FRIDAY • MAY 17, 2013
ISSUE 46 • VOLUME 124
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
Amidst five-month Red Line closure, alternative transit options abound
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| THE CHICAGO MAROON
A sampling of the many transit options in Hyde Park that can take students to popular Red Line destinations.
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Marina Fang News Editor Sunday marks the first day of the Red Line closure, shutting students off from one of the major transportation options to weekend favorites like Chinatown and Roosevelt Road. While the Chicago Transit Authority rebuilds the 40-year-old tracks along the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line between the Cermak/Chinatown and 95th/Dan Ryan stations, Red Line service south of Roosevelt will be nonexistent. Construction will begin at 2 a.m. on Sunday and continue until the track reconstruction is completed in October. According to the CTA website, free nonstop shuttles will run between the Garfield Station and every closed station between 63rd and 95th/Dan Ryan. In addition, a free shuttle will provide nonstop service between the Roosevelt station and the closed Cermak-Chinatown station. But since these shuttles will do little to ease the plight of Hyde Park residents, enter the Maroon’s guide to transit alternatives that can help you get to some common Red Line destinations. In
general, alternative routes may be more crowded than usual, and the CTA advises passengers to allow for extra travel time. For more information and service alternatives, visit redlinesouth.com, which includes a trip planner to help users find customized alternative routes. Your Guide to the Red Line Closure Chinatown: Take the #4 bus to Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road. Walk south on Michigan, turn right on Cermak, and walk half a mile until you reach Wentworth Avenue. You should find yourself at the Chinatown Red Line station. Roosevelt Road: Take the Green Line from either 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue or the Garfield station (via the #55 bus) to the Roosevelt “L” stop. The #192 bus from 59th Street and Drexel Avenue runs to the “L” stop from 3:45-7:00 p.m. on weekdays. The #4 bus will take you to Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road. The Metra train from the 55/56/57th Street station makes a stop at Museum Campus/11th Street. RED LINE continued on page 2
Committee to assess Core arts scarcity New RSO lays Jonah Rabb Maroon Contributor Student frustration over the difficulty of registering for Core art classes has caused the art departments to consider changes to the courses currently offered. In response to student complaints, Associate Dean and Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division Thomas Christensen is currently form-
ing a committee to meet with the art departments in order to reexamine the kinds of Core courses they offer and their class size caps. The committee will also examine the “philosophy” of the art Core, its consistency with various disciplines, and the classes’ goals within the Core as a whole. While noting that there are courses that fulfill the art requirement that are
not in high demand, Christensen admits that registering for Core art, music, and drama can be very difficult, mostly due to the extreme popularity of the courses. “It’s hard to predict year by year where the pressure is going to be,” Christensen said. “We look at where the pressure is and try to change the number of sections. We never promise that we’re going to meet
the demand of students.” Second-year Alexa Karczmar expressed frustration at how competitive it is to get into a creative writing course. After not being placed in either Introduction to Genres: Four Western Myths or The American City in Literature: Past, Present, Future, and Fantasy through regular registration this spring , she decided not to try to ARTS continued on page 2
New Dean eager to learn students’ needs Celia Bever News Editor Soon-to-be Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen has some experiences to catch up on. As a commuter student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Rasmussen maintained an off-campus job, limiting the time she spent involved in campus activities. Since then, she has spent her entire adult life in college and university settings, mostly as an administrator focused on student life. “In some ways, it’s part of a curious way to recapture something
I never, myself, had,” she said in an interview with the Maroon. In July, Rasmussen will join the UChicago community as the second-ranking administrator in the Office of Campus and Student Life under Karen Warren Coleman, the vice president of the office. Prior to Warren Coleman’s ascension to the role, Kimberly Goff-Crews served as vice president of campus life and dean of students. After GoffCrews announced she was leaving for Yale last year, University officials promoted then-Associate Vice President for Campus Life Warren Coleman. However,
she only took on the vice presidential title, leaving the position of dean of students vacant. On redefining the role, University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said in an e-mail: “We felt that it was critical and timely to provide more capacity for direct, senior-level support for students.” Rasmussen, who currently serves as dean of the undergraduate college at Bryn Mawr College, will oversee 12 programs and services, including the Office of the Reynolds Club and Student Activities, the University Community Service Center,
and Resources for Sexual Violence Prevention, and will manage a staff of around 90 people. Born and raised in New Zealand, Rasmussen received a bachelor’s degree in history and art history from UCLA and a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and anatomy from Duke University. After graduate school, uninspired by the possibility of a career in academia but unsure of what to do next, Rasmussen worked at Duke’s career advising office. This led to higher-ranking positions in student life and academic services there and at DEAN continued on page 2
out class divide Sarah Miller Senior News Staff Four undergraduate students discussed the challenges they face in college and the changes they feel are necessary to create a welcoming environment for low-income and first-generation students. The panel was hosted by the Socioeconomic Acceptance and Diversity Alliance (SADA), which will become an RSO next fall, at OMSA on Thursday night.
Third-year Liz Denhup shared the difficulties she experienced in balancing classes with a job. Originally intending to major in chemistry, she had to change her plans after she began working 10 to 15 hours a week in order to cover basic expenses like food and textbooks. After illness led her to miss several weeks of work, she approached Associate Director of Financial Aid Phyllis Franks about her situation. Denhup claimed RSO continued on page 2
Students discuss the issues surrounding their status as low-income students at a panel discussion presented by the Socioeconomic Acceptance and Diversity Alliance at OMSA yesterday. TIFFANY TAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Yielding results » Page 3
A guide to Summer Breeze 2013 » Page 6
Don’t sugarcoat it » Page 4
Indie darling Koenig’s Modern Vampires doesn’t suck » Page 6
Three years after near-liquidation, water polo going strong » Back Page National qualification all but secured for Sizek, Young » Back Page
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 10, 2013
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Rasmussen was an administrator at Duke, Wesleyan SADA’s goals include advising, increased dialogue that Franks responded that “financial aid was not designed for students with incomes as low as yours.” Last quarter, third-year and founding SADA member Lynda Lopez began connecting with other RSOs including Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.), Organization of Black Students, as well as OMSA, in order to gauge student interest in an RSO dedicated to issues surrounding low-income and first-generation students. She found a core group of people that eventually founded SADA. Beginning this quarter, the group has led small group discussions. The founding members of SADA also started the Class Confessions Facebook group. Fourth-year Cynthia de la Rosa, the panel’s moderator, said the student response to the prospect of establishing a dialogue about social class issues on campus was “overwhelmingly positive.” In an interview with the Maroon, de la Rosa outlined the three main goals of SADA. The first is to advocate for more resources for low-income students, like hiring an advisor specifically to work with
Buses, Metra among Red Line substitutes RED LINE continued from front
» The May 14 article “TEDx takes it down a notch” misstated the number of speakers at the event in one mention; misstated the acronym of TED due to an editing error; incorrectly said that $50 was the price for all VIP tickets due to an editing error; and misstated the number of speakers in past years. » The May 14 article “UCPD lights the way home” incorrectly stated that UCPD was unavailable for comment, due to a miscommunication.
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 January 1. 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: » May 10, 5839 South Maryland Avenue (Wyler Hospital), 5:30 p.m.—An unknown person attempted to use a UCMC physician’s DEA number to obtain prescription medicine in Dolton, IL. » May 12, 5200 South Berkeley Avenue, 1:24 p.m.—UCPD officers detained a suspect wanted for theft. The suspect was then turned over to the CPD.
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» May 15, South Ellis Avenue between East 55th & 56th Streets, 7:30 p.m.—An unknown male, riding a bicycle, snatched an iPhone from the hand of a victim walking on the sidewalk. » May 15, 5840 South Maryland Avenue (Parking Structure)—Between 6:25 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., a catalytic converter was taken from vehicle parked on the third floor of the parking structure. Source: UCPD Incident Reports
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» The May 14 article “Ginsburg offers alternative, critical perspective on Roe” misspelled Ginsburg’s last name in the headline.
Weekly Crime Report By Marina Fang
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—Additional reporting by Celia Bever and Harini Jaganathan
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to increase availability to Core art classes. He noted that the number of sections offered each year have increased consistently during his time as Master of the Division of the Humanities. “We try to increase it so it meets the demands of our best estimates of previous enrollment histories,” Christensen said. Assistant Dean of Students Colbey Harris also noted several changes that have been made in order to increase access to Core art classes. History and Theory of Drama, a course with a relatively large capacity, was introduced recently, and Harper-Schmidt Fellows have been employed to teach extra sections of art, music, and drama. “There are unfilled seats in [art, music, and drama] Core classes every quarter. Students can’t always get their first choice class, but the same can be said of popular classes outside of [art, music, and drama] Core as well,” she said. Harris encourages students to apply for Core art classes during their first two years, as first and second-years have priority over upperclassmen for Core classes. Despite all of the changes, Harris indicates that they have no plans to loosen the current requirements. “I don’t think Chicago students are here to find easier ways to fulfill curricular requirements. Anyone who finds him [or] herself in that frame of mind is missing the boat.”
from 3:50–6:10 p.m. on weekdays, the #2 bus.
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pink slip into the class since dozens of other students were already on the class waitlist. “If I want to register for a creative writing class because I think it would be beneficial to my education, it shouldn’t be an arms race to do so,” she said. First-year Noah Christians suggested that an expansion of the introductory- level art classes would help mitigate the competition to get into a particular course. “I realize there are a lot of students who need to take the class, but I’d still like to get in. There are so few options for the visual arts at an introductory level,” he said in a Facebook message to the Maroon. Finding funding to increase the number of art sections is not an issue, according to Dean of Students Susan Art. Instead, she identified “logistical” struggles, such as the need for sufficient space and qualified faculty, which affect students’ access to art classes. “We’ve been very aware of this situation. We’ve done research into the bidding process. Dean Boyer understands students’ preferences, given the kind of problems we’re facing, but it’s going to be hard,” she said. Christensen said that the Division of the Humanities, which encompasses the art departments, has already taken several steps
Walk east for half a mile. Take the #4 bus to 35th Street and Indiana Avenue and walk west for one mile. The Loop: Take the #6 bus, the Green Line, the Metra, or,
Stony Island
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U.S. Cellular Field: Take the #55 bus to Racine Avenue and Garfield Boulevard. From there, get on the #44 bus and ride it to Wallace Avenue and 37th Street.
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Arts courses face “logistical” challenges
low-income and first-generation students. Secondly, the group hopes to create a social venue that brings together struggling low-income students from programs like QuestBridge and recipients of the University’s Odyssey Scholarship. The group’s third goal is to begin visible, campus-wide discussions on socioeconomic class. In comparing UChicago with other elite institutions, including Princeton, Harvard, and MIT, Lopez said that resources for low-income and firstgeneration college students were lacking at all the schools but that the other institutions were starting to address issue through support groups and mentoring programs. “The University has done a lot in recent years to bring in more low-income students, but this effort has to be connected with ways to make that experience better once they’re here,” Lopez said. “Recruiting is only the first step.” The panel was comprised of third-year Lynda Lopez, third-year Valentina Solano, third-year Liz Denhup, and fifth-year Luis Amaya and moderated by fourth-year Cynthia de la Rosa.
University
COURTESY OF BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
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Wesleyan University, and eventually at Bryn Mawr, where she has worked since 2010. Rasmussen has primarily worked with undergraduates, so part of the draw of coming to UChicago was the opportunity to oversee both undergraduate and graduate students. She said she plans to spend her first few months in conversation with deans and students to gauge their specific needs. “Students [at Bryn Mawr] know that they can just send me an email or call my office and get on my calendar and come meet with me,” she said. “And I don’t really see why that should change at University of Chicago.” She also chose to come to UChicago, after visiting campus and being interviewed by students and administrators, because “it is paying a lot of attention to the quality of the student experience,” she said. Along with her administrative work, Rasmussen currently teaches anthropology at Bryn Mawr. Though she does not now have plans to teach or pursue scholarship when she comes to UChicago, she said she welcomes the opportunity to share her research with the campus community. “If anyone ever wants to come talk to me about lemurs or primate behavior or Madagascar, I will take them up on that.”
Ellis
Michele Rasmussen, current Dean of the Undergraduate College at Bryn Mawr College, will assume her role as UChicago’s Dean of Students July 8.
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62nd *Locations of reports approximate
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed MAY 17, 2013
Yielding results Admissions hit the mark in anticipating yield for the incoming class despite facing a number of challenges 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 MATTHEW SCHAEFER 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 VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor SARAH LANGS Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS Sports Editor HYEONG-SUN CHO Head Designer SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Head Copy Editor JEN XIA Head Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy Editor SYDNEY COMBS Photo Editor TIFFANY TAN Photo Editor
As the Maroon reported Tuesday, the yield of admitted students choosing to attend the College as part of the Class of 2017 rose to 55 percent from last year’s 46 percent. The release of this figure caps a record year for College Admissions. It follows an all-time high in applications (30,396) and a new low in the plummeting acceptance rate (8.8 percent, down from the Class of 2016’s 13.2 percent). However, working with unprecedented demand was only one of several challenges facing the Office of College Admissions this year. Given forthcoming changes to campus life and financial aid policies, as well as the admissions office’s challenge to balance increased appeal with the distinct quality of a UChicago education, this year’s yield is especially noteworthy. In recent years, the Office of College Admissions has redoubled efforts to make the University appealing not simply as one among other selective academic institutions, but
in its own right as a unique center of intellectual life. This year Admissions has also been dealt a complicated set of circumstances: Student services, particularly housing and dining, are due to experience a strain in the next three years following the closure of Pierce, which no doubt allowed for less leeway with regard to incoming class size. On both of these counts, Admissions appears to have been successful. The Maroon reported that the number of students attending this fall (1,479, down from last year’s 1,527) will be slightly above its target size, but “the class is not expected to merit special housing accommodations.” In the last two years, the yield of admitted students exceeded projections, forcing the placement of first-years in housing designated for graduate students. Maintaining a small class size, while critical for assuring the quality of student services in these next several years, is also an essential part of preserving the UChicago experience of small
discussion-based Core classes and a close-knit House system. That Admissions has retained more accepted students without overstretching the capabilities of the University is admirable. This achievement is even more impressive when one considers the introduction of UChicago Promise, which, according to University spokesperson Jeremy Manier, has likely led to an increased yield among admitted students from Chicago (63 percent, up from last year’s 46 percent). This is most likely due to UChicago Promise’s guarantee that admitted students from the city of Chicago will have their application fees waived and be able to graduate debt free. UChicago Promise, along with larger financial aid efforts, like the Odyssey Scholarships, that aim to bring more socioeconomic diversity to the student body and make UChicago a financial reality for all qualified students, are praiseworthy in and of themselves. However, these new measures present high
school students with additional incentives to consider UChicago, and in turn add yet another unpredictable element into Admissions’ calculations, which makes their success with the latest incoming class equally laudable. These latest yield figures represent an important achievement on the part of the Office of College Admissions, and not simply because yield is commonly taken to be a reliable barometer of academic reputation. Faced with an unprecedented amount of applications, critical campus life constraints, new incentives for prospective students in UChicago Promise and other aid initiatives, and the necessity of preserving the University’s academic experience, Admissions has nevertheless managed to create a reasonably sized class while pursuing worthwhile changes both on campus and off.
The Editorial Board consists of the Editors-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.
COLIN BRADLEY Grey City Editor JOY CRANE Grey City 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
When trust falls
No money, mo’ problems
Respond to the shock of “Politically Incorrect” culture by extending your trust once more
Unpaid internships break the law and perpetuate inequality, but those in power aren’t complaining
WILL DART Assoc. Arts Editor LAUREN GURLEY Assoc. Arts Editor TATIANA FIELDS Assoc. Sports Editor SAM ZACHER Assoc. Sports Editor JULIA REINITZ Assoc. Photo Editor FRANK YAN Assoc. Photo Editor TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager TAMER BARSBAY Undergraduate Business Executive QUERIDA Y. QIU External Director of Marketing IVY ZHANG Internal Director of Marketing VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator
By Ajay Batra Viewpoints Editor
ANDREW GREEN Designer SNEHA KASUGANTI Designer JONAH RABB Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Designer KEN ARMSTRONG Copy Editor KRYSTEN BRAY Copy Editor CONNOR CUNNINGHAM Copy Editor LISA FAN Copy Editor NISHANTH IYENGAR Copy Editor CECILIA JIANG Copy Editor MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor CHELSEA LEU Copy Editor KATIE LEU Copy Editor CARISSA LIM Copy Editor KATARINA MENTZELOPOULOS Copy Editor JONAH RABB Copy Editor HEIDI SIEGRIST Copy Editor LINDSEY SIMON Copy Editor RUNNAN YANG 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. © 2013 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com
The stairs in Pierce Tower are extraordinarily terrifying. I have no time for its crawling deathtrap elevators, so I spend a lot of time in its narrow, unadorned stairwells. As a clumsy fellow, I occasionally clip my toes on the odd stair when climbing, only to hiccup slightly and continue my ascent with a disappointed and bemused headshake. Each time that happens, I instinctively raise my hand to my mouth. Sometimes, when I walk down the five flights that separate my floor from the breezeway, I do that the whole way, my face’s pulsating wince concealed the entire time by tensed digits. I raise my hand to my mouth because I have an irrepressible recurring fear that I’ll trip and fall—especially when I’m descending—and thereby completely obliterate my face on the cement (or whatever), turning my jaw and its partners-in-chew into something that resembles the exploded remnants of a particularly chunky black pudding. These stairs, you see, are rock solid; they’re steep, too. And they somehow look slick; their sheen unsettles me. Stairs are often wooden, or creaky, or carpeted, or at least gently inclined. Or maybe they have quaint spaces between their steps. My point is that all flights are sympathetic, somehow.
Not these, though: All the steps in Pierce’s stairwells could doubtlessly wreck me if I fell on them—and they would feel nothing. However nerve-wracking my fear, it is reliably short-lived, and often does not survive past the second floor. For I am its master: I need to take the stairs often in Pierce; and over these past two years I’ve gotten awfully good at gliding safely down them in a hurry. My technique—AJayWalkingTM— is a sensation. And it’s backed up by around 19 years of amateur experience standing upright on two legs. So I’ve learned to trust myself not to fall—but that trust has been reinforced by literally thousands of carefully coordinated and incidentfree (and patent-pending) steps. Of course, it would take but one careless misstep to shatter my grill, and possibly my kneecaps and lungs (I’ve imagined this a lot). But I feel as though the aforementioned trust would survive, even if it took a slight knock. It’s ironclad. After my likely grave, elevator-confining injuries healed, I’d return to the offending stairs with a level of gusto that accorded with both my everso-slightly reduced confidence and, of course, social propriety. People generally don’t mind as long as my gusto doesn’t slip into zeal territory. Zest aside, trust can be powerful and lasting when it’s forged, and reinforced positively, over time. But how often do we encounter such rugged trust? Not often: Brittleness and fragility come to mind when I think of a concept so outwardly ethereal. Largely, trust is shattered and restored. Any old brutish stroke can break a Ming vase into a million pieces, but it takes a rare, STAIRS continued on page 4
By Raghav Rao Viewpoints Columnist From an employer’s point of view, it is indisputable that unpaid internships make sense. The market for interns is so saturated that in order to employ a recent graduate from a premier institution all you need is an address in Manhattan. A whisper of a promise of a full-time job is all it takes to fill your inbox with competitive resumes. If you don’t have to pay, why bother, right? Well, for one thing, if you’re a forprofit company, it’s illegal. According to federal and state regulations, most unpaid internships for profit-making companies are illegal. However, a blind eye is turned towards them since they’re seen as relatively innocuous—a win-win situation for both intern and company. The Department of Labor has a list of six criteria that determine whether an internship for a for-profit employer is legal. Since so many of my acquaintances, some current students and even some who are graduating this spring, are eagerly accepting unpaid internships, it’s worth listing the criteria: 1) The internship is similar to training that would be given in an educational environment. 2) The experience is for the benefit of the intern (Duh! No wonder people don’t read government literature; obvious fact follows redundancy like night follows day.) 3) The intern does not replace
existing employees. 4) The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern. 5) The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship. 6) The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages (again, fairly obvious). Employers fail to observe these criteria to varying degrees, but all, without exception, fail to meet number four. Inevitably, unpaid interns are hired for the benefit of the firm. All unpaid internships I’ve ever heard of are designed to bring immediate advantage to the employer; therefore they are all in violation of federal and state law—but no one cares. So we’re faced with a situation where people are willing to work for a wage lower than the minimum that’s prescribed by the law, thereby undercutting the market. Where have we heard that before? Immigrant labor. An issue that gets the nation on its feet. And yet the same phenomenon is winked at when it happens to interns, even though the interns populating Brooklyn don’t even make rent money. Industries such as publishing and entertainment are so heavily reliant on unpaid interns that they end up emphasizing class divisions. Take a publishing firm based in New York: They tend to hire only unpaid interns, and in order to survive in New York without a paying job, you need (unless you’re gutsy enough to take loans) parents willing to pay for your rent and cost of living. Consequently, the bottom rungs of publishing firms are rife with the children of the wealthy. They go on to take up most of the entry-level paid positions, since we all know criteINTERNS continued on page 5
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 17, 2013
Don’t sugarcoat it In light of recent dining hall health code issues, UChicago Dining’s explanations prioritize public image over honest accountability
By Jane Huang Viewpoints Columnist One of the intangible benefits that every college likes to claim to provide to students is “improved communication skills.” This claim is vague enough to be irrefutable. Provided with enough writing assignments and sufficiently dedicated teaching assistants, most students should be able to exit college with the ability to string together sentences that conform to the conventions of Standard English, perhaps with a fancier vocabulary to boot. However, higher education’s ability to teach communication skills goes beyond papers and slick classroom presentations: Another important pedagogical tool is that of showing by example. Alas, in the
case of UChicago Dining, examples of questionable communication practices are as plentiful as the significant health violations recorded by city inspectors over the last few months. Back in December, UChicago Dining posted a Cathey Dining Commons Closure FAQ on its Web site that said, in part, “We will…solicit more regular feedback through our student advisory groups regarding how they and their peers are experiencing the dining commons.” I think we can all agree that soliciting feedback is great. Students in recent months have been unstinting in sharing their opinions about campus dining. It should be noted, though, that soliciting feedback is not quite the same as responding to feedback. The more recent Cathey and Bartlett Dining Commons City Inspection FAQ really embodies what Jim Carrey’s character declares in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: “Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.” My favorite part of the FAQ is this question: “Is Aramark
receiving preferential treatment because of a longstanding relationship with the University?” Though “frequently asked questions” is not an expression to be taken literally, I get the impression that the original questions were posed rather differently. It appears that UChicago Dining is obliquely referring to students’ questions about a potential conflict of interest due to Aramark’s former CEO sitting on the University’s Board of Trustees. That’s a heck of a lot more specific than how UChicago Dining phrased the question. The analysis of the University’s relationship with Aramark is probably best left to those who are more familiar with business than I, but I’d like to further explain my quibble with UChicago Dining’s practices. My stance on taking questions is that one ought to either answer them directly or reject them outright if they do not seem to merit a response. Coming up with new questions that one would rather answer is not a useful approach to anyone else. Reading the dining hall
FAQ is like reading something that was written with a kind of reverse Quick-Quotes Quill: Instead of using a pen that twists innocent remarks into tawdry rumors, UChicago Dining turns specific criticisms into bland statements. UChicago Dining isn’t communicating ; it’s managing public relations. Given the state of communications between students and UChicago Dining, you have to wonder whether there are obstacles to communication within UChicago Dining as well. In a message posted in April, the UChicago Dining Web site stated, “The fact that we had two sets of violations in the same facility during the same academic year, especially after the rigorous steps taken last fall, raises questions we cannot fully answer.” Who formulated these “rigorous steps”? Who was accountable for ensuring that these “rigorous steps” were taken? And by whose standard are we judging these steps to have been, in fact, “rigorous”? Perhaps not everyone was on the same page as to what would be sufficient
Lost in documentation In Italy, a trip to the library is an education in navigating the tedium of bureaucracy
By Noelle Turtur Viewpoints Columnist One day my friend Harriett and I decided to go to the Archiginnasio, a library repurposed from the original building for the University of Bologna. Upon entering the 500-year old structure, we check in at the front desk, where the desk worker asks me for some ID. After a few seconds spent deliberating over whether to use my student visa, New York state drivers license, or university identification, I hand her my driver’s license. Then, both Harriet and I have to fill out a form with name, address, phone number, reasons for being there, etc. After the paperwork, we get a key to a locker, in which we are instructed to put all of our things save the books that we will be using. The desk clerk presently dismisses us without even telling us where the lockers are. So after another five minutes of wandering around, we find them, put our stuff in, and are finally ready to enter the library. But no: That would be too easy. We have to return to the same lady, who gives us a large 5x8 yellow laminated card and another sheet of paper on which we have to write our names
and other personal information. She then stamps this second sheet of paper, and we are finally ready to enter the library. After studying, it’s time to leave—and that’s a production in itself. We have to go to another desk and get the second sheet of paper stamped. Then we go back to the first desk, wait in line, and hand in that sheet of paper. Then we have to retrieve our key, trek to the lockers to get our stuff, and then return to the same desk and wait in yet another line to return the key and pick up my driver’s license. So passed a few hours of studying, minus 40 minutes of bouncing back from desk to desk filling out forms and getting pieces of paper stamped, signed, dated, whatever. In my experience, library bureaucracy is not usually this bad—however, I can only think of two libraries in all of Bologna that you can just go into, find a seat, and sit down and study. I hope my experience gives you some insight into a country where bureaucracy reigns supreme, reaching levels to which it impedes significantly on my life—and I’m just a foreign student who, thankfully, had a study abroad program that navigated all of the bureaucracy of getting my student visa. (Which, if you were wondering, entails going to the post office to officially pay in person for my permesso di soggiorno, or visa, and then to the im-
migration office to have my fingerprints taken multiple times and the information on my forms checked and checked again, and then to the police station to be fingerprinted yet again! The process continues). Although I tend to stay positive when things go wrong—fighting won’t work, especially when it comes to immigration— sometimes it is difficult to look at the bureaucracy and not see it as something far more dangerous. Today, Italy is in a grave economic crisis. The crisis of 2008 was only a small drop in the bucket. The Italian economy has been in trouble since the end of the post-war economic boom. Much of this trouble has been created by Italian politicians, who have long used public money to finance the construction of their own political empires, part of which includes expanding the bureaucracy in order to fill it with men loyal to the parties in power. These corrupt actions have had real, concrete effects: People rarely have jobs that last for more than a few months, businesses open and close in the blink of an eye, and young people are continually shuffling back and forth between living with their parents and moving out for the few months that they have employment. And, keep in mind that my experience is in the north of Italy, where the economy is strongest. Returning to the theme
of bureaucracy: When I shuffle between offices and desks in my attempts to negotiate this enormous bureaucracy, I can only think of two things. First, I think of the taxes that are being paid in order to fund a redundant and bloated system. Second, I think of the simple inefficiency of a system that makes anyone trying to do anything that involves the state (which is virtually everything ) want to pull his hair out while paying for the privilege to do so. From my observations of daily life and my studies of Italian history, I have come to the conclusion that the Italian bureaucracy is one of many factors impeding the Italian economy and society as a whole from overcoming Italy’s history and moving into a more prosperous phase. I do not blame people who work for the Italian government. I understand that civil service is a steady job with good opportunities, and I cannot blame anyone for pursuing that. I merely think the system is broken. I am sad and angry because most of the people who struggle with this system and with this economy have inherited all of these problems. They are innocent and still have to pay. Bureaucracy must exist in every country, but Italy is an extreme and lamentable case. Noelle Turtur is a thirdyear in the College majoring in history.
to prevent future health code violations. Throughout the various missives posted on the dining hall Web site, no individuals take responsibility for the failed inspections. You won’t find “the buck stops here”–style statements anywhere. UChicago students have been criticized for how they’ve chosen to communicate their complaints about dining (e.g., via posts on the Overheard at UChicago Facebook group), but I think that they deserve credit for clearly expressing what changes they would like to see, such as cleaner food-preparation areas. In contrast, UChicago Dining seems to be deliberately obfuscatory. Responding with boilerplate is not going to regain the confidence of students. It feels as though we are merely being humored when we provide feedback. The University may be teaching us how to communicate in our courses, but it’s teaching a very different lesson in the “real world.” Jane Huang is a third-year in the College.
Seek positive reinforcement for your faith in decency STAIRS continued from page 3 expert touch to bring out and revive its beauty. Too often, trust is left needing to be restored. If you no longer seek it out, Politically Incorrect Maroon Confessions seems to have gone; but it remains, a (relatively) ghostly vestige of a time on the electronic extension of our campus that saw the trust of students like me completely ripped to pieces. My sense of trust in regard to things like racialism and sexism and other hatreds—and I think ours, more generally—is one that I keep sequestered. At this university, where free inquiry or something reigns supreme, I find that when I choose to leave my trust hanging around unguarded, someone will usually come along and slam it with the door to open discourse. I’m less trusting of people than I am of stairs. I honestly acknowledge that this is the right way to be, as a rule, but I still find myself wondering how my outlook on this place I plan to be for another two years would be different if I’d left my precious, delicate burden of trust optimistically exposed, in search of positive reinforcement. So many of the people I know here are sensitive and thoughtful and possessive of ears and mouths that function as they should. Only some are awful; the only problem seems to be that I don’t always see these people coming. And, with respect to the health of my own senses of dignity and trust in others, my pre-
vious approach to broaching the topics so grievously manhandled both by Politically Incorrect Maroon Confessions and by some people I’d rather not speak to again has been an explosive failure, as evidenced by the fact that I no longer broach them. Granted, this is just my own, very personal experience; but, based on it, I’m going to hope not exactly that the good outweighs the bad, but that openly embracing the good will widely expose the bad as something pathological. If, like me, you feel dissatisfied with your place on our “diverse” campus, and if you’re so inclined, you should consider letting your trust breathe fresh air. Personally, I’ve decided that I’d rather do that than conceal it more deeply—plus, if this is a bad idea, I’ll probably be almost out of here by the time I realize it. Plainly, I’m asking you to defy conventional wisdom: Like a delicate ice sculpture, if you leave trust exposed for too long, you’re just asking for it to slowly dissipate from exposure to the simplest earthly vicissitudes, or to be shattered by cataclysm. But please believe me when I say you’re not asking that for your trust—for your frail treasure. You’re asking, reasonably and with the most wonderfully admirable grace, for there to be someone who appreciates it. Ajay Batra is a secondyear in the College majoring in English.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 17, 2013
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The government must stand up to elites who abuse unpaid internships and equate privilege with opportunity INTERNS continued from page 3 rion number five of the Department of Labor doesn’t really mean anything. And then, the people who control the printing presses and literary magazines of New York are all from rich backgrounds—and their output reflects this. Although, to be fair, when in history was this not the case? Despite the fact that unpaid internships are illegal and an impediment to equal opportunity, no one is going to put a stop to them. The elite benefit from the current system, so why stop their children from pursuing their literary dreams when there are Californian grape harvesters to vilify? Employers are incentivized to support the system since it helps them cut costs. The only people incentivized to put an end to the divisive practice of unpaid internships are those who are not in the power nexus. However, by definition, they lack the power to do so. There’s no foreseeable way in which a mass protest could convince a Warner Bros. executive to deny an internship to his golf partner’s daughter.
Then who is responsible for putting an end to the illegal practice of unpaid internships? I believe that if we accept that unpaid internships constitute a market failure, the answer is obvious: the government. Isn’t it a market failure if the brightest students—that is, the best resources, who cannot possibly all come from the richest backgrounds—are not allocated efficiently after four years of debilitating college expenses? Instead, they’re expected to finance their own first jobs. It’s a federal duty to fix market failures such as this one, and, in this case, that’s merely a case of enforcing laws that are already in place. But, then again, the road to Capitol Hill is paved with unpaid internships, so don’t expect any action anytime soon.
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Raghav Rao is the beneficiary of two unpaid internships (albeit in India, where the labor laws are murkier than the Ganges). He is a fourth-year in the College majoring in English.
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ARTS
Heartlandia MAY 17, 2013
A GUIDE TO
SUMMER BREEZE 2013 Though the forecast predicts weekend thunderstorms, a Summer Breeze will be blowing into Hyde Park this Saturday. Summer Breeze, a day-long festival that gives UChicago students a much-needed opportunity to flee the Reg, forget about the “life of the mind,” and turn their attention to more typical summer college activities with multiple live concerts, a carnival, and formerly, University-subsidized day-drinking. The festival is a joint effort between the Major Activities Board (MAB), Council on University Programming (COUP), and WHPK 88.5 FM, the school’s non-profit radio station. Each group is hosting its own leg of the event, with MAB and WHPK organizing concerts and COUP throwing a carnival.
COUP’S CARNIVAL 2–5 p.m. Cost: Free Location: Main Quads A perennial favorite, COUP will be providing a huge spread of free food, featuring Jamba Juice, soft pretzels, burgers, and other grilled items, and an ice cream truck. After students get their sugar highs, they can head over to the six different inflatables, the hypnotist, or the digital photobooth. Also appearing at the carnival are ten
different student performance groups: the Folk Arts Community, UChicago Bhangra, Gingarte Capoeira, Dirt Red Brass Band, Voices in Your Head, The Koong, RBIM Irish Dance, PhiNix, Maya, and Raas.
WHPK’S SUMMER BREEZE 12–5 p.m. Cost: Free Location: Main Quads A daytime companion to the carnival, the WHPK [Punk] Summer Breeze show will feature six independent [punk] bands as an alternative to the MAB lineup. The WHPK acts for this year are from Chicago, Detroit, Louisville, and Austin, but will be showing up to campus to the tune of three chords. Tyvek: Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, this alternative punk band played its first show in 2005. Its most recent album, On Triple Beams, was released last fall and, along with the band’s name itself, clearly draws inspiration from efforts to revitalize and rebuild the members’ hometown. In a review of its single called “Wayne County Roads,” a song inspired by the band members’ many young friends
who have moved away from the Detroit area, Pitchfork called its sound “explosive and restrained, stupid-simple and arch in the same breath.” Geronimo!: This Chicago indiepop band is another group that has been praised for the “explosive” moments in its music. In addition to two full-length albums, the trio has a project called Buzz Yr Girlfriend, a collection of recycled cassette tapes with four new Geronimo! tracks on one side and mysterious music on the other (whatever the tape originally played before the band repurposed it). There are three editions of the project to date; the most recent, Vol 3 - The Metal David Byrne, was released in March. OOZE: Another Chicago group, OOZE, is an industrial hardcore band. Its last.fm page says, “OOZE fittingly attacks the stage with their electro assault as if the apocalypse is here and they are the radioactive hot outer plume of the Mushroom cloud.” Founded in 1992, OOZE has released two EPs and went on a U.S. tour in 2002. Anwar Sadat: Hailing from Louisville, Anwar Sadat is a post-punk group whose most recent record, Gold, dropped on February 12. Its titular track is full of growly vocals, distorted chords, and cries of, “Why does it take so long?/Why do you wait
so long?” Spray Paint: The Chicago Reader has praised Spray Paint, an Austin noiserock group, for its “jumpy noise-punk with a wonky, sketchy vibe and a country-fried drawl.” Its LP, Spray Paint, was released on S.S. Records this January. Dikes of Holland: Also from Austin, Dikes of Holland, a garage punk band, released its second album titled Braindead USA in July 2012. The group of five includes Liz Burrito, the only female performer who will take either stage of the Summer Breeze concerts this year. Her vocals are showcased on the verses of tracks such as “Meat Eaters,” a driving song with energetic, group-chanted choruses.
MAB’S SUMMER BREEZE Cost: $20 Students, $25 Staff Location: Hutch Courtyard MAB received significant criticism from the 21-plus crowd this year due to the elimination of the traditional Beer Garden, which it cut along with the Winter Comedy Show. The savings bring UChicago the following line-up: Nelly: Headlining this year’s Sum-
mer Breeze is hip-hop recording artist Nelly, from St. Louis, Missouri. His 2000 debut, Country Grammar, and its titular single are among his bestknown works, as well as tracks like “Chain Hang Low,” “Hot in Herre,” and “Air Force Ones.” Perhaps his most known venture is his stake in Apple Bottoms, the denim label that has been made iconic by Flo Rida and T-Pain in their song “Low.” Lunice: Lunice, a Canadian producer and DJ, entered the entertainment business as a competitive break-dancer in the early 2000s and began making his own music in 2007. Together with Hudson Mohawke, he performs as the group TNIGHT. On his own, he creates remix versions of artists such as The xx, Deerhunter, Ryan Leslie, and Foster The People. Smith Westerns: Chicago natives Smith Westerns are replacing AraabMUZIK, the originally advertised act who is recovering from gunshot wounds. A refreshing addition that brings some much-needed diversity to the line-up, the indie rock group is no newcomer to Summer Breeze; it performed at WHPK’s festival in 2008. After a self-titled debut album on HoZac Records, it released Dye It Blonde in 2011, a Britpop inspired full-length album which received an 8.4 rating from Pitchfork. —Kirsten Gindler
Indie darling Koenig’s Modern Vampires doesn’t suck Rob Sperry-Fromm Maroon Contributor The first time I listened to the new Vampire Weekend album Modern Vampires of the City was sometime in the middle of last week, and, immediately after hearing it, I remarked jokingly to my roommate that the over/under for Pitchfork’s inevitable rave of this thing should be a 9.5. Lo and behold, I wake up Monday morning and the 9.3 it has drawn from Mr. Ryan Dombal is not so far off. “Congratulations,” I say to myself, before I punch myself in the face. The release of a new Vampire Weekend album is a weird thing because it causes a disproportionate amount of rage from people who otherwise don’t seem to really care about this type of music. New Deerhunter album, new Grizzly Bear album, whatever, you either dig that Urban Outfitters stuff or you don’t. But a new Vampire Weekend album, now everybody who hates them is crawling out of the woodwork and screaming about it. This is one of those things where cultural dialogue seems like it’s going on even in spite of itself. Which explains the media nar-
rative surrounding the new album: Music publications that have always loved Vampire Weekend still love Vampire Weekend, only now it’s a little passé because of all the people who hate the living hell out of them for reasons that range from completely legitimate to wildly off-base (who cares if they’re Ivy League?). Yet every review I have read of Modern Vampires in the past week has included at least some mention of how this is the album that will turn the opinion of those who prefer their indie-pop a little less high-pitched and manic. This is when I should say that my relationship to Vampire Weekend is fraught, or complicated, and when I should mention that I have some kind of interesting perspective on this discussion that hasn’t been aired much, but really, I don’t. Basically, I hate Vampire Weekend. I hate that guy’s stupid voice, that stupid Cape Cod thing (is it a dance? I don’t care), that stupid chandelier, the fact that they ruined the opening credits to Step Brothers (an otherwise perfect film). And this is where I should say that I hate Modern Vampires of the City, that I am sticking to my guns
and not looking back, that the media narrative has done nothing to sway my opinion. But, those would be lies. This album is pretty good. Part of why people are gravitating towards the “game-changer” angle is because the album really does grab your attention immediately as not sounding like a Vampire Weekend record. While opener “Obvious Bicycle” would seem to have all the hallmarks of irritation—mainly, Ezra Koenig’s effete warbling of self-consciously wordy lyrics—it also boasts a melody that is downright freaking gorgeous, and the arrangement doesn’t get in the way of it at all. This turns out to be a theme. The first seven songs on this album each have at least one melodic turn, a chorus usually, or just a cool phrase, that will be lodged in your brain for several days. Also, the production is suddenly weird and kind of cool. They’ve brought in Ariel Rechtshaid, known for his work on Usher’s Pitchfork fave “Climax.” This was a good call. I know nothing about electronica, but these little technological flourishes, like the vocal modulations on “Diane Young,” serve this band well. It feels totally
For the first time in their critically-acclaimed career, Vampire Weekend has made use of a font other than Futura. COURTESY OF XL
natural, softening the edges of their fastidiousness. But what’s really unexpected is how spacious these songs are. Earlier Vampire Weekend records were marked sonically by the cluttered, twee aping of
Graceland-era Paul Simon, but this thing really breathes, and its breath is heaving with detail. Most songs are driven by some simple chords on a piano or harpsichord and a subtly electro-fied WEEKEND continued on page 7
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 17, 2013
I’m stuck in rush hour traffic on I-90 on the way to the Six Corners of Portage Park, where I’m headed to catch a flick at one of the oldest movie houses in Chicago, the Portage Theater. The place has been around for nearly a century and has shuffled through ownership in recent years, but some friends of mine have been reigniting its film tradition with a Wednesday night program. They call themselves the Northwest Chicago Film Society, they being Becca Hall (A.B. ’10), Julian Antos, and Kyle
“Step” and “Hannah Hunt” are album highs WEEKEND continued from page 6 drum part, making fantastic use of dynamics and giving Koenig’s breathtaking melodies center stage. A word like “breathtaking” sounds like hyperbole, but, honestly, there are more than a few moments here that made me kind of gasp at the hubris from this Koenig guy. The melodies are slow and languid, and it feels like you’ve heard them before in the best, most uncanny way. A lot of them sound classic. Koenig is shooting high—Roy Orbison, Paul McCartney, Kinks, later Paul Simon— and, mostly, he’s hitting his marks, which for me was kind of shocking. These songs are often incredibly simple, but enough of them reach that point of melodic bliss where even the deep-rooted nerd in me wasn’t complaining about the 1–5–1 chord changes, he was just singing along. The highlights here are “Step” and “Hannah Hunt.” I don’t even know what to say about these songs, they’re just really beautiful, basically perfect. The melodies induce tears, the lyrics aren’t even annoying because they’re rhythmically tailored to the song. They have been in my head for days. There’s a moment about a minute from the end of “Hannah Hunt” where Koenig starts to really cut loose and belt that will just kill you if you like this kind of thing. Everyone I’ve talked to about this album has mentioned that moment. It’s crazy. You should listen to it. It’s not perfect. The winning streak ends at track eight, “Finger Back,” which is truly irritating in the manner of previous VW releases, and the next one, “Worship You,” which is quite boring. But “Ya Hey” and “Hudson” send things out nicely (with lots more vocal modulation to keep everyone satisfied). So, maybe, if it wasn’t before, my relationship with Vampire Weekend actually is fraught, because I find myself falling for an album that I had no interest in hearing a month ago. I wouldn’t say that I, the “hater,” have been proven wrong, because Contra still sucks, but I have proven myself right on a theor y I’ve always had: It is stupid to evaluate music based on reputation. I said it after I actually liked the new Strokes album, and I’m saying it again now after I’ve ended up liking the new Vampire Weekend album. To quote Koenig from the opener, “So listen. Don’t wait.”
Westphal (A.B. ’07). The crew is a staple of the Chicago film scene, and comprises some of the coolest people I know. They’re also Doc alumni (Kyle has been working on a book about its history), and Julian preceded me as that group’s programming chair a couple years ago. Although I hadn’t seen them in a while, some of my best memories of the last few years are of climbing up onto Moomers’ (their apartment, upstairs from the old Toolshed) porch and talkin’ movies and music while kicking it on their
hammock. But I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and I’m late. I crank the volume on Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society’s new album, Brooklyn Babylon. Darcy’s new record was appropriate for this night’s outing : A concept album about an all-too-real gentrified future for Brooklyn, performed by an 18-piece jazz bigband, the music sounds like what Duke Ellington might have written if the bigband hadn’t gone out of vogue, and had instead continued to involve and
7 incorporate influences from rock, hip hop, heavy metal, disco, etc., the rest of music history since the 1960s. Darcy calls it steampunk, and it’s really cool. Loud horns, heavy drums, and guitar, Croatian and Balkan folk melodies…basically, the perfect tunes for driving through the northwest side of a city like Chicago. Brooklyn Babylon was an apt choice, because what I was going to witness is, by some accounts, an attempt to breathe life back into a dead practice. The Northwest Chicago Film Society screens film prints— 35mm and 16mm on their Simplex projectors—in a world where most movie theaters you go to no longer show film stock, having converted to high-resolution digital projectors. The transition from film to digital was happening when I started programming Doc in 2011 (which also shows movies on film), and back then I had no idea how quickly film stock was going to be rendered obsolete as the mainstream form of movie exhibition. But it’s happened, and it’s happened within the last few years. It was a total revolution, and it went basically undetected—especially by the mainstream media—unless you were paying attention. It’s going to save the studios millions in shipping and production fees, for a few basic economic reasons: It costs thousands of dollars to make a film print, and you need WARRIORS continued on page 8
The Lumen Christi Institute, The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, and the Seng Foundation Endowment for Market-Based Programs & Catholic Values, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame
present
TOWARD A MORAL ECONOMY Globalization and the Developing World A public symposium with a keynote address by
Peter Cardinal Turkson President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
and presentations by
Robert Lucas University of Chicago Economics Department
Luigi Zingales University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Joseph Kaboski University of Notre Dame Economics Department
THURSDAY MAY 23 4:00-6:00 PM
Max Palevsky Cinema Ida Noyes Hall 1212 East 59th Street
Free and open to the public. For more information and to register, please visit www.lumenchristi.org.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 17, 2013
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Next week at the Portage, Sean Connery “sci-fi odyssey” Zardoz WARRIORS continued from page 7 to make hundreds of them for a countrywide release of every title you produce; shipping a 60–100 pound film print is five or six times more expensive than shipping a 5–10 pound hard drive; and you need to own hundreds of gigantic warehouses to store tens of thousands of your film prints. But they still show film at the Portage: cartoons, trailers, ads, features, and random reels from archives, studio vaults, and private collections. I won’t go into its mission, and I won’t talk about the breadth and depth of its programming—
you can check its blog for that (and you should, since Kyle writes some of the best film criticism and industry musings I’ve ever read). I will say that what it does is special. It’s preserving an experience that is in danger of being wiped out in the era of instant-gratification Netflix—being in a theater with an audience, talking about movie history with people who care about that kind of stuff, and actually seeing movies on the exhibition format on which they were made and intended to be seen. I pulled up ten minutes after seven, and, by chance, I was right on time. Kyle and
Julian were still prepping the pre-show entertainment when I got up to the booth—a short, along with some trailers and ads, all on 35mm—and the Portage’s manager was hammering away at the Kimball pipe organ at the foot of the stage. I hung around up there and watched Julian at work during the feature, but after a while retreated down to the back row of the theater; as a projectionist, I know about the sanctity of the booth, and I was worried that I was intruding. The Portage is big, at a healthy 1,300 capacity, but it’s more long and wide than tall—it’s not like these multiplex cinemas that have
stout and steep seating arrangements. From the back, I estimated that the throw distance from projector to screen had to be at least 300 feet. The place just oozes movie theater, in a classic sense: the popcorn smells like it came from real kernels and not steam-processed junk, and you can hear the crackling of the print’s mono soundtrack and the whirring of the Simplexes. It’s old school, and it just feels like the right place to see a movie. Next Wednesday is Sean Connery in his wacky post-Bond adults-only sci-fi odyssey, Zardoz. Tickets are only five bucks a pop.
Untitled by Kunal Basu-Dutta
Untitled, oil pastel on paper, 14” x 11,” 2012. By third-year Valia O’Donnell.
“Damn it! I always run out of thread.” Jeffrey slammed the wooden drawer shut. “Why is it that just as I’m about to finish my masterpiece, something has to go wrong ? Fuck!” Each stomp echoed through the tiny studio apartment. His neighbor Sam pounded on the shared bedroom wall. “Shut up. Some of us are trying to get laid!” “Screw you,” responded Jeffrey with as much rage as his 5 foot 5, 120-pound body could muster. “Don’t make me come over there and kick your ass again.” Jeffrey could not afford someone visiting his place, especially now, when he was so close. “OK, OK. I’ll keep it down.” “You better, you….” The rest, presumably something with four letters, simply became inaudible. Jeffrey kept pacing, however. Now that he had started this project he really wanted to finish it. All he needed was some thread. Color didn’t matter, but he preferred yellow. “Maybe there’s a store or a craft shop or a…a…goddammit. Nothing’s open right now.” He sat down with a sigh. Worn out. Every part of him that had been charged was now limp and tired. It was always like this with him. His tiny studio apartment was littered with projects that were half-started, almost done, “basically finished.” This problem had begun a long time ago. Jeffrey had always been the boy with half a finished puzzle. And now, here he was—alone in his apartment with a cold girl whose eyes were still open. “I guess staples will have to do.” Kunal Basu-Dutta is a fourth-year in the College majoring in Classical Studies and minoring in Creative Writing.
“Pelvic Bone,” pen, 2011. By second-year Morgane Richer la Flèche.
Submit your art and creative writing to the Maroon’s new Creative Cloisters, which will run every week for the duration of the quarter, at arts@chicagomaroon.com
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 17, 2013
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The strange case of Dr. Gelée and Mr. Fries fever, and that the only prescription is more cow cheese—in this case, a lovely fonduta sauce. It’s a small but mighty dish: again, not really a bar snack, but a meatball by any other name would taste just as suhweet. Unfortunately, the venison pâté is not quite as praiseworthy. As a standard pâté, it’s absolutely fine; as a venison pâté, conjuring images of a wild hunt, it under-delivers. At least the pickles are nice.
LONGMAN & EAGLE 2657 North Kedzie Avenue Average small plate: $13
The Promontory, the Hyde Park branch of Longman & Eagle, will be opening soon. COURTESY OF LONGMAN AND EAGLE
Iliya Gutin Senior Arts Staff “Serve your amuse-bouche on a spoon. Even if it misfires, you’ll land yourself a Michelin star.” Surely you’re familiar with this time-honored adage. Perhaps one day it will be emblazoned upon House Longman’s royal seat at Logan Square, displayed proudly alongside their noble Eagle. But until ChefLord Jared Wentworth decrees it so, a nebulous word cloud of “local, organic, sustainable, nose-totail, globally-inspired-American” will have to suffice. Lame maxim aside, Longman & Eagle (ampersand, please) is a North Side—and greater Chicago—landmark, a paragon of the gastropub form that has swept through this city like a delicious disease. However, unlike other hunter-gatherer restaurants, Longman bears the added distinction of Michelin approval; its one star is indicative of “very good cuisine in its category.” Not that Longman is exactly hankering for the recognition attached to the
honor, as evidenced by the placement of its plaques atop the highest reaches of the whiskey bar. Fortunately, two years running and the Longman team is not allowing the culinary stardom to get to its head, though the dishes that emerge from the kitchen still glimmer and glow amid the perpetual dusk of the interior. A cursory glance at the primary ingredients at play may cause you to gasp, “Loins, and tartares, and boars...oh my!” but on the whole, nothing is too intimidating or challenging. It’s “comfort” food in the comforting sense, and the menu is straightforward in its divisions—Bar Snacks, Small Plates, and Large Plates. I can’t say the Bar Snacks are particularly “snackable,” but go ahead and order them as appetizers. The Slagel Family Farms meatballs have texture and provide resistance to the bite, rather than being some emulsified mess that cleaves as soon as you rest a knife on top of it. Same goes for the luxuriant pesto and polenta base: Longman knows that you probably have a bland-polenta-induced
Though the Michelin brand has recently sought to shun the elitist associations its reviews carry, the Small Plates at Longman hew close to the refined sensibilities of the Michelin tradition. That is to say, the food is small and the plates are large, as are their corresponding price tags. Then again, the level of craftsmanship and presentation on display is a legitimate reason to eat my words. A bacon-wrapped rabbit loin is the foundation of a classic version of an already deconstructed classic. Whoosh That’s some mind-blowing meta-cooking shit right there. The dish is a play on pot pie, right down to the puff pastry slabs, caramelized root veggies, and gravy-sauce hybrid, the main carrier of flavor. It’s fatty and rich and tasty and all that jazz, but there’s a reason the gravy is hidden under a layer of dough. Sometimes beauty is flaky-crust thin. On the opposite end of the heartiness metric lie the refreshingly non-carnivorous ricotta gnudi. Gnocchi’s nimble, elegant cousin, the five marble-sized orbs are so fragile that slicing into them seems a culinary crime akin to clubbing a baby seal. Then again, baby seals don’t pair wonderfully with artichokes, fava beans, and black garlic puree. Many of the dishes at Longman come with more than a little assembly required in order to obtain an optimal bite, but it’s worth the effort. From the Big Plates, the special was a Pressed Pork Shoulder, prepared with a quasi-Mexican flare that also emulates Chicago’s indigenous jibarito sandwich. The jibarito substitutes crispy plantains for bread. Longman takes this theme and runs with it: A block of pulled pork is graced with plantain chips, hominy,
cilantro gel, and pickled vegetables. Hominy and I make pretty good company—especially when it’s this well prepared—and the pork itself is made with a touch of modernist technique. Greater than the sum of its parts, the pork is cooked, pulled apart only to be reassembled, and then crisped up to make a nice crusty edge. It’s better, smokier, and fattier than it was before. Post pork consumption, I was struck by the question of how much added value, taste-wise, an exotic animal contributes. So, to rephrase my earlier sentiment, “Loins, and tartares, and boars… but why?” There’s certainly an inherent sense of excitement and adventure in eating unconventional, or uncommon, forms of protein—but maybe there’s a reason why we don’t consume wild game on a regular basis, beyond the fact that the only hunting or foraging most of us do is confined to the frosty hinterlands of the refrigerator. My meal was ceremoniously capped off with Longman’s famous Wild Boar Sloppy Joe. Accented with fried sage, onions, and an entire pickled jalapeno, it’s hard to put down. Literally. Once you start eating this sandwich, God forbid you pause for breath, or else the whole assembly will come crashing down. But damn, it’s good, even if the spice blend is so pungent that you could substitute raccoon meat for boar and get the same result. I started my meal at Longman & Eagle with a mushroom gelée and sea bean amuse, and concluded with beef fat fries slathered in ketchup. The discord between the two speaks volumes. What Michelinstarred establishment has the cojones to even make this attempt? It’s amazing how such a small space can appeal to such a vast diner demographic and can be a purveyor of truly “eagle-itarian” fare. In fact, this Eagle may soon be landing in Hyde Park, the logic and logistics of which confound me. The new restaurant is part of a recent wave of Hyde Park gentrification—or is it re-gentrification at this point? Actually, “gentri-fauxcation” is the operative term here, or the delusion that a liberal seasoning of North Side businesses—Five Guys, Clarke’s, Akira, Kilwins—will create equilibrium among the tyranny of Thai and mediocrity of the Med currently on display. But I do believe in miracles, especially of the culinary variety, and if the protégé of Longman & Eagle, tentatively dubbed “Promontory,” measures up to even a decile of the sensei, then there’s hope yet for Hyde Park.
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This bread comes with cheese and pickles, but none of those crazy prawn chips! COURTESY OF LONGMAN AND EAGLE
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENTS | May 17, 2013
TOMORROW’S MUSIC TODAY II
G R E Y C I T Y THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF THE CHICAGO
MAROON
Award-winning Contempo artists Cliff Colnot, eighth blackbird and Pacifica Quartet
05.17.13 FRI | 7:30 PM Performance Hall, Logan Center for the Arts Tonight only, enjoy a program showcasing the talents of University of Chicago’s doctoral candidates in composition. Hear cutting-edge dissertation works by Andrew Jasinski, Francisco Castillo Trigueros, and a chamber opera by Dylan Schneider. Performers include eighth blackbird and Pacifica Quartet, Grazyna Auguscik, soprano, Matthew Newlin, tenor, Chad Sloan, baritone, and other guest musicians. Admission is free. Join us for a post-concert reception with the artists and composers! “…contemporary music down to science; talented, very technically capable performers play…with authority and élan.” − ChicagoClassicalMusic.org
SPRING 2013 ISSUE
COMING SOON
CLASSIFIEDS Classified advertising in The Chicago Maroon is $3 for each line. Lines are 45 characters long including spaces and punctuation. Special headings are 20-character lines at $4 per line. Submit all ads in person, by e-mail, or by mail to The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, Lower Level Rm 026, 1212 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637. The Chicago Maroon accepts Mastercard & Visa. Call (773) 702-9555. 5114 S. KIMBARK, UNIT 3S. ATTRACTIVE ONE (1) BEDROOM APARTMENT in well maintained building, lots of light, hardwood floors, eat in cabinet kitchen, miniblinds, ceiling fan, laundry on site, great location, $815.00 includes heat, available May 1. Chad 312-7203136 cjohnson@hallmark-johnson.com
QUAD ESL 63 LOUDSPEAKERS(1 PAIR). Extensively tweaked to sound AMAZING by U of C Physics prof. and serious audiophile. May need new panels. FREE stands & pwr supply. $2300 obo. To hear(Oak Pk) or fotos: jwinstein@yahoo.com
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Learn Web Programming at the U of C this Summer! The Computer Science Department is offering a new version of CMSC 10200 in Summer 2013 featuring Ruby programming and Ruby on Rails, MWF June 24 to July 26 (five weeks). CMSC 10200 has no prerequisites and satisfies the mathematical sciences requirement (course description at http://bit.ly/11joNDf). Spaces are available! Register at summer.uchicago.edu. Questions? Contact Adam Shaw at ams@cs.uchicago.edu.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 17, 2013
Maroons to find out NCAA fates at Last Chance Men’s Track & Field
Fourth-year Billy Whitmore competes in the Chicagoland Men’s Outdoor Championship in 2011. COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT
Isaac Stern Sports Staff The time has come for the Maroons: Win or go home. Those who post sufficient times at the North Central Last Chance meet will qualify for the NCAA National Championship in La Crosse,
WI. The rest will see the 2013 season and for some, their collegiate careers, come to an end. Over the next two days, the Maroons will total 42 entries across all events. Most South Siders do not really have a shot at qualifying and will use the Last Chance as another opportunity to gain experience before the end of the season. But for a select few, the
time has come to move up in the rankings. For most of the men’s events, the top 20 in the country qualify. Only seven of Chicago’s 42 entries have made have previous times or heights that currently rank in the top 50 within DIII. For those seven, some margins will be too difficult to overcome for them to have a realistic shot of competing at NCAAs. First-year Michael Bennett will compete in the pole vault. His current best height of 4.81m ranks 15th in the nation and will likely qualify him for nationals even if he were to forgo competing today. However, he will probably make an effort to improve on that height at the Last Chance meet. Fourth-year Billy Whitmore is also ranked nationally. He currently sits 18th in the national polls in the 5,000m with a time of 14:30.53, but will not race this weekend. Last Chance will prove especially important to fourth-years Isaac Dalke and Dee Brizzolara. If they miss out on qualifying, the Last Chance will be their final race as Chicago Maroons. All three have had stellar careers at Chicago and have improved every year since they first arrived. Dalke’s time of 14:36.90 in the 5000m run ranks 31st in the nation and is less than seven seconds over the qualifying time. If everything goes his way, Dalke has a realistic shot at booking his ticket to nationals. Brizzolara can qualify in both the 100m and 200m dashes. In the 200m dash, he’s in a good position, ranking 17th in the nation. In the 100m dash, he is five hundredths of a second slower than a qualifying time. Beyond these competitors, there are a few other Maroons who have the talent and ability to qualify. The men’s 4x100 relay composed of first-years Jake Romeo and Ben Clark, thirdyear Zihan Xu, and Brizzolara has posted impressive performances every week. However, they have been disqualified in previous meets for various infractions. They need to speed up by nine-tenths of a second to improve their time of 42.61 into qualifying position. By the end of tomorrow night, almost all of the South Siders will know where they stand in regard to qualification, although the results will not be set in stone; there are numerous other meets around the country over the weekend, and if those competitors break into the qualifying ranks, some Maroons could be kicked out. For now, though, the Maroons will lace up their spikes and focus on the only things they can control.
Gutwein: “All our work paid off last fall” WATER POLO continued from back
year M.B.A. student at Booth who joined the squad this year, earned All-American honors while at Brown before playing professionally in Australia. Gluncic and Adams have been a big part of the squad’s resurgence, both with their experience and with the greater focus they’ve brought to the Maroons’ practices. Their first tournament of the year—a CWPA league meet in Ohio the weekend before fall classes began—saw the team pull out a seventh place finish in its Great Lakes Division, despite not having any time to practice together. “Honestly, we had no expectations,” third-year Lee Kuhn said. “It was important to get back in the league.” After finishing 1–3 at a tournament hosted by Northwestern during winter quarter, the club has come back in a big way. The Maroons have won five straight games against Midwest competition, taking a close exhibition against IIT, winning all three of their matches at Waterpalooza, and polishing off their season with an 18–7 nail-biter against Lake Forest. Those results came with a fairly rotating
cast. The team holds open practices; anybody can show up to twice-weekly practices in Ratner’s Myers-McLoraine Swimming pool. Players can show up as often or as infrequently as they like, and the team decides together on playing time “by consensus,” Kuhn said, based on who’s been showing up. That inclusive environment is characteristic of the team. “The nice thing about the people who play college water polo,” Gutwein said, “is they know it’s just a game. We do like to win but we get the most utility out of having fun—our cheers are always random rap lyrics and we’ve adapted drinking games as water polo drills.” “It’s a pretty laid-back attitude, but you do have to buy into a few things,” first-year Joey Zhou said. With its recent growth in mind, the team has high hopes for next year. The team believes that this is the first year the University has actually hosted water polo games, and they’re applying to be the venue for next year’s CWPA tournament. Gutwein and Kuhn think the team can finish in the top half of its league next year, with an eye on nationals.
“This wasn’t in the realm of possibility looking at the team when I arrived as a first-year,” Gutwein said. “All our work and development from the past two years paid off last fall, and we are continuing to improve.” Having started from almost a blank slate, the squad has steadily cleared hurdle after logistical hurdle to get where it is. For the first time, the team has suits and caps for all its members and is working on getting everything Chicago needs to host matches, like game clocks, goals, and shot clocks. Kuhn is quick to deflect credit to the team’s alumni, who kept it going through periods of low interest. “It may seem like we were the spark,” he said, “but Arcadia was really the spark, she got us all involved.” UChicago water polo “feels like a new thing,” Kuhn said, but the team is looking to make sure that this time, the sport sticks. “We’re putting a lot of effort to make sure we get underclassmen involved, to see some institutional memory,” he said. The team wraps up its season with an inhouse scrimmage on June 2.
BASEBALL
UAA Standings
Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6
School Case Western Chicago Wash U Emory Brandeis Rochester
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Engel Cinoman Bullock Lowery Schwabe
Rank 1 2 3 4
Player Engel Pakan Cinoman 3 tied at
Rank 1 2 2 4 4
Player Engel Ossola Pakan Billig Cinoman
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Gish Dillman Bonser Quaranta Menke
Rank 1 2 2 4 4
Player Dillman Bonser Gish Swerdloff Brenner
Record 27–12(5–3) 24–12(0–0) 23–15(5–3) 22–17(4–4) 15–21(2–6) 16–24(4–4)
Batting Average
School Chicago Chicago Chicago Wash U Chicago
RBIs
School Chicago Case Western Chicago
Home Runs
School Chicago Case Western Case Western Wash U Chicago
ERA
School Case Western Emory Wash U Wash U Rochester
Strikeouts
School Emory Wash U Case Western Brandeis Brandeis
Win % 0.692 0.667 0.605 0.564 0.417 0.400 AVG .413 .403 .395 .394 .388 RBIs 41 38 36 32 HRs 5 4 4 3 3 ERA 1.95 2.20 2.33 2.50 2.55 Ks 68 52 52 48 48
SOFTBALL
UAA Standings
Rank 1 2 3 4 4 6
School Emory Wash U Case Western Brandeis Rochester Chicago
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Janssen Genovese Komar Light O’ Brien
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Neal Light Korn Berg Rochester
Rank 1 2 2 4 5
Player Bradford Korn Light Berg Neal
Rank 1 2 3 4 5
Player Kardys Carpenter Brottman Poole Grage
Rank 1 2 2 4 5
Player Taylor Pitkin Grage Neal Carpenter
Record 40–3(8–0) 31–12(5–3) 24–13(3–5) 23–19(3–5) 20–17(1–7) 18–16(0–0)
Batting Average
School Wash U Brandeis Case Western Emory Case Western
RBIs
School Wash U Emory Rochester Wash U Case Western
Home Runs
School Rochester Rochester Emory Wash U Wash U
ERA
School Emory Emory Emory Chicago Rochester
Strikeouts
School Case Western Wash U Rochester Wash U Emory
Win % 0.930 0.721 0.649 0.548 0.548 0.529 AVG .453 .452 .430 .424 .405
RBIs 54 53 40 39 38 HRs 13 12 12 9 8 ERA 1.38 1.60 1.76 2.26 2.56
Ks 153 118 118 87 86
WOMEN’S TENNIS Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
UAA Standings
School Emory Carnegie Chicago Wash U Brandeis Case Western Rochester NYU
Record 13–4(3–0) 12–7(2–1) 16–5(2–1) 14–7(1–2) 10–9(2–1) 12–9(1–2) 12–8(1–2) 5–6(0–3)
Win % 0.765 0.632 0.762 0.667 0.526 0.571 0.600 0.455
MEN’S TENNIS
UAA Standings Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
School Wash U Emory Case Western Carnegie Chicago NYU Brandeis Rochester
Record 17–5(3–0) 14–6(2–1) 21–6(2–1) 13–7(1–2) 14–5(2–1) 8–6(1–2) 8–12(1–2) 13–11(0–3)
Win % 0.773 0.700 0.778 0.650 0.737 0.571 0.400 0.542
SPORTS
IN QUOTES
“He sucks. I wouldn’t let Mark Sanchez throw me a paper bag sandwich.” —Carolina Panthers receiver Steve Smith in response to recent quarterback ratings on CBS Sports radio.
Three years after near-liquidation, water polo going strong Club Sports Spotlight: Water Polo Derek Tsang Sports Staff In 2010, the University’s water polo club was at the end of an era. Its then-captain, a fourth-year named Arcadia Paine (A.B. ’11) , was one of only a handful of regulars who showed up to practice. The club owed $600 to the Collegiate Water Polo Association, couldn’t scrounge up enough players to even scrimmage, and competed infrequently. Its turnaround has been equal parts drastic and rapid. That core group, most of whom are now third- and fourth-years, has seen the club’s regular membership grow to around two dozen. The squad is back in the CWPA, hasn’t lost a match since December, and even hosted its own tournament, Waterpalooza, last month. Team captain and president Victor Gutwein, a third-year, quoted rap lyrics to
describe the team’s growth. “To describe our journey as a team,” he said. “Drake says it perfectly with ‘started from the bottom now we’re here.’” It’s much more than a vapid pop culture reference; the team really has grown together. “I’m the loudest one,” Gutwein said, “but there are about a dozen others making this team function properly, and we wouldn’t be where we are without all of those efforts combined.” The squad has just about every level of experience accounted for. Several players competed in high school, while others are ex-swimmers and “complete guppies,” as Gutwein put it. The team is led by a pair of psuedo-coaches, Vicko Gluncic and Geritt Adams. Gluncic, an anesthesiologist, is an alumnus and a former Croatian professional. He came into the fold during the 2011–2012 school year. Adams, a firstWATER POLO continued on page 11
Samantha Blumenthal (left) and second-year Bronagh Daly (right) compete in a water polo scrimmage with UChicago teammates. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO WATER POLO
National qualification all but secured for Sizek, Young Women’s Track & Field Sam Zacher Associate Sports Editor
Fourth-year Kayla McDonald competes at the Chicago Duals meet earlier this year. COURTESY OF JOHN BOOZ
After picking up a couple of top finishes last weekend, the Maroons are poised for their last meet before NCAAs. Yesterday and today’s North Central Last Chance meet is the final opportunity for Chicago runners, jumpers, and throwers who are hoping to qualify for nationals. Already in qualifying positions are firstyear Catherine Young and fourth-year AllAmerican Julia Sizek. Both athletes compete in the 5,000-meter and finished back-toback last weekend, at 3rd (16:57.37) and 4th (17:00.19), respectively. “My favorite moment of my race was running with and qualifying with my teammate Julia,” Young said. “She is captain of our team and has really pushed me through this entire season. I am so glad that she will be competing with me at nationals.” Generally, women ranked in the top 22 nationally in their respective events qualify
for NCAAs, and Young and Sizek both have positions all but locked: the first-year is currently 8th and the fourth-year sits at 11th. At UAAs a couple weeks ago, Sizek’s and Young’s roles were reversed. Sizek nabbed 2nd with a time of 17:06.01 and Young finished directly after (3rd, 17:07.52). In an impressive fashion, Young took her time down by 10 seconds in just two weeks. Other notable Maroons are on the outside looking in: third-year Sarah Peluse is 34th in the 10,000-meter with a time of 37:00.96—another event in which Sizek will likely qualify for NCAAs. She currently has the 10th best time in the nation (35:54.93). In addition, first-year Brianna Hickey is 35th in the 1,500-meter with a time of 4:36.01, fourth-year Vicky Espinoza is 38th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:17.59, and fourth-year Kayla McDonald is 44th in the 800-meter with a time of 2:14.94. Peluse would need to make up 40 seconds to catch the runner holding the 22nd
ranking, Hickey is just over two seconds behind the qualifying spot, Espinoza needs nine seconds to be in a position to qualify, and McDonald is 1.68 seconds behind the last runner qualifying. Unfortunately for Chicago, these athletes have a long shot at making the cut for nationals with only this last meet remaining, but Peluse is looking forward to next year. “Brianna ran 4:36 in the 1500, Catt [Young ] broke 17 [minutes] in the 5k, and [first-year] Maya [Lewinsohn] ran 18:36 in the 5k, so we’re definitely going to have a good cross country team next year,” Peluse said. “Catt is already going to nationals, Brianna is ranked 35th in the 1,500-meter and is about two seconds behind the 22nd girl, and I’m ranked 34th in the 10k, so, hopefully, next year we’ll have even more people qualify for nationals.” Regardless of whether or not any other Maroons qualify, the team will be cheering on Young and Sizek May 23–25 at the NCAA Championships in La Crosse, WI.
Five for Friday: Taking a look at the week’s key story lines MALONEY SET TO 2. RUGBY TO FACE 1. WITH RETIRE, SEARCH FOR NORTHWESTERN AT REPLACEMENT BEGINS
H e a d football coach Dick Maloney announced his retirement earlier this week, bringing to a close a 19-year run in charge of the Maroons over which he amassed a 94–82 record and five UAA Coach of the Year awards, including in 2011, when the Maroons won their most recent UAA championship. He ended his tenure on a disappointing note this season, as Chicago finished the year with a 4–6 record, but that should not take away from the fact that he has been Chicago’s most successful coach since Amos Alonzo Stagg. The search for his successor will begin in the next few weeks and will be lead by Acting Athletic Director Brian Baldea.
STAGG FIELD
Men’s rugby w e l c o m e s Northwestern to Stagg Field this weekend for its final game of the spring season. The Maroons are hoping to make it two wins out of two against the Wildcats this school year, after recording a victory against them back in the fall, also on Stagg. Chicago has its sights set on closing out a transitional year in style. The Maroons competed in the CARFU Collegiate DII for the first time in the fall, struggling at times with the higher level of competition, and recorded a 1–3–1 record. A victory against Northwestern would be the perfect way for this squad to begin preparation for another assault on DII next year.
DON’T TAKE YOUR 3. EYES OFF THOSE HONOR ROLLS
The NCAA DIII Track & Field Championship will begin next Thursday in La Crosse, WI, but the field of competitors remains undecided. Currently, five South Siders rank in qualification positions in their respective events. Fourth-years Dee Brizzolara (200m) and Billy Whitmore (5,000m) rank 17th and 18th, respectively, while first-years Michael Bennett (pole vault, ranked 15th) and Catherine Young (5,000m, eighth) are also well poised to qualify. Fourth-year Julia Sizek is ranked in the top 20 in both the 5,000m (11th) and 10,000m (10th). These Maroons can be confident they will qualify, but they’ll be anxiously watching results from around the country this weekend as rival athletes attempt to take their places.
WOMEN’S TENNIS SET 5. WHITMORE AND YOUNG 4. FOR NAMED UAA ATHLETES QUARTERFINAL CLASH
The Maroons take on No. 2 ClaremontW Mudd-Scripps on Monday in their NCAA quarterfinals match. Chicago secured its place in the quarterfinal with an occasionally shaky 5–1 victory against UW–Whitewater, while the Athenas are fresh off a 5–3 win over Pomona-Pitzer. Now, both teams travel to Kalamazoo, MI, hoping to continue their NCAA runs. Claremont-MuddScripps had a successful season, to say the least. They enter Monday’s competition with a record of 30–0. The Maroons will have their work cut out for them to advance to a second straight national semifinal, but they’ve had a strong season and won’t want to let up now.
OF THE WEEK
Fourth-year Billy Whitmore and firstyear Catherine Young were named UAA athletes of the week on Monday after impressive performances at the Dr. Keeler Invitational, both in the 5,000m. Whitmore’s time placed him 18th in the nation and Young is ranked eighth. Young’s 16:57.37 time was the third fastest in Maroon history, behind only Liz Lawton (A.B. ’11) and Rhaina Echols (A.B. ’00), both national champions. Whitmore looks set to qualify for his second straight national tournament after narrowly missing out on an All-American spot last year. If he qualifies, the final performance of his distinguished Maroon career will offer one final chance to secure All-American status in outdoor track and field.