TUESDAY • JANUARY 15, 2013
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
ISSUE 19 • VOLUME 124
Mandel makeover maintains historical design Ankit Jain Associate News Editor Mandel Hall is ready for its closeup. The 985-seat concert hall underwent one of the biggest renovations in its history over winter break. The revamp has left the venue “repaired and refreshed,” according to Heather Kneezel, the project architect for McGuire Igleski & Associates, the firm that designed the renovation. The renovation focused on improving the look and functionality of the interior of the hall. This involved repainting and repairing walls and parts of the ceiling that in some cases had not been touched in over 100 years, according to David Culcasi, Project Manager for Capital Project Delivery for the University’s Facilities Services. Some areas of the ceiling were so old that they had rotted away. “There were a few areas where you just went up and touched it and the
woodwork would just crumble and fall all the way down to the floor,” Culcasi said. Additional changes included the installation of new seating, acoustical reflectors to improve sound quality, and a fire alarm and sprinkler system. The cumulative effect of the changes has left the hall feeling almost new. “It’s a major facelift. Things that were in disrepair were fixed. All the wood and the ceiling—it was all dusty. When you walk down the hall on the second floor, you didn’t really want to be there. It was really dirty. Carpet was faded. It was just, I would say, an overall repair and refresh,” Kneezel said. Despite the changes, the University was careful in making sure the renovation did not change the historic nature of the hall. In fact, the architects even looked at pictures and drawings from the early 1900s to replicate the original design. “[The hall] looks like it stepped MANDEL continued on page 2
Mandel Hall, located in the Reynolds Club, recently received a face-lift with renovations to seating, acoustics, and interior details. SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Gov. joins new Newtown prompts Crime Lab to get political hospital dedication Marina Fang News Editor
Celia Bever News Editor & Alex Hays News Contributor Governor Pat Quinn and other state and local legislators spoke at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC)’s new adult hospital yesterday morning, commending the anticipated positive economic impact of the facility. “It is one of the most up-todate hospitals of the South Side,” said Kenneth Polonsky, executive vice president for medical affairs, dean of the biological sciences division at the University, and dean of the Pritzker School of Medicine. According to Polonsky, the project was completed on time and on budget. The Center for Care and Discovery, which occupies 1.2 million square feet and cost $700 million to complete, is “the single largest facility the University of Chicago has ever built,” according to President Robert Zimmer, who spoke at the dedication. Three hundred permanent jobs were created as a result of the project and $558 million were doled out in contracts, wages, and benefits during con-
struction, $430 million of which was spent in Illinois, according to numbers provided by the UCMC. Nearly half of the contracts were awarded to womenowned and minority-owned businesses. Fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston said in an interview after the dedication that the University is “better than the city of Chicago” in terms of awarding contracts to women-owned and minority-owned businesses. Illinois state representative Barbara Flynn-Currie (A.B. ’68, M.B. ’73) spoke about the impact of the new hospital on the University’s relationship with the neighboring residents. “Occasionally there have been tensions between the University and the community, but those tensions seem to be a thing of the past,” she said. “The [construction] of this building makes absolutely, glaringly clear that this University is committed to the health care needs of the people who live on the South Side,” she said in an interview after the event. Asked in the interview for a response to Flynn-Currie’s statement, Hairston said, “[The University] is always a work in progress working with the community.”
The University of Chicago Crime Lab issued a letter on gun violence to the commission, appointed by President Obama, created in response to the Newtown, Connecticut shooting, recommending that the government increase funding and remove constraints on gun policy research. The letter, initiated by Professors Jens Ludwig and Harold Pollack, directors of the Crime Lab, was signed by over 100
academics, including medical, legal, and economic scholars from a host of major universities across the country. The authors stressed that political posturing from the gun lobby has curtailed the ability of agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to adequately research gun violence and track the distribution and sale of weapons in the United States. “Removal of constraints on research would send an important message to both federal offi-
cials and the research community regarding their independence from political and ideological interference in the research process,” they wrote. The letter also recommended that the government augment federal funding for research related to gun policy. Currently, private donors bear the main costs for most of the research, but the authors believe this “is hardly a reliable, sustainable, or responsible means for our nation to tackle one of the most pressing public health problems we currently face.”
Much of the debate surrounding gun violence since the wake of the Newtown shooting has centered on topics such as background checks, access to high-capacity magazine clips, and the possibility of an assault weapons ban. However, at a White House press conference Monday, Obama shifted the conversation in step with the Crime Lab’s recommendations, indicating that gun policy research is a politically feasible step in addressing gun violence. CRIME LAB continued on page 2
Computers, cash reported missing by Doc Mara McCollom News Contributor Doc Films reported two iMac computers and some cash as missing to the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) on January 3. This is the fourth such incident at Doc that has occurred since the beginning of the academic year. The computers were taken from Doc’s office on the third floor of Ida Noyes Hall, and the cash, the amount of which was not specified in the police report, was taken from “another office on the first floor.” According to University spokesperson
Jeremy Manier, the items were taken from Doc. The incident report indicates that it occurred over winter break. Doc also filed a police report on November 26 following the third incident, which occurred over Thanksgiving break, when they found $150 missing from their cash lockers. In November, Doc’s General Chair, fourthyear Michaeljit Sandhu, said he was “hesitant to ‘officially’ label” the incident as a theft while police investigations were still ongoing. It was referred to as a theft in the police report. Neither the first nor the second incident was reported to
the UCPD. “At least once a quarter someone will misplace the change,” Sandhu said in an e-mail to the Maroon in November. “Since Doc is such a big organization, and it’s made up of volunteers, we usually assume that it’s going to happen once a quarter.” “There’s too many people handling money for it not to happen once,” he said. At the time of the second incident, a wallet was also found missing from the backpack of a Doc affiliate. The affiliate chose not to report it to UCPD. The January 3 incident is referred to as a burglary in the
police report. According to UCPD spokesperson Robert Mason, a theft is defined as the “unlawful taking of property from the possession of another person,” while for an incident to be defined as a burglary it requires that a structure be entered unlawfully. Doc receives funding through the Program Coordinating Council, one of the bodies through which SG allocates money from the Student Life Fee to RSOs. Doc Films received $90,796.77 for the 2012–2013 academic year, a $53,796.77 increase from last DOC continued on page 2
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
East Asian Studies, Part I » Page 3
Quaytman critiques a campus institution from within » Page 4
South Siders reign supreme at Chicago Invitational » Back Page
In season two, Girls just wanna make sensible life decisions » Page 4
Maroon Basketball, In Pictures » Page 7
In Lew of progress » Page 3
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | January 15, 2013
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U of C faculty collaborate on reproductive health research Lauren Gurley News Contributor After three years in the works, a new center at the University of Chicago for adolescent and women’s reproductive health, launched last November, has begun its research. The Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry & Innovation in Sexual & Reproductive Health (Ci3) takes a collaborative approach to research and education in global women’s health, obesity, domestic violence, and other sexual and reproduc-
tive topics. UChicago faculty from academic departments spanning medicine, English, economics, law, and psychology are involved in the Center’s work. Ci3 is the brainchild of Dr. Melissa Gilliam, professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics, chief of the section of family planning and contraceptive research, and associate dean for diversity in the Biological Sciences division. “I was inspired to create Ci3 because I saw that many of the problems related to sexual and re-
productive health transcend one discipline,” Gilliam said in a press release. "I started looking at the University's tremendous capacity to conduct compelling research, and I felt there were under-tapped resources to effect real change in many of the issues affecting women and children locally, nationally, and globally.” Although the center addresses male and female reproductive issues nationally and globally, women of color on the South Side are the focus, Gilliam explained.
The largest project at the moment is the Game Changer Chicago initiative, which aims to integrate digital media and game design in order to teach youth about sexual and emotional health issues often brushed over in sexual education curricula. The project is currently being designed by a number of UChicago faculty and students, and the first game will come out online this January, according to Gilliam. Ci3 is also collaborating with University of Chicago Center for Global Health and OB/GYNs at
Obama to respond to commission’s recommendations on gun control CRIME LAB continued from front
“Where you get a step that has the opportunity to reduce the possibility of gun violence, then I want to go ahead and take it.... how we are gathering data, for example, on guns that fall into the hands of criminals and how we track that more effectively,” he told White House reporters.
Obama alluded to the possibility of an executive order to curb the research restraints, saying that “there may be some steps that we can take administratively, as opposed to through legislation.” After the Newtown shooting on December 14, Obama asked Vice President Joe Biden to head the commission to investigate ways to curb gun violence and
possible avenues of legislation. Biden subsequently met with myriad of representatives from gun control advocates to executives of the National Rifle Association, as well as Cabinet members and law enforcement officials, to develop a bipartisan series of recommendations. On Monday, Obama noted that he is currently reviewing the commission’s
recommendations and hopes to announce more concrete plans later this week, which could include addressing the Crime Lab’s suggestions. “[The commission has] presented me now with a list of sensible common-sense steps that can be taken,” he said. “I expect to have a fuller presentation later in the week.”
Renovation was part of University’s Capital Improvements Project plan MANDEL continued from front
back 40 or 50 years,” Mark Johnson, who runs the Gilbert & Sullivan opera that performs in Mandel every March, said. Renovation for the building started during summer break but was suspended during fall quarter to accommodate student interests. Repairs were finished over winter
break. Kneezel estimated that 65 percent of the work was done during summer break and 35 percent during winter break. The University made the decision to renovate Mandel because it had already decided to add a new sprinkler system for safety purposes and realized that this would be a good opportunity to give the whole hall a
revamp. The renovation is included as part of the University’s Capital Improvements Project plan, which targets buildings in need of repair. “The University selects several Capital Improvements projects per year in order to keep the campus looking its best,” Interim Director of ORCSA Jen Kennedy
said. “Mandel Hall was a great candidate for renovation work, as it’s over 100 years old, and it has been 30 years since the last major renovation.” Additional minor repairs will continue throughout the quarter, which will involve installing drinking fountains in the back of the hall and work on the fire pump room.
the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, as well as Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. “We prize this center not only for its content, but for the exceptional level of leadership and excitement they've been able to generate around a vision,” University of Chicago Provost Thomas Rosenbaum said in the press release. “I'm deeply optimistic about this assemblage of people with good ideas interacting in worlds beyond their own. Together, they have the power to make a real impact.”
Funding for Doc increased this year DOC continued from front
year. According to SG President Renard Miller, the increase was due to Doc’s stated intention to purchase a new projector. In response to questions about the security system at Ida Noyes, Manier said in an e-mail, “The University typically does not comment on the details of security arrangements for individual buildings.” As of November, Doc was considering changes to their security practices. “We’re in the beginning of a conversation with our adviser and other ORCSA staff about whether it makes sense to store change in an alternate location or to use a different system altogether,” Sandhu said in an e-mail at that time. Doc Films declined to comment for this article. — Additional reporting by Celia Bever and Ben Pokross
David and Kris Wray, Resident Masters of Max Palevsky Residential Commons, present
The Winter 2013 Izaak and Pera Wirszup Lecture
Richard Rosengarten Religion and Literature Divinity School
The Retablo Tradition and the Portraits of Frida Kahlo Wednesday, January 16 7:00 pm
East Commons Max Palevsky Residential Commons 5630 S. University Ave.
dessert reception to follow free and open to the public
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed JANUARY 15, 2013
Taking a step back Taking the Next Step has unique strengths but should not be presented as a one-stop career shop The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 JORDAN LARSON Editor-in-Chief SHARAN SHETTY Editor-in-Chief COLIN BRADLEY Managing Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE Senior Editor DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Senior Editor JAMIE MANLEY Senior Editor CELIA BEVER News Editor MARINA FANG News Editor MADHU SRIKANTHA News Editor JENNIFER STANDISH News Editor AJAY BATRA Viewpoints Editor DAVID KANER Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Arts Editor HANNAH GOLD Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Sports Editor SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer BELLA WU Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor JEN XIA Head Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy Editor SYDNEY COMBS Photo Editor TIFFANY TAN Photo Editor JOY CRANE Assoc. News Editor ANKIT JAIN Assoc. News Editor STEPHANIE XIAO Assoc. News Editor EMMA THURBER STONE Assoc. Viewpoints Editor
This past Saturday, Taking the Next Step (TNS) took place at the Chicago Marriott. The Career Advancement (CA) Web site describes TNS as “a one-day, conference-style program early in Winter Quarter that allows second and third years to explore post-graduation options” where “college alumni and faculty from a variety of industries host panels and lunch roundtables to offer advice and answer questions.” Despite high attendance by alumni and students alike, students do not typically recognize TNS as a successful event, as their expectations are often left unfulfilled. In fact, the mixed success of TNS merely reflects the necessarily scattered effects of matching alumni with students based on relatively general criteria. CA could greatly improve the impact of TNS by publicizing it for what it is: not a resource for general information about career possibilities but rather a way to glean insight from the particular experiences of particular alumni. The mixed effects of alumni participation are evident in the lunch roundtable discussion
segment of the event, in which program attendees are categorized by general area of interest. While several of these categories are very broad and encompass a greater variety of career paths, others are very specific. Within categories that include a wider scope of possible career paths (e.g. Social Sciences and Humanities), it is less likely that the alumni present have jobs that interest the students who attend. Other categories (e.g. Banking, Financial Services, and Corporate Finance), on the other hand, are more conducive to such compatibility. Additionally, some alumni are matched to a roundtable area based not on their current career, but on their past area of study in the College, further increasing the chances that students don’t encounter the knowledge they expect. If Career Advancement intended Taking the Next Step to be a catch-all resource, informing students about a wide range of career options, this discrepancy between alumni and student interests would be noteworthy. Yet, this effect is unavoidable if CA
is dedicated primarily to making TNS about facilitating studentalumni liaisons, and this latter approach is indeed the more valuable. While the sole use of alumni as contributors does limit the range of career experiences presented to students, the benefits of their identification with the University are manifold. No matter their past accomplishments or current positions, they are all well equipped to comment, at least generally, on how a UChicago education can continue to create opportunities after it has concluded. That advice is useful to all undergraduates, and CA is correct to dedicate such a large and extensive event to this purpose. Therefore, students dissatisfied by TNS are likely so because they are mistaken about the event’s true objective. Those students most likely expect the event to function as an all-purpose informational career event when, instead, the distinct purpose of TNS is to facilitate connections with alumni and dialogue about their specific experiences. The problem with TNS therefore is
not one of focus but one of marketing. The event could greatly expand its reach and impact among students by ensuring that the students’ expectations of the program are equivalent to its offerings. By shifting its focus in this manner, TNS could appeal more to students who do not have a clear sense of what they plan to pursue post-graduation. If CA advertised TNS specifically as an opportunity to connect with alumni and discuss the impact of a UChicago education on career strategies, it would shed the unhelpful stigma it currently has of being only for those who can limit their future aspirations to three categories. In the wake of CA’s latest expanded offerings, which include specialized job circles and career fairs, it would be in its best interest to clarify the specific intent of each resource, rather than market each as an allencompassing answer to career questions.
The Editorial Board consists of the Editors-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.
ALICE BUCKNELL Assoc. Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Assoc. Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS Assoc. Sports Editor JULIA REINITZ Assoc. Photo Editor
East Asian Studies, Part I A columnist’s take on being Asian—and being American—at UChicago
TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager TAMER BARSBAY Undergraduate Business Executive QUERIDA Y. QIU External Director of Marketing IVY ZHANG Internal Director of Marketing VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator HYEONG-SUN CHO Designer ANDREW GREEN Designer SNEHA KASUGANTI Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Designer CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor KEN ARMSTRONG Copy Editor AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor SHANICE CASIMIRO Copy Editor CONNOR CUNNINGHAM Copy Editor LISA FAN Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Copy Editor SHERRY HE Copy Editor NISHANTH IYENGAR Copy Editor CECILIA JIANG Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor JONAH RABB Copy Editor LINDSEY SIMON Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor
By Eleanor Hyun Viewpoints Columnist This column is Part I of a two-part series about the experience of East Asian students at UChicago. I’ve sometimes felt that my identity awkwardly straddles the hyphen in “Asian-American.” My Asian identity has always seemed self-evident to everyone but other Asians. To most, it is obvious at first glance from my physical appearance. However, my inability to read, speak, or even understand the Korean language,
combined with my birth and upbringing in the United States, has led many Koreans to tell me that, despite my descent, I am not a “real” Korean. I am a “banana,” or “Twinkie”: yellow on the outside, white on the inside. In high school, I wore my hybrid Asian-American-ness with pride. I made a point to avoid exclusively Korean circles and was able to have a circle of friends that included both Caucasians and Asians (considered “diverse” by my high school’s standards). UChicago touts its campus diversity, and all the accompanying intellectual benefits it brings. So arriving as a first year, I was excited to experience the real thing. However, although there certainly are ethnically heterogeneous groups on campus, homogenous groups, especially in the case of East Asian students, are still prevalent.
By sixth week of fall quarter, I had noticed the groups of East Asian international students talking in their mother tongues in the Reg or sitting together at side tables in Bartlett. My reaction to them, though, was much different than mine in high school. I had spent the past weeks actively introducing myself to my peers, but did not feel that I belonged anywhere. Many conversations still stalled at small talk. Now, seeing these groups, I felt something like longing. Intrigued, I began to contemplate writing an article about the “clumping effect” of East Asian international students. I sat down at a table of international Chinese students in Bartlett, intending to collect names and phone numbers for interviews. As I ate lunch with them, though, I was struck by the easy camaraderie I felt. It was stronger
than what I had felt with peers in my house or RSOs. While in Bartlett the other day, I heard a girl comment that a Chinese international student always sat with her fellow international students rather than at the house table. I understand that the East Asian international students’ tendency to keep to themselves can lead domestic students to view them as exclusionary—I made a similar assumption in high school. However, these unfounded assumptions only add to misunderstandings that deepen the rift between domestic and international students. One international student I interviewed mentioned that her roommates would always joke about the cliqueishness of the Korean Student Organization (KSO). She knew that they were IDENTITY continued on page 4
The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters
In Lew of progress
Circulation: 5,500.
Obama’s Treasury nominee is more a creature of Wall Street than Main Street
The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2012 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 Luke Brinker Viewpoints Columnist Amid a constantly changing world, there are some things upon which we can always rely. The sun will continue to rise in the east. Pat Robertson will make some deeply
offensive comment in the wake of the latest terrorist attack, school shooting, or natural disaster. CBS will continue to broadcast Survivor, even though the show has been set in just about every far-flung locale. And people like Jacob Lew will continue to be nominated for Secretary of the Treasury. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lew will succeed Timothy Geithner, who cultivated deep ties to Wall Street titans in his previous role as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Geithner himself followed Hank Paulson, who presided over the Bush administration’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. Paulson came to Washington from Goldman Sachs, where, as CEO, he earned $37 million in 2005. Prior to joining the Obama administration as a deputy to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Lew served as the Chief Operating Officer for Citigroup’s Alternative Investments unit. In 2009—after Citigroup received an infusion of government bailout fund—Lew
reaped a nearly million-dollar bonus. As the Wall Street Journal noted last week, Lew oversaw his unit’s disastrous investments in real estate in the run-up to the housing crash. For some reason, though, Lew’s supporters cite his Citigroup tenure as a qualification in his quest to become the nation’s top financial official. President Obama lauded Lew, his current Chief of Staff, for “having worked—and succeeded [!]—in some of the toughest jobs in Washington and the private sector.” LEW continued on page 4
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | January 15, 2013
If confirmed as Treasury head, Jack Lew may advance a damaging neoliberal agenda LEW continued from page 3 To be sure, Lew’s Wall Street career should not automatically disqualify him from serving as Treasury Secretary. Perhaps he regrets his part in the financial industry’s pre-crisis excesses. Even Citigroup’s former CEO, Sandy Weill, once a leading supporter of financial deregulation, now thinks Clinton and Bush administration deregulators went too far. If Lew, as Treasury Secretary, demonstrates a willingness to challenge entrenched interests head-on, he’ll go some distance toward atoning for his past errors. Regrettably, however, his track record as an Obama administration official suggests that we should expect nothing of the sort. Lew’s former colleagues on Wall Street have been some of the most prominent champions of austerity policies, as the New York Times reported on Thursday. Unfazed by the ruinous effects the austerity agenda has wrought on Europe, Wall Street deficit-scolds endorse significant cuts in the nation’s already-feeble welfare state. Lew accepts their platform lock, stock, and barrel. As director of the Office of Management and Budget in July 2011, Lew was the Obama administration’s chief emis-
sary to congressional Republicans as the two camps sought to forge a “grand bargain” to slash the federal budget deficit. Tea Party Republicans, wary of any form of cooperation with our Kenyan socialist president, scuttled the deal, but Lew and House Speaker John Boehner had already laid the groundwork for drastic spending cuts. Lew signaled the administration’s support for a $4 trillion deficit reduction deal that would entail $2 trillion in cuts to social programs and another $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Had such a deal been enacted, the poor would have borne the brunt of deficit reduction. Of course, every indication is that President Obama himself supported the BoehnerLew framework. Why, then, worry about his nomination of Lew, who simply agrees with the president’s centrist economic policies? Won’t the administration pursue austerity and adopt a non-confrontational posture toward financial elites regardless of whether Lew is confirmed? While the president has never been as liberal as his most progressive supporters hoped, it’s hard to deny that his administration’s often poor negotiating strategy is responsible for such debacles as the 2011
“grand bargain” framework. Had Obama’s chief negotiator effectively conveyed support for a deal that reduced the deficit by having the rich pay their fair share—rather than reducing support for the most vulnerable citizens—perhaps the president wouldn’t have been backed into supporting such a regressive proposal. One would be remiss to fail to note that the political climate in 2011 was sharply different from that of early 2013. The president faced an impending campaign for re-election. Months earlier, a Tea Party wave had swept Congress, and the president’s approval ratings continued to sag in the face of persistently high unemployment. In light of Obama’s reelection and the repudiation of conservative Republicans last November, in addition to an improving economic outlook, perhaps Obama officials—including Lew—will feel emboldened in future dealings with congressional Republicans. Alas, a little-discussed episode from Lew’s past indicates that he will remain a force for anti-progressive centrism. The first-rate labor journalist Josh Eidelson reported recently that as a top administrator at New York University in 2004, Lew spear-
headed NYU’s effort to quash the school’s graduate student union. Although the union boasted overwhelming faculty and student support, Lew successfully pushed to have the graduate students’ collective bargaining rights taken away. Even within the progressive enclave of Greenwich Village, Lew lent his wholehearted support to the profoundly damaging neoliberal economic agenda. Is there really any reason to believe he’ll stand up to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell when they demand further safety net retrenchments? At this point, there’s little reason to believe that Lew won’t be confirmed as the next Treasury Secretary. Republicans, who increasingly inhabit the ideological fringe, may attack Lew for his longstanding Democratic ties, but the policy gulf between him and right-wing neoliberals is quite narrow. That a president reelected with the support of working class voters in places like Ohio and Michigan has chosen this man to be the face of his economic policy is most dismaying. Luke Brinker is a graduate student in the MAPSS program.
Culture, not language, presents largest barrier between domestic and international students IDENTITY continued from page 3 joking but still felt hurt and judged, especially since one of the main roles of the KSO is to help Korean students branch out by introducing domestic students to their culture. It is unreasonable to criticize a classmate’s perceived unwillingness to integrate before making an effort to understand their unique situation and culture. East Asian international students do not deny that they choose to stick together. All the students I interviewed admitted that they could and should
make a larger effort to branch out into the student body. However, this choice is a much more difficult one than many would guess. Many of the international students I spoke with compared hanging out with each other to feeling “at home.” Some international students are from the same region and therefore knew each other before coming here. The use of the mother tongue is a huge contributing factor to the closeness of certain international groups as well. One international Chinese student informed me that studies
SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words. Op-ed submissions, 800 words.
had found that speaking in the mother tongue was much more conducive to emotional connections than conversations in a second language. Another student said that, although she was fluent in her second language, “[speaking in] it actually does prevent a lot of intimacy.” Many international students felt that the language barrier was their largest obstacle in socializing with domestic students, but I found it very easy to interview and talk to many of them. Their English was fully understandable, and they understood me easily as well. However, beyond the language barrier is the more ambiguous “cultural barrier.” These differences can be as superficial as not knowing the same kind of music, current events, and pop culture references, but many interviewees felt that they ran deeper. “Even the stuff we think is funny or sad is different,” one interviewee said. Cultural differences affect both social interaction and personalities. In general cultural terms, North America is one of the most extroverted continents in the world (Europe is also up there); and Asia is one of the most introverted. These fundamental differences may explain why, for instance, it seems that European international students inte-
grate more easily than East Asians. These factors explain why East Asian international students stick together, but how do they explain me? Me, the “not Real Asian,” born and raised in America, never having spoken or understood Korean, who still feels a stronger connection to International Asian community than to my domestic and largely Caucasian peers. Me, an Asian-American. In high school, others made the delineation clear: “yellow on the outside, white on the inside.” I straddled that hyphen awkwardly, but also steadily, always knowing where each foot lay. Now, though, I find myself thrown off-balance; the careful equilibrium of that hyphen distorts as I revisit that label and the word “Asian” looms first, and perhaps foremost. For the first time, I am confronted by the fact that my ethnicity may play a much larger part in my identity than I previously thought. It seems that what brings East Asians together may be a phenomenon more complex than that of foreigners simply seeking comfort in a new country. Eleanor Hyun is a first-year in the College majoring in English.
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Trivial Pursuits JANUARY 15, 2013
Quaytman critiques a campus institution from within
Tianyuan Deng Arts Contributor R.H. Quaytman’s current show at the Renaissance Society, Passing Through the Opposite of What It Approaches, Chapter 25, immediately registers as a brew of modernist tropes. Upon entering the gallery, one sees paintings hung spread out on three free-standing walls. Most works are composed of either photo-based silkscreen imagery or optical patterning, and, in many cases, a layered combination of the two. The works are not shy in their reference to an array of modernist movements in the ’60s. One painting, “Imprints of a no. 50 brush repeated at regular intervals of 30 cm,” has a title that sums up its content and process. For anyone who is familiar with Conceptual Art, this reference is legible right away. Quaytman makes even more extensive and ostensive references to Op Art and Minimalism.
PASSING THROUGH THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IT APPROACHES, CHAPTER 25 The Renaissance Society Through Feb 17
The theme of institutional critique runs, somewhat loosely, through a body of work that is a heady concoction of pre-existing modernist techniques. The most overt allusion Quaytman has made is in and of the institution itself—The Renaissance Society. The painting hanging in the center of the central wall is a blue-tinged photographic representation of the interior of the museum, overlaid by a pattern of squares. Opposite this work is a picture of the floor plan of the museum. It would be difficult for any viewer inside the museum not to recognize the subject matter as this very space. The figures in the paintings are also deeply related to the museum. At least three paintings are of Susanne
Quaytman’s Passing Through The Opposite of What It Approaches, Chapter 25 (2012), tempera and silkscreen inks, gesso on wood. COURTESY OF JEFFREY STURGES
Ghez, who was the executive director of The Renaissance Society for 40 years. Two are of Anne Rorimer, the Chicago-based curator and art historian whose writings have become testimonies of many modernist movements. The bookshelves featured in the two pictures belong to Hamza Walker, associate curator of the museum. The constellation of museum-related people and architecture vaults Quaytman’s practice into the realm of Daniel Buren, who was famous for his institutional critique. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Buren, a conceptual artist who integrates stripes into different architectural spaces, exhibited at The Renaissance Society in 1983. Buren, who sees stripes as a “neutral form” with their regular, minimal visual content, uses them as a constant to high-
light the variety of their settings. Hamza Walker noted the genealogy of institutional critique in his introduction, claiming that “produced on a steadfast installment plan, the work (Quaytman’s) is institution-bound with no bones about it.” Whereas Buren’s stripe paintings allowed art to be taken out of the institution and into the sphere of everyday life, Walker argues that that freedom is unavailable to Quaytman. “Quaytman has all but declared the work institution-dependent,” he writes. It’s hard to oppose this claim. After all, institutional references can only be fully effective in an institutional context. Once Quaytman’s photo is taken out of The Renaissance Society, how many of us will still recognize it as The Renaissance Society? While institutional critique is no doubt a ma-
jor issue that Quaytman tackles in this show, this exhibition is rich in other themes. For example, the title of this show, Passing Through the Opposite of What It Approaches, Chapter 25, has offered plenty of material for consideration. Passing Through the Opposite of What It Approaches has a lyrical sound to it that echoes many of the lyrical qualities to Quaytman’s patterns. It also seems to play with the idea of direction, which is yet again reflected in visual terms in the perspectival surge in Quaytman’s picture. Chapter 25 indicates a logic of seriality. Read through Hamza’s introduction to The Renaissance Society’s publication about the exhibit, which can be dense but rewarding, for some theoretical contextualization. You may discover a new reference or new material that even the curator has not picked up.
In season two, Girls just wanna make sensible life decisions Jordan Larson Editor-in-Chief Once upon a time, Girls was that hot new shit that was featured on the cover of New York Magazine, hailed as the next great cultural game-changer, and praised for its honest portrayal of young twenty-somethings (many of them, thankfully, girls). Girls soon became the punchline of a joke, a phenomenon that was all the more targetable for the huge amount of praise that was heaped on it at a young age. It became the camel on whose back was placed every crit-
ic’s hopeful straws and ambitions and plans and dreams, until we all realized it wasn’t perfect. But Girls is taking on a subject in a way that not many other things are, and perfection is a lot to ask. It’s lonely being on the vanguard, but it’s also entirely necessary if we ever want to see more TV like Girls. Enter round two, the sophomoric slump, the Empire Strikes Back: a new season for sex, fights, and expectations. Aside from the seemingly few big events that weren’t covered in the show’s promotions, the premiere doesn’t pull too many punches. We catch up with everyone (though not too
From left: Hannah (Lena Dunham), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), and Marnie (Allison Williams). COURTESY OF HBO
much with Jessa [ Jemima Kirke], disappointingly) and are reminded of the morass in which they all found themselves at the end of last season. While Marnie (Allison Williams) and Jessa are predictably unchanged, the difference we see in Hannah (Lena Dunham) and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) demands curiosity. Our imaginations can’t quite catch up with the unaired changes they’ve gone through. The gap between last season’s finale and this season’s premiere is an unknown place, all the more titillating for the effect its events are having on the show. What I was happiest to see was that Hannah has actually substantively changed since we last saw her. She’s sorta seeing someone (albeit very carefully), still has her job, is happy with her new roommate, and is finally realizing what she can and cannot ask of herself and those around her. In an especially poignant (and long-awaited) conversation with her ex-boyfriend Adam (Adam Driver), Hannah delivers a Girls manifesto if ever there were one: “I have tried this whole thing of being selfless, and taking care of everyone around me, and worrying about everyone before myself, but you know what? I’m an individual, and I feel how I feel when I feel it. And right now, I feel like I don’t ever want to see you again. Is that OK?” “No, not OK.” “Well, it’s not your choice. It’s my choice.” Because of the seeming inseparability between the personal Dunham, who writes Girls, and her portrayal of Hannah, her actions and proclamations traverse different
layers of her identity, affecting everything she’s associated with by way of osmosis. Now that Hannah seems to be discovering the importance of choice and self-respect in her own life, the rest of the show is colored with my hope for its growing maturity. Just as the show promises, Hannah (if not the other characters) really is “almost kind of getting it together.”
GIRLS HBO Sundays, 9 p.m. EST
However, these realizations still leave an important question looming: Should maturity be something that we care about and that Girls aims for? Of course, one of the show’s main criticisms was that it depicted spoiled, privileged white girls who are upset that they can no longer live off their parents’ money and are forced to find work. Part of Girls’s appeal was its focus on the kinda gross female slacker. It was honest about its characters and didn’t try to make them likeable. Hannah ate cupcakes in the bathtub and made bad decisions about sex; while she was not a character anyone likely would (or should) aspire to be, she was a female character who wasn’t seen elsewhere. While part of me wants to see Hannah get her life together and be a little more responsible, is this really what Girls is for? Or are we conflating happiness with busy-ness, maturity with age, and wisdom with mundanity?
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | January 15, 2013
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Globes under the influence of Hollywood ego At Spertus talk, taking the next step Foer-ward
Margaret Schurr Arts Contributor
I don’t like award season. I’ve always watched award shows with a mix of fear and confusion. Fear because at any moment any star could say something embarrassing and/or career-threatening, especially when said stars are allowed to drink, like they are at the Golden Globes, and I cringe and flinch through the whole show. Confusion because, while I do factor in Hollywood politics when I contemplate what the best movie of the year was, I do not normally take into consideration the opinions of people who know nothing about movies, and most of the time that’s who I feel is picking the winners. But, even though I was watching the Golden Globes with great trepidation, watch them I did. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler delivered the solid burns that everyone expected them to make. They highfived. If you watched closely, you could see the exact moment that Poehler got over Will Arnett. I think everyone rested easy Sunday night
knowing Fey and Poehler lobbed a serve that Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars will not be able to return, and yet I still somehow feel ripped off. I have the strangest feeling that Fey and Poehler only met my expectations when I know (deep down, I know) that they could have exceeded them. In order to officially count as an award show these days you have to nominate Leonardo DiCaprio for something and not let him win, which the Golden Globes neatly got out of the way with the first award, for Best Supporting Actor. That the winner was Christopher Waltz, one of DiCaprio’s costars, gave the endeavor an extra bit of aplomb. The Globes burned through some of the bigger TV awards early on, during which you either realized you were so over Homeland or really needed to start watching Homeland. Bill Clinton showed up to introduce Lincoln, and Poehler changed my life forever when she said, “That was Bill Rodham Clinton,” because that is now how I will refer to him for the rest of my life. Jennifer Law-
rence, my new best friend, started off her speech right with a quote from The First Wives Club, “I beat Meryl.” Both Anne Hathaway and Lena Dunham were played off, winning me $10 each— thanks, guys. Tony Kushner and Wreck-It Ralph were robbed. Louie didn’t win but, on the bright side, neither did The Big Bang Theory. I will refrain from saying anything about Girls and its blowout night last night other than that Dunham needs to make more practical shoe choices. And when did Taylor Swift become fair game in polite company? When did that happen? Jodie Foster, who won the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, gave a kind of worrying speech. Not that it wasn’t very inspirational and touching, but I do think at one point she gave her mom permission to die. In like, a touching way. But the Golden Globes, as they are oft to do, sent a message to the Oscars, and while the message Fey and Poehler sent was “quit while you’re ahead,” Ben Affleck’s two big wins (Best Motion Picture
and Best Director) signal the changing tides of award shows. The Golden Globes and many other smaller award shows often give awards based on building careers rather than on the merit of the film or show that’s nominated. Meanwhile, TV is slowly becoming a free-forall where the only thing that matters is how many people are watching. People don’t want to see pomp and circumstance, which is the only advantage the Oscars cling to. Instead, viewers want to see actors, directors, and writers they know, and know to create awesome films, get recognized for that. What people don’t want to see is cheap ploys to get young people to pay attention to you (hiring MacFarlane thinking that Ted is what’s hot right now is a classic TV executive move, following the money instead of the word of mouth). The Academy Awards cleverly released their list of nominees three days prior to the Golden Globes in an effort to not seem reactionary, but tune in on February 24 to see if they succeed at that or not.
Top: This is Leonardo DiCaprio’s face just after hearing he lost Best Supporting Actor to costar Christoph Waltz. Bottom: This is Taylor Swift’s face just after hearing she lost Best Original Song to musical competitor Adele. COURTESY OF NBC
For more Arts coverage, including and exclusively “CSO’s debt to Dutch artistry continues,” go to the following Web site: www.chicagomaroon.com/category/arts
Jon Catlin News Staff To one 35-year-old writer, genre seems no obstacle. In fact, it seems almost a meaningless concept. In only the first decade of his career, Jonathan Safran Foer has published two critically acclaimed novels, Everything is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005); a libretto for a German opera; a nonfiction work on vegetarianism, Eating Animals (2009); a diecut “art book,” Tree of Codes (2010); an unusual, modern edition of the New American Hagaddah (2012), a Jewish prayer book; and, most recently, the pilot of HBO’s upcoming comedy, All Talk, about a Jewish family in Washington, D.C., which will star Ben Stiller. When this polymath was invited to speak at Chicago’s Spertus Center for Jewish Learning & Culture on Sunday (the talk was hosted by NPR’s beloved Alison Cuddy), the organizers gave him telling instructions, he said. He was to speak “on the role that Judaism plays in the continuum and trajectory of [his] work,” a topical limitation that he promptly shrugged off because it assumed—“in the typical Jewish way,” he joked—that Judaism plays any role at all in his work. In fact, though his work relies strongly upon Jewish themes, from Jewish humor to the Holocaust, Foer doesn’t accept the label of “Jewish artist” that his fans and the National Jewish Book Award committee have given him. Yet, Foer also doesn’t deny the force that Judaism has had on his work, notably the theme of “change” that has drastically transformed him from novelist to vegetarian activist to screenwriter. “Every book is ultimately about change,” he said. “From The Odyssey, to Huck Finn, to Beloved.” But for Jews, change is a particularly sticky issue—it’s the delicate space between assimilating into gentile culture and maintaining Jewish identity, between embracing the modern while holding onto the traditional. Change has consciously shaped Foer’s own trajectory ever since he heard the great Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) speak to him and a group of fellow 16-year-old “young Jewish leaders” on a cultural trip in Israel. Though Amichai’s words didn’t have an immediate impact on Foer’s young mind, they came to shape his artistic path more than anything else. “I now realize that I was a greenhouse for what he said that day, which only matured in my mind much
later,” he said. “There should really be 12 commandments, not 10,” Amichai said to Foer and his peers on that summer day 19 years ago. “The 11th: don’t change. The 12th: change.” Foer confessed the numerous changes he made in his formative college years soon after he met Amichai— from abandoning his parents’ observant Judaism, to changing from “wanting to be a doctor to wanting to be Amichai,” to becoming vegetarian. He said, “It’s easy to change your Facebook profile but hard to change your life. Even in critical times when we feel like everything is changing, little change is actually possible.” For Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old narrator of Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer imagined “a story of change,” while many critics labeled the work as primarily a 9/11 novel. When the nine-yearold New Yorker loses his father in the 9/11 attacks, he embarks on a quest around New York in the spirit of the grand challenges his father used to design for him. “He needs to grow up and move on from his father, but he also needs to remain a child,” Foer said. “He needs to remain Oskar.” When Foer had his first son and started making food choices for another human being, he officially became a vegetarian and began his visits to factory farms that would turn into his only nonfiction work Eating Animals (2009). When he edited an avant-garde version of the New American Hagaddah (2012), he “was confronted with the choice of which traditions to continue and which to leave out,” noting that his edition removes the male-gendered language of the Hebrew version that excludes women. “How far does a tradition bend before it breaks?” he asked. Returning to the question of Judaism, Foer said that though he was made famous by his semi-autobiographical debut novel Everything is Illuminated, in which an American young man named Jonathan Safran Foer goes to the Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his Jewish grandfather during the Holocaust, he had no prior interest in Judaism or even his own family history. “The topics of these books are like bloody gloves at the crime scene that reveal what topics my imagination is onto,” he said. “But I also learn about myself by following what my imagination—almost in a fetishistic way— wants to do. The direction and changes along this path aren’t up to me.”
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | January 15, 2012
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MAROON BASKETBALL, IN PICTURES
Three days from now, the Athletic Department will host its inaugural Neon Night as Chicago takes on Brandeis. To get you in the mood, here are some picture highlights from the Maroons this season. You’ll see these three—Morgan Donovan, Charlie Hughes, and Jordan Smith—in action Friday. COURTESY OF HANS GLICK
Up next for the Maroons—NYU, Brandeis WOMEN’S BBALL continued from back
stops on defense, and take care of the ball.” Improved rebounding alone was not enough to secure the win, however, and Chicago eventually lost 80–64, falling to 0–3 in the UAA. After a solid first half of shooting, the Maroons went into halftime down by only five points. But after the break, the Eagles went on a nine-point run and capitalized on 14 Chicago turnovers to put the game out of reach. “In both halves, our team did a great job at staying composed and breaking the press to get some easy baskets,” Devaney said. “In the first
half, we valued every possession, but we struggled with turnovers in our half-court offense throughout the second. In the end, I think that’s what really hurt us.” Yet Devaney is optimistic about the Maroons’ upcoming games, as the recent losses have showcased the team’s ability to make important improvements. “We’re looking forward to playing NYU and Brandeis at home this coming weekend. I’m sure that both teams will come ready and eager to play us on our home court, but I think they will be two great games if we can carry over the good things we did against Emory.”
Carlson: “This victory sets us up well for UAAs” SWIMMING continued from back
200 IM,” Gong said. “He also demonstrated his sprinting ability by breaking the 23-second barrier in the 50 freestyle as anchor on the 200 freestyle relay.” The women’s team posted impressive finishes in both relays and individual events. The team took first in three out of five relays and second in the other two. First-year Ciara Hu distinguished herself as a swimmer to watch in coming meets after securing two first place finishes in the 400 IM and the 200 breaststroke. Second-year Elizabeth Millen also stood out, bringing home victories in the 100 butterfly and the 1,650 freestyle. The diving team also boasted many strong showings. Fourth-year Becky
Schmidt finished second in the women’s one-meter dive. In the men’s three-meter dive, second-year divers Tony Restaino, Matthew Staab, and Kevin Steffes finished first, second, and third, respectively. The Chicago Invitational comes at a crucial time during the season, and is used to gauge where the team is at heading into the remainder of their meets. As UAA Championships approach, every meet and practice counts. “Our victory in the Chicago Invitational gives our team confidence in our ability to perform and be competitive even in challenging circumstances,” Gong said. “In the next coming weeks, we will continue to hone our racing techniques so that we will be confident and
prepared for UAAs.” With top finishes at both the Chicago Invitational and the Phoenix Fall Classic, the team is in good shape looking ahead to UAAs. The UAA Championships will take place on February 13–16 in Chicago’s home waters, at the MyersMcLoraine Pool. “This victory sets us up well for UAAs and should give the team a lot of confidence heading into that meet,” Carlson said. Before that, however, the Maroons still have two matchups against talented squads in UW–Milwaukee and DePauw, both of whom defeated Chicago last season. The South Siders will host UW–Milwaukee this Saturday at 1 p.m.
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
The executive boards of the Women’s Athletic Association and the Order of the “C” have implemented a program, “Athlete of the Week,” to highlight athletes making a big impact on the campus community—both on and off the field. We hope the MAROON’s series on these ‘Uncommon’ athletes can start a conversation...and not just within the walls of Ratner.
CLAIRE DEVANEY, WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
ADAM BUTTERFIELD AND JOHN STEINBERG, MEN’S BASKETBALL Head Coach Mike McGrath: “Adam and John have been great teammates and each has made contributions in games throughout the year. This past week, they were instrumental in our opening UAA win against Washington University. Their effort in practice was outstanding, as they helped us prepare a game plan that was key to the victory. Each guy worked hard and ran the scout team in a manner that prepared our team to play against a top opponent. Most importantly, they put the team first, constantly placing the group ahead of their personal desire to play and doing what it took for the team to come out on top.”
Head Coach Carissa Sain Knoche: “Claire is playing very well for us right now, and it started three weeks ago (post finals but before the holiday break) in practice. She made a decision to shift her focus in practice to helping our team do the little things—rebound, keep plays alive, transition, and score in the paint. She has done a tremendous job embracing the fact that we ask her to play every position on the floor every day in practice and in games. Her practice performances have directly impacted how she’s played in games, and she's arguably been our MVP over the last few games both statistically and in the categories that don’t show up in the stats. She has been a consistent model for her teammates and a huge part of our two winter break wins!”
SPORTS
IN QUOTES “Not only do I want the pressure. I’m going to crush the pressure, bite the pressure, and drink the pressure. Then piss it out.” —Lakers forward Ron Artest, to reporters, after the Lakers defeated the Cavs Sunday night.
South Siders reign supreme at Chicago Invitational Swimming Tatiana Fields Sports Contributor The long winter layoff for the Maroons did no harm, as they swept the Chicago Invitational this weekend with decisive victories on both the men’s and women’s sides. The hosts showed depth in relays and individual events alike, which resulted in domination of the 11team field. The women’s team finished first with a whopping 988 points, beating second place Calvin (777) by over 200 points. The men’s team also came out on top with 854 points to second place Olivet Nazarene’s 770.5. “The Chicago Invite went extremely well for both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams,” assistant coach Krista Carlson said. “The real defining moment, in my opinion, was seeing our athletes being able to deliver solid and consistent times without rest. We put people in a mix of their normal events as well as some wild cards, and they responded very well.”
Before major swimming and diving meets, teams often taper, or decrease, the intensity of practices to ensure maximum performance in competition. But the South Siders took a different approach this week. The Maroons practiced hard and still managed to post some of the best times of the season at the Invite without the rest that normally comes with tapering. The intense preparation was particularly noticeable in the men’s 400 IM relay. “Our A-relay was able to close out a very tight race against Calvin and Olivet Nazarene, despite a challenging week of practice,” fourth-year backstroker Wade Gong said. On the men’s side, many individuals finished in the top three of their events, despite swimming some events outside of their normal repertoires. One swimmer who really brought the fire was second-year Andrew Angeles. “[He] posted a national qualifying time in the 200 breaststroke and surpassed his UAA performance from last year in the SWIMMING continued on page 7
First-year Jenna Harris pushes off the starting block at the women’s 400–yard medley relay during the fourth annual Phoenix Fall Classic in Ratner Athletics Center earlier this season. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON
On weekend trip East, misfiring Maroons fall to Rochester, Emory Men’s Basketball Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff
Second-year Royce Muskeyvalley searches for an open teammate in a home game against Southwestern University earlier this season. COURTESY OF HANS GLICK
The old saying goes, “Defense wins games.” Unfortunately, defense alone can’t win a ballgame. It was the Maroons’ offense that led to two UAA losses on the road. Chicago (7–7, 1–2 UAA) shot 30.8 percent from the field against #4 Rochester (14–0, 3–0 UAA) in Friday’s 64–47 loss and just 22.8 percent in Sunday’s 79–48 loss to Emory (9–4, 1–2 UAA). Head coach Mike McGrath could not give one explanation for the uncharacteristically low shooting numbers. “I think some of it’s playing on the road,” he said. “I think some of it is a credit to the defense the other teams played. I think some of it is dumb luck. I think some of it is we’ve got to be a little tougher physically and just
kind of finish things, and I think some of it is it’s gotten to our head a little bit.” Regardless of the low shooting percentages, Chicago contained Rochester’s star point guard John DiBartolomeo in the first half of Friday’s contest. The senior scored 10 points in the opening 20 minutes with four coming from free throws, and he only dished one assist. “I thought we really came out and executed our game plan,” McGrath said. “It wasn’t the way he wanted to make plays and I was very, very pleased with our effort.” Scoring nine points off turnovers, Chicago went into the break down by only four points (27–23). But the second half was a different story. DiBartolomeo scored 15 points in the half, making all three of his shots from beyond the arc, and also had
five assists. “It was tough standing in front of him,” third-year point guard Wayne Simon said. “They were setting a lot of screens for him.” DiBartolomeo totaled 25 points, six assists, and seven rebounds in his 35 minutes of playing. Against the Eagles, a 4–28 start from the field landed Chicago a 37–13 halftime deficit. “When the first couple shots haven’t gone in, I think we panicked a little bit,” third-year forward Charlie Hughes said. “We’ve gotten together as a team and had a couple meetings and talked about it and just working on it. We’ve got a couple games off to get our legs back.” Given that the overarching problem of the weekend was shooting percentage, McGrath will deal with the issue in two areas—the physical and the mental.
“Some of it is preparation, skill-work, and drilling,” McGrath said. “Some of it is mental [and] conversation.” In terms of mental preparation, McGrath said he has a committed group of athletes that care about the game. “They’re passionate guys,” he said. “It bothers them when they get down, and that gets into their head.” But, even with a 1–2 record in the UAA, the Maroons say the season is far from over. “Honestly, I don’t think anyone in our locker room is really panicking yet,” Hughes said. “We feel like we should’ve beaten Rochester this weekend… I don’t see us playing as bad as we did against Emory ever again.” “We obviously just have to refocus and really dedicate ourselves. Going out and getting two wins this weekend will be big.”
Hoops squad slips to 3–10 following pair of conference losses Women’s Basketball Mary MacLeod Sports Contributor After dropping their first UAA game of the year against Wash U on January 5, the Maroons hoped to stage a conference comeback against Rochester and #17 Emory last week. Unfortunately, those wishes did not come true. On Friday, the team was bested 71–49 on the road against Rochester who improved to 1–1 in the
UAA, while Chicago fell to 0–2. The Yellowjackets opened up a ninepoint lead in the first minutes of the game, and carried that momentum with them until the final whistle. “Rochester executed really well and hit a lot of shots early in the game which we struggled to respond to,” second-year post Ellie Greiner said. “We were getting really good looks on offense but it just didn’t seem like we could get a shot to fall.”
Rochester began the game shooting significantly better from the field than Chicago, making 52.6 percent of their first-half shots compared to the Maroons’ 23 percent mark. The Yellowjackets really took control of the game on the glass, out-rebounding Chicago 50–35. The South Siders picked it up in the second half, but their improved play wasn’t enough. After scoring only 15 points in the first half, the Maroons did a better job offensively
and defensively in the latter half of the contest—a lesson the team hopes to capitalize on in their next meeting. “This game, we really struggled with rebounding,” Greiner said. “We gave Rochester way too many second chance opportunities by giving up offensive rebounds. I think if we work harder on the boards and limit our turnovers, we’ll have a good chance of beating Rochester when we play them at home.”
They didn’t have to wait until the next matchup with Rochester to improve their rebounding. On January 13 against Emory, Chicago out-rebounded their competition 47–44. “Our mindset going up against Emory was to play hard and to get back to the basics,” secondyear guard Claire Devaney said. “We knew that in order to compete, we needed to rebound, get WOMEN’S BBALL continued on page 7