FRIDAY • APRIL 12, 2013
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 36 • VOLUME 124
Students push for University no-loan policy Sarah Morrell News Contributor Student leaders of the Southside Solidarity Network (SSN) are lobbying administrators and rallying student support to enact a no-loan financial aid policy at the University by the 2014–2015 school year. The University’s Odyssey Scholarships replace loans with grants for families who make less than $75,000 a year. For the remainder of students receiving financial aid, a combination of parent contribution, student contribution, work-study funds, grants, and University-guaranteed loans cover their tuition costs. Other universities, like Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford, already have no-loan policies in place for all students. Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, institutions with endowments similar to that of the University’s $6.57 billion also have no-loan policies. “If the University is unable to offer competitive financial aid packages to incoming students, the University may start losing
students whose college choice must take financing into account,” second-year SSN member Brianna Tong said. Third-year Aija Nemer-Aanerud, the former coordinator of SSN, pointed out the dual pitfalls of borrowing loans to pay for college. “Students are taking on mountains of debt with the expectation that [attending college] is their best shot at finding a good job when they graduate,” she said in an e-mail. “Then there are still no jobs in sight.” SSN has met with several University administrators in the past. On April 17, they have a meeting with Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid James Nondorf and Executive Director for College Aid Amanda Fijal, according to Nemer-Aanerud. “We have a few goals for these meetings,” she said. “One, and probably the biggest, is to make it clear to anyone who’s listening that students won’t take a backseat any longer and watch as decisions are made for us. Rather, we want to be involved in shaping the choices that affect us, LOAN continued on page 3
Third-year Newell awarded Truman Scholarship Hamid Bendaas News Staff
Gabrielle Newell is a recipient of the 2013 Truman Scholarship. She is one of two recipients of the scholarship from the District of Columbia area. SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Third-year Gabrielle Newell is one of 62 college third-years from across the country to be awarded the 2013 Harry S. Truman Scholarship, considered the most prestigious scholarship for undergraduates seeking advanced degrees and careers in public service. Newell, a native of Washington, DC, is an international studies major seeking a minor in human rights. On campus, she is vice president of the Organization for Black Students and has been heavily involved with Students for Health Equity and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. She helped found the UChicago chapter of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) and is a founder of the Multiracial Student Affinity Group.
Home is where the art is Fourth-year Jasmine Neal looks over her various projects in her studio at the DoVA art showcase in the Logan Center on Tuesday night. See story in Arts on page seven. PETER TANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Reg lightens its energy load Raghav Verma News Staff In an effort to increase energy efficiency across campus, the Office of Sustainability and Facilities Services will be installing a new, greener lighting system in the book stacks of the Regenstein Library. The University expects the new system to cut energy usage by approximately 783,000 kilowatt-hours, reducing costs by approximately $66,000. The project, which started on March 25 and will run through May, aims not only to reduce the energy used by the building, but also to make the book stacks easier to navigate. Automated motion sensors, which are currently being installed, will automatically activate the lights for the individual aisles of the second through the fifth floors of the book stacks. Instead of the existing system of manual light switches that turn off automatically after 15 minutes, the new lights will turn off after five min-
utes without motion activity. A study of the length of time people spend in the book stacks conducted by Reg staff during winter quarter of last year determined the time interval. The lighting system on the B-level will be incorporated with the existing floor sensors, which currently control the movement of the shelves to activate and deactivate lighting. The initiative is part of a broader campus-wide energy efficiency program launched in 2009 by a donation from Jim Crown, member of the Board of Trustees, and Paula Crown, member of the University Women’s Board. “We initiated a campus-wide energy audit to identify achievable energy conservation measures within our buildings,” Ilsa Flanagan, director for the Office of Sustainability, said in an e-mail. After completing the energy audits, the Office of Sustainability ranked each facility by energy intensity—or the amount of energy consumption
in dollars—and selected the buildings with the highest ranking. “The lighting upgrades in Regenstein Library is one of over 30 different energy efficiency projects we have or are conducting on campus—in our labs, offices, libraries, and gyms,” Flanagan stated. These projects, according to the Sustainability Web site, include insulating buildings to reduce heat flow out of the building, and retrofitting or refurbishing buildings with energy efficient equipment. As of now, the installation will take place from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays in selected aisles. Consequently, patrons will only be permitted to access items from the affected aisles after 3 p.m. Installation of the sensor lights from the second to the fifth floors is expected to take one day per aisle, while integrating the lighting system of each aisle with the current shelving system on the B-level is expected to take two to three days per bay to complete.
INSIDE: SG 2013 ELECTIONS Tuesday marked the beginning of the SG spring elections as well as what is looking to be a competitive year for the SG executive slates. Candidates from the four slates are in the process of perfecting their official platforms, which will be released on Tuesday. Among those running are parties unaffiliated with SG, including the activist-filled Impact and Delta Upsilon’s twodecade-old Moose Party. SG veterans are well represented though with the UChicaGOLD and Ignite parties. See pages 2 and 3 for the CHICAGO MAROON’S profile of this year’s candidates for the executive slate. Look to future issues for further coverage until voting begins on April 23.
TRUMAN continued on page 3
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Bachelorette degree » Page 5
Logan, meet DoVA » Page 7
SASA defends spring show » Page 6
In seeking a city, AIC’s latest misses connection » Page 7
After shutting out Stars, Maroons to fight Scots, Knights » Back Page Wash U, round two: South Siders and Bears at it again » Back Page
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 12, 2013
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STUDENT GOVERNMENT The CHICAGO MAROON 2013 Election Guide: Executive Slate
Clockwise from top left: Impact (COURTESY OF STAZI TANGHERLINI), Ignite (COURTESY OF AUMER SHUGOURY), UChicaGOLD (COURTESY OF CARRIE CHUI), Moose Party (JAIMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON)
IMPACT With an extensive background in campus and community activism, Impact aims to give a voice to student issues and spearhead the establishment of what it envisions as a more politically involved and effective Student Government (SG). Third-year Michael McCown, the slate’s presidential candidate, hopes SG can more accurately embody the concerns of the student body. “I don’t see the only purpose of Student Government as being annual allocations and interacting with a small group of highly motivated RSO leaders who want money for their projects,” McCown said. “It’s more conservative than students are. It would be good to have a progressive voice interacting with the high levels of administration.”
For Impact, that progressive voice would promote serious administrative attention to student issues like diversity measures, mental health, and sexual health, according to first-year Jane Huber, who is running for vice president of student affairs. “There isn’t really much of an emphasis on understanding the issues of sexual health on campus and offering support to survivors of sexual assault. We want to push the university to include those services,” she said. She also spoke on emphasizing a “push for a stronger university reaction to things like racism and homophobia.” Second-year Sofia Flores, the slate’s candidate for vice president of administration, highlighted their long-term goal of addressing structural limitations on
SG effectiveness, in particular the need for an SG voting member on the Board of Trustees. “UChicago is all about discourse and students contributing towards a larger discourse... I feel like the biggest issue is that students don’t really have a role in the decision-making processes that occur on campus,” Flores said. While none of the members of the slate have ever held any formal SG positions, all three have substantial experience working for political and issue-based campaigns. On campus, Flores is a leading member of the Southside Solidarity Network; Huber has been involved with the UChicago Climate Action Network, the University of Chicago Coalition for Immigrant Rights, and the University Community Service
Center’s Seeds of Justice program; and McCown is a founding member of Students for Health Equity. “That’s given me an immense amount of insight into the workings of administration, of how decisions are made, and of how the bureaucracy works,” McCown said of his involvement with SHE, especially last quarter’s controversies surrounding the trauma center campaign. Overall, McCown said, Impact is focused on a “broader goal of increasing the level of involvement Student Government has in actual politics. There are a lot of fairly important things centered around this $6 billion institution that are just not taken up.”
Council on University Programming, Doc Films, Fire Escape Films, Major Activities Board, University Theater, and WHPK—advertise to both students in the College and graduate students if they wish to receive funding for events. Al-Jarani felt that previously there was not enough advertising geared toward graduate students. “If you have these events which are meant for all students, you need to advertise these events to all groups including graduate students,” he said. The three candidates—Al-Jarani, secondyear Ezgi Cubukcu, the slate’s vice president of administration candidate, and physical sciences Ph.D. candidate Anthony Ramirez, who is running for vice president of student affairs—each bring their own set of skills. The vice president of administration oversees
the funding bodies of SG, including Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC) and the Uncommon Fund. Cubukcu was both a CC representative and a member of SGFC this year. “I want people to know that people on the committee and different funding bodies are open to look at and talk to different RSOs about budgets so they’re more informed…. I want to open up a dialogue based on that,” Cubukcu said. In line with the slate’s goal to improve communication between SG and students, Cubukcu co-led an initiative with Douglas Everson, current vice president of administration, to increase the social media presence of SG, which included upping its Twitter and Facebook presence, and adding a blog post section on the new SG Web site, which representatives of CC and Graduate
Council now use to publish updates on current SG programming and initiatives. Al-Jarani believes that the slate’s diverse interests and backgrounds give it an edge over the other slates. As a graduate student, Ramirez would be able to represent a part of campus whose concerns are not always considered in SG deliberations, Al-Jarani said. But ultimately, the slate just wants to be able to accurately represent the issues of the entire student body. “It’s about engaging students with their Student Government and their representatives, and also engaging student government with them,” AlJarani said. “A lot of good can come of that.”
—Stephanie Xiao
IGNITE Hoping to increase communication between SG and the student body, and armed with experiences in both SG and a variety of RSOs, the Ignite slate is getting fired up for this year’s election. Second-year Yusef Al-Jarani, Ignite’s presidential candidate and the current vice president of student affairs, hopes to increase dialogue between students and SG in order to start having a “better understanding of our constituent needs.” Al-Jarani said that, during his time in SG as a first-year College Council (CC) representative and now as a member of this year’s slate, he’s gained an understanding of the need for effective communication between students and SG members. As vice president of student affairs, Al-Jarani required that the Program Coordinating Council (PCC)—made up of representatives from the
—Madhu Srikantha
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 12, 2013
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UCHICAGOLD Two students in the College and an M.B.A. student make up this year’s UChicaGOLD slate. All three of the candidates have experience in Student Government (SG), and they hope to increase its presence and effectiveness on campus. “Student governments are much bigger at other schools, and we feel it’s important to increase the positions’ reach, especially to students living off campus who seem separated from the campus,” said third-year Steph Mui, who is running for president. To expand representation beyond the College Council (CC), which is made up of four
students from each class, the UChicaGOLD slate wants to elect a student from each house and RSO. Mui, a current CC member, said she has spoken to officials in the Office of Undergraduate Housing and Inter-House Council and expects to set up elections in the fall. Second-year Raymond Dong, the current SG chief of staff and the slate’s candidate for vice president of student affairs, emphasized listening to the student body and correctly responding to relevant issues, a sentiment echoed by Mui. “Right now, the decisions and ideas that the current slate make are based mostly on the three
of them, but it should represent the students themselves,” Mui said. Mui stressed the need to have a better and more accurate representation of University students, both undergraduate and graduate alike. UChicaGOLD plans to engage with the graduate student base through first-year M.B.A. student Josh Johnston (A.B. ’04), the slate’s candidate for vice president of administration. Increasing school spirit is a primary concern for the three candidates, who are all widely involved on campus and have extensive leadership experience. “We have a genuine passion for the school.
SG is Ray’s most involved activity on campus, and I love the University more than anyone,” said Mui, who is also the president of Kappa Alpha Theta. By improving communication and prioritizing, they hope to effectively better student life, in transportation as well as in athletic and cultural events. One way they plan to do this is by hosting an intercollegiate broomball tournament. “We want to go above and beyond with the SG, setting a high bound for the future and making it a stronger institution,” Mui said.
that although the application already has several supplemental essays, they would add one more—the Harlem Shake supplement. “We’re doing this to pull the most creative minds. We’re not interested about Plato or finding x necessarily,” Matam said. In order to combat the steady rise of applications to the University and deter prospective students, the Moose Party plans to introduce a South Side survival test to replace the now non-existent swim test. “Who wants to have an eight percent acceptance rate? That’s kind of low,” Redzepovic said. Other notable facets of the platform include instituting a non-disclosure policy
for grades, changing the IM sports program so that every sport is played shirts versus skins, holding Bro-Week in lieu of O-Week, transforming Bartlett into a nightclub on Saturday nights, and making the Midway into a nature preserve for moose. Even though the three candidates do not have any official SG experience, they believe they are qualified for office. “We’re pretty much the same as everyone else, except we’ll do a better job,” Redzepovic said. “The only thing that distinguishes us is that we are way more ambitious and realistic.”
—Thomas Choi
MOOSE PARTY Promising a Bartlett nightclub, a skyrocketing acceptance rate, and more interactive application supplements, the Moose Party hopes this year will be a turning point from its 19-year losing streak. “We are running with a satirical but serious platform, and demand to be taken seriously in this election,” said first-year Jacob Silverman, the candidate for vice president of administration. For the past few years, Delta Upsilon’s (DU) Moose Party has revolved around a platform intended to make the University a “more bro place.” A competitive match of rock-paper-scissors among the brothers of DU determined
that in addition to Silverman, second-year Daniel Matam and first-year Sabahudin Redzepovic would run for president and vice president of student affairs, respectively. They cited several reasons for running for office, including their inability to gain higher positions within DU and perks like the free food at SG meetings, the titles, and the power to make changes. This year, the Moose Party is proposing sweeping changes to the admissions process, namely the introduction of the “No 1 Left Behind Program,” which would ensure that every applicant to the University of Chicago is accepted. The brothers also said
—Sarah Miller
SSN and Chicago college groups to host a community meeting Saturday on student debt LOAN continued from front
such as how our universities handle their budgets.” SSN, along with similar groups from the University of Illinois at Chicago, North Park University, Loyola University, and DePaul University, is one of several
groups hosting a community meeting entitled “Our Future, Our Voice: Fighting Back Against Student Debt” at the Chicago Temple, located in the Loop, on Saturday at 2 p.m. Students and community members will likely be in attendance, as well as several
University administrators who will be publicly announcing their support for the platform, Tong said. Ultimately, Tong hopes the campaign will expand to the national level. “The government does not care right now about keeping college affordable,”
she said. “Such a campaign will require some structural and fundamental changes to how education works in this country.” “We’ve been sold a faulty bill of goods, and it’s time we take control of our futures and fight for a system that will work for us.”
Newell: “The kind of leader I want to be...is someone who facilitates opportunities for other people to lead” TRUMAN continued from front
Newell believes her influential involvement on campus developed from her initial desire to find a community. “It’s a new city, it’s a new school, it can be a scary thing. Tapping into a community, contributing to it—that’s what I was looking for,” she said. Newell has been particularly active in the campaign to address sex trafficking in Chicago. She initially became exposed to issues of sexual exploitation when the University Community Service Center partnered her with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Through her work there, she was shocked to learn about the prevalence of sexual assault exploitation of women in Chicago.
NEWS IN BRIEF Reading rooms ready for revamping The University will be working with Chicago-based architecture and design firm Studio Gang Architects to redesign and remodel the Arley D. Cathey Learning Center. Interviews with students, faculty, and staff helped shape the new design, which will consist of pod-like spaces for group study and tutoring. Other additions included in the redesign are a new student café, computer lab, and digital media studio, according to the firm’s Web site. The project is currently in the design phase and is intended to have a LEED sil-
“That’s a scary reality for me. I think that’s an example of where our systems are supposed to support people and when they’ve failed,” she said. Her involvement with sex trafficking victims inspired her policy proposal, a key portion of the Truman Scholarship application. In her proposal, Newell recommended that the model used by organizations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for settling internally displaced persons be adapted for victims of sex trafficking in the United States. Over the course of the application process, Newell felt herself needing to reevaluate her conceptions of leadership and her
own accomplishments. “The kind of leader I want to be…is someone who facilitates opportunities for other people to lead, someone who brings communities together in a way that both celebrates and recognizes the strength in each individual community and the real change that can come about from them collaborating.” The Truman Scholarship will grant Newell and her fellow scholars $30,000 to fund the remainder of their undergraduate study and their pursuit of graduate or professional degrees, which is intended for the scholars to utilize toward careers in public service. Though Newell is still considering what she wants to do after graduation, her con-
crete goal for her last year on campus is “trying lots of new things.” “I came onto campus knowing I wanted to be an active part of certain communities and I’ve done that…. Now I’m ready to go do lots of random, bizarre things. I want to try circus club. I took a swimming class because I didn’t know how to swim. And I’m learning how to ride a bike.” Newell hopes that after she leaves, others can continue to build the same communities she helped create and solidify. “I’ve built a strong, supportive, sort of inspiring support system for myself and hopefully helped provide that for other people,” she said. “But I don’t want what I’ve done to be attributed to an individual.”
ver rating, the third-highest rating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s certification of a building’s sustainability. Studio Gang Architects Marketing Director Samantha Snodgrass declined to comment on the project due to the confidential nature of the planning stages. University spokesperson Jeremy Manier and Facilities Services project manager David Culcasi also could not be reached for comment. —Sarah Miller
the best Web sites and online media of the previous year. IT Services redesigned the Web site last year. Competing against UChicago’s Web site are the Web sites of the University of Maryland–College Park, Goucher College, Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, and The New School. According to the Webby Awards’ Web site, the International Academy of the Digital Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the awards, selects five nominees for each category. While Academy members will choose the winners of the awards, the public can cast online ballots for the winners of the Webby People’s Voice Award until April 25. Winners for the 17th Annual Webby Awards will be announced in early May and will be honored at a gala held on May 22 in New York City. —Marina Fang
CORRECTIONS
87 Nobels, 49 Rhodes Scholars, and a Webby? The University’s redesigned Web site received a Webby nomination for best Web site in the school/university category. The nominations, announced Tuesday, honor
» The April 5 article “CS Department to Offer Joint Degrees” incorrectly stated the types of degrees that will be offered by the computer science department. They will offer B.A./M.S. and B.S./ M.S. degrees. » The April 5 article “Last Page for Columbia Press, UChicago May Get Book Contracts” mispelled the last name of Amos Gewirtz. » The April 9 article “South Loop Shuttle May Run Earlier, Farther” misstated the frequency of the almost-hourly shuttle.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 12, 2013
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Weekly Crime Report By Marina Fang
2012/2013 CONCERT SEASON
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. Here are this week’s notables: » April 6, Mandel Hall—Between 5:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., an unknown person took a wallet from an unattended bag left under a table behind the stage. » April 8, 5220 South Drexel Avenue, —Between 8 p.m. on April 5 and 7:45 a.m. on April 8, an unknown person or persons took two bicycles secured to a bike rack at a private apartment. The CPD is investigating the case. » April 8, South Kenwood Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, 9:15 a.m.—A person reported suspicious activity by an unknown individual loitering in the middle of the street.
0
0
Robbery
0
0
Attempted robbery
8
0
Battery
5
0
Burglary
Type of Crime
1
0
Criminal trespass to vehicle
5
0
Damage to property
121
8
Other report
2
0
Simple assault
119
5
Theft
3
0
Trespass to property
18
0
Arrest
84
11
Traffic Violation
Keller Quartet FRIDAY / APRIL 12 / 7:30 PM 6:30 PM pre-concert lecture with Philip Bohlman
S. Hyde Park
Blackstone
University
53rd
55th
S. Lake Shore
Ellis
From Budapest to Chicago
51st
60th
62nd
Cornell
59th
Stony Island
57th Cottage Grove
Source: UCPD Incident Reports
Since April 4
47th
» April 8, 5700 South Drexel Avenue, 9:25 a.m.—A pedestrian was struck by a motor vehicle and then transported to the hospital by ambulance. The case is undergoing CPD investigation. » April 10, 5100 South Lake Park Avenue, 10 pm.—A victim reported that two female and three male juveniles forcibly took her iPad while she waited at a bus stop off-campus. The case has been turned over to the CPD for investigation.
Since Jan. 1
*Locations of reports approximate
Tonight only, take a lyrical journey with Europe’s acclaimed Keller Quartet. Starting with Brahms’ String Quartet in A minor, traveling forward to Schnittke’s String Quartet No. 3 and returning to the Romantic era with Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, the Quartet will captivate you with their glowing interpretations. “The players [draw you] in deeper with their own devotion and attention. In the Keller Quartet’s playing, everything, even a whisper, is important.” (San Francisco Classical Voice) Mandel Hall 1131 East 57th Street chicagopresents.uchicago.edu
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VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed APRIL 12, 2013
The lights are on but nobody’s home With sustainability initiatives taking shape across campus, it’s time for student groups to speak up The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 REBECCA GUTERMAN Editor-in-Chief SAM LEVINE Editor-in-Chief EMILY WANG Managing 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 EMMA THURBER STONE Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Arts Editor ALICE BUCKNELL Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Sports Editor HYEONG-SUN CHO Head Designer SONIA DHAWAN 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 THOMAS CHOI Assoc. News Editor ALEX HAYS Assoc. News Editor ANKIT JAIN Assoc. News Editor HARINI JAGANATHAN Assoc. News Editor STEPHANIE XIAO Assoc. News Editor KRISTIN LIN Assoc. Viewpoints Editor WILL DART Assoc. Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Assoc. Arts Editor
As the Maroon reported today, work began on March 25 to replace light switches in the Regenstein Library book stacks with automatic occupancy sensors that will turn on overhead lights locally as long as someone is present. The Office of Sustainability and the Capital Project Delivery of Facilities Services have undertaken the project as a part of a larger initiative to improve energ y efficiency, and it is one of over 30 such projects currently in progress across campus. Past projects of a similar scale have included retroactive weatherization and lighting upgrades in some of the older buildings on campus, such as the Social Sciences Research Building and Kent Chemical Laboratory. These renovations were also accompanied by poster campaigns that encouraged users of each building to adjust their energ y-use habits in accordance with these renovations. Such efforts are notably missing from the Regenstein upgrades, whose core idea seems to be to remove the human element from conservation efforts entirely. The responsibility should lie with environmentalist student groups to devise publicity and awareness
campaigns that coordinate with visible sustainability renovations on campus, so as to reinforce the important principles that underlie them. The University should undoubtedly be commended for the waste reduction that will result from recent major sustainability projects. The light upgrades in the Regenstein, for instance, are set to reduce the University’s energ y consumption by 738,000 kWh per year, which will translate to $66,000 in annual savings. This project is a part of the Office of Sustainability’s long-term, ongoing Strategic Sustainability Plan, which “outlines the steps necessary to develop the University’s sustainability infrastructure and integrates sustainability metrics with broader University outcomes.” The plan is especially welcome following reports from last year that identified UChicago as one of the most prolific producers of greenhouse gases in all of Chicago. In addition to retrofitting buildings with sustainable technolog y, the plan requires all new buildings whose construction costs over $5 million to be LEED certified. However, the fact remains that
a long-term sustainability movement at our university—indeed, at any university—will never truly be instituted until it comes to life among students. Increasingly commonplace, smarter building and energ y consumption technologies will soon be the minimum expected of large institutions such as UChicago. What will be most valuable moving forward is a culture of conservation—something that cannot be purchased and installed, strictly speaking—and that can only emerge from a campus that cares. Ongoing problems that stem directly from student habits, such as the massive food waste in campus dining commons that the Maroon reported last spring, are clear indicators that students do not feel compelled to behave as accountably as they ought to with regard to environmental issues. And that’s a problem that must be corrected from the ground up, rather than from the top down. While the Office of Sustainability does invite some students to serve on the Sustainability Council or as SAGE ambassadors, there remains a certain distance between larger institutional efforts at improving
sustainability and student groups dedicated to fostering a culture of environmental responsibility. Just last month, the leader of the UChicago Climate Action Network, one of the few environmentalist student groups on campus, told Grey City, “The University doesn’t feel comfortable reaching out to us.” This is unfortunate, but student groups should not be deterred: Those that pursue and support sustainability initiatives on campus and elsewhere should take it upon themselves to use the University’s larger plans—plans whose execution and products are highly visible to other students— as an excuse to promote discussion of the environment and conservation tactics among the student body. The idea that a truly sustainable campus is something that can be achieved without students is a patently absurd one. More absurd, however, is the idea that environmentalist student groups, with their collective influence and resources, have not yet created and seized opportunities to work toward it.
The Editorial Board consists of the Editors-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.
SARAH LANGS Assoc. Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS Assoc. Sports Editor JULIA REINITZ Assoc. Photo Editor FRANK YAN Assoc. Photo Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager
Bachelorette degree The problem with Princetonian letter-writer Susan Patton’s marriage advice is that its audience doesn’t exist
TAMER BARSBAY Undergraduate Business Executive QUERIDA Y. QIU External Director of Marketing IVY ZHANG Internal Director of Marketing VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator ANDREW GREEN Designer SNEHA KASUGANTI Designer ALEXANDRIA PABICH Designer JONAH RABB Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Designer KELSIE ANDERSON Copy Editor 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
By Emma Thurber Stone Viewpoints Editor First of all, I would like to congratulate Susan Patton, as she has most certainly already congratulated herself, on daring to “go there.” Patton, a Princeton alumna, wrote a now-notorious March 29 letter to the Daily
Princetonian advising female Princeton students thus: “Here’s what nobody is telling you: Find a husband on campus before you graduate.” “Yes,” she added. “I went there.” The backlash, as you might expect, was immediate and palpably acidic. A Gawker article referred to Patton’s letter, which also included a wink and a nudge toward her unmarried Princetonenrolled son, as a “lecture on the importance of eugenics in romance.” Other parts of the Internet have not been so kind. To the likely surprise of fellow
feminists, I don’t take issue with Patton’s advice itself. I have to give her credit: She has, if smugly, put her finger on a taboo. If it is no longer “heresy” among educated women to make public one’s desire for marriage and motherhood—as she writes that it was in her time—it remains a cardinal sin at least. The difference is that nowadays you won’t get tied to a stake simply for expressing that you’d “really like to have kids.” Motherhood isn’t the root of the stigma—no sir, not in this age of leaning in and opting out and putting your right
foot in and shaking it all about. Rather, the supposed enemy of modern feminism is housewifery, that well-known brainwasher of women that condemns them to a life of dusting mantles and baking cobblers instead of pursuing their true passion for molecular engineering. I hope the sarcasm was clear, because I agree with the many who have argued that it’s problematic to shame women who have failed, for whatever reason, to become Sheryl Sandberg. Just because a woman doesn’t end up smiling MARRIAGE continued on page 6
CECILIA JIANG Copy Editor
CARYSSA LIM Copy Editor
Grief in the time of Facebook
JONAH RABB Copy Editor
Social networking provides opportunities for both insensitive and uplifting reactions to tragedy
MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor CHELSEA LEU Copy Editor KATIE LEU Copy Editor
LINDSEY SIMON Copy Editor ESTHER YU Copy Editor The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500. The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 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 Maya Fraser Viewpoints Columnist My grandfather died about a month ago. It was expected: Having been in a state of general decline for years, he went into the hospital with pneumonia, they moved him to hospice care, and he died a couple of days later. Though it was sad, he had a good death at the age of 93, surrounded by children and grandchildren.
Since I’m a sociology major, there is a small part of my brain that always wants to analyze my current social situation. That part of me, strangely distant and analytical, asked, “How are my relatives expressing their grief? How do I express my grief and to whom do I do it?” Because I was physically separated from the rest of my family, one of the most striking things that I noticed was the pervasive use of Facebook as a vehicle to remember, mourn, and distribute information. Looking back on the deaths of people my own age, I found that its presence was even stronger. People of our generation talk about everything on Facebook, so there is no reason for death to be any different.
As a place of collective grief, Facebook has a lot to offer, yet it is highly problematic. While the social network convenes a larger community after a death than was previously possible, it also represents a loss of information control for the deceased’s family. Once a few people know about what has happened, the information quickly spreads. Friends, non-nuclear family, and acquaintances of the deceased are more likely to find out about the death from their newsfeed than through a phone call or other personal communication. I first got the inkling that something was wrong with my grandfather when one of my relatives posted a video dedicated to him. I felt a vague sense of un-
ease. Surely someone would have told me if something were wrong? He must be fine. A couple of hours later my mother e–mailed to tell me that my grandfather had been placed in hospice care. At around the same time that my grandfather died, one of my friends’ friends from back home died. He found out about her death when he saw someone post an RIP message on her Facebook wall. Left with little information, he had to piece together what had happened and call close friends so that they did not find out in the same terrible way. He was clearly distressed by the experience. I cannot say whether hearing the news from someone personally makes GRIEF continued on page 6
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 12, 2013
SASA defends spring show Board members of the South Asian Students Association respond to recent criticism of its cultural program’s content and message Trisha Macrae, Amita Prabhu, Anum Qadir, and Ayushi Shrivastava Viewpoints Contributors This past Saturday, the SASA show went pretty much as expected. People came, ate dinner, and watched a few dances and vocal performances. There was a slight hiccup when we found out about the loss of our show videos, but we got around that. Most of the attendees seemed to enjoy themselves, and the participants were happy with their performances. Sure, this is the general outline of recent SASA shows (and most cultural shows, for that matter). But that doesn’t mean the show itself is not significant or that this general formula applies to all of SASA’s activities. On the eve of the show, the Maroon published an op-ed that pointed out our inability to accurately represent traditional South Asian culture, both in our show and in other events. While we see the merits of the author’s argument, we disagree with his basic premise. SASA is, first and foremost, a student organization. We represent students—we are students—and our events are crafted to provide students with a wide exposure to South Asian culture. That said, we don’t claim to represent all South Asian cultures at all times, especially within the time constraints of a two-hour show. Rather, we aim to represent the cultures of the students with whom we interact, whether they come from South
Asia, the South Asian diaspora, or elsewhere. The SASA board tries to avoid imposing any definition of culture onto the organization. We assume primary responsibility for organizing events, but we draw inspiration for them from the SASA community: Members approach us with ideas for events to host and topics to discuss. For example, SASA leadership does not determine the acts in the show; members submit proposals, and we simply screen these proposals to avoid redundancy and ensure the quality of the production. Our foremost aim, especially in recent years, is to present the most diverse array of artistic performances we can. We hope this was apparent in this year’s show, which featured new acts such as belly dancing, kathak, and a vocal ensemble. We made a special effort to recognize multiple South Asian countries by playing their respective national anthems at the beginning of the show. Even our performers—students in the College, ethnomusicology graduate students, medical students, and even alumni—came to us from different parts of the university community. Moreover, the last two SASA show teams have strived to modernize the SASA show, intertwining traditional South Asian elements with current campus culture. This year’s show, The All-Nighter, placed the quintessential UChicago experience of pulling an all-nighter within the context of producing and performing a cultural show. We hope to continue moving forward in this
Alienating women for their choices a step backward MARRIAGE continued from page 5 glassy-eyed from the cover of her New York Times bestselling book doesn’t mean that she is not “doing” women’s rights correctly. There is no reason that the women’s rights movement must begin with identifying and tearing down the “wrong” sort of woman. Which is why Patton’s advice doesn’t really bother me: Getting married, or wanting to get married, or giving people casual, subjective advice on how you think they can optimize their chances of a successful marriage does not make you less of a feminist. (If you think I’m wrong, see me after this. We need to have a chat.)And if you’re still pissed off, do what I did. Reread Patton’s letter, but this time imagine that your kindly old grandmother is rambling it to you from a rocking chair over the rhythmic click of her knitting needles. It’s enlightening. That said, my goat was very much got by one aspect of Patton’s letter: the manner in which she addressed it. “Princeton women”—or, as Patton rather frighteningly put it, “the daughters I never had”— is an absurd category of people to give romantic counsel to. If “Princeton women” are as talented and insightful a bunch as Patton claims they are, they are certainly also intellectually and emotionally diverse. They are unlikely, for example, to be uniformly heterosexual. Those who are heterosexual are unlikely to be uniformly interested in marriage. Those who are interested in marriage are unlikely to be uniformly committed to having a husband who is their age or older. Et cetera; the subdivisions proliferate. In the end, Patton’s tinny advice will resonate in a very small number of similarly tuned ears. The problem is that she doesn’t seem to know that. What’s at work here? Why does Patton feel called upon to evangelize young women with the good word of the MRS degree and thereby inject some light into what would otherwise be a dark and torturous existence? It’s because she’s self-righteous, but it’s also because she’s on to something—the taboo I’m talking about. She
understands that there are young women who care—just as many young men do— about their personal and romantic futures, and who feel obligated to hide it. And she rightly observes that this is a shame. This is why many articles criticizing Patton miss the point. They dismiss her letter as laughable rather than wonder why Patton saw fit to write it. The fact is that buried in this letter is the well-known and immensely unfortunate truth that women feel alienated by feminism because there exist feminists who find it necessary to accuse them of lying to themselves. If you’re not convinced that this is a problem, bear in mind that even Beyoncé doesn’t want to be associated with feminists. And if that doesn’t scare you, then will you please also come kill all the spiders in my closet? Thanks. I’m joking ; I love spiders. But here’s the point: Yes, there is something unnerving about the idea that anyone who has paid and worked for an unbelievably expensive and high-quality education would forgo all its possible material benefits. But it’s pretty much none of your damn business, just as it is none of Patton’s damn business to coo over her imagined Princeton daughters—a group whose real-life counterpart encompasses many who don’t relate to the “truth” that Patton so generously reveals to them. It is important that I also mention, however, that there ought always to be room for critique. We should think about what marriage means to us, and why we may be doing it, and in what ways it might refract institutional inequalities. But we will never get there if we find it necessary to begin with demonizing or dismissing the life choices of those we should seek to include and understand. That’s what Patton did. And because she claimed to speak for everyone, she silenced even those she hoped to liberate. She went there. We can go further. Emma Thurber Stone is a second-year in the College.
way to continue to make both SASA and the show more relevant to students. Aside from sharing the performance traditions of South Asia, we believe that SASA should serve other purposes on campus. Not all South Asia–related events or topics fall onto our radar, but we make our best effort to promote those that do. For instance, we used publicity generated from our annual show to draw attention to the fact that South Asian donors are underrepresented in the national bone marrow registry; in partnership with Be the Match and Pritzker medical students, we encouraged community members to register as bone marrow donors. Additionally, guests of the SASA show had the opportunity to interact with and view objects in the Smart Museum’s Sahmat exhibit, a display of pieces that promote social and political activism in India. Although many audience members will likely remember the lively performances of UChicago Bhangra or Chicago Raas, we hope that our show also had a lasting impact offstage. Throughout the year, we aim to engage the community through partnerships with other RSOs, such as the Hindu Student Sangam and Muslim Students Association. These partnerships expose the campus community to more aspects of what can be called South Asian culture. We celebrate the festivals of Diwali and Holi in ways that allow community members to engage with these holidays beyond their religious dimension. In collaboration with the South Asian Law
Students Association, we cohosted a film screening and discussion concerning sexual violence and legal change in India. We’ve told you some things we’re proud of. But here is a question we struggle with: As a cultural RSO, how do we balance authenticity with accessibility? We don’t want to alienate anyone by presenting an intricate, nuanced view of South Asian culture that might seem intimidating or exclusive. At the same time, we don’t wish to stray so far from our South Asian roots that they are no longer recognizable. We admit that some of our activities can seem reductionist, but this is because we strive to include as much of the university community in our events as we can. This opens up a broader dialogue about the role that cultural RSOs play within our community. Again, as the SASA board, we do not presume to define any culture, be it that of South Asia, that of UChicago, or something in between. Although we don’t have answers to these questions, we do have the means to promote and host events in which our members express interest. We celebrate UChicago’s spirit of free and critical inquiry and always invite suggestions: Choreograph an act, propose a speaker, suggest an event! We welcome participation from all members of the university community. Trisha Macrae, Amita Prabhu, Anum Qadir, and Ayushi Shrivastava, are students in the College.
The rituals of Facebook grief are as poignant as any other GRIEF continued from page 5 grief easier to bear, but it cannot be better to be shocked, without information, and alone. I have a picture in my head of what finding out about death should look like—an image probably garnered from movies and books. In it, a parent or other relative comes to you and tearfully tells you the news. As you break into tears, he or she pulls you into a hug and says that the deceased “would have wanted you to keep going.” This image, though itself often far from reality (after all, my mother e–mailed me about my grandfather’s death) is probably what makes me averse to Facebook as a bearer of bad news. It feels inherently impersonal, a wide net cast over friends and friends of friends. Facebook also lacks a certain gravitas: How can the same medium that is good for sharing pictures of cats be good for mourning? It lacks the ritual and seriousness that I associate with death. But that doesn’t mean that there is no ritual to Facebook, or that Facebook does not fulfill an emotional need for the grief-stricken. One has only to examine the personal messages left on the walls of the dead to be reminded of roadside memorials, letters placed at graves, or any number of other mourning rituals. The act of leaving or reading such messages can be cathartic. When I talked to the same friend a couple of weeks later, he said Facebook had allowed people from across the country to come together and support each other with the knowledge that others are in the same boat. Without the Internet, many of
them wouldn’t have learned of the death for months. Clearly, Facebook can lead to insensitivity in tragic situations. But I also hope that it can facilitate greater communication. As someone who is usually far from home, watching my relatives post about their feelings is the closest I get to being there. And being there is something I don’t want to miss. Maya Fraser is a third-year in the College majoring in sociology.
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ARTS
Heartlandia APRIL 12, 2013
Logan, meet DoVA: Undergrads share work in open studio night Robert Sorrell Arts Contributor Since the opening of the new Logan Center, the Department of Visual Arts (DoVA) has undergone a lot of change. Not only has the move from the small Midway Studios to Logan forced the faculty and artists to lug their gear through the heavy doors, up some stairs, and around a few tight corners—the department has also found itself receiving a bit more attention, or at least bumping into a few more people in the hallway on the way to lunch. Even a few pages on their new Web site look a little unsure of what whirlwind happened, placidly stating, “This copy has yet to be written.” So it was with no presuppositions that I climbed the stairs to DoVA’s open studio night on Tuesday. The event allowed students and art lovers alike to explore the ins and outs of a few undergraduate studios and speak with the artists themselves. Located on the second floor of Logan, the small studios have over the year become workspaces (and homes) to the 12 fourth-year visual arts majors. Entering Logan, it seems a bit surreal to move from the sleek glass doors and beautiful lobby to a space where art is actually created, not just displayed. And while the studios undoubtedly had the standard Logan style—white walls meeting
cement floors—they also bore both the buzz of human activity and a half-finished feeling that other areas of the building lack. Passing through one studio doorway revealed a floor covered in various unidentifiable spills, upon which sat a five-gallon orange paint bucket filled with ice, a few bottles of wine, and cans of Rolling Rock. Art students, friends, and teachers milled through the small hallway connecting the studios, lounging on broken armchairs and chatting in various languages; this image completed the feeling of having stumbled into an out-of-theway gallery. In one of the first studios, I found myself immersed by the works of Zoe Petticord and Zsofi Valyi-Nagy. Valyi-Nagy and Petticord share studio space and an artistic interest in using found photos from sites like Tumblr in their projects. ValyiNagy incorporates photos and other media into works that straddle the line between photograph, collage, and painting. In a few pieces, her placement of temporary tattoos of gruesome wounds over pictures that people had uploaded to the Internet created a startling yet absorbing effect. Valyi-Nagy remarked with a bit of a laugh, “When I make art from my soul people say it looks like Tumblr, and when I make art from Tumblr people say it looks like me.” However, joking aside, ValyiNagy’s work deals with the problem
Fourth-year Chet Lubarsky (second from right) talks to third-year Nerjada Maksutaj (left), fourth-year Michael Harvey (second from left), and fourth-year Sean Clemmer (right) at the DoVA exhibit on Tuesday. PETER TANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON
of an image-centric culture and its effects on women. Her sometimes otherworldly creations address the problems of society’s powerful hold over our self-perceptions. Further down the hall I found Manuela Londono’s studio, a small space filled with a variety of works: a few hanging sculptures from an installation, drawings, and various works incorporating photographs.
On the topic of the move from Midway Studios, Londono noted that Midway’s intimate studios had “felt like a little home,” and that there are “a lot of distractions” in a place like Logan, which houses so many classes and departments. However, she thought the move was ultimately positive; it limited but also created means for new interactions and new creation across disciplines.
Exiting the cramped studio for a bit of air, the music and sounds of conversation faded quickly and left an odd stillness in the hallways—a bit like the sensation you get from plugging your ears at a loud concert. I would be lying to say that the change wasn’t a bit disorienting. The studio was a nucleus of light and life in the otherwise still building.
In seeking a city, AIC’s latest misses connection
Archibald J. Motley, Jr.’s Nightlife (1943), from the Art Institute’s latest exhibit, vibrantly hints at the new lifestyle available to Chicago immigrants in the first half of the 20th century. COURTESY OF CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM
Tianyuang Deng Arts Staff They Seek A City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, an exhibition of artworks by immigrant artists living in 1910– 1950 Chicago, is currently on display at the Art Institute. As the title suggests, this exhibition is about the immigrants’
journey to seek a city to settle in—or to a deeper extent, a sense of belonging and a sense of who they are. While the title evokes a sense of looking forward to a new life, a large number of works directly refer to past traumatic events that spurred the move to Chicago, such as the Holocaust. In They Seek A City, art itself has taken the backseat; priority is given
to social documentation. One might be more satisfied if one goes there looking for history instead of aesthetic delight or art for art’s sake. With artists of all different descents and backgrounds working in a wide variety of media, the exhibit is united by one theme: immigration to Chicago. Everyone has a heart-wrenching story,
and they all tell it earnestly. A woodcut titled “Wanderer” depicts a wanderer on the street of a worn-down West Side neighborhood, an image that “had great cultural relevance for Jewish immigrants.” A portfolio proclaimed, “In solemn thought we contemplate that wanderer—our father the Jew—meeting one encounter after another—wounded and bleeding—healing and always coming up with a stronger will to struggle.” Stories like this abound, especially ones that tell the traumatic past, or the political tumult, of the artists’ home countries. Strolling through the galleries is like strolling through the memories of a Jewish immigrant escaping the Holocaust, or an African American fleeing the Confederate South. What these artworks excel at is social documentation. They tell not just any story but stories that are true, and to observe these works (with profuse explanatory text on the side) is like watching one mini documentary after another. To project these stories through visual art has its advantage, for few other sorts of media have the immediacy of an image. A black and white woodcut of a train dispatching Jews to a concentration camp floods the viewer with all the information at once: a soldier shoving the ill-looking Jew into the already-crammed train, a winter land, dead trees, and a bleak sky. The artworks are not only earnest in the events they document, but also in the emotions they convey. This allows them their great social value—a collective documentation invested with the emotional intensity of personal struggle. However, the work within the show largely acts as a vehicle for these messages
and less as material art object. When I looked at the photos I took from the exhibition, I was surprised to find that most of them were of wall tags—I went to an art show and only took pictures of wall tags? In retrospect, I enjoyed the show because of the narrative it told, not because of the artwork itself. Some of them are visually affecting —I recommend Carl Hoeckner—but most recycled visual idioms that were already established, and therefore were less impactful.
THEY SEEK A CITY: CHICAGO AND THE ART OF MIGRATION, 1910-1950 Art Institute of Chicago Through June 2
On the other hand, while the stories are deeply moving, they place too much emphasis upon the past and are not fully anchored within the present. The title establishes an expectation of stories about current struggles with identity, with themes of assimilation and ostracism. Yet such narratives are severely overwhelmed by stories invoking the lives of the artists before their immigration, or political events in the artist’s homeland. By the end of the show, I was still left wondering: So what indeed is the story of an immigrant living (present tense) in 1910–1950 Chicago? As an international student in the States who will likely become an expat, I came into the exhibition wanting to relate to something. Although I do not share the turbulent and often tragic past of these artists, finding your way as an outsider is a universally human experience. Yet, that something is still missing.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 12, 2013
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U of C Press finds poems that stick Marshall Smith Arts Contributor Nestled on the Midway across from the International House, the University of Chicago Press building is foreign to many students. Although the main lobby of the Press building is minimalistic and typically bare, a recently added feature will enliven the space for a number of weeks to come. A gumball machine flanked by signs reading “Celebrate National Poetry Month Chicago-style—Deep-dish poetry from Chicagoans” sits directly beyond the building’s main entryway. Instead of a gumball, two quarters and a turn of the machine’s crank yield a capsule with an original poem stuffed inside. I could not help but feel nostalgic for the gumball machines of my childhood as my capsule clinked its way through the insides of the machine before finally being released with a satisfying thunk. Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets has designated April as National Poetry Month. “Poem in Your Pocket Day,” April 18, has always been a highlight of National Poetry Month for Yvonne Zipter. A manuscript editor at the University of Chicago Press, Zipter is responsible for the curious machine. “I’ll print out copies of poems I like and hand them out to my friends—this year I figured I’d try to do something on a larger scale.” Zipter drew inspiration from Chicago nonprofit Arts Alive 45, which had distributed similar machines to stimulate youth interest in poetry. Grade school students at different schools were encouraged to create poetry and submit their work, and were then provided with 25 cents with which to receive another student’s creation by way of the dispenser.
Working with the Press Employee Relations and Knowledge Sharing Committee, Zipter secured a spare machine from Arts Alive 45 and began her own collection of poems to better celebrate her favorite literary holiday. The machine contains compositions penned by students as well as employees of the Press. “The students have been particularly enthusiastic,” Yvonne noted. Each 50-cent donation raised by the machine will benefit Working in the Schools (WITS), a Chicago-based organization that promotes literacy in public schools by way of volunteer-based mentorship programs. Specifically, the funds will go directly toward purchasing books for WITS program students enrolled at Carnegie Elementary School on 61st Street. Although there are other poetry dispensing gumball machines located in both Harper and Cobb Cafés, Zipter was not aware of their existence prior to her own project. These previously established poem dispensers were installed as an Uncommon Fund project from 2012 entitled “Poems to Chew On.” Despite similarities in presentation and delivery, these iterations contain the work of established poets rather than those of the local and fledgling variety, and proceeds do not contribute to WITS. While Zipter related that the University Press had no further plans to celebrate National Poetry Month specifically, the Press’s recent involvement with poetry has been significant. This past fall, the University Press published the National Book Award–winning Bewilderment, by David Ferry. The same month, the Press also collaborated with Poetry to release the book The Open Door: One Hundred Poems, One Hundred Years of Poetry Magazine.
HUNGER STRIKE
Doppel-burger Iliya Gutin Senior Arts Staff Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages…I am pleased to announce that the reports of the death of Kuma’s are exaggerated. OK, maybe not death, but possible demise. What began as a series of surrealist rumors regarding a possible suburban outcropping of the (in)famous burger bar quickly became a reality in the form of a second location, Kuma’s Too, in the utopian Brunchlandia that is Lakeview.
KUMA’S TOO
666 West Diversey Pkwy Average burger price: $13
Despite the scenery change, in this new space the song remains the same, as does the heavy-metal theme, booze collection, and bypass-inducing menu. In that case, what’s the use writing about it? After all, telling someone to go to Kuma’s is the culinary equivalent of instructing a Chicago tourist to take a selfie at the Bean. Then again, a photo doesn’t take upwards of two hours of waiting...unless you are having a hard time getting your duck face just right. So consider this a public service announcement: You can finally eat at Kuma’s when you actually want to eat at Kuma’s. The address is an imposing 666 West Diversey Parkway, yet the number of giddy families in attendance make the vibe decidedly more 123 Sesame Street. The interior is airy; music is an 11 on a scale of 100, servers bring steak knives
on separate plates, and you feel almost too comfortable ordering a side salad in lieu of fries. While certain elements of the Kuma’s mystique have been lost in translation—castration may be a more apt term—another telltale sign of the classic experience is absent as well: the line out the door, down the street, and halfway to the Pacific Ocean. Many a party larger than two have been denied beefy pleasure at the hands of notorious wait times, but at Kuma’s Too, you can be seated in less time than it took A Dance of Dragons to come out. On a Friday evening, a 40-minute wait time transformed into a fiveminute one. Either there was an outbreak of dengue fever in Lakeview, or there’s something to be said for this new user-friendly version of Kuma’s. Before you know it, folks are gonna start waxing nostalgic about the good ol’ days, when a burger could only truly be appreciated after waiting for hours…in a blizzard…uphill…both ways. Yeah, kids have it too easy these days. Or over-easy, as in the case of the Famous Kuma Burger and its irresistibly simple egg and bacon ‘n’ cheddar accessories. How did the burgers fare the journey east? Same as it ever was. The foundation of any great burger is even greater beef (and 10 ounces is the greatest), and Kuma’s dealer knows how to treat cattle right. I won’t pretend to have intimate knowledge of all of the kitchen’s burger offerings, so my advice is to go with your gut and let those caveman instincts kick in. Perhaps the Led Zeppelin fits the mood, a farm-stand petting zoo of beef topped with pulled pork and bacon that, while sometimes a failure, is generally a harmonious success FOOD continued on page 9
arts.uchicago.edu
ARTS FUNDING UChicagoArts Grants $1,500 to $7,500
F undamentals: Issues and Texts
Deadline: Friday, April 26, 2013 For the creation and presentation of arts in all genres. Proposals accepted from faculty, University departments or centers, registered student organizations (RSOs), campus cultural institutions, and other organizations involved in campus life.
Curricular Innovation Grants $1,000 to $3,500 Deadline: Friday, April 26, 2013 For the development of new undergraduate and graduate courses in the arts, or the revision and renewal of existing arts courses. We encourage proposals to breach ndd rene renew disciplinary boundaries ary ry boun bound oun undd un dar and to combine rigorous scholarly and theoretical dari approaches heees with w wit creative ccrr ive and performative perforrmative practice pprac ice and a study. stud dy
Student St S t d F Fine eA Arts ts F Fund und up too $1,5 u $1,500 50 Deadline: eadline: dli Friday, Frid F d April 26, 2013 For student organizations (RSOs) and individual students. The Fund seeks studentinitiated projects that would not typically receive support from another organization. Priority is given to original ideas for the creation and presentation of all sorts of visual and performing arts, to proposals that bring the arts to more of the campus community, and to programs that leverage partnerships among student groups, academic departments, and/or cultural organizations.
Summer Fellowships $1,500 Deadline: Friday, April 19, 2013 These fellowships are designed to support all enrolled students undertaking original creative projects over the summer. We seek to fund a wide variety of projects and disciplines. Generally, projects should be intended for production, performance, or publication during the following academic year.
Announces a Public Colloquium
The
Power of Books: Some Personal Accounts Wendy Doniger Professor of Divinity, South Asian Languages & Culture, and Social Thought
Justin Steinberg Professor of Romance Languages & Literature
Wednesday, April 17 4:30 P.M. Stuart 105 Reception to follow This event is recommended for students considering a major in Fundamentals. More information about Fundamentals will be available at the event.
Find out more at arts.uchicago.edu/grants and arts.uchicago.edu/content/internships-fellowships
Persons needing assistance should contact Jonny Thakkar (jthakkar@uchicago.edu).
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 12, 2013
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WITH HANNAH GOLD
Do What You’re Told
Friday | April 12 Have the numerous frat and apartment parties not satisfied your dancing appetite? Do you want to experience a real Latino dance party in the company of real professionals? Then come celebrate Chicago Dance Month at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where Cuban singer/ composer/multi-instrumentalist Angel d’Cuba will lead the dance party with a wide selection of Latin tunes. It’s promised to be a very “hot party.” 4545 North Lincoln Avenue, 8:30 p.m., $10. Saturday | April 13
Kuma’s Too like “a greatest-hits album” of burger integrity FOOD continued from page 8 that will fuel you on that stairway to heaven (if it doesn’t take you there immediately postconsumption). Maybe you’re feeling fancy, and the exotic Lair of the Minotaur beckons with caramelized onions, pancetta, bourbon-soaked pears, and brie. The caramelized onions mutiny against their more rarified counterparts, and hiding a cheese as pungent as brie is on par with David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear—it is impressive, but somewhat strange, to be paying for the privilege of not tasting an ingredient. Or opt for the Atkinsfriendly Slayer burger. Or is it Fatkins? That would probably be an appropriate choice for a diet based on delusion, wherein substituting a bun for more fries, cheese, sausage, peppers, and chili is deemed wise decision making. Lest this devolve into me listing toppings— chorizo, smoked gouda, red wine BBQ sauce, bacon jam, deep-fried chiles—let’s just say that while you save time at Kuma’s Too by not waiting in line, an endangered species might go extinct by the time you make a burger decision. Consider this follow-up PSA: Order the mac and cheese to keep those neurons pulsing. The entire right side of the menu is dominated by burgers, and a steady stream of meat marches out of the kitchen, so ordering the comparatively “simple” mac and cheese seems like a damn waste. But, presto change-o, guilt-be-gone! Order a nice big bowl. It is the perfect blend of high and low cuisine: a cheddar-based béchamel that evenly coats each and every little elbow noodle, with generous heapings of whichever toppings you choose, from prosciutto to peppers to peas. Will some people call Kuma’s Too a form of selling out? Sure—especially since it’s a conveniently gift-wrapped cliché for any rock-themed bar. But I wouldn’t go quite that far. It’s more akin to releasing a greatesthits album or touring in Japan: The integrity is basically intact, but income seems to be the primary motivator. Kuma’s will always have an amazing burger. And that’s a good thing, right? A sign of expert quality control? Yes. But the question you should really be asking is, why? Or rather, why bother with turning uniqueness into ubiquity? Without the allure of the badass atmosphere, and the sadomasochistic triumph that comes after hours of waiting...suddenly it’s not special. Any flaws that come to light are not as easy to overlook. I’ll be back, but the certainty that that statement affords also makes me want to keep my distance. While Kuma’s Corner is lightning in a bottle, Kuma’s Too is thunder in a mason jar.
If you thought that, with SASA’s “AllNighter,” cultural shows have come and gone for this academic year, you were sorely mistaken. OLAS (Organization of Latin American Students) will be hosting its cultural show “Tradiciones” in Mandel Hall today. The show will include 19 different dances, including salsa, bachata, and Brazilian capoeira. If you’re worried about getting too famished before seeing countless hip g yrations, you can buy a ticket that will include a Latin American meal in Hutch Commons, catered by Pilsen’s Nuevo Leon and 90 Miles Cuban Cafe. 5706 South University Avenue, dinner at 6 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m., tickets $10 including dinner, or $5 for just the show.
Does the idea of owning vinyls sound appealing to you? How about the opportunity to take part in the biggest vinyl fair in the Midwest? More than 50 vendors will take part in the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) Fair, which runs all day today. If you suspect staying at the fair for the entire day is a challenge you would consider taking up, but are afraid you’ll collapse from exhaustion, Dark Matter coffee will be there to save you. Costa Rican food from Irazú and vegan fare from Handlebar will also be making appearances. The event will take place in West Town’s Plumbers Hall. 1340 West Washington Boulevard, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., $25 at entrance, $7/$5 if you come
with a Record Fair flyer or ad. Sunday | April 14 Books and zines from over 40 publishers will be featured in Writer’s House’s Pop-Up Book Fair, hosted by Curbside Splendor at the Empty Bottle. Accompanying the inevitable page-flicking will be live music performed by Mr. Mayor and the Highballers, Warm Bones (a new project by Russ Woods of Tiny Folk), and If Trees Could Write. Hit the books outside of the Reg this Sunday. 1035 North Western Avenue, 2 p.m., 21+, $5 entrance at the door, free with RSVP. —Ellen Rodnianski
9TH ANNUAL
CONTEMPO – JAZZ Double Bill
2012 / 2013 Season contempo.uchicago.edu
2 Performances*
04.13.2013 sat | 7:30 PM 04.14.2013 sun | 3 PM matinee Performance Hall Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 9th Annual
Contempo – JAZZ Double Bill ALL-ARGENTINE PROGRAM
ANTIGONA FURIOSA one-act chamber opera by Jorge Liderman Jorge Liderman
+ PABLO ASLAN QUINTET jazz-tango fusion * Pre-concert discussion with Alexander Gelman and Gustavo Leone moderated by Mauricio Tenorio — Sat: 6:30 | Sun: 2:00
$25 TICKETS | $5 STUDENT TICKETS with valid ID CALL 773.702.ARTS (2787) ONLINE ticketsweb.uchicago.edu VISIT Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street Tuesday to Saturday, noon – 6 PM
Pablo Aslan Quintet
Buy Tickets Today and Bring a Friend Free Buy one full-price ticket ($25) to a Contempo Jazz Double Bill performance, April 13 7:30 PM or April 14 3:00 PM, and receive a second ticket on us (two tickets for the price of one). Limit one per customer while supplies last. Offer does not apply to $5 student tickets. USE CODE CONTEMPO5
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENT | April 12, 2013
10
SNMA-MAPS Keynote Address Student National Medical Association-Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students
Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, III
President, The University of Maryland at Baltimore County
Overcoming the Odds: Education Reform in Liberal Arts and STEM Fields
Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Time Magazine’s 10 Best College Presidents Chair of President Obama’s National Education Commission
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 | 6:15 pm The University of Chicago Law School Glenn A. Lloyd Auditorium 1111 E. 60th St. | Chicago, IL 60637
Limited Seating | Contact:
snmamaps.uchicago@gmail.com
SPONSORED BY OMSA, Dean's Fund for Student Life, UC Medical Center Community Affairs, SGFC, GCF, BSD, MSTP, UTEP, CHeSS, GDDTP, BSD Graduate Affairs
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 12, 2013
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Chicago seeks redemption in tough weekend slate
UAA Standings Rank
Men’s Tennis Sam Zacher Sports Staff Redemption isn’t always easy. This Saturday, the No. 29 Maroons (11–2) will take on a pair of solid teams: No. 14 Wash U (9–5) and No. 18 Gustavus Adolphus (16–8). Last Saturday, Chicago’s ten-match winning streak was broken at UW– Whitewater. This Saturday, after an unexpected full week of preparation—the Maroons’ Wednesday match against UIC was postponed—the South Siders hope to begin a new winning streak. Chicago struggled with focus during its individual matches against UW– Whitewater last week, costing the squad the overall loss. “Last weekend was a rough weekend for us,” first-year Jake Crawford said. “[I] could have played better. Ultimately, a few guys in doubles and singles didn’t close up and finish some matches and sets. Next weekend, we definitely are hoping to maintain our leads once we have them and finish our matches.” Crawford earned one of Chicago’s three points, winning on the No. 3 doubles court. Third-year Krishna Ravella, who played at No. 1 doubles last weekend, thinks that this week of practice has been beneficial. “I think in this week of practice we have definitely made some strides since our match against Whitewater,” Ravella said. “We have really [stressed] the importance of individual contributions to the team’s overall effort. Teams can learn a lot from tough losses, and hopefully the loss can fuel and motivate us moving forward.” First-years, like Crawford, and secondyears have been a large part of the team’s success this year: they make up four of the six singles and four of the six doubles players. This youth and lack of experience could potentially be seen as a weakness of Chicago’s, but the players believe it’s simply a demonstration of the quality they possess. “I think [it’s] a testament to the sheer amount of talent that we have had to work with this season,” Ravella said. “Many of these underclassmen have matured as the season has progressed, and have been
BASEBALL School
Record
1
Case Western
15–7(5–3)
Win % .682
2 3 4 5 6
Washington (MO) Emory Rochester Brandeis Chicago
17–10 (5–3) 16–13 (4–4) 7–13 (4–4) 7–15 (2–6) 0–0 (12–7)
.630 .552 .350 .318 .632
Batting Average Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Schwabe
Bullock Massey Gronski Cinoman
School Chicago Chicago Chicago Case Western Chicago
AVG .465 .425 .420 .405 .387
School Chicago Emory Emory Case Western Case Western
RBIs 25 24 21 21 20
RBIs Rank 1 2 3 3 5
Player Cinoman
Rank 1 2 2 2 2
Player Pakan Keen Garry Engel Cinoman
Rank 1 2 2 4 5
Player Menke Gish Dillman Bonser Johnstone
Iturrey
Welch Pakan Keen
Home Runs School Case Western Case Western Rochester Chicago Chicago
HRs 3 2 2 2 2
School Rochester Case Western Emory Washington (MO) Case Western
ERA 2.16 2.32 2.32 2.93 3.03
ERA
Third-year Alexander Golovin sizes up a backhand during a game at the UAA Championship Tournament last year. COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT
great role models and representatives for the team. I think this weekend sets the stage perfectly for these underclassmen to demonstrate just how far they have come since the beginning of the season.” This weekend certainly will be a test— the Maroons haven’t played a pair of teams as good as Wash U and Gustavus Adolphus back-to-back all season. Chicago will have to slow down Wash U’s momentum, as the Bears are currently on a six-match win streak. “In doubles especially, we are hoping to
jump out to a quick lead against a gritty team like Wash U,” Ravella said. Gustavus Adolphus will pose a stern test for the South Siders as well. The Gusties defeated UW–Whitewater by a score of 6–3 earlier in the season. Chicago no longer has to bear the pressure of extending its winning streak, but it should be prepared for one of the most difficult weekends of its season so far. The Maroons travel to St. Louis for matches against host Wash U at 9 a.m. and Gustavus Adolphus at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Strike Outs School Player Dillman Bonser
Emory Washington (MO)
Menke Johnstone Gish
Case Western Case Western
Rochester
Ks 50 42 30 29 26
SOFTBALL UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6
School Emory
Record 38–2 (8–0)
Win % .950
Washington (MO) Brandeis Case Western Rochester Chicago
20–8 (5–3) 17–10 (3–5) 13–12 (3–5) 5–15 (1–7) 12–6 (0–0)
.714 .630 .520 .250 .667
Batting Average
Squad heads north for Benedictine Invitational Track & Field Isaac Stern Sports Staff The South Siders will head north this weekend to compete in the Benedictine Invitational. The meet will take place in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with over 20 teams and clubs from around the Midwest registered to compete. This will be the first time the Maroons compete in this event. “The team is extremely upbeat,” firstyear Mikaela Hammel said. “We are happy to be racing outside again and are looking forward to better weather conditions.” Since the outdoor season began last weekend, the weather has posed a bit of an issue for the Maroons. The recent heavy rains and strong winds forced some South Siders to withdraw from events last weekend at the Chicagoland Championships and have not made for ideal practice conditions. “We’re continuing to practice hard, hoping that the weather will cooperate and allow for fast times,” first-year Ben Clark added. Current weather predictions for the Lisle, IL area show clear skies on Saturday,
a promising sign for Chicago’s athletes frustrated by the weather last week. Like all meets this season, the Invitational will also serve as a tune-up for the UAA Championships, now only two weeks away. “Coach said it’s a pretty big meet, but I think we’ll have some people score points,” Clark said. “Really, though, it’s all about being ready for conference [championships]. There will be people doing more events than they usually do in preparation for New York.” Clark and Hammel are cases in point, with Clark competing in three events and Hammel in four. “I’ll be running the 100m, 200m, 4x1 (relay) and 4x4 (relay),” Hammel explained. “It’s gonna be another long day, so I’m just going to focus on one event at a time. Last week the women’s 4x1 was disqualified, so this meet we are really focusing on getting the baton around the track and getting a seed time for conference. We’ve been working hard on handoffs in practice, and I’m feeling very confident for this weekend.” Clark plans to compete in the 100m dash, 200m dash, and the 4x100m relay.
In addition, fourth-year speedster Dee Brizzolara, who has been sidelined with an injury, will return to compete alongside Clark in the 4x100m relay. “I’m excited to see No. 6 [Brizzolara] back on the track,” Clark said. “Hopefully we get in the fast section of the 4x1, and he gives us a lead.” Fourth-year Brandon Meckelberg will also be making his first outdoor season appearance this weekend. Meckelberg is the reigning UAA champion in the discus and will be competing in the event this Saturday for the first time since last year. “After this meet, we will only have one more chance to run good times before conference,” Hammel said. “It’s really important that we handle business correctly so that next week we’re not in as much of a pressure crunch. We want to continue to get people into the top eight on the conference leader board and make our presence in the conference known.” The Benedictine Invitational is scheduled to begin this Saturday at 10 a.m. in Lisle, IL. Live results will be reported on the Benedictine University athletic web site.
Rank 1
Player Genovese
School Brandeis
AVG .462
2 3 4 5
Janssen Light O’Brien Kohm
Washington (MO) Emory Case Western Chicago
.455 .432 .415 .413
RBIs Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Light
School Emory
Neal Kersthold Sendel 2 tied at
Washington (MO) Emory Emory
RBIs 52 40 29 28 25
Home Runs Rank 1 2 2 4 5
Player Light Sendel Neal Mullen 2 tied at
School Avg/G Emory 12 Emory 7 Washington (MO) 7 Washington (MO) 6 5
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Kardys Carpenter Brottman Poole Neal
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Taylor Kardys Carpenter Pitkin Neal
ERA School Emory Emory Emory Chicago Washington (MO)
ERA 1.24 1.44 .1.91 2.57 2.73
Strike Outs School Case Western Emory Emory Washington (MO) Washington (MO)
Pct 111 83 78 68 64
SPORTS
IN QUOTES “#confessions I thought the song was, ‘I’m too sexy for my Cat’ it’s ‘I’m Too Sexy For My Shirt’. My goodness How did I screw this up?” —Lakers forward Metta World Peace brushes up on his muscial history in a tweet on Thursday, April 11.
After shutting out Stars, Maroons to fight Scots, Knights Baseball Madelaine Pisani Sports Staff Despite rainy conditions, the South Siders (12–7) pulled off a resounding win over Dominican University (8–16) on Tuesday. The stars of the day were fourth-year starting pitcher Matt O’Connor and fourth-year second baseman Steven Schwabe. The team scored a whopping 13 runs to Dominican’s zero, marking the Maroons’ fifth straight win. Chicago couldn’t score in the first inning after loading the bases, but the runs certainly piled up later. In the second inning, fourth-year catcher Tony Logli scored on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Schwabe made it 2–0 with an RBI single, which was only the first of his five hits on that day. In the third, Chicago blew the game wide open. They slapped six singles, increasing the lead to 7–0. On the mound, O’Connor continued his dominating performance: he didn’t give up a hit through three innings. “[O’Connor] was on fire today,” second-year catcher Brenden Dunleavy said. “Matt was hitting his spots, and he and I maintained a good rhythm in terms of me calling pitches and him throwing for strikes.” Fourth-year outfielder Jack Cino-
man also played well for the Maroons. “The team was working in a really cohesive way. We were listening to our coach and each other really well, which produced a performance the opponents were not prepared for,” he said. Cinoman had two hits, including a two-run single, which brought the score to 7–0. The team’s batting average rose to .373. “I was really impressed with the hitting today. Our team was making really good contact with the ball and hit it to all fields,” second-year pitcher and outfielder Tony DeRenzo said. The Maroons will take their winning streak to Monmouth, IL, on Sunday to take on Monmouth College (4–14) and St. Norbert College (12–5), a four-hour bus ride away. “While it is tough to travel so far, I am excited to see if we can extend our five-game winning streak to seven,” DeRenzo said. The Monmouth College Fighting Scots are coming off a win, and the Maroons will have to watch out for second-year slugger Ryan Crandall, who drove in runs to tie their last game in the ninth inning. Chicago’s starting pitchers this weekend will be third-year Alex Terry and second-year Kyle Nitiss. First pitches on Sunday are 1 p.m. against Monmouth and 4 p.m. against St. Norbert.
Third-year Chris Warren makes contact in the Maroons’ 13–0 win against Dominican at J. Kyle Anderson Field on Tuesday, April 9. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Wash U, round two: South Siders Defense the focus against No. 29 North Central Cardinals and Bears at it again Women’s Tennis Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff No matter the sport, this is the matchup that fans look forward to—Chicago against Wash U. When Chicago takes on Wash U this Saturday, the rivalry will take on even more meaning than usual. Currently, the Maroons (13–3) are ranked sixth in the nation, riding a 10–game winning streak, while the Bears (11–5) are ranked 13th. A win for the Maroons will be critical for seeding at the UAA Championships. Chicago defeated Wash U 6–3 last week, but Bears’ No. 3 singles player Jamie Silverberg did not play. Silverberg is 19–1 in singles overall with an 8–0 record at No. 3. Chicago head coach Jay Tee said that last week’s 6–3 victory over the Bears does not tell the whole story. “It was closer than the score says,” he said. ”We pulled out a close 8–6 win at No. 2 doubles and close singles matches at No. 2, No. 3, and No. 6. If we don’t pull out those close sets, we could have easily lost 6–3.” For Chicago to get a victory against its regional and conference rivals again on Saturday, the Maroons will look for at least a 2–1 advantage going into singles action. “We’ve worked so hard on doubles this year that we’re starting to expect to take two out of three, but I’d like to get greedy and get all three this time,” Tee said. Tee’s expectations for a lead going into singles come with good reason. Currently, the No. 1 pair of second-year Megan Tang and first-year Helen Sdizkhov is riding a seven-match winning streak and is ranked first in the Central Region. The No. 2 doubles tandem of
Softball fourth-year Linden Li and second-year Kelsey McGillis has an eight-match winning streak. First-years Stephanie Lee and Sruthi Ramaswami have an 8–4 doubles record overall and 8–3 record at No. 3. Chicago’s firepower does not stop at doubles. Tang is on a 12-match winning streak at No. 1 singles and is 22–2 overall on the season. Tee said that Tang’s intangibles allow for her success. “[Tang] definitely possesses some great physical tools, but what sets her apart from the competition is her tenacity,” he said. ”Megan competes as hard as any player I’ve ever seen, including many good players at the DI level. What she might lack in size or strength she makes up tenfold by the way she competes for every single point.” Tang easily defeated Wash U’s Theresa Petraskova, who is No. 2 in the Central Region, 6–2, 6–2 last week. It will be important for Chicago to garner victories at the top of the singles lineup given that Silverberg’s return might cause the bottom of the lineup to face unfamiliar opponents. Therefore, No. 2 singles player Linden Li will look to edge out Wash U’s Kate Klein again. In the Midwest Invitational final, Li defeated Klein 6–4, 6–4. Both are ranked top 25 singles players in the region. With two ranked conference squads facing each other, Tee said the winner will be the team that exhibits greater focus. “We’re very evenly matched this year, and we know it’s going to come down to the team that can stay focused for the entire match and find a way to compete even when we aren’t playing our best,” he said. The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in St. Louis tomorrow.
Tatiana Fields Sports Staff Since their game against Illinois Wesleyan on Tuesday was postponed due to inclement weather, the Maroons have shifted their focus to defeating No. 23 North Central College (23–1) on Saturday, which will be a challenge. The South Siders are coming off a busy weekend in which they ended UW–Whitewater’s 16– game winning streak and swept a doubleheader against Lawrence. The Cardinals have had a very strong season so far, earning a spot in the NCAA’s top 30 on Wednesday for the first time this season. In addition, North Central is undefeated at home, with a 6–0 record at its own field. However, the South Siders have beaten the Cardinals before, and know they can do it again. Last year’s matchup at Ratner ended in a 2–1 Chicago victory. Though North Central looks stronger this year than it has in the past few, the Maroons are focused on their own game, determined not to be distracted by the reputation of their opponents. “It doesn’t change my mindset at all,” first-year Kristin Lopez said. “I still have to play at the highest level and approach the North Central game with the same focused intensity as I would any other game.” Statistically, there is little that separates the two teams. Chicago is batting .340, while North Central has combined for a season average of .351. The Cardinals are
led by sophomore Kayla Ante, who has 27 runs scored, the most so far this season, and is batting .412. The South Siders are about halfway through their season, and still have much they want to improve on. Not only will the Maroons use this game as an opportunity for to judge themselves against one of the best teams in the country, but also as a learning experience. “We’re trying to improve different things, as a team and individually,” Lopez said. “We’re trying to improve how well we adjust to our opponents’ play. Overall, I think we’ve improved offensively and defensively throughout the season, but if we want to come out on top at the end of the season, we can never stop improving.” Mainly, the Maroons aim to improve on their defense. The team has done a good job of getting ahead and putting runs on the scoreboard early in the game, but has struggled to prevent runs late in the game. In the second game against UW–Whitewater, defense was the reason for the loss, and the team is working on that. Despite North Central’s strong season, the Maroons are still heading into the game with confidence. “The team expects to win, bottom line,” Lopez said. “We have had games this season where we should have come out on top but fell short. I think now we have more confidence that we can beat any team.” The Maroons will face North Central on the road in Naperville, IL, at noon on Saturday.