120313 Chicago Maroon

TUESDAY • DECEMBER 3, 2013

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

ISSUE 17 • VOLUME 125

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

Student Health Series Part 4: Prevention Harini Jaganathan Associate News Editor

Let there be light The Chabad Center hosted a menorah lighting ceremony on Bartlett Quad Monday afternoon.

The event featured the UChicago Pep Band and a fire show by Le Vorris and Vox Circus.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Health Promotion and Wellness (HPW), the newest branch of Student Health and Counseling Services, was created in July 2011, formalizing a center for preventative resources. Kelly Hogan Stewart, the current director of HPW, said that an outside consultant, Keeling & Associates, was hired five years ago to assess the efficacy of health services for students on campus and determined that the University was “underserved in the preventative health arena.” HPW was created partially in response to the study by Keeling & Associates.

Stewart said that most of HPW’s programming was created based on

data received from the National College Health Assessment, a national survey looking at factors like nutrition, alcohol use, sexual practices, and mental health among college students. Programming decisions are also made based on data gathered through three surveys sent out randomly to students every other year, looking at alcohol usage, general behaviors, mental health, and body image.

One major area for HPW is flu prevention. The Center for Disease Control estimates that between five and 20 percent of U.S. residents get the flu each year.

HPW provides open and free flu vaccination clinics and also holds closed clinics in houses and in the professional schools. Stewart said SHS continued on page 2

After Typhoon Haiyan, campus community holds vigil, raises funds William Rhee Maroon Contributor A month after the initial destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan, also referred to as Typhoon Yolanda, that killed more than 5,500 people and affected nearly 14 million individuals in Southeast Asia, students in the University are leading efforts to raise aware-

ness and funds for disaster relief.

“I believe that events like this can bring not only the international students together, but also the campus together to reflect on the aftermath of the disaster and its implications, as well as find contributions to the ongoing relief efforts,” third-year Anthony Gokianluy wrote in an e-mail.

Gokianluy, a native of Philippines,

estimates there are between a dozen to 50 Filipino students on campus, all of whom received e-mails from the Office of International Affairs (OIA), the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, and their respective academic advisors.

One of those e-mails was sent by Tamara Felden, director of the OIA. “We have been following the media reports of Typhoon Yolanda that has struck

the Philippines, and you are very much in our thoughts,” she wrote. Felden encouraged students to reach out to members of the college community if they needed assistance.

The e-mails were well-intentioned and heartwarming, said Gokianluy, who, as treasurer of the Filipino RSO Kababayan, plans to coordinate with the Philippine Consulate General in

Chicago and encourage people to donate to several Filipino organizations.

Kababayan is one of several University RSOs and sororities that have organized campaigns over the past month to raise awareness and funds for the typhoon disaster relief.

PanAsia, an umbrella organization encompassing more than 20 multiculHAIYAN continued on page 3

Alum digs up dirt Student activists say no fracking way on global trash trade Natalie Friedberg Maroon Contributor

Sean Pierre Maroon Contributor Journalist Adam Minter (A.B. ’93) is fascinated by junk.

The Shanghai correspondent for Bloomberg World View, Minter wrote the book Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade, detailing the relatively unknown yet vast trade of recycled consumer products around the world.

Incorporating a decade’s worth of research, the book, released last month, chronicles the growing globalized transport of post-consumer waste— waste that’s estimated to be worth $500 billion by Bank of America. The book also explains how

certain individuals and entrepreneurs profit from this global trash trade.

In a phone interview, Minter noted that in writing the book, he sought to reveal “the hidden story of globalization.”

“We all know the story of how we have globalized certain things such as the iPhone, but I want to show that the way that our recyclable waste is disposed of is done in a system almost as complex but certainly just as important as [that of iPhone manufacturing ],” he said.

Minter sought to dispel many of the myths associated with the waste processing industry.

“People, based upon the pictures that [they] see TRASH continued on page 2

A group of UChicago students affiliated with the UChicago Climate Action Network (UCAN) and the Southside Solidarity Network (SSN) attended a public hearing last Tuesday as a part of a citywide campaign to block a set of proposed fracking regulations for the state of Illinois.

The state senate passed a bill in June allowing fracking companies to drill in Illinois for the first time. After the bill was passed, Governor Pat Quinn and some large environmental nonprofits, like the Sierra Club, outlined a bill to regulate fracking. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) was charged with drafting the actual bill and filling in the details, which still needs to be approved by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR), part of the Illinois State Senate.

Environmental groups are protesting the proposed bill, released

The UChicago Climate Action Network protested new fracking regulations during a hearing held by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources last Tuesday evening at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

COURTESY OF THE PEOPLE’S LOBBY

to the public on November 15, due to a number of loopholes that they say are unacceptable.

“We have an incredible amount—an insane amount—of natural gas. If we could do it right, if we could do it in a way that reduces emissions…that would be amazing. But the problem is that

we’re not doing that right now,” said second-year UCAN co-director Jonny Behrens.

The IIRON Student Network, a grassroots group working with UCAN, has a list of grievances that it wanted the IDNR to acknowledge at the public hearing. Among these is the provision that frack-

ing wells are allowed to cause earthquakes up to a magnitude of 4.9 before being shut down.

Members of UCAN attended the public hearing to voice their concerns about the proposed regulations in an effort to block the bill. Public comments can UCAN continued on page 3

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

IOP: Initiating open programming » Page 4

Brace yourself for avalanche of Oscar contenders » Page 8

Chicago offense explodes in victories over IIT, Kalamazoo » Back Page

Behind closed doors » Page 5

Platonic Love: Holiday hotspots in the Windy City » Page 10

Football makes me cry: A career in perspective » Page 11

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | December 3, 2013

2

Students play active role in HPW’s “peer-to-peer” educational wellness programs

Another student role in HPW is the position of “Well Czar.” Formerly known as “Condom Czar,” for 20 years, this was an unofficial position within each house until last year, when the Well Czar program was brought under the umbrella of HPW. Well Czars distribute health kits, which include supplies like cough drops and epsom salts. Many also create their own health-promoting initiatives in their houses.

Breckenridge House Well Czar and secondyear Mallory VanMeeter conducts stretching and tea sessions for her house.

Well Czars, like the former Condom Czars, also provide houses with packets of male condoms, female condoms, dental dams, and lubricant.

“It’s an emergency supply, so we ask Well Czars to make it known within the house that this is a supply that we want to be there

Minter’s family owned a waste-processing operation

Beyond HPW, Tea Time and Sex Chats also gives away contraceptives at their sessions. The RSO, founded last year, holds 15 discussion sessions on various sexual education topics each year.

President and fourth-year Patty Fernandez said that its biggest effort is in promoting clear communication about sex.

“Our big prevention effort has been in consent—so preventing sexual assault by advocating consent, by advocating dialogue around sexuality, being clearheaded and sober when you’re having sex, particularly talking about talking,” she said. “Negotiating sexuality so that everybody is satisfied and everybody is a consenting party, but negotiating goes into everything. It goes into condom use, whether you want to use a dental dam, or whether you have been tested.”

In addition, Tea Time and Sex Chats heavily promotes sexually transmitted

Weekly Crime Report

By Marina Fang

This is a series the Maroon publishes summarizing instances of campus crime. Each week details a few notable crimes, in addition to keeping a running count from September 23. The focus is on crimes within the UCPD patrol area, which runs from East 37th to 65th Streets and South Cottage Grove to Lake Shore Drive.

Here are this week’s notables:

Since Sept. 23

Nov. 25 Dec. 1

» November 25, Regenstein Library, unknown time— Between 2:15 and 2:45 p.m., an unknown person took a laptop computer from the desk in a second-floor cubicle while the victim took a nap.

4

0

Robbery

2

0

Attempted robbery

5

0

Battery

2

0

Burglary

1

0

Criminal trespass to vehicle

17

1

Damage to property

155

15

Other report

0

0

Assault

62

3

Theft

2

0

Trespass to property

11

0

Arrest

0

0

Traffic Violation

» November 28, 901 East 58th Street (Mitchell E.R.), 5:04 a.m.—A disorderly male subject was arrested by UCPD officers after ignoring repeated warnings that he was trespassing on private property.

COURTESY OF ADAM MINTER

TRASH continued from front

Source: UCPD Incident Reports

53rd

55th

Blackstone

» November 29, East Madison Park between South Kimbark and Kenwood Avenues, 10:30 p.m.— Four unknown males took property from a victim walking on the sidewalk off campus.

One of the suspects may have been carrying a knife. The CPD is investigating.

Type of Crime

51st

57th

59th 60th

62nd

University

in the mainstream media, tend to think of recycling in China as dumping and exploitation, but it is much deeper and more important economically than that,” he said.

Having grown up in a family that owned a waste-processing business, Minter later used his first-hand experience in the industry to investigate waste-processing plants in both China and the United States, as well as to develop amicable relationships with many of the workers.

“We tend to think of [the workers in the industry] as both objects of pity and slaves. But as someone who grew up in the industry can say, this is simply not the case.”

Instead, he said, many of the workers in the industry are doing so of their own free will in order to either feed their families or

to pursue their own entrepreneurial goals.

After moving to China in 2003, Minter began to visit many of the recyclable-waste manufacturing plants across the country, where he became aware of the vast nature of this trash trade and started documenting as much of it as he could.

For example, he discovered that the majority of recyclable material that is transported to China from the United States does not come from individuals, but rather that 85 percent of material is generated in factories and other facilities.

As an undergraduate at the University, Minter always thought that one day he would write a book, given all of the writing that he did in his humanities classes.

Junkyard Planet, his first book, reached number 117 on Amazon’s bestsellers list last week and made it onto Slate’s Best Books 2013.

» November 29, 5615 South University Avenue 47th (Fraternity House), unknown time—Between 1 a.m. and 2 p.m., an unknown person(s) gained entry to the house via the rear window and took a TV. The CPD is investigating.

Cottage Grove

Journalist Adam Minter (A.B. ’93), the Shanghai correspondent for Bloomberg World View, just released his new book entitled Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade.

This is the final installment of a quarterlong series on student health care. The Maroon is committed to understanding all aspects of student health care. If you or someone you know has experiences relating to health care on campus, please contact harinijaganathan@uchicago.edu.

S. Lake Shore

Connecting students close to home

Other avenues of prevention

S. Hyde Park

Many on-campus health programs and initiatives heavily involve student leadership and participation. Stewart said that based on information in the literature, “peer-to-peer education was found to be very effective.”

Peer Health Advocates is a group of nine students working for HPW whose primary duty is to connect students to resources like Student Health and Counseling Services. At the beginning of the year, they give presentations to each house about sexual health, alcohol safety, and bystander prevention.

Third-year Alexa Karczmar became a Peer Health Advocate after going to a high school with poor sexual health education and learning that other students here also come from similar backgrounds. Karczmar said that students on campus are aware that she is a resource to talk to privately because of her role as a Peer Health Advocate and are comfortable asking her questions.

“Students will come to me with things like, ‘I’ve never thought about being on birth control or using condoms, and now I want to

infection (STI) testing. Student Health Services provides STI testing, covered by the Student Life Fee. Fernandez said that the most popular Tea Time and Sex Chats session is “Oral Sex,” during which students touched on the subject of condom use during oral sex. She feels students are unaware or neglectful of the risks posed by oral sex.

“Maybe [there is] a lack of knowledge that STIs can be spread through oral sex. I don’t know if it’s a lack of knowledge or a disregard. I legitimately don’t know,” she said. “Definitely there isn’t talk anywhere, not on this campus and not anywhere about using barriers during oral sex. In the oral sex session, one of the things that I did was I taught people [and] put a condom on an applicator with my mouth, so I sort of said there are sexy ways to incorporate protection. If you’re never gonna do it in a thousand years, that’s on you, but you need to manage risks.”

all the time for emergencies,” said HPW Health Educator and coordinator of the Well Czar program Lena Ismail. “It’s not for everyday use. It’s just for in the middle of the night when somebody needs a condom or a female condom, and they’re able to know where they can get one for free and quickly.”

Cornell

Peer educators and confidants

have sex. What do I do?’” she said. “There’s this feeling that, in asking certain questions, you’re exposing things about yourself, which may or may not be true. What [Peer Health Advocates is] working towards as a group is making that a comfortable conversation and not acting as if sex needs to be hidden.”

In addition, entering first-years sometimes lack alcohol education and are unaware of what constitutes a standard drink, according to Karczmar.

“I think kids come to college and experience drinking often for the first time and often think that a full cup is a full cup, which isn’t necessarily true depending on the type of liquor,” she said.

Stony Island

that over 5,000 students, faculty, and staff received flu shots at these clinics this quarter.

Some of HPW’s other initiatives include having a trained team of “Stressbusters,” students who provide back rubs at various social events put on by Health Promotion and Wellness like Uncommon Nights and Wellapalooza. HPW also provides education workshops on topics like alcohol and drug education and body image.

Ellis

SHS continued from front

*Locations of reports approximate

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | December 3, 2013

NEWS IN BRIEF Teenager shot on South 62nd Street A teenage boy was shot in the arm on the 6200 block of South Cottage Grove around 2 p.m. yesterday.

The 16-year-old boy checked himself into the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to Chicago Police Department (CPD) spokesperson Veejay Zala.

The boy told authorities he sustained the wound through a drive-by shooting, and the case is currently under investigation by CPD,

Zala said.

The incident occurred on a Safe Passage route near John Fiske Elementary School, according to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) website.

Launched this fall as a partnership between CPS and CPD, the Safe Passage program aims to protect Chicago students walking to and from school with the help of hundreds of neon-vested trained workers and volunteers.

This shooting comes after a holiday weekend during which three people were killed and at least 20 were wounded in shootings and stabbings across the city, according to DNAinfo Chicago.

—Linda Qiu

UChicago alums, affiliates named in “40 Under 40” What do Lupe Fiasco and an Argonne X-ray scientist have in common? They, along with a handful of UChicago affiliates, have been named some of the city’s top innovators in Crain’s Chicago Business’s “40 Under 40” list.

UChicago is represented in several fields. In politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Education, Beth Swanson (M.P.P. ’02), has been a major player in the city’s negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union.

In the arts, Justine Nagan (A.M. ’04), the executive director of the documentary production com-

3 pany responsible for Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters, has worked to attract minority filmmakers.

The list also includes number-crunching alumnus Dan Wagner (A.B. ’05), who, after working on the Obama campaign, heads Civis Analytics, which works with nonprofits on using data for political and social projects.

The UCMC racked up two names: Sameer Badlani, who is digitizing UCMC’s records, and Thomas Fisher (M.D. ’01), who heads the largest customer-owned insurer in the country.

Harper Court was also represented: David Cocagne is the CEO of Vermilion Development, the main developer of the complex on East 53rd Street.

—Marina Fang

Cultural groups, religious fellowships, and sororities have all held events and fundraisers HAIYAN continued from front

tural RSOs, held an event on Friday, November 15 in which students constructed decorative paper cranes with messages of support for those affected by the typhoon.

“We’ll be hanging the cranes people make up in Reynolds Club, and if people want, they can leave donations,” said PanAsia board member and second-year Vo Yoon earlier this month. “We want to be an outlet for people if they don’t really have the financial means,” he added.

The University chapter of the American Red Cross sold Chinese buns and Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies in Reynolds Club on Wednesday, November 20. The group also collected donations during a candlelight vigil last week organized by UChicago’s Asian-American InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (AAIV).

Second-year Mo Kwok, one of the organizers of the event, said the vigil was a “wake-up call” which reminded the attendees of the pressing issues that existed outside the campus. “I feel like

by the end of the vigil there was definitely a sense of urgency where people felt like they should act,” she said.

Combined, the American Red Cross on campus raised over $300 from donations collected at both events.

Additionally, sororities Kappa Phi Lambda and Alpha Kappa Delta hosted a lunch fundraiser on November 26, which raised over $250.

Future events to support the Philippines are in the works. According to second-year Aurna

Hasnie, community service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega will hold a benefit concert and silent auction to raise funds to donate to the Philippine Red Cross next quarter.

“I’m immensely glad that [the typhoon has led] to international awareness for the suffering in the Philippines, but I hope that it leads to a sustained aid effort as opposed to a passing media sensation,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Editor’s Note: Anthony Gokianluy is a former Maroon staffer.

UCAN, activists hope to meet with government body with final say on fracking regulations UCAN continued from front

also be submitted in writing, so UCAN, along with the Chicago Youth Climate Coalition, is participating in a letter-writing campaign to flood IDNR with protests against the regulations.

The hearing was two hours long. Speakers were chosen by lottery and testified before a panel of IDNR members for a maximum of four minutes.

According to SSN member and second-year Ben Chametzky, about six UChicago students were chosen to testify.

During his own testimonial, Chametzky spoke about the dangers fracking poses to towns in Illinois that rest on fault lines, including his hometown of Carbondale, Illinois.

“Given that people there are already worried and ill-prepared for a massive earthquake, doing things that could exacerbate the chances of that are not a good idea,” Chametzky said in an interview with the Maroon.

First-year Michelle Mejia expounded on another IDNR controversy: the timing of the public hearing.

Many of those who testified commented that the hearing, the only one in Chicago, was held right before Thanksgiving, a time when many are traveling.

In another effort to slow down and closely regulate fracking in Illinois, UCAN and IIRON will target JCAR, the body that will have the final vote on the proposed regulations, through one-on-one meetings and a massive public hearing on Martin Luther King , Jr, Day. “As an organization…we’re trying to slow down the process for the regulations, so we’ll slow down

the process for fracking companies to come in, and that will give us time to push for another bill in the state congress that will basically give the ability to local governments, local municipalities, to have votes, to have conversations to... outlaw [fracking] up front in their community,” Behrens said.

According to UCAN members, the audience at the hearing was overwhelmingly opposed to the proposed regulations.

“People were angry. People were ready to fight,” Mejia said.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESENTS

70

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VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed DECEMBER 3, 2013

IOP: Initiating open programming Both the IOP and students could benefit from easier access to speaker events The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 REBECCA GUTERMAN Editor-in-Chief SAM LEVINE Editor-in-Chief EMILY WANG Managing Editor

CELIA BEVER Senior Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Senior Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Senior Editor MADHU SRIKANTHA Senior Editor MARINA FANG News Editor ANKIT JAIN News Editor LINDA QIU News Editor KRISTIN LIN Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Arts Editor WILL DART Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS Sports Editor SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor MARA MCCOLLOM Social Media Editor CONNOR CUNNINGHAM Head Copy Editor SHERRY HE Head Copy Editor JEN XIA Head Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy Editor JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor TIFFANY TAN Photo Editor COLIN BRADLEY Grey City Editor JOY CRANE Grey City Editor THOMAS CHOI Assoc. News Editor ALEX HAYS Assoc. News Editor HARINI JAGANATHAN Assoc. News Editor

Last Monday, the Institute of Politics (IOP) hosted Vice President Joe Biden, who spoke with a select group of students in an offthe-record session. The event, albeit a remarkable opportunity, raises concerns about the inaccessibility of the IOP to the general student body. One of the goals of the Institute, officially opened in January, is to help “students here at the University to become that much more engaged in the world around them,” according to IOP Executive Director Darren Reisberg. In order to achieve this goal, it is in the best interest of the IOP to broaden the accessibility of their events to students, and there are many feasible ways for them to do so.

Students were selected from a lottery to hear Biden speak, but the lottery itself was only open to students who had received a special invitation from the IOP. The criteria under which one is qualified to receive

such an invitation remains unclear.

The same selection process has been used at least once in the past for an event with former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner last year. By handpicking attendees, the IOP is able to better the odds that students who attend are genuinely interested in politics and will ask informed questions. But this method sets a precedent of insularity that could leave students passionate about politics on the outside looking in. Furthermore, the IOP has an opportunity to introduce the idea of engaging in public service not only to public policy and political science majors, but to students of all concentrations, from computer science to East Asian studies. A possible solution could be to give lottery priority to students with a strong demonstrated interest in politics, but there is no reason why an event should be completely closed off to the rest of the student body.

It is understandable that some events are more rewarding in intimate and candid settings, but the IOP could still do more to make the speakers at small events more accessible to those interested. In events that are off the record, a separate press availability period—like the ones hosted when Senator John McCain and Representatives Chris Van Hollen and Peter Roskam visited campus—can allow students unable to attend to still benefit from the speakers’ presence on campus, even if indirectly. Off-the-record events provide invaluable opportunities for honest dialogue, but the IOP can make speakers more accessible to students while still preserving the unique quality of these events.

Instead of filtering the crowds their talks may attract, the IOP would do well to see the opportunity in the draw of high profile speakers. They have the potential to inspire not only students already

Myopic nooks Engaging with the outside world is difficult but necessary for college students

STEPHANIE XIAO Assoc. News Editor ELEANOR HYUN Assoc. Viewpoints Editor LIAM LEDDY Assoc. Viewpoints Editor ANNA HILL Assoc. Arts Editor TATIANA FIELDS Assoc. Sports Editor SAM ZACHER Assoc. Sports Editor PETER TANG Assoc. Photo Editor FRANK YAN Assoc. Photo Editor

TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager TAMER BARSBAY Director of Business Research SHAWN CHEN Director of Internal Marketing ANNIE ZHU Director of External Marketing VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator ANNIE CANTARA Designer CARINA BAKER Designer AURNA HASNIE Designer JANE JUN Designer CASEY KIM Designer JONAH RABB Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Designer KRYSTEN BRAY Copy Editor SOPHIE DOWNES Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor CHELSEA LEU Copy Editor KATIE LEU Copy Editor JOHN LOTUS Copy Editor KATARINA MENTZELOPOULOS Copy Editor CHRISTINE SCHMIDT Copy Editor ANDY TYBOUT Copy Editor LAN WANG Copy Editor RUNNAN YANG Copy Editor

The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500.

The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2013 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

By Clair Fuller Viewpoints Columnist Every time I visit home for a holiday or break, that which I used to take for granted is remarkable to me—how warm it is in southern California, even in November; the fact that I can shower without wearing plastic flip-flops; the kitchen full of food just a short walk from my bed. During my most recent trip back for Thanksgiving, all of this was especially remarkable given that it marked the end of the longest period of time I’d ever spent without returning home since starting college last year. This also meant that my parents felt they had more of my life to catch up on than ever before. For my mother, “catching up” meant hounding me for stories about my friends and classes and insisting that I e-mail her every time one of my columns is published. For my father, who is less adept at keeping the various details of my life and names of my friends straight, it meant searching in vain for some common cultural touchstone that we could talk about. Had I watched Breaking Bad yet? Seen that new movie with Sandra Bullock? Heard that story on NPR? Almost every time, my answer was no. I had to explain that it wasn’t because Chicago is a cultural wasteland—far from it. Rather, I’ve been so immersed in school and extracurriculars and work and trying to sleep on a semi-regular basis that

keeping up with the current events, much less television and movies, is a challenge. As I found myself lost in conversation after conversation about everything from the Dancing With the Stars finale to the finer points of the healthcare.gov fiasco, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten to do some pleasure reading or sat down with a newspaper.

In high school I prided myself on the fact that I always followed the news, always knew what was going on in the world; now it’s difficult to remember sometimes that there is a world outside of campus at all.

More disturbing is that I hadn’t realized how myopically absorbed in school I’d become until spending Thanksgiving with my family forced me to come up for air briefly. UChicago is infamously rigorous—seniors from my old high school applying here this year have repeatedly expressed to me their worries that the workload would be unmanageable. I’ve always assured them that wouldn’t be the case.

After all, here I was, definitively lacking in the superhuman skills of dealing with a packed schedule that some people seem to have, and still, I was managing.

But I’m beginning to question that definition of managing. I previously thought that if I got all my work done, had time for a few extra things outside of class, and got to see my friends a bit, even if just for joint study sessions—surely that was managing, succeeding even.

But now I’m not so sure how successful I can consider myself if I’m unable to take a step back sometimes and consider the bigger picture: the fact that outside this ivory tower of academia and college life there are other people doing other things, things that include making both news and excellent television

that most other people seem to be aware of.

Part of my dilemma probably stems from the fact that I genuinely love almost everything I’m doing here. Burying myself in this work doesn’t feel unpleasant, because it’s challenging and engaging and it feels like what I’m supposed to be doing right now. I’m so lucky to be at an amazing university studying what I love, and I don’t want to feel like I’m squandering that opportunity by not devoting all my time and energy to doing just that. College is supposed to be time-consuming—people describe themselves as “full-time students”; my parents have told me that doing well in school is my “job” right now. It’s easy to forget, then, that we’re also full-time human beings living in the context of a world larger than Hyde Park, and that, at least on some level, our job is also to engage with that world.

After all, most of us won’t live in this academic bubble our whole lives. When our formal schooling is over, we’ll have no excuse for such cultural disengagement. But even now, and even for those who do plan on spending their lives in academia, we lose out by narrowing our focus so extensively. Especially at a school so notoriously theoretical, we stand only to benefit from considering our education in a broader context and searching for applicability to the “real world,” even in the most esoteric pursuits. I want to spend my time in college in a way that connects me to the world at large and that reverberates outside the classroom—and for now I’ll keep telling myself that includes both The New York Times as well as a finals-week Netflix marathon.

Clair Fuller is a second-year in the College.

involved in politics, but also those with a passing or perhaps budding interest. As governments confront new challenges, people with a wide range of skills are always in high demand—from programmers who can make sure that the nuts and bolts of a healthcare website work, to climatologists who can understand the scientific evidence behind global warming. With unique access to students who have the potential to be experts in their fields of study, the IOP can make clear the path toward careers in public service by drawing a more diverse crowd to its events. The IOP has the chance to show all UChicago students, known for their predilection for theory, that the practice of politics can be both stimulating and rewarding.

The Editorial Board consists of the Editors-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.

Twenty going on twelve The minutiae of daily life leave us lost at milestones

By Eleanor Hyun Associate Viewpoints Editor Following the celebration of any birthday is the inevitable question, “So, do you feel any different?” My habitual answer, “No, not really,” usually handily dismisses it.

This year, though, the question has continued to resonate in my head for weeks afterward. Perhaps it has lingered because my birthday hit the third Monday of November like a paintball, messily splattering its guts, congratulations, and celebrations across the surrounding days. It was the natural result of not having a Facebook, being a busy second-year with equally busy second-year friends, and having the special day unceremoniously arrive on the same day as a physics midterm and a biology lab. But this lingering probably has most to do with my turning the big two-oh.

“When I turned 20, I thought I would be like the sun/ Brilliantly rising up,” sings Korean rock band Jaurim in “Icarus.” Twenty does not signify any more tangible change than any other year. UnTWENTY continued on page 6

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | December 3, 2013

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Behind closed doors Displays of vulnerability—even anonymously—can be a crucial part of dealing with an eating disorder Annie Hao Viewpoints Contributor There is a list written on a certain stall in the women’s bathroom on the second floor of Harper that starts with the prompt, “All I want is….” At the start of the quarter, the list contained humorous lines like “All I want is a hot boyfriend,” or “All I want is an ice cream sundae” (or something to that effect—my memory fails me). But as the lines grew in number over the weeks, the

content got darker and more personal.

“All I want is to be thin.”

Somehow the line inflicts what feels like real physical pain in my chest. I have been thin and I have been fat, but no matter what body size I possessed, I was never happy. I always felt like there was more of me I could lose, like I was greedily taking up too much space in the world.

Now I binge, and after I binge I sit in the stall and contemplate my fatness, my eating disorder, and the ut-

ter repulsiveness of my existence.

“All I want is to get over my eating disorder.”

When did that get written? I don’t know but I add with my pen, “x2.”

A few days pass and I return to the stall. Now on top of my “x2,” there is an “x3,” “x4,” “x5.” I feel tears welling up in my eyes. So many of us strive so hard to appear perfect and in control; that is partly the reason why we were able to enter this school in the first place. I’ve constructed this

unachievable ideal of perfection. I see those around me who seem to function effortlessly. I yearn to be like them, but it seems that quite a few of us are merely putting up façades of normalcy and are quite good at it.

Over Thanksgiving, one of my closest friends from high school discovered that I have an eating disorder. She is bulimic herself and is resigned to fact that she will never recover. When she found out about me, she was surprised.

“You always seemed so

Fresh off the press Information that strays too far from its source loses nutritional value Grace Koh Viewpoints Staff When I open a bag of potato chips, I don’t think about anything beyond the fact that I’m eating a good old bag of Lay’s. But I forget that before they ended up in my hands, they were distributed to various retailers and grocery stores. Before that they were poured into individual plastic bags, before that they were probably salted, and even before that maybe they were processed with some kind of flavoring. The chips that I consumed, my “potato” chips, are only a distant relative of its original source: the potato. Who knows how many steps ago these processed potatoes from whence my chips came were actually buried in the ground on a farm somewhere? And who knows what they’ve been through from then until now? But the chips are easy to eat and they taste good, so I eat them.

I’ve noticed that our current events are processed in a similar way. Yesterday I checked my phone, and a little news line about the President’s statement on Iran popped up, courtesy of my CNN app. From the actual event, to the reporter, to the news report, to the condensed sentence of news I get on my phone, probably a dozen mechanisms were used to “process” the event into something I can digest in a couple seconds. I may be worlds away from Washington, D.C., geographically and mentally, but that little sentence is quick and easy to digest. So I eat it.

This corollary between common consumption of both processed foods and processed information is exemplified in the recent media attention that Pope Francis has been receiving.

In the same way that potato chips are a mere semblance of a potato, media perception of Pope Francis as someone who goes above and beyond what Catholicism calls for seems a few degrees removed from the Bible. CNN’s Breaking News Twitter feed uploaded a photo of the Pope embracing a man with boils, captioned, “Pope’s embrace

of a disfigured man transcends religion.”

In light of explicit biblical passages that embrace marginalized people, such as, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress,” why is it newsworthy that the head of a “religious organization” is acting out what the Bible says is true religion?

I think it’s surprising that Pope Francis saying “I’m a sinner” was such a revolutionary idea, because the idea that all humans are sinful and fallen is one of the most basic principles outlined in the Bible. Romans 3:10 says, “No one is righteous, not even one”; 1 John reads, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”; and the Gospel of Mark states, “No one is good but God alone.” The pope was just saying something that the Bible has been saying for ages. How, then, was this worth a fourminute news segment on CNN? I asked several peers, from a spectrum of religious (and non-religious) beliefs and backgrounds, about their opinions or thoughts regarding Pope Francis.

Commonly dispersed in their responses were statements like “I honestly don’t know that much other than a few headlines that I’ve seen,” or “One thing I know from my surface knowledge of the Catholic Church is that…” Maybe this just proves that being UChicago students makes it impossible to give an opinion without covering our bases, but the recurrence of these phrases also highlights a subconscious understanding that much of our knowledge is from a diluted source: a processed version of the original thing.

The processed information phenomenon is particularly prominent when it comes to religiously-backed arguments against issues like LGBTQ rights. There’s a much better alternative to blatantly inaccurate blanket statements such as “God hates homosexuals” or “The Bible doesn’t even mention homosexual acts,” and there’s a more productive solution than struggling to apply personal logic and experience to interpret the Bible. A much more

constructive discussion would revolve around striving to understand how the Bible itself reconciles statements such as “Men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error” or “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” or “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Studying the context, original meanings, or examining other related statements and themes in the Bible are a few ways to learn more accurately what the Church claims to believe, instead of dwelling on irrational and biased statements.

Of course, it is impossible to have a primary source for every piece of knowledge one claims to possess, but I think there are definite dangers to such a reality. For one, remaining far removed from a source leaves more room for inaccuracy and allows more room to make claims that are simply contradictory to what the original source says.

It also permits the focus to shift more toward other things, such as defending one’s own point or winning an argument, rather than reaching an accurate conclusion.

In this respect, Pope Francis is a great role model. By being honest and open to discussion, he is not compromising his primary sources, but rather drawing more attention to them. He’s rejecting a relentless adherence to personal opinion and instead creating a space for primary sources—in his case, the Bible—to speak for themselves.

This is not a call for the elimination of all processed foods or news sources.

They have tangible benefits in their own way, and I’m quite fond of my CNN pop-ups and French fries. But before getting buried in emotionally charged and unfounded arguments, it’s important to remember that at one point in its life, your chip was a just a potato.

Grace Koh is a second-year in the College.

normal.”

The fact is eating disorders are more prevalent than we think. At a school with such academic focus and intensity, it almost seems like it is my fault that I would even have the time and energy to develop an eating disorder.

I feel guilty and ashamed; it almost seems indulgent to put so much focus on myself, when really I should be focusing on school and work.

To be honest, I still do not know how I am going to deal with this problem, who I will

be in 12 months, but every day the possibility of recovery seems a little bit closer.

It is easy to feel lonely—battling an eating disorder is largely dependent on the self. I just wonder how many more of us are out there and how wonderful it would be to be able to embrace our imperfections together.

But at least for now, I have gained solace from words written on a bathroom stall.

Annie Hao is a first-year in the College.

Letter: J Street liberals fundamentally misunderstand “pro-Israel” In her November 26th piece, “What It Means To Be Pro-Israel,” Daniela Tolchinsky completely flubs what it actually means to be pro-Israel. In keeping with her status as a J Street UChicago board member, Tolchinsky proffers a left-wing approach to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict as purportedly representing the unequivocal paradigm of what it means to be a pro-Israel American. This unfairly undermines Israel supporters who hold legitimate differing views.

Tolchinksy inveighs against both Hillel and American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) leadership while claiming to have a “clear idea of what being pro-Israel means.” This is utter malarkey. Tolchinsky’s vision amounts to more “land for peace,” which resembles the poorly planned 2005 Gaza Strip withdrawal that directly fomented Hamas militants on Israel’s southwest border. In the absence of an acceptance of Israel’s legitimacy and a concomitant fundamental cultural change within its Palestinian neighbors—who inculcate a violent culture that celebrates murderous terrorists as martyrs and uses propaganda to instill children with deep-rooted anti-Semitism— more “land for peace” will simply yield a smaller and less secure Israel that is even more vulnerable to Islamist terror from its neighbors. Tolchinsky’s use of the highly tendentious term “occupation” to describe the present Israeli presence in the disputed West Bank is sufficient grounds in and of itself to disqualify her from being the enlightened pro-Israel sophisticate she claims to be.

Tolchinsky is correct insofar as she suggests that pro-Israel should not be defined to include only Naf-

tali Bennett–style hawks. However, she is sorely misguided in her support of the inverse position—that to be pro-Israel simply means to accept and advance J Street’s dovish “land for peace” approach to the Palestinian peace process. To be pro-Israel, quite simply, means to support the Jewish State’s sovereignty and its legitimacy as an actor on the world stage. To be pro-Israel is to trust the vibrant Israeli democratic process to yield rational actions in furthering Israel’s own self-interest—which, due to shared moral and national security concerns, is incidentally oft tantamount to advancing American regional interests. Regarding the Palestinian conflict, the Iranian nuclear quagmire, and all other regional conflagrations, then, American supporters of Israel must recognize Israel’s ability to think and act for itself as it deems prudent. That is what it to be pro-Israel. Period.

In submitting her own left-wing quixotism as the voice of reason for pro-Israel Americans, Tolchinsky has denigrated those who properly value Israel’s autonomy, sovereignty, and security, while rejecting her talking points and policy aims. Many, and probably most Americans, eschew actions such as cajoling the Jewish State into releasing 100 Palestinian terrorists, as Tolchinsky’s beloved Secretary of State recently did. Liberal American Jews have no grounds upon which to dictate specific and possibly selfdestructive actions Israel should take as the quintessence of supporting our steadfast ally. Such intellectual deceit as Tolchinsky’s—and J Street’s—is unwarranted and dangerous, and it must be strongly denounced.

—Josh Hammer, Law School Class of 2016

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | December 3, 2013

“This university seems full of people who have perfected the art of valuing the journey....”

TWENTY continued from page 4 like 18 or 21, it is not a civil, as much as a personal, coming of age: I am no longer a teenager. Already governmentally acknowledged, I am now socially and officially an adult. It’s time for me to play in the big leagues, and it has always seemed natural that I’d enter at the peak of my game— somehow taller and thinner, with my hair chopped into a chunky, stylish bob, lips dyed bright red, striding confidently forward with the crisp click-clack of a pair of heels. The physical reinvention I imagined signified a mental rebirth, an internal clarity of self and purpose.

Of course, I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that this change would suddenly happen overnight so that I would emerge a fully formed butterfly on my 20th birthday.

But perhaps I had accepted the sameness of each past birthday because I believed that they would cumulate into something that no longer felt the same. And maybe I’d be more willing to accept the sameness of this birthday, too, if I still believed that.

A friend recently told me that her parents had confided to her that, inside, they still felt like they were 12. And I felt deeply saddened, because it described how I felt too well. Of course, I’m not 12. I’ve lived and I’ve learned for eight additional years.

But my day-to-day experiences feel frustratingly unchanged. I’m still too scared to cut my hair short because I think my face is too round, so it hangs at the safe medium length it’s had since middle school; I still often waddle through my day in a T-shirt and sweats. So, at this personal milestone, 20, what does it really mean to still feel 12?

A friend—a fellow premed—recently told me she could only see herself as happy in a future where she would be able to see the world. Tired of feeling weighed down, she saw freedom in this hypothetical globetrotting future. There are many times at this college when I feel that I am paying my dues now for the future I desire. I am chomping at the bit of the present, straining against its chains so that I may rocket forward into the bright light at the end of the tunnel. But the further I reach for that light, the harder I fall back.

This university seems full of people who have perfected the art of valuing the journey as much as the destination—or at least the appearance thereof. Their hearts

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com

already set on their academic futures, each new thing they learn each new day seems only to renew their passion and commitment to their field of choice. Perhaps what I imagined myself to be at 20 is not far from these people—my purpose and therefore my self clearly realized. But the life of the mind does not come so easily to everyone.

About once every couple weeks, I’ll have a sort of revelation in my Civ class: “Wait, this stuff is interesting. These are readings you’ve been waiting to study for years. You are living the life (of the mind).” But as I settle into my third-floor Regenstein cubicle each day after class, I often find myself cradling my head in my arms as I work my way through yet another reading or p-set.

On the days when I find free moments, my frustration is paralyzing as I write, then read my leaden words, nowhere close to the clarity I need. For some, writing may be a release, flowing in an effortless and gratifying stream, but for me it is slow, frustrating work, chipping at the stone wall between what I am and what I want to be.

In all aspects of my life, there is a disconnect between meaningful progress and the seemingly meaningless days that make it up.

I want this disconnect bridged; I want to be released from the weights of my daily, irrelevant stresses and mistakes. I want to be free to pursue what I care about full-heartedly.

At 20, I thought that my present and future would be perfectly linked in a direct trajectory, and each day would be covered in long strides of progress, but instead even when I know what I want, I still feel that I go through my days confused. At 20, I thought my life would be filled with purpose and forward motion, my days lived in crisp Technicolor, but instead they are lost in a grayish malaise. At 20, I wanted to be able to stand up and begin to deliver my note to the world, beautiful, long, and pure, but instead I’m still tuning.

I’ve struggled with my insecurities, my flaws, myself for 20 years, with the expectation that one day, maybe soon, I’d come to a realization, a resolution. Now, at 20, I’ve had my realization: that there may be none. Twenty or 40 years down the road, I may still feel 12, weighed down by all those small things that aren’t supposed to matter.

Eleanor Hyun is a second-year in the College maoring in English.

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ARTS

Heartlandia DECEMBER 3, 2013

Brace yourself for an avalanche of Oscar contenders

Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale, here shown playing to type in American Hustle, are both “at the height of their careers.”

COURTESY OF COLUMBIA PICTURES

Marina Fang News Editor As someone who enjoys following politics, I like that awards season reminds me of the presidential primaries. To sustain momentum throughout the season requires campaigning and trying to develop a compelling narrative to distinguish oneself from the pack. For

politicians, this might involve framing oneself as the most experienced candidate or the one with the best platform; for movie studios, it’s framing their films as the most inspirational or the most critically acclaimed of the year. It is exciting to see who’s leading at any moment, and it frequently changes.

While awards season culminates with the Academy Awards (March

2), it typically begins all the way back in September at the Toronto and Venice International Film Festivals, where many of the awards contenders launch their campaigns in the form of glitzy world premieres. By December, the prominent film critic organizations, which influence Oscar voters, release their picks for best of the year. After that, there are “precursors,” such as the Golden Globes

and the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), which occur in January and February. As a result, films released earlier in the year have an inherent disadvantage because there’s a risk that voters and critics will forget about them as awards season drags on. This is why studios tend to dump their “Oscar bait” in December, so brace yourselves.

Here’s what to see over winter break.

From Oscar-winning director Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants), Nebraska is already out in Chicago but slowly rolling into smaller cities. Veteran actor (and actress Laura Dern’s father) Bruce Dern is Woody Grant, a man determined to claim a $1 million prize that is actually an advertising scam. In addition to gorgeous views of the Great Plains and a story that is both funny and sad, the film features a pleasant surprise of a performance from Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte as Woody’s son.

Dern is already considered a Best Actor favorite, having picked up the Palme d’Or for Best Actor when the film premiered at Cannes.

Like last year’s Best Picture winner Argo, American Hustle portrays a covert operation in the 1970s, complete with the crazy hairstyles and fashion choices. Bringing together a British con man, an FBI agent, and a Mafia leader, the plot sounds highly dramatic and riveting. Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Lawrence lead

the all-star cast and are all currently at the height of their careers.American Hustle opens December 18.

Joaquin Phoenix stars in Her, the first feature-length movie in four years from writer-director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation).

While the plot is futuristic—Phoenix is a man who falls in love with a computer operating system that can understand human emotions, voiced

by Scarlett Johansson—it invokes feelings of loneliness and addiction to technology that definitely resonate today. Her opens in limited release on December 18.

Opening on Christmas, The Wolf of Wall Street may be the season’s biggest wild card because it almost wasn’t ready to be released this year due to editing delays and nearly being rated NC-17. Based on a true story, the movie chronicles the frenetic rise and fall of Jordan Belfort, a Wall Street stockbroker brought down by his excessive greed. From the looks of it, it could be the film to beat: It’s both a morality tale and a fun caper. Plus, Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio in their fifth collaboration, and both are hard to count out any time they’re in the Oscar race.

Also opening on Christmas Day is August: Osage County, which has received mixed reviews but is worth checking out, if only to see Meryl Streep as Violet Weston, the powerful matriarch in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed play.

On Yeezus tour, pride cometh before the fall (of Kanye) Noah Weiland Maroon Contributor Kanye West is broken again, fitful, a little disorganized. It’s been five years since he released the stunning 808s & Heartbreak, and three since his Armageddon, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Since then, he has paired up with his mentor Jay Z for a brilliant collaboration album, Watch the Throne, showcased a clothing line at Paris Fashion Week, and become a father with a reality TV star. It’d be hard to think that West hasn’t feared that his musical genius isn’t enough, that the demands of his emotional insecurities and commercial enterprises must supersede his pleasures as a rapper and producer. There are new spaces to consider, a bigger legacy at stake. But as his entrepreneurial aspirations have become less coherent, his musical tastes have become sharper and more insistent. Yeezus, his most recent album, is one of the best of 2013, a prototype of musical attraction-byrepulsion.

Ten days ago, West performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City

to promote his new album, and, by extension, his new life. Over a two-and-a-halfhour set, he proved once again how unparalleled his live performances are: There are few pop artists as ornate and detail-oriented in arena shows, and few more intent on pleasing the audience, either by sound or visuals. He runs, preens, dances, lurches, struts, and lies down. He shouts into a microphone, screams into a vocoder, and pleads into an Auto-Tune device. He climbs a holy mountain on stage, stands atop a mock cliff in the middle of the arena, and kneels before a man dressed as Jesus. Considering West’s propensity for honest selfdeification, there may be less irony in all this than there should be.

The songs off Yeezus were performed confidently and with little surprise. The most distinctive connections between his discography occurred in songs from 808s and Dark Twisted Fantasy, which come from the same fraught, cathartic space and were delivered with the fervor and brokenness that comes through on the albums. If anything, his recent songs have become

Kanye West, high on the mountaintop in Madison Square Garden. On belay? Belay on. Spotters ready.

COURTESY OF LIVINCOOL

more pronounced and muscular, stripped of the effortless flow that defined his early music. Songs like “Runaway” and “Heartless” were devoid of any drama and replaced by some of the stark vexation that oozes from Yeezus. On the songs that did require the gloom of 808s, he was suit-

ably despondent. He sang “Coldest Winter” on his back with fake snow falling from the ceiling.

It’d be a mistake to think that his older, more flexible, and more lyrical music is better than his recent, more industrial material. The best pairing of the night was “Cold” with “I Don’t Like,”

his remix of Chief Keef ’s Chicago drill rap anthem.

For “Cold,” West reemerged on stage to merge M.O.P.’s “Cold as Ice” intro with his own eponymous version, which made for one of the coolest entrances I’ve ever seen. The performance of “I Don’t Like” was the most abrasive track of the night,

with the audience eager to plunge into Young Chop’s prodigious bass beats.

Regrettably, the takeaway for most fans of this tour will not be the music.

It will be West’s antics, on full display throughout the night. The new West, assuming there is one, is YEEZUS continued on page 9

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THETHE CHICAGO CHICAGO MAROON MAROON | ARTS | ARTS | December | May 17, 2013 3, 2013

As Suicide Narcissus nears close, poet Console gives eulogy Angela Qian Arts Staff Presented in conjunction with the tail end of the Renaissance Society’s Suicide Narcissus exhibition, poet Cyrus Console gave a reading on Monday night just a few doors down in Cobb Hall on the themes of ecologism and apocalypse.

Console first read from his first book of poetry, Brief Under Water. He writes about living with his brother, Mickey: “There were comets in the air. It was beautiful over Libya and beautiful over Chernobyl.” The lyrical yet apocalyptic images are placed in sharp contrast with mentions of a childish pastime of drawing pictures of airplanes with his brother, in the hopes of obtaining a “graphical solution.” He then drives the reality of the situation in: “In fact, there was

no tomorrow.”

Then Console presented selections from The Odicy (which, yes, sounds exactly like The Odyssey), a title derived from the theological term for vindicating divine goodness in light of the existence of evil. Particularly concerned with contemporary crises and man’s destruction of the natural world as exhibited in Suicide Narcissus, Console’s tone is often wry and sardonic, and sometimes a little bit pleading.

Mingling meditations on religion, corporations, intoxicants, and artificial sweeteners, his narrator dryly remarks, “You might say psychiatry chose me.” There is a thread of artificial sweetness and willful blindness running through the poems, peppered with frequent mentions of that infamous soft drink, Coca-Cola: Any hint of poetic sentimentality in his observations is quick-

ly broken down: “Her poetic diction was impeccable,” he says, then punches the air out of any beauty wrought by poetry with the contemptuous line, “She was what you’d call an intellectual.”

Though Console’s poetry is sometimes cryptic—the narrator’s journey through The Odicy is broken up by skipping through several different sections of the collection—it carries a carefully controlled rhythm and clever, heavy turns of phrase. The serious, measured cadence of Console’s reading voice belies the understated, sometimes startling humor in his reading and poetry, which became most apparent when he began reading excerpts from a current project, taken from what seem to be journal entries written over the summer.

Much more personal in nature, his final reading selections related the tension he

Holiday hotspots in the Windy City

A vendor’s stall at a German holiday market, called a Christkindlmarket. Don’t these Christmas tree ornaments look like food?

COURTESY OF KELLY LYNN

It’s December in Chicago, and for city dwellers, that means the beginning of the holiday season. The city’s Daley Plaza Christmas tree is up, lights illuminate the Magnificent Mile, holiday displays line State Street, and the Lincoln Park Zoo is attracting visitors with its multicolored lights. But for University of Chicago students, finals are in the offing. And while downtown the air is festive, things aren’t quite as merry for students in Hyde Park. A quarter’s end at the University comes with more hours at the library with study groups, and fewer hours roaming outside the neighborhood. The shift in priorities, aptly placed or not, can make enjoying Chicago during the holidays a challenge. With the few hours of free time that are left, how much holiday cheer can students absorb? As it turns out, quite a lot, especially when it’s paired with grabbing a bite to eat.

There is probably no better-known Christmas tradition than Christkindlmarket, a German holiday market that takes to Daley Plaza each year. Craft vendors set up shop to sell homemade knits, cuckoo clocks, jewelry, ornaments, and any number of other cottage-industry goods. Of course, it wouldn’t be a market without food. Potato pancakes with applesauce, German sausages with sauerkraut, roasted chestnuts, cookies, and gluhwein (spiced wine) can all be had for cheap. The open-air stalls make it easy to start with an entrée of potato pancakes, a salty snack balanced by the sweetness of the applesauce, and then jump to a bag of nuts that benefit from that same sweet-to-salty dance.

Those interested in seeing Chicago’s more outof-the-way holiday markets may want to consider the Irish Christmas Festival at Montrose Green for local beers and bistro foods. And for the foodies looking to shop, buy a ticket to the Tasting Table Open Market, a fantastic display of Chicago’s best restaurants and food purveyors and all their wares, on December 7. There will be demos from top chefs, including those from Fat Rice and Saigon Sisters.

Before the age of the super chef and even of fast food, department stores and hotels led the way in food service. In Chicago, the luxurious Palmer House hotel on State Street boasted culinary achievements—the brownie was invented there— and the Walnut Room at what was then Marshall Field’s (not Macy’s) pioneered the idea of shopping and eating in the same building. Perhaps one of the city’s best-kept secrets, both these venerable Chicago institutions are great places to celebrate the Christmas season, even in the present day.

The Walnut Room’s dining room, which stands over two stories high, is decorated every winter with a triumphant Christmas tree that dominates the space. Stick to the classic items: The chicken potpie recipe dates back more than 100 years and remains a highlight of the menu, and the French onion soup is respectable. The Palmer House decorates its already lavish interior with green and red lighting and other regal holiday décor. Have a cup of tea. Whatever you order, the ambiance of both institutions makes it all worthwhile. While the food isn’t truly impressive,

the mix of early 1900s luxury and holiday cheer brings these two places to life.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Chicago’s Swedish population was larger than any city, outside of Stockholm. This is not the case today, but the influence of this influx of Swedes remains strong, particularly during Christmas season. The culinary gem of the Swedish holidays can be found at Tre Kronor, an Albany Park establishment known for its jülbord (Christmas table) feast. It’s a tradition going back more than a decade now, and it has achieved a cult following among locals in the area. Servers wear the traditional garb of Saint Lucia’s Day—a white dress with a crown of candles—as they move along with plates of reindeer meat, salted codfish, and ginger cookies. Prices are steep—$55 per head on the weekdays—but call and ask about half-price days earlier in the season. If you’re lucky enough to go, you won’t soon forget it.

Those looking for a cheaper way of experiencing the Swedish holiday cheer can look to the equallyenjoyable options available in Andersonville proper.

Svea, a breakfast and lunch diner in the neighborhood, has been serving lutefisk as part of the holiday season for years now. The dish amounts to a gelatinous salted cod reconstructed after soaking in water and lye for two weeks, but it is a delicacy that seems to never go out of fashion with those in the in. You might even get the owner to sing to you while you try it. But if you’re too afraid, you can always turn to Swedish pancakes.

feels in the face of his wife’s pregnancy and the alcohol and cigarette smoke polluting the air. After the reading, Console admitted to devoting a lot of space to intoxicants. Journeying through Romania and Turkey, Console meets an abrasive violinist who shouts poetry at him, mingling shaving and God; to his surprise, they find common ground over ridiculing David Hasselhoff.

When asked whether the events related in his prose selection were all true, Console replied, straight-faced, “Well, to what extent can language really capture the truth of any experience?” The wry yet sobering joke was echoed in another comment of Console’s later, admitting the selections he read from—encompassing 10 years of work— were written mostly with a strong feeling that “everything was going to end.”

Touring for Yeezus, Kanye sayeth: “No new ideas without me” YEEZUS continued from page 8 more interested in people recognizing the profundity of his ideas outside the music world. He thinks there are serious problems; he feels people aren’t fully recognizing his potential as a clothing designer —that they’re “marginalizing” him, as he often argued. At several points throughout the night, he complained that his fans are eager for more hits, but not for his next pair of shoes.

West’s fear that something is holding him back just isn’t as deep as he wants it to be. Not getting the chance to participate in strategy sessions at the Versace headquarters doesn’t elicit much pity from the people who are supposed to grasp the broader political points West is supposedly making. His obsession with his art and clothing as anti-establishment, anti-corporate resources proves exactly the opposite: that clothing and fashion can be the easiest, and fastest, ways to accumulate the kind of cultural capital he wants, and that they’re as corporate as the business executives he regularly derides. If he wants to scapegoat the corporations that won’t support his artistic concepts, he can’t then plead for their acceptance at the end of the show, as he did in New York. He begged—by name—almost a dozen American corporations to believe in him and his dreams, lest the CEO of American Express (who was in the crowd that night, as West noted) see the Yeezus Tour and not think West is the ideal brand ambassador. Any reasonable thought he has as an entrepreneur gets clouded by his brazen self-contradiction.

During his performance of “Blood on the Leaves,” the closest thing to an opus on Yeezus, the smoke machine operator got a little zealous, and West was the first to notice. After the song ended, he castigated his tech crew, pointing out that all the smoke was preventing the audience from taking clear Instagram photos. “No new ideas without me,” he shouted. That moment might as well be the symbol of everything wrong, and right, with West.

Soon after, he jumped rather ambivalently into “Stronger,” one of his most athletic songs. The rendition this time was moodier and more deliberate, punctuated by a beautiful laser-light display rotating around West. There was no joy in this performance, no finesse. But maybe that’s how it should be. There was more feeling in the song this time, however conflicted it may have been. There are other things on West’s mind, and if it’s too hard to reconcile the genius of his music with the messiness of the rest of his public life, that doesn’t mean we should turn away altogether.

THECHICAGO CHICAGOMAROON MAROON | |ARTS ARTS|| November December26, 3, 2013 THE 2013

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In conjunction with MCA, artist un-discovers Chicago Marshall Smith Maroon Contributor A sole bar patron restlessly checks his phone for a message that may never come. Police form a barrier around an intersection with their squad cars. Some pedestrians attempt to steal a glance at the cause of the commotion, while others walk onward, unflinching. Newspapers are whisked along a dizzying network of tremendous metal printing machines.

Jarringly disparate in nature, these scenes are but a small fraction of the many quotidian yet disaffected scenes that comprise Sarah Morris’s disconcerting new film Chicago.

Serving as the centerpiece for the Museum of Contemporary Art’s new-

CITY SELF Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Through April 13

est exhibition, CITY SELF, Chicago offers museum patrons an “outsider’s perspective” of the Windy City. The film is the latest and 10th overall edition in Morris’s series of portraits

featuring different major metropolitan areas around the globe, beginning with 1998’s Midtown, a probing look at New York. Essentially a 68-minute assemblage of loose visual vignettes paired with a haunting and often dissonant electronic soundtrack, Chicago feels like a fevered, anxious daydream. Throughout the entirety of the work, the only sounds are those of the score, which from the outset helps to create a surreal atmosphere out of the otherwise ordinary.

A recurring motif in Morris’s work is capturing the Chicago skyline from disorienting and often dreary perspectives. Familiar buildings such as the John Hancock Center become strange, shadowy monoliths dominating the landscape. This is emblematic of the work as a whole—Morris goes to great lengths to dismantle the tourist-friendly presentation of Chicago and offer a version that instead feels decidedly paranoid.

A poignant example is the work’s approach to what would otherwise be a picturesque summer day at the beach. The sun is shining and children are playing, but this scene is in the distance. The foreground of the shot is dominated by officers wearing

Andreas Gursky’s “Chicago Board of Trade II”, 1999. The artist is shown in the third row, second from left.

COURTESY OF ANDREAS GURSKY

bulletproof vests on horseback and the periphery is dotted with litter. As with the rest of the film, there are no organic sounds, only the discomforting drone of the machine-like score.

In a similar sequence, Morris films the extravagant lobby of an unknown downtown office. The camera’s gaze fixates squarely on a security checkpoint, complete with a metal detector

and attack dog. Disinterested passersby come and go, but the focus remains centered on the vigilant security guards and their salivating German Shepherd. In this way, Morris demonstrates a knack for turning what would normally be subtle uneasiness into a flagrant elephant in the room.

The brilliance of the work, a trait shared by Morris’s other films in the

city series, is its ability to emulate general feelings of anxiety, discomfort, and unfamiliarity that transcend the specifics of the city that it portrays.

The emptiness of a specific industrial alleyway off Lower Wacker not only feels particular to that place, but reminds the viewer that, under the proper circumstances, one can feel like an “outsider” anywhere.

Professor’s undead clowns ring in new year at Theater Wit realistic and tangible.

The director’s genius created a magical yet realistic world. The performers directly addressed the audience, and there were silent scenes consisting of wild gesticulating and dancing. Kays also integrated popular songs into the play. It was really entertaining to hear

Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and a choir version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The end was also really powerful and melodic. I would highly recommend that everyone see Burning Bluebeard. I remembered the second half of the motto, Vita excolatur, on my way back home.

THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE LEC TURE SERIES PRESENTS Series: Why Did Civilizations Collapse: Internal Decay or External Forces?

Burning Bluebeard was directed by Halena Kays, an instructor at the University.

COURTESY OF EVAN HANOVER

Ilknur Aliyev Maroon Contributor I was looking at the icy black on the Lakeview roads in front of Theater Wit and thinking about those too-hard-to-pronounce words from UChicago’s motto, Crescat scientia. After spending three cold Novembers in the College, I had been well-taught about how to seek experiences that could bring valuable knowledge to my life, no matter how challenging circumstances were.

I was excited to see Burning Bluebeard, written by Jay Torrence and directed by Halena Kays, who teaches at UChicago. The play tells the true story of Chicago’s Iroquois Theater fire of 1903 from the perspectives of six clowns who died during the tragic event. This dual structure of the plotline provides a unique theater experience for audiences.

Before the play got started, I noticed that there were large black bags on the stage floor.

There was also a smell of something burning in

the air. I said hello to Ms. Kays and took a seat.

I could feel the chills all over my body. Lights off. Silence. Clowns emerged from the bags, and for the next 90 minutes my life became an emotional rollercoaster. The production was energetic, avant-garde, tragicomic, melodic, and strangely satisfying.

The neo-futuristic evolution of the fairy tale was well-supported by the acting. Molly

BURNING BLUEBEARD

Presented by

Clifford Ando

Through January 5

Plunk gave a memorable performance. The tall actress was in costume as a peculiar fairy queen who eats potato chips. The juxtaposition of folkloric and realistic elements created artistic moments that fueled the comedic undertone of the play. With Plunk’s acting, a fairy-tale fantasy became something more

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

Spacious studio located at 57th & Dorchester Ave., recently remodeled, garage parking. Call Julie at (773) 742-8812.

The Fall of the Roman Empire in East and West

Theater Wit

CLASSIFIEDS FOR RENT

The Long Defeat:

YOUR AD HERE advertise in the MAROON ADS@CHICAGOMAROON.COM

Wednesday, Dec 4 7:00 pm The Oriental Institute 1155 East 58th Street Docent-led Museum tour at 6:30pm Free and Open to the Public | Reception to Follow Co-sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Oriental Institute Volunteer Program

The Oriental Institute Lecture Series is made possible by the generous support of OI Members

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | December 3, 2013

Football makes me cry: A career in perspective

By Vicente Fernandez Senior Editor Whenever I feel a lump in my throat, that famous saying always sticks in my head: “There’s no crying in baseball.” Well, there’s less crying in football—at least that’s the way I always thought about it. That lump was always there this season, even before I stepped onto the field. But the most I cried was when wearing a Maroon jersey and the Chicago “C” on my helmet for the first time in a year and a half at my last homecoming game.

I could feel the tears building that Saturday as I walked off the field against Macalester. As soon as I left the locker room and saw my dad, my biggest fan, with tears in his eyes, a tear of my own broke out, running past my nose and onto my lip. One play, a few tears, and an embrace with my dad—that’s how I came to understand just how important football, and UChicago football, has been to me. It is also the moment I came to realize just how bright the future is for the football program from which I am proudly graduating.

It had been a long time coming. When this year’s O-Week finished and classes started, I was just happy to have a spot on the team, fully understanding that it was the coaches who were doing me a favor and not the other way around—considering it had been a season and half since I last suited up. Coach Moore, whom I spent most of my college football career playing under, and Coach Wilkerson, the new head coach I had yet to meet, made the call to let me back on, which I thought was incredible. In a sport characterized by a culture that doesn’t give second chances and where coaches don’t look beyond the sidelines when making decisions, I was welcomed back with open arms.

My theory about successful football teams is that wins don’t come from the talent of a few superstars. They come from all of the players, down to the scout team subs “buying in,” giving themselves up to win for the guys in their locker room. When I came back this year, that is what I saw: a team in which every player wanted to run out for scout kickoff, and one in which guys were willing to sacrifice their time off the field for success on it. I think that goes back to the team’s leadership, to the coaching staff making decisions like the one they made with me— caring about their players as students, athletes, and people, and making them feel that they truly believed that success would come for them in all of those facets of life.

I had spent three weeks practicing for the homecoming game, and I had no expectations of touching the field after the opening stretch.

I’d yet to put on the Maroon uniform as a fourth-year, but my dad and I still talked over the phone after nearly every practice—we both knew it was our last round in the ring. He didn’t miss a game I played in this season, flew in for every last one, whether they were in Chicago or not. Homecoming was no exception.

The Friday before the game I told him, “I can’t wait to see you, but know that I’m not going to play tomorrow.”

Being my biggest fan, he didn’t believe me. He was sure that some way, somehow the coaches would put me in.

When homecoming came around and the clock began to wind down, I was the one proven wrong. Moore came down from the coaches’ box and told me to get ready. With a hefty lead on the scoreboard, he looked at one of the firstyear cornerbacks and said, “You’ve got a lot of time left. Vinny only has a few more plays.”

All of a sudden I was hit with a rush, the lump cementing itself in my throat, and I ran onto the field, shaking with bliss about playing again in a game. The ball snapped and I was reminded that there was no place in the world I would rather have been than on the field at that moment.

When the play ended and the clock struck zero, I was engulfed by gratitude. The coaches had not only given me a season, they had given me back my love for the sport with that play, my first in my final year. They had gotten me to overwhelmingly buy in, and I don’t think they even noticed. I imagine that’s the love for football and for the Maroons, which has consumed the team since the season started, every player getting his own taste of that emotion.

The season rounded out with a competitive run at the UAA Championship, and I even got to travel. On my last road trips, bus rides, and hotel stays that I’d daydreamed about as the season approached, I took it all in. A quiet observer with either a helmet or a camera in hand, in Pittsburgh and St. Louis, I watched the team in preparation for conference play. I saw coaches and players who wanted nothing more than winning, no thoughts of weekend distractions, of tests or papers, or of selfish individual goals. I saw a team that wanted to win as much as I wanted to be a Maroon. And I wanted both. The coaches even gave me a few special team snaps in my last game—a goodbye with closure.

We finished 6–4 this year, a record I’ll remember as my last football season, and an admirable one for a team transitioning into a new era, but the sense I got was that we were a playoff, conference-championship team. As I leave the Maroons, I’m glad I’m walking away with one conference ring on my finger and the feeling that the guys taking the reins will have a few more than I do when they’re left with that final-season lump in their throats.

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Squad prepares for difficult December matches in “toughest region in the nation” WREST continued from back

Paul Papoutsis said.

The first-years on the team have all been consistently improving , which was seen at the Concordia Open last weekend. All five first-years wrestled in the tournament, with first-years Charlie Banaszak and Henry Powell placing in the top six of their weight categories.

All three placers for Chicago were either first-years or second-years, attesting to the potential the team has to grow.

Fourth-year Jeff Tyburski has also been a consistent factor for Chicago, notching wins at the Northwestern-Stevens Tech dual and Wheaton College dual in the heavyweight class.

The team as a whole has been working hard to improve its level of performance, especially with the high level of competition surrounding Chicago, with the Midwest region notoriously known for its difficulty both in the high school and collegiate level.

“Last year, the teams finishing second,

third, and fourth in the nation all came out of our regional tournament. I think there will be a little falloff but I still expect it [to] repeat as the toughest region in the nation,” Kocher said.

The next two meets will both be in the Midwest region. The Nashville duals on December 21 will follow the North Central College duals. Last year, the Maroons performed exceptionally well at the North Central duals, winning eight straight matches to beat North Central 34–7. Shortly after Christmas, the South Siders will head to Northwestern to participate in the Midlands Championships, a two-day tournament. Forty-eight teams competed in the Midlands last year, known as one of the most grueling tournaments of the season. The team, however, is looking forward to each tournament until the end of December.

“I’m excited for our upcoming meets and [have] been working hard for the set of duals,” Papoutsis said.

In the Chatter’s Box with Sarah Langs Kiko Wemmer is a fourth-year on the cross country team from Menomonie, WI. We chatted with her to get some insider info on the life of a Maroon athlete.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

Chicago Maroon: How long have you been a runner?

Kiko Wemmer: I guess I started running in fifth grade. It was for the “National Physical Education Standards” test, or whatever it’s called. I ran the mile in 10:45, and I threw up afterward. My second time running was in sixth grade for the same Standards test. I ran that mile in 9:30 or so.

I think I only dry heaved for 15 minutes after that one.

But if you were actually wondering, I started seriously running during eighth grade track and field. Even though longdistance running can be painful (and perhaps lame compared to other sports), I came to like it because I got out of it exactly what I put in. When I trained, I got better, and I liked the results.

Running is also accessible; it’s a working man’s sport. There are no politics involved when my coaches put a varsity roster together, and I don’t need any equipment other than a decent pair of running shoes— maybe a super supportive sports bra if I was better endowed. I also loved practices, because it’s like productive socializing time; our team can just run and talk for days.

CM: Did you always know you’d run in college?

KW: Not at all. I didn’t even decide to join my high school’s cross-country team until a week before the season started. I thought I wanted to be a sprint swimmer,

because I was naturally better at it and more of my friends were on the swim team at the time. When I joined the crosscountry team, all of my swimming friends admonished me for joining the “running cult.” I’m not sure what that was all about, but they were probably right. Runners do some weird things sometimes.

CM: Do you follow any professional running ? The Olympics?

KW: I casually follow the Olympics, but I’m not a die-hard professional running fan by any means. I have mad respect for those freaks of nature, but let’s face it: Long-distance running isn’t that exciting to watch—especially when you don’t know the runners personally. My exception would be a professional 5K; that shit is magnificent no matter who is running it.

CM: Who do you model yourself after— do you have an athlete, or non-athlete, role model?

KW: I model myself after people I know—my parents, friends, teachers, etc.

Professional athletes and Nobel Prize winners are amazing, but they seem so untouchable. I can’t ask them what they think about Yeezus, or why they care about the things they do. All I have are stats, quotes, and whatever personas the media provides for me. When it comes to regular people, however, I get a better sense of what’s important when money, glory, and fame are not the biggest parts of the equation.

CM: What do you think about on a long run? What is your internal monologue like?

KW: When I’m running alone, sometimes I play out conversations I had earlier in the week and reflect upon them.

People are pretty neat, and they have a lot of profound things to say even when they don’t think they are being that deep.

Sometimes I think of songs and poems I’d like to write down later. If I have a project due or a busy week ahead, sometimes I plan them out in my head. Sometimes I just think about how much I don’t want to be running right at that moment or how much running sucks, but that only lasts for the duration of a miserable run.

I may hate running at times, but I don’t think I’ve ever regretted a run after it was finished. On the other hand, I took today completely off and it was awesome.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “It should be a league rule saying that a defender cannot tackle a player by his penis. #NFL the most painful thing ever!”

—49ers’ TE Vernon Davis, on Twitter, proposes a rule change after getting tackled below the belt.

Chicago offense explodes in victories over IIT, Kalamazoo Men’s Basketball Sam Zacher Associate Sports Editor

The men’s basketball team won both its games last week against Illinois Tech and Kalamazoo, and has a game against Wheaton this Wednesday.

COURTESY OF JOHN BOOZ

There’s a high risk associated with shooting a lot of threes: You can “live or die” by the shot. This week, Chicago is stayin’ alive.

Last Tuesday, the Maroons (4– 2) spanked Illinois Tech (0–6) by a score of 109–46, with eight players scoring eight or more points.

In addition, head coach Mike McGrath emptied the bench early: The starters didn’t play more than 13 minutes each.

Fourth-year forward Charlie Hughes led the team with 13 points, second-year forward Alex Voss scored 12 points, and firstyear forward Alex Gustafson had a breakout game with 12 points and nine rebounds.

As a team, Chicago shot 46.4 percent on three-pointers, taking 28 and making 13. Up until Tuesday, the South Siders averaged 7.5 makes per game on 17.75 attempts (42.3 percent). Against IIT, Chicago took more threes, made more, and increased its average.

On Sunday, the Maroons put their hot shooting to the test against a tougher foe, Kalamazoo (3–1), but they still came out victorious with a score of 100–83.

“I think we played well,” said fourth-year forward Sam Gage.

“They hit some tough shots in the first half to keep it close, but we kept competing and were able to wear them down. We also moved

the ball pretty well, which led to some wide-open three-point looks.”

Many of those wide-open looks came from third-year point guard Royce Muskeyvalley’s penetrating and kicking out to open shooters.

Muskeyvalley tallied seven assists along with 10 points.

Chicago shot another impressive percentage from beyond the arc (43.8 percent) on 14/32 shooting. Second-year shooting guard Jordan Smith (15 points) went 5/7, and Hughes and Gage each converted on two long-range shots. Five other players also made a three-pointer apiece.

Hughes has emerged as a leader of the team and the top scorer, averaging 13.5 points per contest this season.

“I’ve just been trying to stay aggressive at both ends of the floor and make an impact however I can. I’m really trying to sit back and enjoy my last year of basketball, and I think as a result I’ve been more loose and relaxed, and my game has benefited from it,” Hughes said.

Fourth-year guard Derrick Davis finished with 14 points and four rebounds on the day and highlighted his performance with an emphatic dunk late in the second half that brought the crowd to its feet. Plays like that show how well the Maroons can play, but allowing opposing fourth-year shooting guard Mark Ghafari to

score 29 points also showed that Chicago is not always able to focus on shutting someone down or playing a whole game.

“We need to keep working on sustaining our effort over the course of an entire game,” Hughes said. “We’ve had a number of lapses both offensively and defensively this year, and we need to work on eliminating those.”

Regardless, the Maroons are 4–2 and are averaging 87.5 points per game compared to their opponents’ 70.5. Gage thinks the team is ready for the rest of the season, which includes non-conference games against No. 14 Wheaton (December 4), Trinity (December 7), No. 7 Illinois Wesleyan (December 14), North Park (December 19), and Washington and Lee ( January 4), followed by the UAA season. Their first opponent in the UAA, Wash U, is ranked fourth nationally.

“I’ve been happy with the way our season has gone in relation to preparing for UAAs,” Gage said. “We’ve played a pretty tough schedule against different types of teams whose styles are similar to those we’ll see in the UAA. Because of that, we’ve been able to identify weaknesses and address them now rather than during UAAs.” Chicago plays at Wheaton this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and at home against Trinity on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Second half costs Maroons win against Carthage Young South Siders Women’s Basketball Adam Freymiller Maroon Contributor Chicago (3–2) lost 80–65 to the Carthage Lady Reds (5–1) Sunday, following a second-half offensive explosion in which Carthage put up 52 points to overcome a 40– 28 halftime deficit.

While the Maroons only committed 10 turnovers that day and kept the Lady Reds’ defense in check throughout the first half, a subpar second-half shooting performance prevented them from holding on to the lead.

The game showed early indications that it could turn into an offensive slugfest. Both teams shot impressively from beyond the arc in the first half (Carthage went 4–8 from deep, while Chicago was 7–16), and there were several lead changes.

The Lady Reds scored on three consecutive possessions to build a 17–10 lead in the first few minutes, but the Maroons

responded with a 15–1 run of their own in which they forced seven turnovers and drained three threepointers to seize a 25–18 advantage.

Chicago looked to tighten its grip on the game going into the interval, with three field goals by fourthyear guard Julie Muguira extending the team’s lead to 15 at one point. As both teams headed to the locker room, the Maroons could take pride in their execution, committing only three turnovers and seven personal fouls en route to a double-digit lead.

“I thought we played outstanding defense in the first half, and we were really controlling the pace of the game up until halftime. Carthage made some adjustments at the break, though, and I think we let them be comfortable on offense, [so] they were able to get better looks in the second half,” Muguira said, who turned in another strong performance with 19 points and six rebounds.

Carthage’s Kristi Schmidt and Stephanie Kuzmanic engineered offensive drives to ignite a 26–5 run in the first eight minutes of the second half as the Maroons’ shooting went cold.

Chicago battled back to retake the lead 54–53 on a layup from thirdyear forward Ali Shaw, but then Kuzmanic took over. She scored her team’s next nine points to put the game out of reach for the hosts, and Carthage saw out the victory. At the end of the game, Schmidt and Kuzmanic had amassed 25 and 30 points respectively, with 41 of the pair’s points scored in the second half.

Despite the disappointing finish on Sunday, the team is confident that, if it maintains the level it reached in the first half, big results will follow.

“The most encouraging part of the game was the way we played in the first half,” Muguira said. “We weren’t just competing and staying with Carthage; we were

controlling the pace and forcing them into difficult situations on defense. If we can play that same way for all 40 minutes, I think we can be a really tough team to beat.”

“With each game there is visible improvement, and that is always encouraging.

The season is a process, and we continue to get better every day,” head coach Carissa Sain Knoche said.

The Maroons will have more opportunities to improve later this week, as they face Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan.

“Both Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan are solid programs, which are fun for us to play against. Each team will require a different set of adjustments for, but overall, I’m sure defense will be key for us,” said fourth-year guard Maggie Ely. The Wheaton game will be away tonight at 5:30 p.m., while the Illinois Wesleyan game will tip off at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Ratner.

look to winter slate Wrestling David Gao Maroon Contributor After an up-and-down season with athletes performing at high levels at certain times, Chicago (0– 4) is looking to compete more consistently for the remainder of its season.

Having last wrestled November 23, the team has some time before its next meet, with the Triton College Art Kraft Memorial Tournament originally planned for December 14 canceled due to scheduling issues. The team is in the midst of preparing for a series of meets and other tournaments in December.

The first meet is scheduled to begin December 17 with the North Central College duals. The priority for these competitions is maintaining the high level of performance that the team has seen from certain wrestlers throughout the season.

“The strong competition we have seen this year has been important for the development of our team—in the coaching staff ’s view, we can be very competitive in every weight class,” head coach Leo Kocher (M.B.A. ’87) said. “ We have a large number of athletes who at some point have stepped up and performed at a high level. The job before us is to deliver that kind [of ] performance every time. That will be our focus through the remainder of the season.”

The team has been training tirelessly, anchored by their first-years.

“We have a very young team, with five starting first-years. We haven’t been performing to our full potential so far in the season, but we’ve been working very hard in the wrestling room to succeed in competitions,” first-year WREST continued on page 11