi-
tal in the South Chicago suburb of Harvey, IL, has been looking to become affiliated with a larger health system since March 2015. UChicago Medicine and Ingalls will be engaged in negotiations over the coming months, and they expect the transaction to be finalized by late spring or early summer 2016. The merger would add Ingalls
to UChicago Medicine’s network, which includes the Hyde Park campus and outpatient care facilities such as the planned Centers for Advanced Care in Orland Park and in the South Loop. The University News Office could not comment on the negotiations. -Hannah Hu
in 1983, solved the GI problem in exponential time. Calculating the solution requires more time and resources to solve as the problem grows in complexity. Computations in exponential time quickly become infeasible and can require years of computational time with today’s hardware. For any two graphs, Babai’s new algorithm claims to compute the solution in quasi-polynomial time,
which is much faster than exponential time. This is particularly exciting in the world of theoretical computer science because there has been no progress in determining the difficulty of the GI problem for more than 30 years. In the course of the next few months, Babai’s paper will be extensively reviewed by fellow experts in the field in hopes of confirming or refuting his finding.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | November 20, 20, 2015 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 2015
Letter of Support for Right of Contingent Faculty to Unionize At the end of the week, University of Chicago non-tenure-track faculty will begin voting to form a union. Many elected officials, alumni, students and tenured faculty have asked the administration respect the right of faculty to debate and vote without undue pressure and intimidation. Recently, however, UChicago has held anti-union meetings, spread misleading information, and hired an anti-union lawyer. Dear Sirs: Robert J. Zimmer,
Eric D. Isaacs,
Joseph Neubauer,
President, University of Chicago
Provost,The University of Chicago
Chairman, University of Chicago Board of Trustees
We, the undersigned tenured and tenure-track faculty at the University of Chicago, support the right of our contingently employed faculty colleagues to form a union. We affirm the statement of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that “faculties at both public and private institutions are entitled, as professionals, to choose by an election or comparable informal means to engage in collective bargaining in order to ensure effective faculty governance.” (Statement on Collective Bargaining, AAUP POLICY DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS 259 (2006 ed.) Moreover, we believe this is consistent with the principles stated in the University of Chicago’s “Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression” issued in January of this year. Thus, we ask the University of Chicago administration remain neutral and not use university funds or other institutional resources to oppose the unionization effort. We ask the University not employ any union avoidance consultants. Any communications from University personnel speaking in their administrative capacities about the unionization effort should not discourage faculty participation in or support for the initiative. Additionally, we ask the administration make clear to administrative personnel that a contingent faculty member’s decision to invoke his or her right to organize can play no role in making personnel decisions about that faculty member, and the University will tolerate neither intimidation nor retaliation against contingent faculty who invoke their right to organize. Finally, should the required majority of contingent faculty at the University of Chicago vote in favor of unionization, we urge the administration of the University of Chicago to recognize the AAUP’s position on the question of collective bargaining, as it represents a nationally recognized “best practice” for university governance. Sincerely, Willemien Otten, Professor,
Matthew Briones, Associate
Divinity
Professor, History
Kenneth Warren, Professor,
Jason Bridges, Associate
English
Professor, Philosophy William Sewell, Professor Professor, Philosophy Emeritus, Political Science and Christopher Taylor, Assistant History Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, Professor, English Assistant Professor, Cinema and William Sites, Media Studies Associate Professor, SSA Ada Holly Shissler, Associate Ben Laurence, Assistant Professor, NELC Professor, Philosophy
Anton Ford, Assistant
Lauren Berlant, Professor,
Robert Kendrick, Professor,
English
Music
Adrienne Brown, Assistant
Jonathan Levy, Associate
Professor, English
Professor, History
Constantine Nakassis,
Susan Schreiner, Professor, Divinity School Andrei Pop, Associate Professor, Social Thought Moishe Postone, Professor, History John Woods, Professor, History/NELC Janet Johnson, Professor, NELC Benjamin Morgan, Assistant Professor, English
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor, History Amy Lippert, Assistant Professor, History Leora Auslander, Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor of Western Civilization in the College and the Department of History, History Andreas Glaeser, Professor, Sociology
Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor, History of Religions Cornell Fleischer, Professor, History and NELC
Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor, Mathematics
Julie Orlemanski, Assistant Professor, English
Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies Kimberly Hoang, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Itamar Francez, Assistant Professor, Linguistics Julie Saville, Associate Professor, History
William J. T. Mitchell, Professor, English and Art History Peter White, Professor, Classics Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Associate Professor, RLL Mario Santana, Associate Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures
Elizabeth Helsinger,
Timothy Campbell, Assistant Daniel Brudney, Professor, Professor, English Philosophy Daisy Delogu, Professor, RLL Johanna Ransmeier, Assistant Professor, History Kaley Mason, Assistant Professor, Music Victoria Saramago, Assistant Professor, RLL Armando Maggi, Professor, RLL William Schweiker, Professor, Divinity, Divinity Melvin Butler, Assistant School and the College Professor, Music Michael Dawson, Professor, Janet Johnson, Professor, NELC Political Science Martha Ward, Associate Norma Field, Professor Professor, Art History Emerita, EALC Srikanth Reddy, Associate Elaine Hadley, Professor, Professor, English English Joseph Masco, Professor, Heather Keenleyside, Anthropology Assistant Professor, English Paola Iovene, Associate Patchen Markell, Associate Professor, EALC Professor, Political Science Faith Hillis, Assistant Jennifer Pitts, Associate Professor, History Professor, Political Science Tara Zahra, Professor, History Travis A. Jackson, Associate Professor, Music Michael Rossi, Assistant Thomas C Holt, Distinguished Professor, History Service Professor, History Chiara Cordelli, Assistant Professor, Political Science Susan Lambert, Associate Professor, Social Service Shannon Dawdy, Associate Administration Professor, Anthropology Timothy Harrison, Assistant Hillary Chute, Associate Professor, English Professor, English Candace Vogler, Professor, Jacob Eyferth, Associate Philosophy Professor, EALC Elizabeth Asmis, Professor, William Tait, Professor Classics Emeritus, Philosophy Miguel Martinez, Assistant
Kyeong-Hee Choi, Associate
Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Ateven Collins, Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities, South Asian Languages and Civilizations John McCormick, Professor, Political Science
Professor, EALC
Michael Kremer, Mary R. Morton, Professor, Philosophy Laura Gandolfi, Assistant
NELC
Michael I. Allen, Associate
Professor, RLL
Professor, Classics
Howard Stein, Professor
Helma Dik, Associate
Emeritus, Philosophy
Professor, Classics
Christopher Kennedy,
Alison James, Associate
Professor, Linguistics Emily Osborn, Associate Professor, History Mark Miller, Associate Professor, English
Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Clifford Ando, Professor, Classics
Maria Anna Mariani,
Associate Professor, Divinity School Whitney Cox, Associate Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations Jonathan Hall, Distinguished Service Professor, History Ralph Austen, Emeritus Professor, History Rick Madigan, Associate Professor, English
Assistant Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Kathleen Belew, Assistant Professor, History Na’ama Rokem, Assistant Professor, NELC Alireza Doostdar, Assistant Professor, Divinity Fred Donner, Professor, NELC and Oriental Institute Jan Goldstein, Norman and Edna Freehling Professor, History Hakan Karateke, Professor, NELC
Christian Wedemeyer,
Rebecca HasselbachAndee, Associate Professor, NELC
Maggie Williams, Associate Professor, Art
Nancy Munn, Professor
Gerald Rosenberg,
Emeritus, Anthropology Marco Garrido, Assistant Professor, Sociology Richard Neer, Professor, Art History
Associate Professor, Political Science Aden Kumler, Associate Professor, Art History
Judith Farquhar, Professor
Linda Zerilli, Professor, Political Science Lawrence Rothfield,
Emeritus, Anthropology
Associate Professor, English
Larissa Brewer-García,
Melvin Rothenberg,
Assistant Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures Yali Amit, Professor, Statistics
Hakan Karateke, Professor,
Joseph Spagna, Associate Professor, Biology
Françoise Meltzer, Professor, Comparative Literature, Divinity
Orit Bashkin, Professor, Professor Emeritus, Mathematics NELC Elissa Weaver, Professor Thibaut d’Hubert, Assistant Emerita, Romance Languages Professor, SALC and Literatures
Professor Emerita, English 25871.ml11.17.15
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Shades of grief
Tragedies affect all people, but we don’t always mourn equally
Urvi Kumbhat
Mixed Veggie Soup On November 12, Beirut was hit by a series of devastating bombings. ISIS claimed responsibility for the suicide bombers who tragically killed over 40 people, people guilty of absolutely nothing. On November 13, Paris was plunged into despair. A night of fun and revelry quickly turned into a horrible tragedy, with more than 130 people losing their lives, and many more injured. ISIS again took responsibility for the series of coordinated mass shootings and suicide bombings. On the same Friday, at least 26 people died at a funeral in Baghdad—there was yet another suicide bombing. The funeral was for a Shiite fighter who was killed in combat against ISIS. In the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks, social media was flooded with sympathy from all over the world. People came together in a heartening show of unity to condemn the ruthless terrorism that had rattled Paris, swathing their profile pictures in the French flag, or using the France-themed Snapchat filter to mourn the lives lost. The news spoke of only one thing, and people hung on to every update that was posted. Baghdad and Beirut, however, received no such attention, no outpouring of grief and support, no special flag filters. My news app sent me live updates of the Paris attacks, but not one word was spoken of the bombings
farther East. It was only until a poem calling out the world on its selective empathy went viral that people began to take notice. The poem has been shared thousands of times since then, striking a chord with people the world over. But do we really need reminders to recognize that every human life is important? When the white world is attacked, the globe spins into chaos—as it should. But why don’t we react the same way when people of a different color face the same terror? Perhaps it is because incidents such as this are perceived as common in those parts of the world, or because they’re so far removed from the public eye, or because the victims are people of a different religious and cultural background. But are we really so incapable of recognizing the dangers nonwhite people face? I want to believe humanity is color-blind, but the opposite seems to be true. The Paris attacks will dominate the agenda at the G-20 conference that is scheduled to take place in Turkey so that world leaders can deal with the imminent threat of ISIS. Never has it been clearer that the loss of white lives can stir the world into action instantly—ISIS has been a threat for a very long time now, and it wreaks havoc in the Middle East on a regular basis. Granted, the Paris attacks were unexpected and hence much more shocking in their aftermath, but just because the Middle East has faced
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carnage in the past, does that make it any less heartbreaking, any less worthy of compassion? When did we learn to accept indiscriminate killing as normal? Beirut has not been a war-stricken zone for over a year—violence is not the norm there. So why do we compartmentalize all people
important? There was no immediate statement from President Obama when this happened; action came only months later, and people still remain unaware of the scale of the carnage Boko Haram caused. The Paris terror attacks also mean more trouble for the thou-
“[I]t’s high time that the world realized our love and support should extend beyond the West.”
The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief & editors of The Maroon. News Marta Bakula, editor Maggie Loughran, editor Isaac Easton, deputy editor Annie Nazzaro, deputy editor Alec Goodwin, senior editor Viewpoints Sarah Zimmerman, editor Kayleigh Voss, editor Kiran Misra, senior editor
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of the same color into one box of political unrest and terrorist attacks? Do we assign them all one uniform reality? When the Charlie Hebdo attacks took place in January, the world responded similarly. Twelve lives were terribly and undeservingly cut short. But, around the same time, over 2,000 people were suspected dead in Nigeria in Boko Haram’s deadliest massacre yet. This went largely ignored by everyone. Two thousand lives remained just a figure in the news, just another day in Africa, as if this were a normal occurrence there. Racism is so deeply ingrained in the minds of the collective global community that we find it hard to humanize victims who are not white-skinned. Does this mean their lives are less
sands of refugees still flooding into Europe in the hopes of salvaging their bleak futures. Racial profiling and xenophobia will only increase, given that there are suspicions that a bomber in Paris may have posed as an asylum seeker. Will European leaders tighten security measures while keeping in mind that these people are fleeing from the same terror that turned their own worlds upside down? Or will all the positive action that had slowly started taking place unravel again, leaving the refugees as hopeless and stranded as they were before? Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body, swept up on the shore, sent the world into action—more proof that we still need reminders when it comes to grief for those who are
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far removed from us. His death changed the world’s perception of refugees, but will this change be only temporary? Will he have died for nothing ? It is a vicious cycle: Attacks like these lead to greater marginalization of minorities, and this breeds bitterness and anger within them, which sometimes can lead to radicalization. If we want to actively protect our world, we have to begin integrating each and every person into our society. We have to welcome everyone— no matter what color they are or to what religion they belong. In no way does this take away from the tragedy in Paris and the terrible fatalities Paris has suffered. We should mourn for the victims, support survivors as they emerge from Friday battered and angry, and grieve for the innocent Parisians who died so brutally. But it’s high time that the world realized our love and support should extend beyond the West. Parts of the East continue to be ravaged everyday; people have been uprooted from their homes and torn from their families—for how long can this go on? Even if it is outside our power to help them directly, love, empathy, and the validation of their very real struggles cannot and should not be too much to ask for. Urvi Kumbhat is a first-year in the College majoring in English and computer science.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 20, 2015
7
Reflections from Paris
While you were away Paris becomes a second home for study abroad students, but how will things change moving forward from the attacks?
Brooke White
A Belle Abroad It’s amazing how in times of tragedy and their subsequent mourning, the two polar ends of humanity intertwine. Right before 10 p.m. in the Bataclan concert hall on Rue Voltaire, lovers pecked cheeks and noses and mouths. Old French friends greeted one another with a bise on each cheek, while Americans stuck with handshakes or hugs. New acquaintances shouted, “Nice to meet you!” over a sea of concert sounds as their friends introduced them to their friends and their friends’ friends. Rebellious teenagers snuck in bottles of beer and smoked a joint or two. Kisses, joy, good music, and too much cigarette smoke permeated the room. Right before 10 p.m., three unknown men barged into the hall, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd. Singing became shrieking, and laughing turned to screaming. Lovers broke their embraces and shielded each other as the “pop pop pop” of bullets halted a performance that would never resume. Why? In the dictionary, humanity is defined in two ways: 1. human beings collectively and 2. the quality of being humane; benevolence. This double definition implies an intertwining of the two things: humans and benevolence are inseparable. But are
we, humanity, naturally good? Do we have the inclination to do good and to love and to be kind? The night of November 13 juxtaposed the two ends of humanity’s spectrum: hatred and love, anger and peace. But I still firmly believe that our natural state of being is that of goodness. A great perk of studying abroad in Paris is that I have the opportunity to travel nearly every weekend. The hour the attacks occurred, I landed
eye contact, she scanned my passport and spewed out a string of interrogative questions that rubbed me the wrong way. “What are you doing in Paris?” “I’m a student.” “What are you studying in Paris?” “I’m, uh, undecided, but maybe... political science.” “How long are you studying in Paris for?” “Just until the middle of December.”
“It’s a really strange sensation when your home becomes the focus of uninterrupted breaking news.” in Heathrow. In line to clear customs, I connected my phone to WiFi and instantly received texts from my two high school best friends. 9:21 p.m. “Are you okay?” 9:22 p.m. “Please tell me you’re alright.” I stared at my screen, genuinely puzzled, and shoved my phone in my back pocket as I handed my passport to the woman at counter 23 of border control. And without once breaking
“What are you doing in London?” “Visiting a friend.” “When do you go back to Paris?” “Uh, at the end of this week.” My friend and I met up on the other end of the room, both a little weirded out, both asked the same set of questions. Maybe it was just procedure. And that’s when I got the text message from my high school friend. “I’m only wondering because there
was a shooting in Paris.” Shit. I was just in Paris an hour and a half ago. And then message after message started flooding my phone. Notifications from BBC, Yahoo, and CNN kept popping up on my lock screen. BREAKING NEWS: Shooting in Paris. I pulled out my laptop and immediately started getting the gist of what was happening. It wasn’t one attack. It was two. Then three. And four. And each news organization reported a death toll that climbed each time I refreshed the page. Paris was under attack. It’s a really strange sensation when your home becomes the focus of uninterrupted breaking news. There are 57 undergraduate students studying abroad with me in Paris this quarter, many of whom hang out near the areas that were under attack. The Oberkampf metro, one of the first reported areas to be under attacked, is where my friends and I go to explore Parisian bars. The Petit Cambodge, where a shooter opened fire on a tranquil setting, is a popular restaurant that more than a handful of my friends have eaten at in the past week. So what will it be like when I return to Paris in less than a week and inevitably pass the spots where people were gunned down? How will I
deal with this fear and anxiety? I believe that fear elicits both sides of humanity, the good and the bad. Fear drives us to do hateful things. But fear also drives us to act in solidarity. A friend of mine sat trapped in a bar under lockdown for five hours, a mile away from the Bataclan. And in the early hours of the morning, helpful strangers paid for his hotel room because all public transportation halted. The #PorteOuverte hashtag, meant to welcome strangers without a place to stay, flooded Twitter feeds when numerous corpses draped in blankets and sheets laid in the street. Paris endured a literal hell on earth, while I was on vacation. I felt completely removed and yet directly affected all at once. After this tragedy, we’re keeping all of France and the French people in our thoughts. That includes the foreigners killed, the travelers, and the tourists. We tend to think about people being united in relation to a cultural or national identity, but there’s always a gray area. Even just as a visitor, this tragedy has affected me so profoundly—I’ve come to view Paris as a second home. I’m not sure what I will find when I return. Brooke White is a second-year in the College majoring in political science.
Connections forged In the wake of the Paris attacks, technology can provide comfort, but living in the present has never been more important I walk down a wet road, making detours around puddles by way of cached mud stepping-stones. It has been three days since the attacks in Paris, three days since I arrived here in England for a week of vacation. In this small village outside of York, I allow the heavy blanket of clouds to descend upon my mind. The rain muddies my thoughts, and I feel numb to the epidemic of nervous uncertainty spreading via news articles and social media. I know, however, that I will be returning to Paris on Friday, and I worry that this Paris will be a vastly different place. During the first week of my study abroad, I lost my phone on the tram. It was a silly mistake to have put the phone in my pocket—that morning I was swept away in a current of commuters and dumped onto the banks of the Avenue de France, phoneless and presumably pickpocketed. I walked to the University center and told the program coordinator about my misfortune. After
listening to her words of encouragement, I felt compelled to turn what had struck me as a personal catastrophe into something more positive—I decided that I would not replace the phone in an effort to become more present-minded. For weeks I have boasted the benefits of losing my iPhone, but the attacks in Paris marked a sharp reversal in my feelings. I suddenly craved the artificial proximity to faraway friends and family made possible by my online presence. The flood of messages from loved ones inquiring about my safety was dammed up by my lack of phone and Internet access. I wrung my hands, helpless and nervous. My friend was kind enough to let me respond to messages on her phone. Each time she offered it to me, I jumped at the opportunity, hurling empty apologies for draining her battery and thinking of the hundreds of condolences that distraught families would hear that night and the following day. Between telling my friends and fam-
ily that I was safe and that I loved them, I searched for updates about the violence unfolding in the city. At least 80 dead at the Bataclan. Fourteen at Le Petit Cambodge. The numbers continued to rise. My hunger for coverage was insatiable, and over the course of two hours, my world had once again
the screen. My mind was squeezed by questions about what might happen when the notifications stopped and the screen went dark. This paranoia is part of my terror; part of feeling terrorized by extremists who must know that sensational reporting and mass coverage of events such as the attacks in
“By devouring live updates, I unknowingly made myself a subject to their strategy.” become the size of a phone screen. It is difficult to leave the warm, soft glow of an electronic screen when its presence seems integral to self-preservation. The screen warded off loneliness, and receiving live updates about the attacks made me feel safer. I resigned myself to intense paranoia each time I was forced to look away from
Paris is on their side. By devouring live updates, I unknowingly made myself a subject to their strateg y. I will return to Paris, where heightened security will be a constant reminder of the grief shared by a world that is unsure how to redress a problem such as the one we face now. This problem is not only that men armed with Kalash-
nikovs stormed the streets of Paris on November 13 to kill in the name of religion. This problem extends to the frightened people who would now turn away refugees and even to good people who are occasionally misled by prejudice. To help be part of the solution, I must continue to pursue the present-mindedness I sought before the attacks. Now more than ever is the time to look up from our phones. At a time like this, I want to be home. I want the cached mud stepping-stones I’m using to jump over puddles to be in the stream near my house. I want the gray skies stretched over an English countryside to be those I see rolling over Lake Michigan when I walk down Lakeshore Drive. Instead, I still have a few more weeks in Paris, and much more to learn. Molly Robinson is a third-year in the College majoring in anthropolog y and comparative race and ethnic studies.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 20, 2015
BLACKLIGHTxMAROON
Black off campus If the University wants to honor Dr. Georgiana Simpson, Ph.D, they should do it right In the midst of the recent events at Mizzou and Yale University that have exposed the inherent institutional racism upon which these universities were founded, #BlackOnCampus began to surface across social media. This hashtag emerged to give students of color on college campuses an opportunity to share the many ways in which their intellectual, psychological, and physical well-beings have been threatened, put under attack, or left unsupported. While these stories being told are all poignant and important, I find it imperative to highlight one woman’s story deserving of its own hashtag—perhaps #BlackOFFCampus. I want to bring greater attention to Georgiana Simpson (Ph.D. ’21). As the University of Chicago celebrates 125 years of “inquiry and impact,” I found it apt to involve myself in inquiring about the impact that African-American women have made on our campus. While walking on the quad, one may see the maroon banners hanging on the light posts. One reads: “Georgiana Simpson, a student of German Philology at the University of Chicago, and two scholars at other institutions become the first Afri-
can-American women to receive Ph.D.’s from U.S. universities.” This, however, is not the full story. The Special Collections of the University of Chicago Exhibition “Integrating the Life of the Mind” divulges the true nature of Simpson’s time at the University: “An African American student from Washington D.C., Georgiana Simpson, had enrolled for a B.A. degree. She had elected to live in Green Hall, a women’s dormitory, but her arrival occasioned protests from several white Southern women students. Sophonisba Breckinridge, head of Green Residence Hall and secretary to Marion Talbot, dean of Women, made an executive decision that Miss Simpson could stay in the dorms. In response, five of the protesting students moved from the dormitory. Upon his return from summer vacation, President Harry Pratt Judson reversed this decision and asked Miss Simpson to find residence off campus, which she did. This established an informal policy that African American students could not live on campus.” The University is socially prospering off of the very women they socially ostracized. Simpson is deserving of more than just a banner
on the quad for wealthy donors to see and feel inspired to put a check next to the diversity box. If the University of Chicago is insistent upon using her name consistently as a marker of diversity in University promotional material, then it is time to reevaluate how the University honors Simpson. She deserved to be black on our campus, something she wasn’t allowed to do. The best way to honor Simpson now, after the mistreatment she endured here, is to place a monument on the very campus from which she was forced to flee. The purpose of telling Simpson’s story is to raise awareness, because that’s the thing about consciousness—once something is known, it finds a place and settles down. You can try to deny it, ignore it, and even forget it, but you cannot get rid of it. Since learning of Simpson, I have become immensely burdened by that which I cannot un-know. This burden has been relieved by the various women and other allies eager to have women acknowledged through a monument, one of which would not just be the first of its kind on the campus of the University of Chicago, but in the entire city of Chicago. Honoring Simpson properly
Photograph of Georgiana Simpson, 1921. COURTESY OF MOORLAND-SPINGARN RESEARCH CENTER, HOWARD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
through a monument will most likely not happen during my time here. This is a fact of which I am well aware, but I hope that one day, when I attend alumni weekend with my children, I can take them on a
tour of the Dr. Georgiana Simpson Residential Commons. Shae Omonijo is a second-year in the College majoring in politcal science and public policy.
For sale: the heart and soul of the house system The University’s impending sale of some of the satellite dorms will put an end to years of house culture
SARAH KOMANAPALLI | THE CHICAGO
Last week, the University announced the impending sale of Blackstone, Broadview, and Maclean residence halls. This follows last April’s announcement that these buildings, along with Breckinridge and New Grad, will be closed upon the opening of Campus North. This decision, which was made without any consultation with or consideration for affected students, is a great loss for the UChicago community and heralds the rise of a new era of homogeneity in student housing. The sale of these buildings, and the closing of satellite dorms generally, deprive students of a true diversity of housing options and erases the unique cultures that have developed in these houses. Satellite dorms appeal to stu-
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dents who may be overwhelmed by the large house sizes and the idea of constant contact with others found in larger dorms. They appeal to students who desire to easily leave Hyde Park and enjoy the city of Chicago. They appeal to students who appreciate large kitchens or unusual features such as Broadview’s grand ballroom or Maclean’s rich history as a former sanatorium. These satellite dorms offer ample privacy, independence, and history in a way other buildings do not. But after this year, these options will not be available. In the name of parity, students will instead be presented with far fewer and increasingly similar choices for where to live. The closing of these dorms also is a death knell for the unique com-
munities that have developed in these houses. While it is true that these communities are ultimately composed only of people, the physical buildings shape both the character of residents and the practices of the community. Housing choices ultimately represent student’s ideas about how they wish to live. These ideas shape how students interact with each other and what sort of community they create. A community that enjoys the calm of Blackstone’s isolated suites necessarily has a different culture than one that enjoys the centralized and spatially integrated common spaces of North. These effects are particularly pronounced at the house level in single house dorms, where house composition directly reflects student preferences. Additionally, house culture often centers on the built environment. Many house traditions depend on the location and design of the spaces they occupy. The former denizens of Broadview and Breckinridge will likely be unable to hold their traditional Halloween haunted houses in North, and many house activities involving the Point and the lakefront
will suffer from the distance. Some may argue that traditions are ultimately replaceable with time, but to do so means remaking house culture entirely. This perspective devalues current student experiences and reveals an indifferent attitude toward student culture. In what way can houses be considered the same after the renaming, mergers, expansions, moves to radically different environments, and loss of traditions? To condone these changes is to condone the wholesale, eventual destruction of communities that are valued and desired by many students. Ironically, these changes are supposedly being made in the interest of the residents of these houses. We are told that things will be better in North, told that we are irrational for desiring the traits we treasure most about our houses that will be absent in North. We are told that maintaining house culture is on us, leaving the cultural stability that was once guaranteed by the environment up to chance. While houses may eventually develop new cultures, this process is long and hugely disruptive. Those that develop will likely resemble the others generated in a similar
environment. With the increasing homogeneity of housing options on campus, we move further from achieving a true diversity of student cultures that are comfortable for all students. With this announcement, the futures of Blackstone, Broadview, Maclean, and New Grad regrettably appear to be set. The future of Breckinridge, however, has not been decided. I urge administrators to listen to the student demand for smaller buildings farther from campus, and maintain Breckinridge as a housing option. And should sales fall through for Blackstone, Broadview, or Maclean, the University should strongly consider reintegrating these properties into the housing system. Students deserve to feel comfortable and connected in their on-campus housing. To achieve this, the administration should preserve a diversity of housing options and take affected students’ input into consideration for all major housing decisions in the future. Adriana Rizzo is a fourth-year in the College majoring in geophysical sciences.
CLASSIFIEDS Personal Assistant needed to organize & help Requires basic comp. & good organization skills Contact Lama Shikani 773-493-0993 mikemayer2006@gmail.com
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 20, 2015
ARTS
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What is art? NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Greetings from yesteryear: Exhibit showcases postcards from University’s history May Huang Arts Contributor Among the numerous events and performances across campus celebrating the University’s 125th anniversary, Greetings from the Midway: A Postcard History of the University of Chicago stands out on the second floor of the Logan Center as a humble commemoration of our school’s history. Greetings from the Midway stays true to Logan’s tradition of giving art history students the chance to organize its exhibits. Ph.D. student Carl Fuldner curated the exhibit’s selection of over 300 postcards while fourth-year Cooper Zajac helped design its layout. This exhibit captures not only the history of the University but also that of the surrounding neighborhood. The origin of postcards in America is closely tied to UChicago itself, as postcards rose in popularity after being sold at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, which took place right next to the University. A timeline at the start of the exhibit traces the roots of postcard-making back to 1873, only 17 years before the university was founded. Mike Levine, the associate vice president for development at UChicago, whose personal collection boasts around 3,500 postcards, collected 300 of the postcards on display. “One inspiration for my collection was an article about University of Chicago postcards written by Neil Harris, [Professor Emeritus of History] called ‘Small Cards, Big Picture,’ in the University of Chicago Magazine in 1992,” said Levine, who has been collecting postcards since 1982. While he has “many categories of postcards,” including some lobster-themed ones, he can nonetheless identify the ones he treasures most: “The University of Chicago postcards are my favorite because they are the intersection of two passions: The University of Chicago and postcards,” he said of the 700 UChicagothemed postcards he owns. “I definitely plan to donate the University of Chicago postcards to Special Collections in the Library.”
The exhibition features myriad postcards depicting different locales on campus, such as residence halls and libraries. Captions that accompany the postcards explain the history of these buildings—IHouse, for instance, was built in 1932. The caption explaining a postcard of Lorado Taft’s sculpture “Fountain of Time,” which sits on the western edge of the Midway, indicates that Taft was inspired by the lines “Time flies, you say! Ah no! Time stays; we go!” from a poem by Henry Austin Dobson. 125 years after the University first opened its gates, these lines are particularly striking. Yet the greatest sense of history in this exhibition is conveyed through images, not text. The University of Chicago Press printed the sepia-toned collotype postcards featuring the interior of Ida Noyes from the 1910–1930s. Their colors show their age. Harris also contributed 50 postcards to the collection depicting the neighborhood surrounding the University, including Jackson and Washington Park, boulevards and beaches on the South Side, the Hyde Park Township, Field’s Columbian Museum, and other landmarks of local historical importance. It speaks to the passage of time that many of the South Side hotels captured in several postcards have now been converted to apartment buildings. The postcards also reveal the evolution of photography as a form of art. Several postcards in the collection, for instance, are hand-colored albertypes, or sepia-toned pictures printed from gelatin plates. Others show how printers added or suppressed details on lithographic cards to create an effect reminiscent of Impressionist paintings. Each postcard tells its own story. One of the exhibition’s categories, “The Economics of Postcards,” tells a story that is both memorable and particularly suited to UChicago. When Milton Friedman sent his colleague, George Stigler (Ph.D. ’38), a Karl Marx postcard, Stigler decided that Adam Smith deserved his own set of postcards and proceeded to commission them. However, because the printers would only print sets of five, he had to add four more
#FlashbackFriday: 1906 postcard, when the University was a member of the Big 10. COURTESY OF MIKE LEVINE
economists to the set to make it complete. He ended up printing several thousand sets of five because he learned that doing so would only cost $101, whe reas printing a hundred sets alone would cost $100. Indeed, the importance of economics to the institution is even represented in its postcards. As every postcard is double-sided, there is also always an opportunity for the sender to add his or her personal touch before sending the card through the mail. Some students would mark their dormitories using an “X” on the campus map postcards
they were sending to their families, following a tradition known as “X marks the spot.” Others would write notes, which Levine says helps us “better understand the social history of earlier periods.” In the exhibition, one such postcard depicting the southwest corner of campus bears the following message: “Just to let you know that I have not forgotten you.” In a poetic way, this line captures what the exhibit seems to be saying to UChicago’s history. The past 125 years, distant as they seem, have not been forgotten: They have been preserved in postcards.
The emperor’s new words: Fresh Agamemnon at Court Theatre Caitlin Hubbard Arts Contributor The Court Theatre, just steps away from the center of campus, is hearkening to its roots this fall with Aeschylus’s Agamemnon. The second of three Greek tragedies that tell of the strife and sorrow of the House of Atreus, Agamemnon is the stor y of the homecoming of the great Mycenaean king Agamemnon (Mark L. Montgomer y) after his victor y in the Trojan War. His cunning wife, Clytemnestra (Sandra Marquez), has spent his 10-year absence lusting for revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter to the gods. The play is a new translation designed specifically for the production by University of Chicago Classics Professor Sandra Marquez sees red as Clytemnestra in Agamemnon. COURTESY OF COURT THEATRE
Nick Rudall. In 1971, Rudall became Court Theatre’s founding artistic director, a position he held for 23 years. Now he is back, armed with a fresh translation that shows a keen understanding of how the theatrical tradition has evolved since it was conceived in Athens 2,500 years ago. Translating a work like Agamemnon is difficult in that it must play to the theatrical norms expected by a modern audience while staying true to the original Greek. As Rudall explains in the program book, “ What I am doing is tr ying to find the words in English that don’t sound like translations; they sound like English, but they contain ever y thought, ever y idea, ever y word in some cases that Aeschylus wrote.” On the whole, Rudall was successful AGAMEMNON continued on page 10
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After surviving UChicago, Spencer Bledsoe (A.B. ’14) takes on new challenge James Koehne Arts Contributor Just over two years ago, Spencer Bledsoe (A.B. ’14) traded the city life of Hyde Park for the shores of the Philippines as he competed on the 28th season of hit reality show Survivor, Survivor: Cagayan. Although host Jeff Probst predicted that Bledsoe had a “zero percent chance” at winning the game and its $1 million grand prize, Bledsoe exceeded expectations, finishing in fourth place by lasting 37 days on the island, sur viving 11 tribal councils, winning two immunity challenges, and showing his strategic prowess along the way. An instant fan favorite, Bledsoe was elected by audiences as one of 20 former castaways to compete on the show’s current season, Survivor: Cambodia, Second Chances. Does Bledsoe have what it takes to outwit, outplay, and outlast his new competition? Here’s a look at what Bledsoe’s accomplished so far in the first half of the season. (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.) Episode #1 (“Second Chance”): Willing to admit his mistakes from his first appearance on the show, Bledsoe, an avid chess player at the College, concedes that he approached the game “in terms of chess” in the beginning. Eventually, he realized that the approach could only go so far. “People are not chess pieces,” he says. “They need to be related to on a human level.” Since returning from the Phillippines and graduating from UChicago, Bledsoe says he has done “a lot of maturing and emotional grow-
ing.” Ready to capitalize on that growth, Bledsoe adds, “I’m in a better emotional place in life than I’ve ever been to play and win this game.” Although Bledsoe’s tribe, Ta Keo, loses the first immunity challenge, he secures his place in the majority alliance. Episode #2 (“Sur vivor MacGyver”): The second immunity challenge comes down to the wire as Bledsoe subs in on the closing puzzle. Despite a valiant effort, his tribe loses the challenge, earning another trip back to Tribal Council. Unfortunately for Bledsoe, his tribemates begin to see him and his closest ally, Shirin Oskooi of Survivor: Worlds Apart, as dangerous strategic players, and the top targets for elimination. Bledsoe is brought to tears when he is left with no alternative but to cast his vote for Oskooi, with a slim margin of one vote saving Bledsoe from elimination. Episode #3 (“We Got a Rat”): Narrowly sur viving a nail-biting vote, Bledsoe remains at the bottom of his tribe and in line to be the next person voted out. However, in a twist, a third tribe is added and the 18 remaining players are divided among them. In a random tribe drawing , Bledsoe places in the new Bayon tribe, which, to Bledsoe’s relief, avoids Tribal Council. Episode #4 (“What’s the Beef ?”): Bayon wins immunity once again, ensuring Bledsoe’s safety for another week. However, Bayon tribemate and Survivor: Samoa contestant Monica Padilla is
suspicious of Bledsoe’s strategic motives and views him as a threat to a potential women’s alliance. “Once challenge is lost,” Padilla tells us, “Spencer needs to go first.” Episode #5 (“A Snake in the Grass”): In need of some extra food, Bledsoe goes out fishing in the Gulf of Thailand. Bledsoe grew up watching former contestants fish, spearfish, and snorkel. Looking back, Bledsoe recounts, “I always saw myself as an awkward, geeky kid who couldn’t do those things. But here I am, doing those things. I feel like I’m not enjoying Survivor by proxy anymore; I’m living it.” Back on land, Bayon loses the immunity challenge and Padilla continues to target Bledsoe. In a stroke of fortune, Bledsoe forms three new allies and, while purposefully holding back his gameplay, helps set the stage for a voting blindside at Tribal Council. Padilla goes home on a 3–2–1 vote (Spencer receives two votes) and, once again, Bledsoe finds a way to avoid elimination. Episode #6 (“Bunking With the Devil”): Yet another tribe swap! With 14 contestants left, three tribes become two and Bledsoe joins a new tribe with his Survivor: Cagayan nemesis Kass McQuillen. McQuillen urges her tribemates to vote Bledsoe out at the next vote and they oblige. When the tribe loses the immunity challenge, it appears as if Bledsoe’s luck has run out. However, Bledsoe exploits a power struggle to sur vive elimination again by one vote. (Yes, this was insanely ner ve-wracking to watch with
my parents via FaceTime in my room. No, I am not ashamed to admit that.) Episode #7 (“Play to Win”): With 13 contestants left, the two tribes merge. At the first individual immunity challenge, Spencer comes in a commendable second place. (Clearly, his workouts at Ratner are still paying some dividends!) With Tribal Council looming , Bledsoe finds himself in the middle of a voting dilemma. Ultimately, he sides with the majority, who votes McQuillen out of the game. Episode #8 (“You Call, We’ll Haul”): At last, Bledsoe finds himself in a nice strategic spot—he remains in the majority, he trusts some of his allies, and he is staying in most contestants’ good graces. At Tribal Council, the majority’s decision not to split its nine votes backfires as Kelley Wentworth (Survivor: San Juan Del Sur) impressively plays her immunity idol and cancels all nine votes against her. In the midst of such strategic chaos, the fact that Bledsoe’s name does not come up is a strong indication that he will be able to fly under the radar for the next few votes. With 10 people left in the game, can Bledsoe go the distance and make it to the Final Tribal Council? To watch the rest of Bledsoe’s quest to become the Sole Sur vivor, be sure to check out Survivor, airing on Wednesday on CBS at 7 p.m. CST. From the entire Maroon community : Best of luck, Spencer!
“I wanted to make a translation for the stage— for actors to speak and for an audience to understand, immediately and clearly.” AGAMEMNON continued from page 9
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in this. The other translations I’ve read, although each beautiful in their own way, are often archaic in their syntax and word choice. However, as a modern audience member, watching a play written to be analyzed in academic circles would feel absurd. As Rudall states, “ There are many fine translations, but they were almost all meant to be read or studied. As always, I wanted to make a translation for the stage—for actors to speak and for an audience to understand, immediately and clearly.” Rudall’s project of translating Agamemnon has long been in the works. One of my favorite translations of the play was also written for the Court Theatre stage, in a 1986 production of the Oresteia (for which Rudall ser ved as artistic director). The translation of all three parts of the Oresteia by David Grene and Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty was similar to Rudall’s in its decision to prioritize speech and clarity in the text over poetr y and rhythm. As Rudall explains in his introduction to the Grene and O’Flaherty translation, two of the biggest problems to overcome in translating an ancient Athenian tragedy for the stage are lang uage and the presentation of the cho rus. In Rudall’s translation, he opted for a more contemporar y lang uage that conjures up images recognizable for a modern audience. For example, Agamemnon’s decision to sacrifice his daughter was a “noose” around his neck
rather than a yoke. In staging the new translation, Rudall treated the chorus in a ver y different fashion. While the Grene and O’Flaherty translation kept to the original 12 chorus members, Rudall reduced it to just a handful of old men and a boy. In doing so, he made them into distinct characters instead of just a mass of people simply commenting on the action of the play. In Classical Athens, the audience expected the chorus to direct their words at them, to give them background, to show them how to regard the actions of the other characters on stage. But in modern America, audiences like to watch a stor y unfold rather than have the stor y told to them. Rudall’s solution to this was to reduce the chorus to the minimum number of actors needed, and then to provide them with someone to whom they could tell their sto ries: a boy. This worked wonderfully, especially as the boy was also used to highlight the motif of children and the rising generation coming to avenge the actions of the old. Agamemnon plays now through December 6. Tickets are sold to University of Chicago students at $15, with a limited number of rush tickets sold at five dollars at the box office an hour before the show. Check the Court Theatre’s website for regular ticket rates, show times, and other information.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 20, 2015
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Chicago teams compete at national Chicago takes to Concordia Invite championships this weekend in third competition of the season CROSS COUNTRY
WRESTLING
Kareem Kebaish competes in a race against MSOE earlier this season. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
Katrina Williams p Sports Staffff In any given year, sending a team to nationals, a competition between the 32 best squads in the country, is impressive. It is something quite special when a school sends both its men’s and women’s teams to the biggest stage in DIII cross country. The Maroons have done just that. Both the men’s and women’s teams were selected this past Sunday to take part in the NCAA Division III National Championships. Chicago’s teams have been selected to run in the championships twice in the past three years. Second-year runner Khia Kurtenbach said, “Finding out that the men’s and women’s teams would both be going to nationals was a highlight of my season. Our teams are close and it means a lot to know that we will all be at the meet supporting each other.” Based on the NCAA Regionals, 32 teams from both women’s and men’s teams were chosen to run in the National Championships. Within the
eight regions, the top two teams automatically qualified for nationals. After 16 teams received automatic qualifying bids, 16 at-large picks remained. Each Chicago squad secured one of these spots. Additionally, the top 56 individuals who were not a part of the automatic qualifying teams were selected. Chicago will not have to go far to compete in the biggest race of the year. On Saturday, November 2, UW-Oshkosh will be hosting the championships at Lake Breeze Golf in Winneconne, WI. The women’s race will start at 11 a.m., followed by the men’s race at 12:30 p.m. The women’s team has made it to nationals for six years in a row. This year, the women were selected at-large after they placed third at the NCAA Midwest Regionals this past Saturday. Last season, the women’s squad impressively finished 12th place in the National Championships. The Maroon men’s squad was an at-large selection as well. It was selected after placing sev-
enth in the NCAA Midwest Regional competition. The men have qualified eight times in school history. Catherine Young, a fourthyear All-American, has one last year to accomplish her goals as a Chicago Maroon. Young has had an outstanding career during her four years on the South Side. She has been named UAA Athlete of the Week five times, earned All-American status, and helped her team win second place in the UAA Championships in 2014. Khia Kurtenbach, who was recently named UAA Athlete of the Week for the second time this year, has also been a consistent standout for the women all fall. She finished third this past weekend at NCAA Regionals, finishing only four seconds behind the winner and racing the fastest time ever recorded in the UAA. “Personally, I’m hoping to finish All-American or possibly on the top 15 [at nationals]”, Kurtenbach said. “Most of all, I just hope that our entire team is able to show off a season’s worth of hard work with a great race.” At the 2014 nationals, the Johns Hopkins women’s squad defeated MIT and won Johns Hopkins’s third consecutive national championship. This season, the men’s squad also finished every race in the top 38 percent or higher. In 2014, the North Central Illinois men’s cross-country team took home the victory at nationals. This marked its 16th national title in school history. It defeated the defending national champs from St. Olaf. Emory and Wash U join Chicago as UAA teams qualifying in both the men’s and women’s races. “This week we’ve been focusing on getting mentally prepared to race in a crowded and talented field. The postseason meets come with more pressure but it also brings a lot of excitement.” Clearly, the Maroons are ready to run this weekend and are looking to make a state-
Zachary Pierce Sports Staff
This is going to be an action-packed Saturday for the wrestling team as the South Siders divide and head to two different events in two different states. The first event is the Concordia Open in Mequon, WI. The second is the Millikin Duals in Decatur, IL. The Maroons will face off against Millikin, the hosts, followed by matchups with Truman State and Calumet. Interestingly enough, Millikin has not had a wrestling team since 2008. This is their revival year, and Chicago is looking forward to taking advantage of an inexperienced team. The Maroons are coming off a successful Trine Tournament in Angola, IN. The team took third place with 86 points behind Alma and Adrian, who took first and second, respectively. Despite the third-place finish, the team had several standout performances and many positive takeaways. Second-year Nick Fer-
raro, who easily won the 165-pound weight class at the Trine tournament, going 4–0, is looking forward to the weekend and will be wrestling at Concordia. Ferraro also earned UAA Athlete of the Week last week based on that very performance. He said, “Concordia is a much tougher tournament, but it was a nice confidence boost to come off a win at Trine. And I think that my teammates feel pretty good after last weekend; it got a lot of nerves (for the freshmen) out for collegiate wrestling, and I think with the performance we displayed last week we should all be pretty confident for Concordia and Millikin.” Third-year Paul Papoutsis, coming of a 21–8 record last year, placed third in his weight class last week and will be looking to mimic his performance this weekend. One of the first-years who overcame these nerves quite quickly was Louis Demarco, who won first place in 125-pound weight class in Angola. Demarco commented
on the status of the team and said, “As a whole, our team looked pretty solid last weekend. I’m excited for this weekend to see how we’ll do in the dual tournament style.” Focusing on his own matches this weekend, Demarco said, “Personally, last weekend was a nice confidence boost. I got my first win and beat some tough guys.” Another rookie who stood out at Trine was first-year John Jayne from London, England. Jayne had a record of 5–1 in the 197-pound weight class and took third overall. Despite a shoulder injury, Jayne said, “I feel like they will do well, everyone has been practicing hard” when asked about how the team looks. The Maroons are annual participants in the Concordia Open, but this is the first year they’ll be competing in the Millikin Duals. The Maroons match up against Millikin at 11 a.m., followed by Truman State at 12:30 p.m., and Calumet at 2 p.m. The Concordia Open will start at 9 p.m.
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SPORTS
IN QUOTES “You get excited about getting married, aight, but after you’re married for awhile, you gotta have a process to make it work, aight.” -Head football coach Nick Saban on the subject of marriage at a press conference about Alabama’s game this Saturday
No. 17-ranked squad defeats Lake Forest in first win MEN’S BASKETBALL Gary Huang Sports Staff The No. 17 Chicago squad (1–1) recorded its first notch in the win column with a convincing 67–61 win over Lake Forest College (0–2) this past weekend. The Maroon men started out strong and never looked back, leading the game from tip-off to final buzzer. The game was set out to be a high-charged game right from the beginning. The South Siders’ determination and athleticism were shown immediately in the first three-and-a-half minutes when they threw down three dunks, two of which came from fourth-year forward Nate Brooks. A layup by second-year forward Collin Barthel and a field goal by fourthyear guard Jordan Smith also contributed to a 17–6 lead by the 10-minute mark. Chicago led 46–32 heading into the second half before the Foresters took the next 14 out
of 15 points to rally to within one point at 47–46. The Maroons struggled offensively, forcing three-pointers that did not fall. However, the team was able to maintain its composure and Smith hit a clutch triple to bring the score to 52–46. Lake Forest’s players purposely fouled to test the Maroon’s week free throw ability. The previous game against North Park resulted in a poor seven out of 19 free throws made. However, the Maroons were able to overcome their struggles from the charity stripe last weekend and hit 12 out of 14 in the final stretch of the game to top the Foresters. It was a tough battle, but the Maroons now have a record of 1–1 on the season, while the Foresters dropped to 0–2 for the year. The matchup was the 90th all-time meeting between the teams; Chicago improved to 58–32 in the series. This coming weekend, the Maroons will participate in the
North Central Tournament in Naperville, IL. Their first game will definitely be a test of their NCAA tournament prospects this year. Chicago will face a high-powered No. 7 University of Mount Union (2–1) that is currently averaging 86.7 points per game. Since losing their first game, the Raiders have won two in a row. This next matchup will, nevertheless, prove to be a very difficult. Raiders’ fourth-year forward Jarrett Ruffin will be a key player; he is one of only 28 Mount Union players to score 1,000 points in their careers. Mount Union currently has the 1–0 series lead. The Maroons are determined to even the score this weekend. “We’re feeling really good heading into this weekend,” second-year Erik Muelheims said. “We were able to survive Lake Forest’s runs and I think that bodes well for us.” The second matchup f or the Maroons will feature an untested North Central
team who will play its first game against Mount Union this weekend. For the North Central Squad, starting its season against two nationally ranked opponents will be a good test. They will be led by fourth-years Jayme Moten and Kevin Honn, the team’s top returning scorers. Moten averaged 15.7 points per game last season, while Honn had an average of 7.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. The Cardinals will also look to utilize its talented, young roster. “We focused on executing our offense and getting back to playing hard for all 40 minutes,” said third-year Tyler Howard. “We gained confidence from the win but still understand we have a lot to improve.” The South Siders will certainly have a change to show improvement this weekend against their two tough opponents. Chicago will look to start a win streak this weekend at the North Central Tourna-
Fourth-year forward Nate Brooks dunks in a game against Lake Forest. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
ment against No. 7 Mount Union College on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. They will then have
a quick turnaround and play North Central College on Sunday at 2 p.m.
MSOE, UW–Stevens Point Phoenix Fall Classic brings in slated for Chicago Classic biggest competition of quarter WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Alec Miller Maroon Contributor After a huge win in the season opener against Lake Forest, the Maroons look to keep the momentum rolling through the Chicago Classic this weekend. Chicago welcomes Washington University in St. Louis, Milwaukee School of Engineering, and UW–Stevens Point for a weekend of competitive play. The South Siders will play the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Friday and UW– Stevens Point on Saturday. Chicago is just getting its season under way. Last week, the women took down Lake Forest 56–45 in their season opener, making UChicago undefeated at 1–0. The Chicago Classic a unique event where each team gets to play two different opponents in a short time period. It is a competitive event for all the teams involved. The Maroons get the benefit of having two home games against tough opponents, while the other three schools involved have the chance to come together and play against competitive schools from the region early in the season. Third-year guard Stephanie
Anderson logged 33 minutes, recording nine rebounds and three steals in last week’s victory against Lake Forest. She is ready for more action this weekend in the Classic. “The Classic is really great opportunity for us to play against tough teams in backto-back games. The team is definitely pumped up and ready for the challenge,” Anderson said. Despite the excitement of hosting a tournament and the approaching Thanksgiving break, the Maroons remain focused on their opponents at hand. On Friday, they face their first opponent: the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). MSOE has yet to play this year and will open up its season in Chicago. It is unclear whether MSOE will be successful this year. Last year, however, it finished last year 20–7. Because of its impressive record and weak schedule, MSOE missed out on a bid to the NCAA tournament. It is bringing back four of its five starters. It is fair to assume that this year’s MSOE squad might be as good or better than last year’s. After Friday night’s game, the South Siders will have to bounce back quickly in
SWIMMING & DIVING order to play UW–Stevens Point on Saturday afternoon. UW–Stevens Point will enter the classic with a record of 1–0. It demolished Finlandia 92–45 last week. After its first game, it is clear that UW–Stevens Point shouldn’t be taken lightly. However, just like the Maroons, it has to play back-toback days. Stevens Point plays Wash U on Friday. It and the Maroons should be equally fatigued on Friday, when the two face off. UChicago knows that this weekend’s slate of games offers quite the test. “Both teams we are playing are very good teams that have a high chance to get to a bid for the NCAA tournament. This makes winning all the more important. If we win we can increase our chances of postseason play,” Anderson said. The South Siders are looking forward to hosting the Chicago Classic this weekend. Chicago tips off against MSOE on Friday at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the game begins at 4 p.m, when Chicago will play UW–Stevens Point. After this weekend’s games, UChicago won’t play until it faces Texas–Dallas on Tuesday, November 24.
Rhea Bhojwani Sports Staff The Chicago Maroons’ season is officially in full swing as they prepare for the annual Phoenix Fall Classic in which they will compete against seven competitive Midwest colleges within the span of just three days. Chicago has pushed off to a great start in what is still a relatively young season. With a strong showing at Denison/UIC/Northwestern, a win against Wheaton, and a women’s victory and a men’s tough defeat against Wash U, the Maroons are prepared to display their improvement over the past few weeks. As the big weekend approaches, each swimmer and diver understands the importance of maintaining a strong work ethic, one that has gotten them this far in the competition. Although the competition has been getting tougher as the season progresses, players have created special bonds as a team and personally as well. High-achieving third-year Maya Scheidl claims, “I think this team has done exceptionally well this season and I can’t wait to see how that momentum will take us through this
meet.” When looking at past years, the Chicago team has raced considerably well at the fall classic, leaving significant room for hope in making a mark this weekend. Regardless of the situation, the Maroons refuse to lose the focus and concentration they have instilled. Scheidl expresses her excitement for the big meet, saying, “I’m really excited for the fast racing we will see this weekend, especially with the relays.” Scheidl’s excitement for the relays is appropriate; the South Siders have had top finishes in the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays in every meet so far this year. The women also churned out a win in the 200-yard medley, further exemplifying Chicago’s versatility and teamwork. The squad is also flipping out about what’s going on with Anna Girlich on the diving board. The first-year swept the diving events against Wash U, and she was only 10 points away from a NCAA provisional score. On the men’s side, first-year Alexander Farrell comes into the invite riding three firstplace finishes against Wash U. Farrell was involved in half
of the first-place wins at that meet. All the swimmers have been expressing the intense training as they head into the weekend. “At all of our other meets we have been swimming tired and sore, but we’ve had a drop taper for Phoenix this week so we will be feeling faster in the water,” Scheidl said. A drop taper is the cutting down of training in the days leading up to the event in order to feel more rested and is thought to optimize performance. With the support of an immensely talented coaching staff, the Maroons hope to make strides toward reaching the level they want to be at for Nationals and various other important meets down the line. As the Maroons prepare, Scheidl acknowledges the importance of this upcoming classic, saying, “This is our biggest meet of the quarter and it is also a good chance for relays and individuals to make NCAA cuts.” The Phoenix Fall Classic will begin on Friday, November 20 and will continue through Sunday, November 22.