012513 Chicago Maroon by The Chicago Maroon

FRIDAY • JANUARY 25, 2013

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 21 • VOLUME 124

Workers share their stories

Kuviasungnerk Kangeiko’s 30th Anniversary

Alex Hays News Contributor

Students do calisthenics during the first day of Kuvia, the University’s annual winter celebration. Photo essay continued on page 6. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Campus service workers spoke to students about their work experiences and ongoing contract negotiations between the University and the labor union at an event held at the Reynolds Club on Tuesday. The panel included a wide range of employees, from housekeeping staff to office workers. Mazurie Wright, a housekeeper at South Campus Residence Hall, spoke about working in the dorm before and after the transfer of housekeeping and building maintenance from the Office of Campus and Student Life to the University’s Facilities Services, which contracts with custodial vendor ABM. The transition, which went into effect on August 15, 2011, has detrimentally affected the workers, she said, citing a pay decrease and an increase in workload since the transfer. The number of housekeepers for South Campus has decreased and her workload has tripled, she said. But she said workers are “very appreciative” of having WORK continued on page 2

New fund brings After Roe, UCMC gives choice diversity out front Sindhu Gnanasambandan News Contributor

Lina Li Senior News Staff As a result of persistent student pressure for reform, the University established the Campus Dialogue Fund (CDF) in response to the 2010 arrest of AfricanAmerican student Mauriece Dawson in the Regenstein Library, which was widely believed to have been racially motivated. Beginning this school year, the CDF will be allocated $15,000 annually to bring speakers on social justice issues to campus. The Fund is the result of work by the Ad Hoc Committee of Campus and Student Life, Student Government, and the Alliance for Student and Community Rights, which was formed in response to the Dawson incident, according to the CDF Web page. Assistant

NEWS IN BRIEF SG revamps web site SG unveiled its new web site at an assembly meeting last night. The web site will include a blog for current council members, profile pages with “about me” sections, and links to message individual members. According to SG President Renard Miller, the goal of the new website is to create an active space for interaction between SG and students. SG was motivated to create the web site because the old web site was rarely updated and difficult to navigate. Miller said people often approached him to ask how to access readily available SG services, such as funding.

Vice President for Student Life and Associate Dean of the College Eleanor Daugherty said this is not the only reason for the formation of the CDF. “The need for dialogue on issues of race, power, gender, and privilege is not the result of one incident,” Daugherty wrote in an email. “Rather, the incident motivated a campus that has been deeply committed to inquiry since its inception.” Third-yearClarence Okoh, president of the Organization of Black Students, said that the CDF is “only a first step” toward resolving the racial issues on campus. “Since Regenstein, we are still seeing many incidents that only make the CDF a more valuable resource,” he said in an e-mail. “There are

Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Regarded as a landmark decision in paving the way for women’s health rights by legitimizing their right to privacy, Roe v. Wade has gone down a tumultuous path the last few decades, as many states have limited the number of existing abortion clinics. On campus, numerous University-affiliated bodies provide services and advice to students interested in getting an abortion. The Ryan Center, a University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) clinic, provides abortions for students and community members with affordable payment plans. The cost of an abortion at the Ryan Center is typically between $350 and $1,500, depending on the stage of pregnancy. But the service is fully covered by most insurance

RACE continued on page 2

ROE continued on page 3

A calendar of SG meetings, all of which are open to students, as well as SG’s Twitter feed, will be featured on the home page. The web site will be linked to sg.uchicago.edu by Monday. Until then, the web site can be previewed at 128.135.87.223. —Madhu Srikantha

Argonne helps Boeing In response to a request by a U.S. Congressman, officials at Argonne National Laboratory, which is managed by the University, have offered to advise the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company with battery problems related to its 787 Dreamliner plane, according to the Chicago Tribune. Chaka Fattah (DPA), who issued the request, is a se-

nior appropriator on the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the House and Appropriations Committee. Argonne is preparing to launch the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, a research institute dedicated to developing advanced battery technology, with funding from a $120 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy. The FAA was prompted to “issue an emergency airworthiness directive” requiring that “before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe,” as mentioned in a statement it made on January 16th. Despite Argonne’s offer, both Boeing and the FAA have yet to comment. —Jennifer Standish

ONE IN THREE WOMEN IN THE U.S. WILL HAVE AN ABORTION IN HER LIFETIME 69% OF AMERICAN WOMEN WHO HAVE ABORTIONS ARE ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED

BELLA WU

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

Baby, it’s cold outside—and inside Marina Fang News Editor Amid this week’s frigid weather, students have reported heating issues in Max Palevsky, Blackstone, and Stony Island Residence Halls. “I wake up freezing every single morning and wear my coat around my apartment,” second-year Stony Island resident Kayla Reinherz said. According to second-year Samara Albazzaz, who also lives in Stony Island, her roommate was particularly bothered by the cold. “She didn’t feel comfortable working at the desk in our room,”

Albazzaz said in an e-mail. Fourth-year Sarah Del Ciello, who lives in Max Palevsky Central, said that dorm rooms and common areas have felt particularly cold in the last two days. “It’s a minor inconvenience. I find myself bundling up and wearing slippers a little more than usual,” she said. Engineers worked to repair the heating issues in Max Palevsky common areas and in Blackstone, according to Facilities Services Communications Manager Amy Lee. HEAT continued on page 2

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Let’s talk about sex » Page 4

Penn offers the AIC plenty to chew on (and spit out) » Page 7

Back on track? Chicago captures 3 straight, moves to 2-3 in UAA » Back Page

Gangster Squad gets down with the gore-mongers » Page 8

Miss and hit: After Brandeis defeat, Maroons crush NYU » Page 11

Borderline concerns » Page 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | January 25, 2013

Campus Dialogue Fund to motivate conversations about race RACE continued from front

systemic issues that confront communities of color on campus.” Okoh said he hopes the CDF will increase awareness about the issues and motivate University members to solve them. After the Dawson incident, students tried unsuccessfully to bring Michelle Alexander, a law professor specializing in racial issues at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, to speak on campus, Okoh said. Alexander will be the speaker at the George E. Kent Lecture at Mandel Hall on February 21, partly thanks to funding by the CDF. The student-run CDF will be funded through the Office of Campus and Student Life and advised by OMSA. Speakers may be proposed by the CDF committee or other student organizations, according to Daugherty.

SOUL highlights service workers’ experiences on campus WORK continued from front

their jobs. University spokesperson Steve Kloehn said that the duties of housekeepers were reorganized during the transition. “The University contracts with ABM for a certain level of housekeeping and cleaning, and has been satisfied that those levels are being met,” he wrote in an e-mail. In addition to workplace grievances, the panelists also spoke about certain provisions Local 743 is fighting for in negotiating a new contract with the University. Their current contract is set to expire on February 28. Melanie Cloghessy, a receptionist for the University’s music department, is a member of the negotiation committee for the new contract. During the event, she said that this round of negotiations is mainly focused on helping union members who are paid the least, especially University employees who are eligible for food stamps. “Anyone who works for an institution like the University of Chicago should be earning a wage that is adequate enough to where they shouldn’t have to be out applying for food stamps,” she said in an interview after the event. Cloghessy also said the workers are fighting to include a provision that prohibits front desk clerks in the dormitories from being asked to shovel snow, after an incident last winter in which a clerk was asked to do so at 4 a.m. However, she added that the negotiators have yet to include such a provision, saying that it was “too trivial to bring to the bargaining table.” When asked about whether front desk clerks can be asked to shovel snow, Kloehn said that they are not responsible for removing snow but building maintenance workers are. Angela Mitchell, an audience member, was terminated from her job on January 15 as a housekeeper in South Campus, which she had previously held for two years, she told the MAROON after the event. She said her boss, a housekeeping supervisor for ABM, terminated her for inadequately mopping the floor of the front lobby, which she did every morning around 7 a.m. She said that it is impossible to keep the floors clean with so many students entering and exiting the building. The supervisor declined to give his name or comment on the termination, citing ABM policy restricting him on speaking about such matters. Kloehn also had no comment. The event was hosted by Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL).

Study praises Pritzker’s diversity Thomas Choi News Contributor Pritzker Medical School is one of the most diverse in the country, according to a recent study called “The Minority Student Voice at One Medical School: Lessons for All?”. The study examined how Pritzker promoted diversity and improved the experience of underrepresented minority students. Pritzker is unique in that its matriculation rate of minority students is almost double that of peer medical colleges, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Underrepresented minority students represent approximately 15–18 percent of the class.. The study focused on how Pritzker was able to enroll such a high proportion when the number of minority students in medical schools remains very low across the nation. “It has been our efforts to create a learning environment in which diverse students can feel both accepted as well as successful that has helped us achieve our results,” Holly Humphrey (M.D. ’83), the Dean for Medical Education at Pritzker, said. Researchers identified three major aspects of the school that improved the experience and success of the underrepresented minority students: the collaborative learning climate, student body diversity, and a required course on health care disparities, which

introduces first-year medical students to hospitals and clinics in local communities in order to have them experience firsthand the inequalities and barriers created by economic disparities. The researchers also found two factors that hindered the success of minorities: the homogeneity of the faculty and a burden from pressures and stereotypes. Medical student Abdullah Pratt Abdullah, president of the Student National Medical Association, an organization dedicated to supporting underrepresented minority students in Pritzker, challenged some of the successes identified in the study, particularly the socioeconomic diversity of Pritzker students. “The University of Chicago has done a great job of accepting students of minority backgrounds. Yet, one thing that concerns me is that it’s one thing to look like them, but I think it’s important to have students who have walked the same lines as the real low-income patient population,” he said. Humphrey, however, insisted that the University has gone all-in to promote diversity. “It is always our goal to recruit the most diverse class we can—with our definition of ‘diversity’ encompassing aspects of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, undergraduate college, etc.” The study was published in the medical journal Academic Medicine in January.

Facilities services received numerous complaints from students HEAT continued from front

“Some common areas in [Max Palevsky], such as hallways, lounges, and lobbies, dropped to 60 degrees at times today while we worked to restore the systems. Heat now hovers in the 68-degree range in those areas,” she said. Lee said she was not aware of heating issues in student dorm rooms or at Stony Island. Del Ciello said that engineers conducted room checks in Max Central to locate the rooms that were affected. Students in Max P and Blackstone also received e-mails from housing staff updating them about the repairs. Albazzaz said the heating problems in Stony have persisted since late November, but they were not problematic until this week’s single-digit temperatures. She said she and her suitemates put in a work order on Monday, and workers came to fix it the next day. Lee encouraged students to file service requests on the HouseNet system if they experience further problems.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | January 25, 2013

Since Jan. 1

Jan. 17Jan. 24

Robbery

Attempted robbery

Battery

Burglary

Criminal trespass to vehicle

Damage to property

Other report

Simple assault

Theft

Trespass to property

Arrest

Traffic Violation

» January 19, 5714 South Woodlawn Avenue (Fraternity House)—Between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., an iPhone and wallet were taken from an unattended jacket. » January 19, South Dorchester Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets, 10:42 p.m.—UCPD officers recovered a motor vehicle reported stolen to the CPD and arrested five occupants. » January 21, 5600 South Cottage Grove Avenue, 3:48 p.m.—UCPD officers arrested a suspect being chased by CPD officers. The suspect was turned over to the CPD.

Type of Crime

47th

» January 11 to January 15 (reported on January 22), Reynolds Club— Between January 11 at 6:30 p.m. to January 15 at 10 a.m., a cash box was taken from an unsecured cabinet in a secured office. Source: UCPD Incident Reports

S. Hyde Park

53rd

55th

S. Lake Shore

51st

57th

59th 60th

62nd

Cornell

SG voted to discontinue the RSO van during the assembly meeting last night. According to SG President Renard Miller, SG has not received any requests for the use of the RSO van since the program’s inception last spring. The van rental was actualized after being in the works for years, and was intended to meet the needs of athletic groups and community service RSOs. This year, SG asked the van’s target audience if they were going to use the van and both groups said no. The University

Here are this week’s notables:

Stony Island

SG ditches van

Community Service Center responded that they already maintain a van of their own, which is only used 25 percent of the time with no time conflicts. SG has been renting the van for the past 13 months. The ending service cost to the van’s company is estimated at $4,000, according to Douglas Everson, vice president for administration of SG. The van’s yearly cost was $12,000. Everson said that the van would not be offered to UChicago’s more than 300 RSOs, as subcontracting use of the van to another group on campus would be unreasonably expensive, and one van would not be able to meet the needs of such a large number of people. —Madhu Srikantha

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 24. 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.

Blackstone

NEWS IN BRIEF

Weekly Crime Report

University

policies, including U-SHIP, UChicago’s default health-care plan for students, making it virtually free for most. For those patients for whom the procedure’s costs remain a barrier, the Center also collaborates with two national abortion funds and various donors to further mitigate the cost. Assistant professor of obstetrics/gynecology Amy Whitaker, of the Family Planning and Contraceptive Research Department, estimated that they see about one student a month choosing to get an abortion at the Center. “[It is] likely that more students are having abortions. They may choose to go to an off-site location or not know that the Ryan Center exists right here on campus,” she said. In addition to affordable provisions of abortion and contraceptive services, staff and faculty members at both the UCMC and the Student Health and Wellness Center also work to cultivate a supportive environment for students seeking sexual health services, according to Assistant Vice President for Student Health and Counseling Services Alex Lickerman. “The clinic’s policy is that we support a woman’s right to choose and whether we feel personally for or against abortion, our job is to serve the needs of the students,” Lickerman said.

“It’s not our job to judge; our job is just to care for people,” he said. Section Chief for Family Planning in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Melissa Gilliam runs various research and policy programs relating to personal empowerment in reproductive health. Like Lickerman, she steers her department toward being impartial with patients. “It is important to realize that people have a wide range of choices about what’s right for them and what’s not right for them…and so you have to think not just about your judgment on her decision to become pregnant, but the social, political, and economic structures that might lead her in that direction.” But the issue remains divisive. Some students, like first-year Jack Schmerold who is planning to start a new pro-life RSO, take issue with the abortion provisions available on campus and with what they consider the implicit adoption of a pro-choice stance. “The University should also inform women of the repercussions of having abortions. There is a study by the British Journal of Psychiatry which determined that women who have an abortion are at an 81 percent increased risk for mental health problems. Although informing women of these facts may make the abortion process more unpleasant, it could have a lasting impact.”

Ellis

ROE continued from front

By Marina Fang

Cottage Grove

UCMC aims to provide a supportive environment

*Locations of reports approximate

2012/2013 CONCERT SEASON

First Prize $1500 Second prize $500

Brooklyn Rider FRIDAY / JANUARY 25 / 7:30 PM 6:30 PM artist talk with Seth Brodsky and ensemble

Tonight only! A musical ride you won’t soon forget. Discover Brooklyn Rider, a genre-defying string quartet, in a spirited program ranging from Felix Mendelssohn to original and re-imagined works.

www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/crerar-prize Submission deadline: April 8, 2013

“Everyone but the cellist plays standing up, and when the music calls for it, they dig into their instruments with the exuberance of racehorses let out of the barn.” (Learning Musician)

$35 / $5 students with valid ID Mandel Hall Buy your tickets today! 1131 East 57th Street 773.702.ARTS (2787) chicagopresents.uchicago.edu A limited number of FREE student tickets are available through the Arts Pass program; visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu for details.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed JANUARY 25, 2013

Let’s talk about sex The University’s reproductive health and sexual education services need to be better promoted 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 ALICE BUCKNELL Assoc. Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Assoc. Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS Assoc. Sports Editor JULIA REINITZ Assoc. Photo Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager

As reported in today’s Maroon article “After Roe, UCMC gives choice,” this past Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. As the article reports, the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) has made dramatic steps forward in making abortions, as well as contraceptive and reproductive health resources, easily available to students. The UCMC has also been a strong proponent of research and education efforts in the field, especially with the recently launched Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health (Ci3), designed to address problems in reproductive health with a focus on assisting women on the South Side. However, despite such laudable medical resources, safe sex practices and reproductive health are rarely the subject of student discussion. The University would do well to better publicize these extensive sexual and reproductive health resources on behalf of the UCMC, as well as promote more discussion of such topics in campus culture. Though students must attend

a safe sex discussion during their Orientation Week, there is often little follow-up to the short presentation. Presentations to housing from Resources for Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) are available upon request from Resident Heads, but these efforts are limited to students living in housing. Rather than relegating reproductive health education to Orientation Week, there should be ongoing efforts to make the topic commonplace. With such initiatives as Tea Time and Sex Chats, students have demonstrated an interest in establishing a constant dialogue about sex and reproductive health. The University should respond to this interest with more initiatives of a similar nature. A good start toward destigmatizing these topics would be for the University to more prominently advertise the wide-ranging services offered by the UCMC and Student Health Service (SHS). While having a sound infrastructure for reproductive health resources is critical, these efforts are all but worthless if students remain unaware of their existence or how to access them. For example, emer-

gency contraception is available through SHS for a much lower cost than at other local pharmacies, but this is not common knowledge among students. Additionally, though students often rely mostly upon SHS for their common health needs, the UCMC has an abundance of other resources available to students, including affordable payment plans and outside funding sources for abortions through the Ryan Center. Sex Week, occurring the week of February 11–17, combines education and discussion to bring an entire week of activities to students, ranging from workshops and seminars to simply tabling and giving out information. Funded in part by the Uncommon Fund, this will be the first Sex Week to take place on UChicago’s campus. While many University offices will be represented during Sex Week’s activities, including Health Promotion and Wellness and the Office of LGBTQ Student Life, SHS and UCMC are absent from the week’s schedule. The University should take advantage of the structure of Sex Week to directly publicize the many medi-

cal resources available to students. The University could also offer permanent, institutional support to Sex Week, ensuring that such initiatives, and the dialogue they engender, endure and aren’t predicated on student efforts to gain funding. Lastly, it should take a cue from Sex Week’s activities and help facilitate conversation throughout the quarter, not just for a single week in February. With greater attempts to connect students to extant resources, the University can continue to promote safe sex practices and knowledge of reproductive health resources. In light of the introduction of new enterprises like Ci3, it would be a shame for students to have reason to complain about an alleged lack of resources provided by the University. Sex Week and efforts like it indicate wider interest among students in discussing sexual and reproductive health. Now is an ideal time for the University to more systematically foster and promote it.

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

Creativity in the classroom Intellectualism and creativity are complementary, and the ‘life of the mind’ should embrace both

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 KELSIE ANDERSON Copy Editor CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor KEN ARMSTRONG Copy Editor SHANICE CASIMIRO Copy Editor

By Tyler Lutz Viewpoints Columnist

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 CHELSEA LEU Copy Editor KATIE LEU Copy Editor CARYSSA LIM Copy Editor

The American education system is a mystery to me: Our primary and secondary schools lag far behind those of other industrialized nations by most objective metrics, yet our colleges and universities consistently produce some of the world’s most influential scholars, artists, and pro-

fessionals. The disparity only makes the accomplishments of our higher education system—already the envy of the world in terms of research output—all the more impressive. What sets American higher education apart specifically? Though fortuitous historical and cultural circumstances have played no insignificant role in building up our schools’ prodigious material and intellectual capital, that doesn’t seem to tell the whole story. Many accounts cite a little something extra, a special zest imparted to students that enhances the benefits proffered by our research prowess. Graduates of our tertiary education system are frequently credited with a particular taste for inno-

vation and risk, a pervasive sense of ingenuity, and a persistent willingness to defy conventions. Against all odds, America somehow succeeds at producing creative leaders. The University of Chicago is certainly no slacker among such illustrious company, but we do put a rather unique spin on what this “creative leadership” looks like in practice. I’m not brave enough to try to advance an abstract definition of creativity here—indeed, the very challenging of and contempt for definitions seem to be among the distinguishing features of creativity in general. Nonetheless, I think we’re past due for a serious conversation about the meaning and place of creativity within the University’s

educational mission. In building the Logan Center, UChicago has decidedly raised its (11-story high) middle finger to a past in which art—one of the many guises of creativity—was politely disregarded on campus. But where are we headed instead? How will we reconcile the drive towards academic rigor with the splaying forces of creative expression? Or does creativity perhaps already fit naturally within the University’s unique goals and Weltanschauung? Let’s set the stage: UChicago was founded on ideological commitments both to the furthering of original, open inquiry and to the bridging of gaps between ideas and CREATIVITY continued on page 5

JONAH RABB Copy Editor LINDSEY SIMON Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor

Stumbling towards catastrophe To protect its reputation, University must take more cooperative, proactive approach to problem solving

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. © 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 Taylor Schwimmer Viewpoints Columnist Over winter break, I spoke with a friend who goes to a prestigious college in the northeastern United States. As with many winter break conversations between students, the topic shifted to our respective schools. After some pleasantries about clubs, professors, and

jobs, my friend said something weird: “How’s your toilet?” I was confused for a second, but quickly realized what he was talking about. I swiftly shot back, “Do they not have internet in that little town of yours? That happened 10 months ago.” We talked about it a bit more and he asked me how the University let something so outrageous—so patently absurd—happen. I didn’t have a quick comeback for that one. How did something as simple as maintaining the plumbing escape the institution that was first to split the atom? Over the next few days, this paradox was like a tiny splinter in the back of my mind. I wasn’t bothered by the

ribbing; no, it was something conceptually bigger than that. A thought occurred to me: My friend, who is bright and goes to a top university, will probably go on to be a successful academic, business leader, elected official, or otherwise influential person. He will interact with other influential people and may live and work in the public eye. And any time he thinks about the University of Chicago, he will remember the exploding toilets. It probably won’t dominate his thoughts about the University, but it will always be there, subtly influencing his perception. As I thought that through, I realized that the conversation was so troubling because it reflects a larger fact: The Uni-

versity has an image problem. I will admit that this is no grand revelation. I believe that even the Administration is aware of this fact—perhaps painfully so. Many of their policies seem to reflect this: revamping career services, beautifying campus, erecting helpful signs, and even banning certain ‘suggestive’ words like “urban” from admissions tours. Yet there are also a maddening number of instances in which the University has completely dropped the ball in promoting a positive image. Exploding toilets garnered us national media attention; rat-infested dining halls got us written up not only by the health d IMAGE continued on page 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | January 25, 2013

Borderline concerns Fixing our broken immigration system must be a high priority for lawmakers in Obama’s second term

By Anastasia Golovashkina Viewpoints Columnist Barack Obama made many promises in 2008. He promised to reform healthcare; he did. He promised to end the war in Iraq; he did. He promised to raise fuel economy standards, to invest in renewable energy, to end the use of torture on terror suspects, to tighten financial regulations, and to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”—and, sure enough, he did. In his inaugural address this past Monday, the President incorporated a thoughtful (albeit long and vague) discussion of his goals and priorities for the second term, foreshadowing his intentions to confront issues like climate change, job creation, and our labyrinthine tax code. But what I and many others most want from the President’s second term is true progress on an issue he’s been promising to tackle since he first entered the presidential race: fair and comprehensive immigration reform. By this, I mean reform that accounts for all of the major issues and hiccups in the system, including its tendency to kick out

the highly skilled (but perhaps temporarily unemployed) and to split up families, all while conveniently overlooking immigrants’ invaluable contributions to our country’s education, economy, and culture. Though mentioned in the President’s quotable “our journey is not complete” epistrophe, the time has come for his administration to put forth a concrete policy proposal that will actually get things done. Immigration directly affects all 40 million members of the United States’ foreign-born population—a fourth of whom are eligible to vote (and a fifth of whom do) and all of whom are our very own neighbors, classmates, colleagues, friends. Unlike most issues of its scope and magnitude—gun control, climate change, health care, and the like—immigration is unlikely to ever see a crisis of disastrous proportions. It is unlikely to experience the kind of large-scale catastrophe that seems to have become a very unfortunate political necessity for an issue to finally gain the attention of our increasingly incompetent congressional leaders. In many ways, though, it’s already in crisis. Like our inefficient health care system, our equally inefficient immigration bureaucracy prompts small-scale tragedies on a daily basis. Maybe Mom’s work visa expired. As much as employers have balked at providing their employees with costly health insurance, they are even more reluctant to embark upon the hell of fees and paperwork that is a temporary work visa application. If that weren’t enough, the applicant faces a national quota

of just 65,000 per year—20,000 of those being advanced degree holders only. If Mom loses her job for any reason (as many did during the recent recession), her work visa and status are immediately revoked. Maybe Dad trespassed on someone’s property, or shoplifted, or was publicly intoxicated. In short, he committed a misdemeanor—enough of a crime to place him among the 44 percent of deported criminals in 2011 who had only committed such relatively minor infractions. Maybe two undocumented immigrants have an honors student daughter. She has everything she needs to get into a great college: outstanding grades, high test scores, hundreds of volunteer hours. Everything, that is, except for the social security number that she needs to submit an application. Though Congress has been considering legislation to fix some of these problems since 2001, the sole accomplishment of its twelve years of debate has been a $3 billion spending binge on a fancy, albeit completely futile, fence. For all the GOP’s talk about family values—in its 2012 platform, the party “insist[ed] that public policy…be formulated with attention to the needs and strengths of the family”—you’d think Republicans would be falling over themselves to pass comprehensive immigration reform as soon as possible. Not quite. Despite pervasive opinion to the contrary, immigrants—who now comprise an increasingly educated 15.5 percent of the United States labor force—pay our government a

net average of $80,000 more in taxes than they take in through government services. For those with college degrees (about 30 percent), that figure goes up to $198,000. Even 50 to 75 percent of the United States’ 11 million undocumented immigrants pay federal, state, and income taxes. It’s important to remember that the United States has a long and proud history of success rooted in diversity through immigration. For all the ways in which immigration policy remains a problem, immigration itself can act as a solution, bringing us the likes of Einstein, Pulitzer, Bell, Kissinger, Berlin, de la Renta, and some one-fourth of UChicago’s undergraduate population. Moreover, by choosing to ignore the issue of immigration, we continue to fuel a dangerous, misleading, and completely false set of xenophobic stereotypes about a group that includes the vast majority of our own ancestors. In limiting the number of admitted foreign workers to an arbitrarily fixed quota, deporting minimal offenders, and splitting up families, we are in fact minimizing our own built-in advantage, thereby encouraging illegal immigration, the underpaid employment of illegal aliens, reduced tax revenues, and scores of other counterproductive practices. Immigrants pull their weight. It’s time that the United States starts pulling its weight, too. Anastasia Golovashkina is a second-year in the College majoring in economics.

Assignments that ask students to be more creative would fit easily within current Core classes CREATIVITY continued from page 4 disciplines—commitments that I think fall safely within the bounds of most reasonable conceptions of creativity. In its educational capacities, the University pioneered a number of curricular innovations including the interdisciplinary core for undergraduates, discussioncentered classes, and the much-loved quarter system. If you’re an undergraduate, you likely wouldn’t even be reading these words if you hadn’t taken time out of your senior year in high school to respond to an admissions prompt which just about forces you to be creative. Yet, somehow, the spirit of innovation at UChicago didn’t extend to stimulating activity in more conventionally creative fields like engineering or art, which are seen as antithetical to the ab-

stract character of the inquiry pursued here. The mapping of “intellectual” onto notions of “abstractness” is flimsy and should be discarded forthwith. Though I see the argument against, say, offering an undergraduate program in nursing, there is in general no explicit relationship between abstractness and degree of intellectual depth. If you’ve taken a math class here you’ll know that even abstract domains can require a fair amount of perfectly intellectually trivial activity—memorization, simple-minded reapplication of proof strategies, etc.—on the part of the student. Any art class, on the other hand, is guaranteed to highlight the substantial amount of analytic thought—weighing and considering—required of the practicing artist. We must take care to ensure that our foundational pursuit of open,

rigorous inquiry not be hijacked by a misunderstanding of “inquiry” as a strictly abstract project. To assert entire domains of human thought to be somehow intrinsically more intellectual than others is thus puerile; any given discipline is bound to be composed of both intellectually challenging and intellectually trivial components. The key here, at UChicago, is to approach such disciplines as art or engineering with an emphasis on—but not exclusive dedication to—the former. And a true intellectual challenge is not only what we’re after in the first place, but also requires innovation and ingenuity. It requires creative thinking. There is ample room to incorporate creative assignments into the college core. And I’m not talking about writing poems about Durkheim or

doing an interpretive dance for Bio, by the way: For instance, an essay prompt requiring textual exegesis could be exchanged for one requiring students to generate as many arguments both for and against an idea without sacrificing rigor, but with a vast improvement in the degree of creative thinking required of the student. Creativity, in my understanding, is already completely compatible with ‘intellectualism á la UChicago.’ Failing to take advantage of available opportunities to incorporate more creative assignments in our curricula would be to fall short of achieving UChicago’s potential both as a teacher of leaders and as a hub of ideas. Tyler Lutz is a fourth-year in the College majoring in physics and English.

University accounting system reform would foster cooperation between departments on crucial issues IMAGE continued from page 4 partment, but also in local newspapers. The University is letting its contract for free campus bus routes expire with no alternative in sight and has arguably bungled the transition away from SafeRide. There are a number of other proverbial dams about to burst (Max Palevsky laundry machines, anyone?). Each new mishap encourages people like my friend to see us in a less favorable light. I think it goes without saying that this is a pattern we want to avoid, but I simply haven’t observed the University taking steps toward that end. Rather, such incidents are illustrative of a greater, even more troubling trend: Major issues are not being addressed before they reach a crisis phase. Instead of proactively seeking resolutions, the University is waiting for problems of all kinds to crop up before it reacts. Take the exploding toilets, for instance. The financial compensation given to Pierce residents was not much more than a stopgap measure to stem their outrage. And while the facilities improvements were certainly generous, the fact that they’re only going to be enjoyed for a year negates some of their impact. In the end, the decision to demolish Pierce is a great example of what I’m talking about: Demolishing the building imme-

diately after the blow-up—even though it’s the right decision—is a tacit admission of failure. The horse is already out of the barn. Hell, the horse took off at a gallop two hours ago. Because the University waits until problems reach an unexpected climax, the community will suffer routine outages, hassles, and inconveniences. These are obviously things that we want to avoid. But the greater cost of this reactive management style is what I mentioned earlier: the damage to our prestige that each unexpected incident does. When we make the news for something like exploding toilets, it is going to color the public’s perception of us—perhaps not immensely, but indelibly. There is, perhaps, one decisive step the University could take in order to try and prevent the cycle of “problem-reaction-problem.” As it currently stands, the University employs a system of double-entry bookkeeping. This is a fairly complex accounting principle, but in practice it means that the University acts as a federal authority that oversees all of its independent departments. For instance, The Office of Undergraduate Student Housing (OUSH) can “pay” IT Services to set up a website, and both departments record the transaction independently. Each department is given an extremely high level of autonomy to

spend money how it sees fit. While this method does have advantages, I believe it also strongly contributes to the cycle of crisis that we observe. Instead of viewing themselves as cooperating members of a larger organization, departments are forced to take on the role of buyers and sellers in a market, often with misaligned or mutually unknown interests. For instance, the Class of 2016 was the latest in a string of exceptionally large newly admitted

classes that forced OUSH to scramble for extra room. It certainly would be a complex undertaking to alter accounting schemes institution-wide in order to facilitate better interdepartmental cooperation, but it would ultimately lead to much smoother outcomes. The only alternative may be continued catastrophes. Taylor Schwimmer is a third-year in the College majoring in public policy studies.

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words. Op-ed submissions, 800 words.

Photo Essay | Kuvia By Jamie Manley

For the past 30 years, at the start of every winter quarter, UChicago students have braved cold weather and pre-dawn wake-ups to attend Kuvia, a weeklong festival founded by Sociology Professor Don Levine. Students gather at Henry Crown Field House every morning at 6 a.m. for calisthenics and workshops led by RSOs ranging from Raas to Crew. On the last morning of Kuvia, students trek to the Point to salute the rising sun. Students who attend every morning are rewarded with a coveted Kuvia shirt to celebrate their efforts.

JANUARY 25, 2013

ARTS

Trivial Pursuits JANUARY 25, 2013

Penn offers the AIC plenty to chew on (and spit out) Tianyuan Deng Arts Contributor Irving Penn’s newly minted show in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute, Underfoot, exhibits a series of photographs he made about a decade ago in New York City. Don’t immediately look at the museum introduction tag. Instead, go right into the photos and see if you can determine what they depict at first glance. Spoiler alert: They are chewed up pieces of gum, cigarette butts, and muddy gloves. If you think, even for a moment, that they are stars, gigantic mountains, or other sublime things, then you quite likely hit the nail on the head, though by accident. It’s a mistake that Penn intended for you to make. After all, to photograph the seedy and to spin from it the divine is Underfoot’s purpose.

UNDERFOOT

Art Institute of Chicago Through May 12

Irving Penn is a name that sounds most familiar to the fashion-conscious. Beginning in the 1940s, his career became defined by his photographic work for Vogue. In the ’50s he founded his own studio in New York and began creating photographic fashion ads. Both Issey Miyake and Clinique appear on his client list. However, while his sense of poise and elegance was suited to the squeaky-clean fashion industry, his obsession with exposing the dirty and the soiled went largely unsatisfied. Between 1949 and 1950, Penn began undertaking photographic projects of his own. His fixation on the neglected or even the distasteful surfaced quite early in his role as an

independent photographer. His first MoMA exhibition was called Photographs of Cigarettes, and his ensuing show at the Met was Street Materials. His 1989 exhibition at Pace Gallery, titled Other Ways of Being, sharply sums up his interests. It is almost as if Penn became so disenchanted with the glamour of high fashion that he sought out its antithesis: the gloomy, the dirty, and the lowly. But, of course, the dirty business is handled in a sly way. And that is why one should view the photograph first, and then look at the tag. Penn treated the pebbled, gum-spattered street of New York as a ready-made canvas. With a mediumformat camera fitted with tubes that extended his lens nearly to the ground, he carefully captured the objects discarded on the filthy pavement. The tag does not address his editing procedures, but he certainly manipulated the color and the scale to such an extent that those discarded objects no longer read as themselves. A fleshy, coiled-up wad of gum looks like a fetus. Another stoneshaped wad of gum lying against a completely black background looks like stars. A glove covered with mud and other vegetation looks like a bare mountain. It is almost as if Penn is trying to weave two lines of thought into these images: what the object is and what the object means. It is gum, but it is meant as a cosmos/fetus/fill-in-the-blank for wherever your imagination takes you. And even if it is not clear what the object resembles or what the object actually is, a calming, meditative air seems to descend upon it regardless. Penn’s Underfoot project certainly has a magnetic quality to it. Behold the detested turning into the desired! Or even better, the philosophical—but I doubt Penn has put that much rigor into the concept behind it all. The project seems to me largely carried out by instinct, and as I walked through the gallery, the works

Irving Penn’s “Underfoot XXXV” showcases these amoeba-like cigarettes. COURTESY OF THE ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO

appear to be more and more repetitive, even stagnant. Of course, Penn has weaved nuances and differences into every single piece—he carries out the project with a perfectionist temperament befitting a Vogue photographer—but this project would not be hurt if he took out two or three photographs. I subscribe to the notion that in a good painting, or a good project, you cannot take out

even one element—every element, as small as it may be, plays a great role. This is probably what is lacking in Penn’s work: It has a central idea that motivates the project, but the project does not build up momentum work by work. When I exit the gallery, I think to myself, “This project is really nice,” which is not necessarily a compliment for an artist. After all, many artists want the viewer to walk out of the gallery shaken.

Skylight on a family reunion, with failed political undertones Angela Qian Arts Staff “There are no tricks [in Skylight]…Really, we sit in this room with three people all night,” director William Brown says in the play notes to Skylight, which opened at the Court Theatre on January 10. The simplicity of this premise sounds appealing and potentially deeply profound, but belies several flaws in terms of holding the audience. Skylight is performed by three actors: Laura Rook as Kyra Hollis, Matt Farabee as Edward Sergeant, and Philip Earl Johnson as Edward’s father, Tom. One afternoon, Edward visits Kyra, surprising her after she has been absent from the Sergeant family for years. He tells her that his mother has died and his father is not well. Shortly after Edward leaves, Tom drops by. The result is a confrontation between Kyra and Tom about what happened to the Sergeants because of their affair, and an unveiling of the deeply-rooted problems underneath their relationship, both past and present. There is also a clash between Kyra’s idealistic notions and Tom’s pragmatic moneymaking life philosophy.

Laura Rook (left), Philip Earl Johnson (right), and the wine bottle form a love triangle. The full glass of wine is breaking the fourth wall. COURTESY OF COURT THEATRE

SKYLIGHT

Court Theatre Through February 10

The play takes on an inexplicable, distinct socioeconomic angle as it continues. Kyra questions Tom’s life, which has been focused on money; he has provided for the people he cares about in the only way he knows how: by buying things. He roars at Kyra that he can have a fresh wheel of cheese delivered to her door every week when she asks him to grate her paltry, none-too-fresh chunk. Shortly afterward, the two of them get in

a shouting match over Tom’s driver, who has been left sitting in the car in the cold outside Kyra’s door because that is, as Tom sputters, his job. Tom came off as incredibly old-fashioned and unappealing, although perhaps the fact that I was surrounded by liberal-leaning college-age students didn’t help. Edward does not rescue the play, either. Farabee’s English accent makes him sound thickheaded and foolish, and the vague, superficial speeches of his young adult character (“She’s the only girl who’ll sleep with me”) sound forced. When Edward surprises Kyra in the first act, the shortness of his visit and the comedic relief offered by his well-intentioned but dull comments

and the slight glimpse into his troubled family life leave the audience intrigued enough to hope for more. Indeed, the opening of the second scene, when Kyra’s doorbell unexpectedly rings, is promising. But ultimately, this middle section of the play drags, and is where the weakness of the play is most prominent. Hollis and Johnson get repetitive as they dance around one another and speak about the most mundane things in a forced and stilted conversation that is tiring for an audience to listen to. In addition to all this there’s nothing redeeming or relatable about Skylight. The moments of intensity (shouting matches, revelations, truths

torn out of the actors’ mouths) as Tom and Kyra circle one another increasingly closely do arouse empathy—for example, when Tom flatly says, “You suffer. That’s what you do. There are no shortcuts. There are no easy ways.” Yet such moments are too few, and there is too much distance between the characters and the audience to warrant true engrossment. Watching Skylight is an experience akin to sitting in on a conversation between distant relatives who are energetically discussing events and people of the past. Sometimes the stories are interesting, sometimes the conversation is intriguing, but overwhelmingly there’s little to connect or relate to.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | January 25, 2013

Gangster Squad gets down with the gore-mongers Kimberly Han Arts Contributor Ruben Fleischer, who, at 38, has a scanty filmography, explores a new genre in his latest directorial effort, Gangster Squad. Rather than illustrating a zombie apocalypse, as he did in Zombieland (2009), or a heist gone wrong, as in 30 Minutes or Less (2011), Gangster Squad is a flamboyant shoot-’emup action movie entwining romance, family, and camaraderie. Many viewers will agree, however, that Fleischer’s style remains his own. With an ensemble full of reputable stars, Fleischer creates a stylistic world of corruption and struggle against evil, set in vibrant 1949 Los Angeles.

GANGSTER SQUAD Ruben Fleischer AMC River East

Hey girl, don’t look sad. You’re Emma Stone (as Grace Faraday) playing alongside Ryan Gosling (as Sergeant Jerry Wooters).

In Gangster Squad, a band of cops, excops, and pointer-shooters gathers to form a six-man justice league to tackle the task of overthrowing a brutally powerful gang, thereby endangering themselves and their loved ones. The film’s heroes are played by Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, and Robert Patrick, who together form a well-balanced coalition of rebels. The war is on, but the film does not always make it easy to separate the good from the evil. Fleischer blurs such distinctions; any sort of absolute is nonexistent. Every character in the Gangster Squad world is tainted with blood and violence—even the film’s heroes are merciless killers. It’s still easy to spot the arch-villain of the film. Mickey Cohen, played by the

COURTESY OF WARNER BROS

chameleon-like Sean Penn, is the gang’s heartless leader who continues to seek expansion of his cruelty and control. Cohen calls himself “God” and “owner” of Los Angeles, narcissistic in his acknowledgement of his power. Still, he is greedy for more: He pokes at other gang-regulated cities like Chicago after monopolizing L.A. Sean Penn perfectly absorbs the character of a menacing on-top criminal. Every one of his intonations consolidates and strengthens his representation of all that is brutal in the film. Near Gangster Squad’s conclusion, however, character intersects with caricature; the effect, despite Penn’s talent, is much too overdone and thus comical, but perhaps this is what is most charming about the auteur Fleischer’s style.

I might even argue that the several occasions of deus ex machina in the film are excusable because of this exaggerated style. Turning to the romantic side of the film, Ryan Gosling plays Sergeant Jerry Wooters, and gives an exceptional performance as the charming, ignorant cop turned violent, vengeful lover. His performance, however, is limited by the cheesiness of his character. As expected, he is the heartthrob at the center of the clichéd romance, playing the chivalrous knight to Grace Faraday (the stunning Emma Stone). The romance between Jerry and Grace develops rapidly but adequately, so that it does not seem forced. The chemistry between Gosling and Stone, who have already worked on a few films together, is natural and still

exciting to watch. As in Zombieland, Fleischer packs his movie with exciting action sequences and, most importantly, violence. Violence is so common and lightly taken in Gangster Squad that the audience is quickly desensitized to death and gore. Some horror-mongers may argue that the film does not include too much violence, but I was disturbed by the unnecessary excess of bloodshed throughout the film. The important distinction that the ones being murdered are humans and not zombies may be why I had a more difficult time accepting the desensitization of violence. Gangster Squad is stylish and fun, but I inevitably ponder whether this film might have been more enjoyable without the gore.

Jungen & Linklater at Logan Alexandra McInnis Arts Staff It’s not uncommon for cultural heritage to influence an artist’s work, but for Canadian artists Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater, their Native–North American roots appear in their work as its driving force. Their 2012 film Modest Livelihood, on display at the Logan Center Gallery, documents a moose hunt in the Canadian wilderness, a historically necessary and sacred act for their respective native tribes. In an Artists’ Talk at the Logan Center’s Performance Penthouse on Wednesday night, Jungen and Linklater conveyed the specific ways in which their ancestry inspired their collaborative work. A 2005 film showing Jungen in a group dismantling leather couches played during the beginning of the talk while Jungen read

out a seemingly unrelated history of treaty relations between the Dunne-za tribe and the Canadian government, describing the continuous displacement and relocation of his people to reservations while the Europeandescended Canadians sought their territory and resources. The film, initially vague, featured an industrious group methodically destroying couches and reorganizing the leather, stuffing, and wood. However, the purpose was eventually made clear: Jungen and his group were building a traditional JUNGEN continued on page 9

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A still from Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater’s Modest Livelihood project. COURTESY OF BRIAN JUNGEN AND DUANE LINKLATER

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Audience reactions vary JUNGEN continued from page 8 teepee entirely out of the couch materials. “I wanted to take it back to what leather hides were actually used for by my ancestors, for habitation,” Jungen explained. Linklater then showed a brief PowerPoint explaining his personal interests that formed his journey of cultural self-discovery. The images he chose included a photocopy of the original Treaty No. 9 of Northern Ontario, which established relations between the Canadian government and the Omaskêko Crees in 1905, as well as a photograph of a contemporary tribal representative on a hunger strike outside the Ontario parliament building in the hopes of discussing current treaty relationships with the government. Naturally, the talk also centered on Modest Livelihood, and many audience members were curious about the artists’ decision to leave the film completely silent. Apart from focusing the viewers on the actions of the film, Jungen also explained that many personal conversations had taken place between Jungen and Linklater throughout the filming, and withholding the audiotrack was a way for them to protect some of the sacred information of their ancestors discussed during the hunt. While the film can be arresting for those not connected with Native culture, Jungen and Linklater confessed that in some respects the profundity of the film was lost on their own families. “For them, it’s like a home movie,” Jungen explained. Regardless, the film is less about a specific set of frames and more about one’s personal experience while watching it. “There doesn’t have to be a distinct beginning or ending, and people are free to leave any time during the film,” Jungen said. The individual reactions to film, with varying patterns of engagement and disengagement among viewers, were particularly interesting to Jungen and Linklater during the screening of their first film. “For most of it, I ended up watching the people watching the film,” Linklater laughed.

For Doc members, reel challenges await James Mackenzie Arts Contributor Third-year Haley Markbreiter had a difficult situation on her hands. She had been told earlier that the prints of two films scheduled for showing at Doc Films were being pulled at the last minute by their respective owners. Markbreiter was left with the task of either getting those prints from an alternate source or ones for entirely different movies within two weeks. It didn’t help that she would have to go through distant studios and protective collectors to get it done. None of these roles was a part of the job description for Doc’s programming chair, yet each is essential for the theater’s ongoing operation. “This sounds like a fancy job but a lot of the time I just feel like a fancy administrator,” said

Markbreiter of her role at Doc. Though demoralized for a moment, a few minutes at the night’s programming meeting eventually shifted Markbreiter out of the logistical mindset and into the creative one of appreciating and organizing film. Markbreiter is in her first year as Doc’s programming chair. She joined as a volunteer helper in her first year, picking up the latenight shift on Fridays that no one else would fill. Since then she has worked her way through the programming staff all the way to her current position. Markbreiter oversees a group of about six main programmers who are responsible for selecting and scheduling the films that Doc will show throughout the year. “You can [organize] a series by actor, director, genre, a historical time period, a period of film history,” Markbreiter said of the concep-

tion of a series. “Another way is to come up with a funny title, and see what great or underappreciated movies you can slip in.” The programming chair will help the programmers take their series from concept to completion, often starting out with a single movie and extrapolating that out into a comprehensive ten-film sequence. “The programming chair helps the programmer conceptualize the series,” said Max Frank, fourth-year and former programming chair. “It’s the job of the chair to ask: ‘Why do you want to show this, in what context do you want to show it, in what kind of series could this fit in?’” Frank began his tenure as programming chair in his second year at UChicago and handed the title to Markbreiter this year. Even in that short time, the landscape of the film DOC continued on page 10

Meta-caption about Doc watching you watching it. Or maybe you’re just watching them watch you read a newspaper. COURTESY OF KRISTIN LIN

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Sara Paretsky, Ted Cohen, Rory Childers, Barbara Flynn-Currie, David Bevington, Philip Hoffman, Ruth O’Brien, Patsy Ann Young-Beyer star in a Victorian tale in the heart of The 1893 Columbian Expo 1155 East 57th Street

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | January 25, 2013

CALEND AR 1

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WITH HANNAH GOLD

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Friday | January 25

Do What You’re Told

Salt Lake City may be getting all of the critical acclaim and blame this weekend, but no place does a Sundance spoof like Chicago. B-Fest 2013 at Northwestern University’s Norris University Center is a 24-hour festival of unforgettable films like Sorority House Massacre (1986), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991). Door prizes, a raffle, and encouraged audience commentary are just a few perks that will turn your attention from celebrity ski lodges to outer-space invaders. The Mayne Sage is also hosting a festival—William S. Bourroughs, Movie Star!—proudly presented by the Psychotronic Film Society. The event features a screening of Burroughs: The Movie, a 1983 documentary that has never previously been screened in Chicago, and a lecture on the time Burroughs spent in Chicago. B-Fest: 1999 South Campus Drive, Evanston. Fri 6 p.m.–Sat 6 p.m., $35, $25 students. Burroughs: 1328 West Morse Avenue. Shows start at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., $10, 18+.

before the screening. 915 East 60th Street, Screening Room 201. Starts at 7 p.m., free.

Blintzes make way for New England kitsch with Da Lobster’s premiere day of food service. The Gold Coast restaurant— inspired by L.A.’s Lobsta Truck—will fill the space that once housed Ashkenaz Deli, which closed recently after literally more than a hundred years of service. The chef and owner of this 12-seat joint, Michael Taus, creates rolls influenced by the cuisine of the Southwest United States, Asia, Greece, and India (in lobster, shrimp, and crab varieties, no less). Additional menu items include lobster mac and cheese and clam chowder. 12 East Cedar Street. 10 a.m.–11 p.m., Average roll: $12. Saturday | January 26 Mingle with Minouk Lim, the next Jackman Class resident artist, at the Hyde

Park Art Center’s Open Studio. Lim, who lives primarily in Seoul, produces video projects and live performances that depict and critique contemporary Korean society. The artist will partner with Chicago blues musician Chris Foreman to perform her original work Firecliff 4 Chicago on January 31st at the Logan Center, and her solo show, Hall of Khan, will open at HPAC this coming April. 5020 South Cornell Avenue. 2–4 p.m., free.

The Point—a lit magazine that has featured the writings of Slavoj Žižek and Mark Lilla—is launching “Issue Six” with a party at Logan Square’s High Concept Laboratories tonight. Mingle with the founding editors (all UChicago grad students who conceived of the magazine at the Pub), amidst a backdrop of DJs and probable live jazz. Please RSVP on Facebook or through e-mail, lest you get turned away at the door. 1401 West

Wabansia Avenue. 8 p.m.–1a.m., $5–10. Sunday | January 27

Let’s face it, as temperatures decrease, the desire to sit in a warm, dark theater and be transported to another time and place increases. For the mathematically proportionate moviegoer, it’s unclear what will happen when rhythm is added to the equation, but this is exactly what The Hideout will seek to discover in its Sprocket Hole/Speaker Box: MusicAbout-Film & Film-About-Music Show. The event features performances by Lori Felker, Tatsu Aoki, and Farewell Scarlet—a group of pop-song singers and film-director impersonators consisting of local critics Edward Crouse from the Village Voice and Ben Sachs of the Chicago Reader. Films by Tony Conrad and The Residents will also be screened. 1354 West Wabansia Avenue. Starts at 7 p.m., $10.

I will get you to go to a movie today, even if you’re too lazy and/or cold to leave Hyde Park. Head over to Logan to watch Moving Picture Alphabet Series : Poet as Subject, featuring a screening of The Color of Pomegranates (1968), written and directed by Sergei Parajanov. The film tells the true story of “Sayat-Nova, the 18th Century Armenian poet and troubadour” whose style is marked by poetic imagery and medieval iconography. Professor Robert Bird will lead a Q&A

This jump for Doc Films still exists too DOC continued from page 9 industry has changed dramatically enough to refocus the role and concerns of the programming chair. “This has happened a lot faster than I thought it would, but it’s all digital now in every other theater,” said Frank, referring to the new form of digital projection that is quickly supplanting the more traditional medium of pure film projection. Doc is one of the few theaters left in the country that is committed to 35 millimeter film as its primary method of showing movies, and this has begun to lead to more difficulties on the logistical end of programming. “It’s increasingly difficult,” Frank said on acquiring film prints from studios and archives. “We’re having more cancellations and more difficulty putting stuff together than we have ever had before because we can’t access some films on film.” These are the very issues that led to the cancellations that Markbreiter was contending with in the recent weeks. “What we want is as many prints as possible, we want prints to be as available as possible, and we want prints to be as cheap as possible,” said Markbreiter. “Now that prints are rarer, conditions are turning to exactly the opposite of what we want.” For Frank, the importance of Doc has only been clarified by the changes in the film industry: “We’re going to have generations of kids that will never see a film on film.” Yet Frank remains optimistic and enthusiastic about Doc in the face of this challenge, “and that’s what’s very special about Doc for this university. Any night of the week, you can go out and see a cool movie and you’re going to learn a lot about it, and that is a great way to experience it.”

Mexican Montage University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, February 2 | 8 PM Mandel Hall 1131 E. 57th Street, in Hyde Park Barbara Schubert, Conductor A vibrant program of Latin American music, featuring Silvestre Revueltas’ thrilling La Noche de los Mayas, Oscar Fernández’s Batuque, Arturo Márquez’s Danzon No. 2, and Gershwin’s Cuban Overture. Donations requested: $10 general/$5 students 773.702.8069 | music.uchicago.edu Persons who need assistance should call 773.702.8484

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | January 25, 2013

11 MEN’S BASKETBALL

Miss and hit: After Brandeis defeat, Maroons crush NYU Men’s Basketball

1 3 4 4 4 7 8

Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff For 60 minutes last weekend, the Maroons’ efforts at raising their shooting percentage paid off. In the first half against the Brandeis Judges on Friday, Chicago shot 46.9 percent from the field. Against NYU, the Maroons shot 48.4 percent. But in the second half against the Judges, the Maroons’ shooting looked similar to that in their game against Emory—the game that prompted them to improve in the first place. They shot just 23.1 percent in the second half of Friday night’s contest, and the Maroons’ average leading scorer, second-year guard Alex Pyper, was held to just one point in the game. “I don’t know [what led to the rough second half shooting],” Maroons head coach Mike McGrath said. “I thought Brandeis played very well defensively. I thought we got some very, very good looks that we just didn’t knock in.” The shooting difficulties allowed the Judges to come from behind and win 59–55. Chicago rebounded to beat NYU 77–58 on Sunday. The Maroons controlled most aspects of Sunday’s game. Aside from the high shooting percentage, Chicago out-rebounded the Violets 13–1 on the offensive end. The Maroons also had four turnovers compared to NYU’s seven. “If you’re doing those two things, if you’re knocking down some shots, you’re in a pretty good place,” McGrath said. And Chicago looks to continue its offensive dominance. This Friday, the Maroons

UAA Standings Rank 1

School Rochester

Record 16–0 (5–0)

Win % 1.000

Brandeis Emory NYU Washington (MO) Chicago Case Western Carnegie

14–2 (5–0) 11–4 (3–2) 12–4 (2–3) 12–4 (2–3) 8–8 (2–3) 8–8 (1–4) 3–13 (0–5)

.875 .733 .750 .750 .500 .500 .188

Points Rank Player John DiBartolomeo 1 2 Jake Davis 3 Austin Fowler 4 Alex Greven 5 Chris Klimek

School Rochester Emory Case Western Emory Washington (MO)

Avg/G 24.3 18.7 16.6 16.4 16.2

Assists Rank Player John DiBartolomeo 1 2 Michael Florin 3 Alan Aboona Royce Muskeyvalley 4 4 Jordan Dean

School Rochester Emory Washington (MO) Chicago Case Western

Avg/G 6.1 5.6 5.3 4.0 4.0

Free Throw PCT Third-year Charlie Hughes drives the ball to the basket in the Maroons’ game against Brandeis University last Friday. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

travel to Cleveland to face Case Western. Although the Spartans have struggled in UAA action, McGrath said that they have the ability to rise up at any time. “Case has very good size, very good talent,” McGrath said. “I think they’re just struggling with some chemistry issues a little bit, just trying to put it together which isn’t easy.” While McGrath has not scouted Carnegie Mellon in depth yet, he said he has a feeling of what is to come. “They can definitely beat you at any time,”

McGrath said. The Maroons have struggled away from home this season. They lost both of the UAA games they have played on the road and are 1–4 in away games overall. “[It] usually has more to do with the teams than the place,” McGrath said. “We’ve played some very good teams on the road, but there’s a subtle little comfort level [that’s different]. I feel like moving into this weekend, we’re eager to get a couple on the road here.” Chicago tips off against Case tonight at 7 p.m. CST and Carnegie at 11 a.m. CST.

Rank Player 1 McPherson Moore 2 Alan Aboona John DiBartolomeo 2 4 Nate Vernon 5 Jake Davis

School Emory Washington (MO) Rochester Rochester Emory

Pct .971 .909 .909 .902 .844

Rebounding Rank Player 1 Matt Palucki 2 Austin Fowler 3 Carl Yaffe 4 Jake Davis 5 Michael Friedberg

Rank 1 2 3 4 4

School Washington (MO) Case Western NYU Emory Emory

Avg/G 8.4 8.1 7.6 6.8 6.7

Field Goal PCT Player School Devin Karch NYU Rob Reid Rochester Tyler Sankes Rochester Washington (MO) Chris Klimek Rob Mohen Carnegie

Pct .664 .663 .634 .607 .581

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

South Siders exceed expectations in loss to DI Panthers Swimming

A swimmer for the Chicago Maroons competes in a meet earlier this year. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Tatiana Fields Sports Staff Chicago wasn’t expected to beat the visiting UW–Milwaukee Panthers last weekend, but that wasn’t the Maroons’ primary concern. Despite losses on both the men and women’s sides, both teams were able to log valuable experience against a heavily favored DI squad. The women’s team closed the meet with a final tally of 116–180, while the men’s team lost by a slightly smaller margin, 130–168. The men’s mark was an improvement over that from last year’s meet. “As a DI team, they are expected to be relatively quick,” first-year breaststroker James

Taylor said. “Although we lost, we came much closer to them than we have in the past.” The Maroons didn’t expect to defeat the Panthers. Instead, the South Siders viewed the meet as a chance to practice for upcoming meets, and gave a strong performance against some fierce competition. “Wisconsin-Milwaukee is our toughest competition and they always perform well at our pool,” fourth-year freestyler Kathleen Taylor said. “The meet was great preparation for our team because they are a talented swimming and diving team and competing with them gives our team experience going against the same tough competition that we will see at UAAs and NCAAs.”

The team had many strong showings from both relay teams and individuals. For the second time this year, second-year Andrew Angeles and first-year Ciara Hu were named UAA Athletes of the Week. Angeles took first in both the 100– and 200-yard breaststroke with NCAA B cuts, and placed second in the 400 IM. Hu also achieved NCAA B cuts and won the 200-yard butterfly and the 400-yard IM. “It’s an honor to swim and dive so competitively with a Division I program,” diving coach Kendra Melnychuk said. “We get closer and closer to beating them every year and we certainly look forward to winning a dual meet against them in the near future.” With the Milwaukee meet over, the Maroons now turn their attention to their final dual meet of the season. The South Siders will compete against DePauw on the road tomorrow. Last year the women’s side defeated the Tigers, while the men’s team suffered a close defeat. “Last year, we narrowly lost to DePauw,” James Taylor said. “This year, we want to smoke them. We’re looking forward to hopefully putting up fast times to ensure that we are mentally and physically where we want to be going into our end-of-year championship season.” With the new first-year class of swimmers, beating DePauw is a reasonable goal. This meet is the Maroons’ last chance to practice before the UAAs, and despite not resting for the meet, the team is expecting to do well. “Expectations for the DePauw meet are that we win both sides handily,” Melnychuk said. “Their men’s team is historically very strong on the swimming side, but we definitely come out on top in the diving well, which will give us a big advantage. They swim very well at home but we’re excited to show them how much we’ve improved over the past two years.” The Maroons will face off against DePauw at the Erdmann Natatorium tomorrow at noon ET.

UAA Standings Rank 1 1 1 4 4 4 7 7

School Emory

Record 14–2 (4–1)

Win % .875

Washington (MO) Rochester Carnegie Case Western Chicago NYU Brandeis

14–2 (4–1) 12–4 (4–1) 10–6 (2–3) 10–6 (2–3) 6–10 (2–3) 8–8 (1–4) 7–9 (1–4)

.875 .750 .625 .625 .375 .500 .438

Points Rank 1 2 3 3 5

Player Evy Iacono Melissa Gilkey Emily Peel Hannah Lilly Megan Dawe

School Avg/G Case Western 18.4 Washington (MO) 15.9 Carnegie 14.3 Emory 14.3 NYU 13.8

Rank 1

Player Erica Iafelice

School Case Western

Savannah Morgan Riley Wurtz Evy Iacono Jordan Thompson

Emory NYU Case Western Washington (MO)

Assists

2 3 4 5

Avg/G 5.8 5.7 4.8 3.8 3.7

Rebounding Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Player Misha Jackson Riley Wurtz Emily Peel Melissa Gilkey Liza Otto

Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Player Emily Peel Brooke Orcutt Melissa Gilkey Berit Eppard Amy Woods

Rank 1 2 3 4 5

Player Alyssa Johanson Evy Iacono Caitlin Moore Emily Peel Melissa Peng

School Avg/G Emory 9.6 NYU 8.9 Carnegie 8.7 Washington (MO) 8.1 Carnegie 7.9

Field Goal PCT School Carnegie Case Western Washington (MO) Case Western Rochester

Pct .576 .531 .525 .516 .514

Free Throw PCT School Washington (MO) Case Western Chicago Carnegie NYU

Pct .914 .836 .811 .775 .771

SPORTS

IN QUOTES

“Is it true that both of you liked Jim better than John?” —Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, alias “John from Baltimore,” prank-calling his parents in a HarBowl media conference call on Thursday.

Back on track? Chicago captures three straight, moves to 2–3 in UAA Women’s Basketball Mary MacLeod Sports Staff Chicago played three exceptional games against Brandeis, NYU and Marian this week, returning them to an even 2–3 in the UAA. Last Friday, the Maroons captured their first home victory of the season against Brandeis, 73–61. Chicago started strong, jumping out to a quick lead before the Judges responded, ending the first half only down by one point. But Brandeis could not contain the sharpshooting South Siders after the break; they allowed the Maroons to go on an 18–4 run to put the game out of reach. The contributions of first-year guard Paige Womack and secondyear guard Claire Devaney were particularly crucial in the win, as they finished with 16 and 14 points, respectively. The team carried their momentum into their game against NYU on Sunday and captured a 72–68 win against the Violets. Chicago had a solid lead for most of the game, but had to withstand a late run by NYU to secure the win. Once again, the team capitalized on a strong performance from Womack, who finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. “We focused on a couple of things going into this weekend—defensive rebounding from all positions, pushing the ball up the floor to speed up the pace of the game, offensive rebounding to create second chance looks, and taking care of the ball in the half-court”, Womack said. “Personally, the coaches have pushed me to be a bigger offensive threat when I have the ball, as well as to make rebounding a bigger part of my game. I went into both games focused on these things.” The Maroons showcased their improvements from practice in their 77–62 Tuesday win over Marian, which is not part of the UAA. The South Siders put on a clinic on

the boards, outrebounding their competition, 41–19. As a team, they shot 66.7 percent from behind the arc and 53.8 percent from the field. Third-year guard Julie Muguira played particularly well, as she finished with 21 points and eight rebounds and hit on all five of her attempts from three-point range. “I think the two biggest things that we’ll take away from this past weekend is the difference that rebounding makes when we focus on it and also keeping the tempo of the game fast,” stated Womack, in response to her team’s strong performance in these games. “We’ve built some momentum doing these things, and hope to carry it into the games this weekend.” The next test for the squad comes tonight at Case Western. The Spartans currently hold a UAA record of 2–3, and are coming off a 75–55 loss to Rochester. On Sunday, the Maroons will continue their road trip, facing Carnegie Mellon. The Tartans are also 2–3 in conference play and lost their last game to Emory 64–66. “For Case we’re focusing on the ways in which both our team and individual defense can force their players into taking tough shots they’re not comfortable taking,” third-year guard Kate Casaday said. “Against Carnegie we’ve been working on creating and executing high-percentage shots against a zone. Defense and rebounding are always key, in any game, and we stress excellence in both areas throughout the season.” Overall, Casaday is optimistic about Chicago’s chances this week. “Rebounding and team defense have been improving all year and we continue to pursue dominance in both, game by game. Our team continuity and chemistry has only grown since the season began, and the appropriate adjustments were made to lock down on other teams and win games.”

First-year Paige Womack sets up for a free throw in a home game against Brandeis University last Friday. IVY ZHANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Squad takes third place—and snags three individual titles—at Elmhurst Invite Wrestling Sam Zacher Sports Staff Continuing their solid performance this season, the Maroons (4 –3) claimed three weight class winners and seized third place at the Elmhurst Invitational on Saturday. Fourth-year and #1 seed Joeie Ruettiger (149 pounds) handily won all three of his matches, capturing the title in his division. Also snatching first-place victories in their respective divisions were second-year Ryley Hankenson (174) and second-year and #2 seed Mario Palmisano (197). In addition, second-year Will Long (133) placed second in his division. “We had strong performances from our four finalists,” head coach Leo Kocher said. Chicago, with 111 points, finished behind champion and host Elmhurst College (127 points) and second-place Alma College (126.5). However, Kocher believes that the Maroons could’ve finished better than third overall. “We also had some other [wrestlers] fall short. They did not fall short by much, but it was the difference in us not winning the tournament,” Kocher said. “In a tournament like this you really want placers in the top three in every

Fourth-year Joeie Ruettiger grapples with an opponent from North Central College (Ill.) in a November 14 home matchup. IVY ZHANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

weight class. We achieved that in [only] seven of ten [classes]. We still have not put [forth] our best effort on the mat and we need to going forward.” Palmisano agrees. “I think that our team this year has a staggering amount of poten-

tial,” he said. “We definitely had many individuals capable of taking first last weekend, but sometimes things just don’t go your way.” In addition to the three first-place and one second-place finishes, firstyear Steven Franke (174), third-year Sam Pennisi (184), and third-year

Jeff Tyburski (285) all captured third place in their respective divisions. Palmisano has defeated his opponent in each of his last seven matches. “There is no secret,” Palmisano said. “A sound mental attitude, per-

severance, tenacity, dedication, and passion are the only things necessary. Passion is especially important. Having fun on the mat and a love for the sport is just as important as training and practice.” The Maroons have a two-week break between this past weekend’s meet and the Wheaton Invitational February 1–2, and Coach Kocher has high expectations for his team. “We need to pick it up in preparing for our remaining competitions,” Kocher said. “We have a major tournament challenge coming up next with the Wheaton Invitational, one of the toughest Division III tournaments in the nation, as well as our UAA championship February 16. We need every team member working hard the last six weeks of this regular season to get there in peak form.” Palmisano is a little more optimistic about the Maroons’ chances down the stretch. “I am confident that those who didn’t do as well as they had hoped will step up their training to build up momentum for the Wheaton Tournament in two weeks’ time,” he said. Chicago travels to Wheaton for the February 1–2 tournament, hitting the mats next Friday and Saturday.