FRIDAY • MAY 1, 2015
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 42 • VOLUME 126
Obama presidential library to come to South Side of Chicago Ankit Jain Senior News Writer CBS Chicago and several other news outlets have reported that the Barack Obama Foundation has chosen the University of Chicago to host the Obama
Community members and students march down Cottage Grove to protest police violence in solidarity with recent demonstrations in Baltimore. KRISTIN LIN | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Isaac Stein Senior News Writer In the immediate aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, local activists, including University of Chicago students, participated in a Tuesday protest to express solidarity in opposing police brutality and racism. Gray, a 25-year-old black Baltimore man, died on April 19 after suffering spinal cord injuries while in police custody for alleged possession of a switchblade. As reported by The New York Times, the incident has sparked ongoing protests and riots in Baltimore that have often turned violent, as rioters destroyed 15 build-
ings on Monday alone. On Tuesday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency in Baltimore, and deployed the National Guard in an attempt to quell the riots. Later that day, a marching line of protesting Chicagoans made its way south from the Chicago Police Department Headquarters at 3510 South Michigan Avenue, and stopped in Hyde Park, eventually concluding at the CTA Green Line station at the intersection of East 63rd Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue. According to second-year Alex DiLalla, who participated in the protest, a Chicago Police blockade prevented the marchers
from continuing south on South Cottage Grove Avenue past East 63rd Street, although he said that police conduct was “calm and collected,” and that the police did not attempt to disperse the march. UIC student Malcolm London organized the protest, titled “Emergency Action in Solidarity w/ Baltimore!!” through Facebook, and drew at least 300 marchers. DiLalla said that he first learned of the event through social media as it was occurring, and joined the march when it reached the intersection of East 55th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue. He also said that he MARCH continued on page 2
Activists and UCMC employees discuss solutions to trauma desert Brandon Lee News Staff In a previous edition, the maroon investigated the devastating health-care issues that afflict the South Side, and why community and student group demands have been framed in opposition to the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) administration. This article will focus on a different question on
which consensus has not been reached: whether a trauma center will actually improve trauma mortality outcomes. The establishment of a trauma center at the UCMC is one of several solutions to trauma mortality that are currently under consideration. However, what the administration, community, and student groups will agree on to resolve the trauma desert is unclear. Would a trauma center
on the South Side improve mortality outcomes? On August 15, 2010, youth advocate and aspiring musician Damian Turner was gunned down in a drive-by shooting, only four blocks from the UCMC. Chicago Fire Department paramedics were required to drive him to the nearest Level I (T1) trauma center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, on the HEALTH continued on page 3
to preempt a lawsuit that was threatened by the park advocacy group Friends of the Park due to the library’s possible location on public parkland. The legislation gives Chicago the express approval to construct museLIBRARY continued on page 2
National Nurses Union reaches a deal with UCMC, avoids strike Isaac Stein Senior News Writer
Over 300 flock to East 63rd Street in solidarity with Baltimore protestors
Presidential Library. NBC News reports that the decision of whether to place the library in Jackson Park or Washington Park has not yet been made. The choice comes after the Illinois State Legislature passed a bill last Thursday
As union-affiliated nurses employed by the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) and the hospital braced for a planned one-day nurses’ strike on April 30, an announcement
early this week signaled the aversion of the strike and a sudden and complete resolution of more than eight months of contentious contract negotiations between the two parties. On Monday, Debi Albert, Chief Nursing Officer of the UCMC, issued a state-
ment that said the UCMC and National Nurses United (NNU), the union that represents nurses employed by the UCMC, have reached a tentative contract agreement. NNU reached a tentative agreement for a new NURSES continued on page 2
SG elections delayed, E&R addressed complaints against slates Isaac Easton Associate News Editor The Elections & Rules Committee (E&R) delayed the SG election and held a meeting on Wednesday night to discuss multiple allegations against specific parties running for Student Government executive office. The chief complaint, regarding an alleged recording by Open Minds Slate, has been withdrawn. However, David Shapiro, the presidential candidate on One Slate, intends to reinstate the complaint tomorrow. According to the E&R minutes, a statement regarding these allegations is forthcoming. Neither Open Minds Slate nor One Slate had a statement available at the time of print. As of now, none of the slates has been disqualified and no major penalties have been issued. The second issue discussed involved a complaint against the Moose Party Slate regarding disruptive behavior. The E&R Committee decided not to act on this issue, citing Moose Party Slate’s intent.
It said, “Although there was a lot of satire [Moose did] not intend to break election rules.” The next allegation was that there was collusion between the TK Appreciation Slate and the Moose Party Slate, which was issued in response to TK’s endorsement of Moose. The issue was resolved when it was revealed Moose only received TK’s endorsement after TK dropped out of the running. The third issue was a complaint against second year Emma Smith, a potential cabinet member of the Open Minds Slate. Smith was cleared of all charges, but E&R did issue “a warning to the campaign team in the spirit of the election.” The issue at hand surrounded Smith’s posting of a misunderstood policy in a closed Facebook group: that “cabinet members are paid hundreds of dollars. [Open Minds] is promising to abolish this policy.” While SG had already decided not to propose SG member stipends, E&R acknowledged that this misunderstanding was reasonable based on the evidence
available publicly. The fourth issue addressed a maroon Letter to the Editor that criticized the way some slates represent themselves and their potential cabinets as an issue of false advertising. A slate’s cabinet can only be finalized once that slate has been elected to office and has been confirmed by the College Council; advertising potential cabinet members before a slate has been elected could misinform voters. By advertising potential cabinet members before they have been elected, a slate could be inadvertently lying to its voting base. In response to this, the E&R Committee has not issued any formal statement and “awaits a formal complaint.” Lastly, there was a formal complaint issued against the Open Minds Slate accusing it of overspending its budget on stickers. Open Minds came forward and admitted to the allegation that it paid for these stickers out of pocket. It turned over its stickers to the E&R Committee and was unanimously absolved from any wrongdoing.
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Breaking Breck: Satellite dorms from the inside » Page 4
RBIM’s Disenchanted spreads the magic of dance through Mandel Hall » Page 5
Senior Spotlight: Matt Staab » Page 7
Softball: South Sider’s split doubleheader to end season» Backpage
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 1, 2015
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“I’m afraid the same thing is going to happen in this city if people don’t start listening” MARCH continued from front
went to the protest in order to condemn police brutality and express solidarity with the marchers. “I have friends on campus who have been racially profiled by the police, and I think it could lead to something deadlier, even though racial profiling is a crime, both against morality and the law…. It was said best by the people in the middle of the Midway— that ‘black youth will save black youth,’ so I came tonight to stand in support,” DiLalla said.
Marcus Davidson, a protester at the rally and former Englewood resident, said that he was dissatisfied with how the Baltimore rioters have been portrayed by the media and public officials. Early in the week, both Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and President Obama referred to the rioters as “thugs,” which critics, such as Robinson, claim is a racially charged term. As reported by fourthyear Marina Fang for the Huffington Post, RawlingsBlake has since issued a public apology.
“I’m mad about what the mayor in Baltimore said about the rioters; they are not thugs. I am kind of mad at what Obama said; they are not criminals. They are just fed-up youth who have been screaming ‘no justice, no peace, no racist police,’ and nobody has heard them peacefully, so they acted out violently. I’m afraid the same thing is going to happen in this city if people don’t start listening,” said Davidson. – Additional reporting by Stephen Moreland
The exact location on the South Side has yet to be decided by the Obama Foundation LIBRARY continued from front
ums on parkland and “formerly submerged lands.” Governor Bruce Rauner has not yet signed the legislation. CBS Chicago reports that President Obama called House Majority Leader Mike Madigan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel last Friday thanking them for passing the legislation. In the phone call, Obama strongly hinted that the library would be in Chi-
cago. CBS says that several sources with knowledge of the situation had confirmed that the library would be on Chicago’s South Side. The official announcement on the library’s location will occur two weeks from now, according to CBS. The announcement was supposed to be made by the end of March, but was delayed due to the mayoral runoff election between Emanuel and Chuy Garcia, since the
Obama Foundation did not want its decision to be politicized. University spokesperson Jeremy Manier declined to comment on the news report, and the Barack Obama Foundation could not be reached in time for comment. The University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Hawaii were the other three finalists to host the library.
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Archbishop of Chicago gives talk on weakened families, weakened economy Adam Thorp News Staff Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, spoke yesterday at International House about interaction between the economy and families: how weakened families might hurt the economy, how a weakened economy might hurt families, and what should be done to support both. Cupich’s remarks, along with a keynote by another prelate and presentations by four academics on the same theme, opened the Seventh Annual Conference in Economics and Catholic Social Thought. Cupich was one of Pope Francis’s earliest American appointments; the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times have suggested that Cupich’s appointment reflects a shift in tone in Francis’s church, which includes an emphasis on injustice in the economy. In his remarks yesterday, Cupich referenced contemporary economic conflicts like the fight for the minimum wage, right to work laws, and inequality. Like several of the other speak-
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BENJAMIN BAGBY’S BEOWULF FRIDAY / MAY 1 / 7:30 PM LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS / PERFORMANCE HALL 915 East 60th Street 6:30 pm pre-concert lecture with Christina von Nolcken Medievalist and musician Benjamin Bagby bewitches audiences with his six-string harp in his “double tour de force of scholarly excavation and artistic dynamism” (San Francisco Chronicle). Tickets: $35 / $5 students “His chants and songs carry clear echoes of Gaelic music, sea shanties, Appalachian hill tunes and bluegrass numbers, Eastern ritual chants and prayer calls. The talking blues is in there too; at times, Bagby’s “Beowulf” doesn’t seem that far from early Bob Dylan.” —San Jose Mercury News
$5
STUDEN
A limited number of FREE tickets are available through the Sponsor-A-Student Program, made possible by University of Chicago Arts Pass. For more information, visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/tickets/student-tickets
family, she said, had only recently been divorced from a tight association with strictly defined gender roles. What remained, she said, was a belief that work outside the home should be able support life inside the home—a basis on which people with different views on gender roles can proceed. William Evans, a professor of economics at University of Notre Dame, concluded the session by focusing on whether bad prospects for young men with little education drive up the rate at which women have children out of wedlock. Actual sudden shifts in the fortune of young men without college degrees—a boom in coal mining in the 1970s and 1980s, or the introduction of crack cocaine into inner cities—had mixed results, he said, indicating that other factors were involved. This was the first time the conference was held without Cupich’s predecessor, Cardinal Francis George, who founded the conference and died a little over a week ago.
According to the Midwest director of NNU, the union successfully bargained for almost all of its goals
CONCERT SERIES
For tickets call 773.702.ARTS or visit chicagopresents.uchicago.edu
ers, Cupich expressed anxiety about the intersection between the economy and families. “Government and business policies can further strain family time and put pressure on resources. Human needs and personal dignity are too often irrelevant in an economy driven by cost-cutting, stockholder expectations, or a bottom line that trumps the rights and well-being of workers,” Cupich said. Oscar Cantú, the bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico, delivered the event’s keynote. In introducing the conference, which regularly brings bishops, economists, and other scholars together to discuss the intersection of Catholic social thought and economics, Cantú posited a future convergence between the two disciplines as economists increasingly recognize the importance of the family as an economic unit. Christine Firer Hinze, a professor of theolog y at Fordham University and a Catholic ethicist, was one of four academics that spoke after the bishop. The Catholic emphasis on the
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collective bargaining agreement just before midnight on Monday. “As a result of reaching our tentative agreement, NNU has withdrawn its strike notice and thus UCMC can begin restoring patient census,” Albert wrote in the statement. Bargaining between the UCMC and NNU began last October, when the nurses’ previous contract expired and the two parties could not reach a new agreement. The new contract will likely take effect on May 5, pending the results of an internal NNU ratification vote, which union representative Jan Rodolfo said will pass “with certainty.” According to Rodolfo, the Midwest Director of NNU, the union successfully bargained for almost all of its goals in the negotiations, which were primarily related to staffing regulations. One of its main objectives was the elimination of nurse rotation at the UCMC, which is the practice of calling in a day-shift nurse to work a night shift, or vice versa. Rodolfo emphasized that NNU considers the practice a health and safety hazard. “I am very happy to report that there will be no more rotating shifts. The
way it will work is that no new shifts will be posted as rotations, and over the course of six months from the point when the contract takes effect, [the UCMC] will transition completely from rotation to hiring permanent shift nurses for those jobs. This is a huge win for patient safety, patient care, and nurses,” she said. Other sticking points in the negotiations were NNU’s objectives of establishing nurse-to-patient ratios and retaining the jobs of charge nurses, who, in addition to their responsibilities as specialized nurses, perform the administrative role of making staffing recommendations to the UCMC. Rodolfo said that while ratios were not included in the new contract, additional nursing staff will be hired, and charge nurses and their job descriptions will remain intact. “While ratios were not established, [the UCMC] will be hiring eight new patient care support nurses. These nurses belong to some kind of nursing specialty, and can help with admission, emergencies, or just being an extra set of experienced hands that will provide additional clinical help. [Hiring them] will also reduce patient as-
signment for charge nurses, who will be available to do more clinical work and will stay on in the bargaining role,” Rodolfo said. UCMC spokesperson Lorna Wong declined to address any of the details of the new contract. However, in Albert’s Monday statement, Wong said, “I can tell you that the agreement represents a fair compromise by both sides.” In assessing why the UCMC agreed to the majority of NNU’s bargaining points, Rodolfo said she thinks the University was moved to concede via a combination of the planned nurses’ strike and the effect of local activism in support of the union cause. “I think we noticed a significant shift in direction after the strike vote [in January]. The fact that the strike deadline was looming impressed upon the University the need to take its nurses seriously; without a [planned] strike, we would not have made these gains…. The community and student support for the strike was overwhelming, and seeing nurses, patients, and students all together sends the message that we can stop the corporatization of healthcare in its tracks,” Rodolfo said.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 1, 2015
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Will building a trauma center reduce trauma-related mortalities? HEALTH continued from front
northern edge of downtown. Some claim that if the South Side, through the UCMC, had been equipped with a T1, Turner would still be alive today. The first hour after the onset of out-of-hospital traumatic injury is typically referred to as the “golden hour,” and is considered a crucial, life-or-death window of time when trauma can be safely addressed. Yet the relationship between transitto-hospital time and mortality outcomes remains largely unclear. In March of 2010, a nationwide study conducted by Craig Newgard, director of the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, analyzed 3,656 trauma patients, ages 15 and up, and found that there was no association between transport time and in-hospital
whether trauma centers will reduce mortality. Since then, two studies in 2013 have reached conflicting conclusions. The first was published in The Annals of Emergency Medicine and divided trauma into two general categories: blunt and penetrating. Gunshot wound (GSW) and stab victims fall under penetrating trauma. Utilizing a database of 19,167 trauma patients, they found that trauma severity and the time a patient is at the scene of injury strongly predicted penetrating trauma mortality: Patients who were at the scene longer and sustained harsher injuries were more likely to die. However, transport times did not show this trend. A study done at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine by Marie Crandall disputes these findings. Utilizing the Illinois State Trauma Registry
more predictive of mortality. IDPH concluded that reducing mortality due to GSWs will require a strategy that not only improves trauma care access, but also fosters mental health service access and addresses the disparity of health insurance. In their own discussion of the study’s results, Crandall et al. noted that “modifications of trauma systems cannot address any of these issues.” What do both sides want? The Illinois Department of Public Health released the “Trauma Center Feasibility Study” this past January, which assessed the level of services currently available at various hospitals within the City of Chicago, and surveyed each responding facility about its interest in pursuing a trauma level designation. Trauma levels are traditionally designated on a level of I to V, from offering most compre-
The University of Chicago Medical Center has recently raised the age of its pediatric children’s Level I trauma center to 17. MARTA BAKULA | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Graph of percentage of patients dying as a function of scene time for blunt and penetrating trauma. COURTESY OF THE ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
mortality. Furthermore, total emergency medical services (EMS) time, which includes activation of EMS, time to scene, and transport time still did not predict in-hospital death. “The best, largest study available to us now suggests that pre-hospital time isn’t as related to injury death as we’ve always sort of assumed, and as our instincts would tell us it is,” said Brendon Carr, director of the Emergency Care Coordination Center at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, to WBEZ radio station in an October 2011 article on
(1999–2009), and restricting their study to 11,744 GSW patients, her team found that when victims were shot more than five miles from Level I or II trauma centers, this corresponded with a higher likelihood of mortality. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reviewed Crandall’s work in their “Trauma Center Feasibility Study” this January, and stated that although proximity to trauma centers was found to have some positive effect on survival outcomes for GSW victims, injury severity, lack of insurance, and suicide intent were overwhelmingly
hensive to least comprehensive care, though only Levels I through III were considered for this survey in light of the need to address penetrating injuries. Using a feasibility cutoff of 60 percent, indicating that the facility in question already has 60 percent of available resources to sustain a particular trauma center level, IDPH found that the UCMC was the only respondent that could sustain a Level I, and one of two facilities that could sustain a Level II center. Yet when surveyed for its interest in acquiring a trauma level designation, UCMC indicated no interest despite having the highest readiness. However, Advocate Trinity, Jackson Park, and Roseland expressed high interest in acquiring a trauma level designation despite their poorer feasibility scores. When asked whether they would be willing to help finance a T1 at another South Side hospital, the UCMC stated via e-mail that, over the past few years, they have met with other area healthcare providers and medical directors about ways to improve South Side health care.
In year, activists from the Trauma Center Coalition chained themselves together to prevent University construction prior to the institution of a trauma center. SYNDEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Among them, trauma care and violence prevention were repeatedly discussed. “Trauma services overwhelmed the hospital’s other surgical facilities and delayed lifesaving procedures for other patients,” stated the UCMC in an e-mail. The UCMC also mentioned that, even today, operating rooms are often fully occupied for life-saving and advanced surgeries, many of which are not available at other hospitals in the area. Since IDPH’s report, the UCMC released a statement in March detailing the administration’s current plans to tackle trauma in the South Side, while maintaining other vital services. It stated that it “remain[s] open to working with state, city, county and other healthcare providers to evaluate the needs of the South Side and the long-term financial and operational realities of running an adult trauma center,” encouraging a regional solution. A feasibility study, which began this past January, by the UCMC will assess the realities of opening a trauma center on the South Side. This statement followed a number of expansions by the hospital, including the expansion of the age of non-trauma patients in Comer Children’s Hospital’s pediatric emergency department from 15 to 17 years of age last summer. Most recently, the UCMC announced that it is taking formal steps toward raising the age limit of Comer’s Level I pediatric trauma center from 15 to 17 years of age. Last year, Comer T1 cared for 260 children. According to the UCMC, Comer Children’s Hospital will care for about 120 more patients as a result of the age increase, which would be about a 40-percent increase in its number of patients. Veronica Morris-Moore, youth organizer for Fearless Leading by the Youth, emphasized that while T1 has acquired substantial press coverage, it isn’t the only possibility for addressing trauma care on the South Side. “It doesn’t have to be a Level I trauma
center at the University of Chicago,” Moore said. “They open up a Level II? Somewhere else? I’m not going to be mad at that,” she said. “I’m not going to keep protesting for a Level I. We’re not unreasonable people.” Moore also emphasized that the UCMC should not be the only provider of trauma care in the South Side either. “I believe there needs to be a network. So we can’t
weren’t well understood, or taken as seriously, by community and student groups,” Pratt said. Pritzker Associate Dean of Students Jim Woodruff reinforced that the trauma desert is an overwhelming challenge that will require considerable efforts to surmount, given the South Side’s financial obstacles. “No less than six hospitals in the South Side have disappeared…and the University
Scatterplot diagram of percentage of patients dying a function of Injury Severity Score for blunt and penetrating trauma. penetrating trauma COURTESY OF THE ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
just be on the shoulders of the University. It has to be a support team…. Different levels, different agencies have to be a part of this,” she said. She insisted that there should be a joint meeting in which aldermen of South Side neighborhoods, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, UCMC President Sharon O’Keefe, other heads of health-care providers within the region, community members, and youth leaders congregate and discuss details about a regional solution to the South Side trauma desert. Abdullah Pratt, who is the Medical Students for Health Equity (M-SHE) president and a fourth-year Pritzker student, corroborated MorrisMoore’s assessment that more frequent, inclusive communication is needed moving forward. He believes that tactics used by community and student groups to approach the administration were not well received, and cites miscommunication as the cause for slow progress. “It works both ways. Things that the hospital administration was saying
of Chicago is one of a handful of hospitals that has remained in existence,” Woodruff said, when asked about the history of health-care providers on the South Side. Existing hospitals had to become either secondary care institutions, which provided basic in-patient care, or academic tertiary care centers, such as the UCMC. The latter types rely on their reputation to bring in patients with more robust forms of insurance that allow patients to cover the full costs of their care and subsidize the care of patients on the South Side. However, he hoped that no matter what solution is reached to address the trauma desert, it will not come at the cost of vital services which address chronic illnesses the University already struggles to provide, and hardly garners media attention for. “If we fail to have these conversations, then we can anticipate that those problems are simply not going to receive adequate attention,” Woodruff said.
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed MAY 1, 2015
Location, location, location The University shut down the satellite dorms based on assumptions, not student input
Cortney McInerney
No pun intended According to the College-wide e-mail sent by Dean Boyer and Vice President of Student Services Karen Warren Coleman, the decision to close satellite dorms and move houses to Campus North will ultimately “strengthen the residential experience for current and future College students.” I disagree. I live in Breckinridge and am not at all involved in the house culture. Nada. Zilch. I would love to live closer to campus and have newer facilities. I am an individual who is not interested in or invested in house culture for various personal reasons. So why am I arguing against the University’s statement? Because the people they are representing with that opinion are people like me— who are in the minority. Not the people who will personally and emotionally be affected by their closure. The satellite dorms represent a subset of house culture whose main characteristics—the ones under fire, anyway—include distance from campus and the opportunity to live in a historic, older building. Did it ever occur to the administration that these characteristics were what initially attracted students? Many of the residents in Breckinridge chose to live further away because they wanted to. “At the meeting, they kept assuming that we didn’t want to live far from the quad. But many of us like the walk; we like to get away
from campus and school, and that distance makes Breck feel more like a home,” said Charlotte Hovland, a first-year in Breckinridge. I talked to her the day after Breckinridge residents met with University representatives about the closure, and she, along with all the other residents I interviewed, seemed agitated—to put it mildly—by what the representatives (and administration) were saying : “They assumed that we want to live in a shiny new building. They assumed a lot of things, and
“[the administration doesn’t] understand the vitality of small dorms and are projecting the[ir] interests.”
we need to confront those underlying assumptions. They don’t understand the vitality of small dorms and are projecting the interests of the administration onto students. They don’t seem to realize that our interests are not the same,” Hovland continued. Sydney Purdue, another firstyear, was particularly aggravated by the University’s sugar-coated “parity” agenda: “They kept bringing up the word ‘parity,’ how they wanted consistency among dorming options, wanted to have dorms close to campus with Resident Masters, wanted the satellite
The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892. Eleanor Hyun, Editor-in-Chief Sarah Manhardt, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Stephen Moreland, Managing Editor The Maroon Editorial Board consists of Alan Hassler, Eleanor Hyun, and Lear Jiang. News Natalie Friedberg, editor Alec Goodwin, editor Marta Bakula, deputy editor Isaac Easton, associate editor Raymond Fang, associate editor Shelby Lohr, associate editor Maggie Loughran, associate editor Annie Nazzaro, associate editor Isaac Stein, senior writer Viewpoints Sarah Zimmerman, editor Nina Katemauswa, associate editor Kiran Misra, senior editor Arts Andrew McVea, editor Evangeline Reid, editor Ellen Rodnianski, editor Hannah Edgar, associate editor Grace Hauck, associate editor James Mackenzie, senior editor Sports Helen Petersen, editor Zachary Themer, editor Ahmad Allaw, associate editor Katie Anderson, associate editor Tatiana Fields, senior editor Sarah Langs, senior editor Grey City Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Editor-in-Chief Kristin Lin, Editor-in-Chief Design Annie Cantara, head designer Copy Sophie Downes, head editor Alan Hassler, head editor Sherry He, head editor Morganne Ramsey, head editor
Multimedia Forrest Sill, editor Photo Marta Bakula, editor Frank Wang, editor Yeo Bi Choi, associate editor Video Amber Love, editor Social Media Emily Harwell, editor Online Ryan McDowell, web developer Business Nicolas Lukac, chief financial officer Ananya Pillutla, vice chief financial officer Andrew Ahn, co-director of marketing Eitan Rude, co-director of marketing Ben Veres, director of operations Patrick Quinn, director of strategy Lenise Lee, business manager Harry Backlund, distributor Kay Li, director of data analysis This issue: Copy: Megan Daknis, Kyra Martin Design: Emily Harwell, Julia Xu, Jen Xue Editor-in-Chief E-mail: Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com or 773.702.9555 Circulation: 6,800. © 2015 The Chicago Maroon Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
dorms to have better unity with other the other houses, wanted to give students the option to connect to faculty through the Masters…. But we already have that. Sophie Day, for example.” Purdue is referring to a Breckinridge tradition where residents invite faculty to the Hall to celebrate their namesake over dinner. Faculty, then, as Purdue asserts, “are approachable already,” and Breckinridge “definitely isn’t disconnected from the other houses— [residents] interact in dining halls, IM soccer, snowball fights, Scav, Kuvia” and easily maintain inter-house relationships despite the distance. “Parity” and “continuity,” words that were supposed to appeal to residents, seemed to have the completely opposite effect. Indeed, the words I heard other residents use instead were “monolith,” “assimilation,” and “uniformity”—words which are antithetical to the unique, diverse character Breckies and members of other satellite dorms treasure. This “parity” is an attempt by the administration to persuade residents that their pilgrimage to Campus North will solve their problems, problems that never existed in the first place. In fact, the move seems to create even more problems. When residents asked how the administration expected house culture to survive without its name or its building, the response was less than invigorating : “They gave the impression that preserving house culture was our responsibility, which is very hard, if not impossible, to do. It’s because we have this building, this space and name, that we are who we are. We’re Breckies. One house, one hall. They didn’t seem to understand that,” said Tim Csernica, another resident. Again, the University was operating on assumptions—this time, the assumption that house culture could survive outside of the very physical anchors which helped develop it. What is Breckinridge without Breckinridge Hall? Without Breckinridge the house? To be frank, it’s just not Breckinridge. The evolving theme seems to be that the set of ongoing decisions regarding the closure of the satellite dorms has uncovered far more than a clear disregard for student input. As the Maroon Editorial Board pointed out, this is something we’ve come to expect from the administration in recent years. The University’s lack of transparency and communica-
tion shouldn’t have—and, let’s be honest, it really didn’t—come as a surprise. Sadly, at the root of their disregard is the dangerous idea that they don’t need our input because they already know what we want. If the administration assumes that it’s right, why bother wasting time chasing after student input? Decisions are being made based on projected opinions— opinions that aren’t shared by the majority of the people who are affected by them. Since Dean Boyer announced the closure of the dorms last week, alumni and parents have withheld donations, the Facebook group Save Our Satellites! has gained 857 mem-
“Decisions are being made based on projected opinions— opinions that aren’t shared by the majority of the people who are affected by them.” bers, major cyber protests were launched by affected residents on the AlumniWeekend page and the #24hourimpact hashtag (protests which were subsequently pulled by page admins), and a petition aiming to save Sophonisba Breckinridge’s name has already gained 636 signatures. The outcry and impact generated by the people who want to see the satellites and house names survive and who don’t mind the distance or the old buildings is simply too large and
“...preserving house culture...is very hard, if not impossible, to do.”
too passionate for the University, or anyone for that matter, to believe that they are the voice of the minority, not the majority. On that latter point, there is much to be said about the revocation of house names (which will be replaced based on alumni donations). Sophonisba Breckinridge was the first woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School and the first woman to serve on the University’s faculty, and was a prominent social activist and feminist leader. She was, in short, a visionary and a role model—the type of person Breckies have been proud to call
their namesake. Losing her, this accomplished and amazing woman, as their figurehead would be a blow not only to her house, but also to the integrity of the entire University. I’ve been framing this issue through the anger and frustration of Breckinridge, but that anger and frustration extends to four other halls and eight other houses. The satellite dorms and their residents represent a unique and spirited niche of UChicago’s housing system; niche housings which provide around 700 people and countless other generations before them a place to call home. They live far from campus in older buildings with older facilities and nestled comfortably in quirky, tight-knit communities. These are their trademarks— trademarks that the University either refuses to recognize or simply cannot comprehend. When the administration assumes that it knows what the satellite dormers want, it is effectively homogenizing the student body, imposing a norm and declaring any preferences that do not coincide with its ideas as unworthy of its consideration. What is in store, then, for the satellite dormers? Will their traditions and their house names eventually dissolve in the cookiecutter continuity of the emerging housing system? They are losing not only their homes but also their namesakes; they are trading their carefully constructed, wellloved cultures for an uncertain future wrapped in chrome and condescension. All we can hope for is that, in the future, the administration will stop viewing its assumptions as incontrovertible fact and turn to student input before making any sweeping, major decisions. In the end, they do have the final say, but we have the right to protest it as well. The decision to close the dorms, disband the house names, and relocate disgruntled students to Campus North, made without their input and based on uninformed assumptions, has been defended by the administration as a positive and understandable change. But for the people ultimately being affected by this decision, it is neither positive nor understandable and, more importantly, it will never be forgivable. Cortney McInerney is a first-year in the College majoring in English
SUBMISSIONS
The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. The Chicago Maroon Attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: viewpoints@chicagomaroon.com
ARTS
What is art? MAY 1, 2015
Organist Nathan Laube pulls out all the stops MJ Chen Associate Arts Editor “Intimate” is an unlikely word to describe a space as large and austere as Rockefeller Chapel, and an even unlikelier one to extend to its historic, 8,565pipe E.M. Skinner organ. Fortunately for us, the Brian Gerrish Organ Performance Series is committed to reclaiming the intimacy of the organ, demystifying the instrument and introducing its magic to a new generation. This past Saturday, it featured organist Nathan Laube in recital, and his masterful performance was easily the greatest musical experience this reviewer has enjoyed on cam-
pus thus far. It is tempting to describe the organ as a symphonic instrument: Its myriad of individual timbres can mix with ease to simulate a large orchestra, from woodsy flutes to full strings. Yet there is also a responsiveness and imagination unique to the organ as a solo instrument, frequently neglected by the lay listener. Laube’s program illuminated this side of the organ, featuring works by modern innovators of the instrument including Jehan Alain, Nico Muhly, and Olivier Messiaen. A transcription of Franz Liszt’s symphonic poem Les préludes (d’après Lamartine) drew the evening to a spectacular conclu-
sion. The last three pieces presented by Laube were the most memorable part of his recital: two contrasting movements from Messiaen’s L’ascension and the Liszt transcription previously mentioned. As two parts of a suite, “Alleluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel” (“Serene alleluias of a soul longing for heaven”) and “Transports de joie d›une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienna” (“Ecstasies of a soul before the glory of Christ, which is its own glory”) could not be more different in sound and mood. “Alleluias sereins” set a gentle, devout murmur over an undulating bed of sound, from
which emerged pointillistic flashes of brightness. “Transports de joie” depicted a happiness that bordered on horror, if indeed it was even happiness; the sheer intensity and dissonance of expression seemed ready to dissolve into raw violence at any second. Through Laube’s playing I experienced the surest translation of sound into color. Like onions, organ works by Messiaen have layers: sheets of winds and reeds and principals that create some of the most complex sonic profiles encountered in Western music. That Laube’s playing sautéed this density into transparency (just extending the onion metaphor, folks)
was his greatest success. In “Alleluias sereins,” he expressed the textural space between the voices; from this separation we truly get a sense of the soul longing for a heaven out of reach. If his exaggeration of the jagged melodic lines in “Transports de joie” further fragmented its sound, it was to disturb the core of our being, to imitate a religious ecstasy that overrides the distinction between joy and fear. Laube’s transcription of Liszt’s Les preludes presented the organ in a more traditional but nevertheless impressive capacity. Here was a sense of the instrument as a glorious chimera—a fantastic beast of strings,
brass, and woodwinds. Laube excelled as a musical narrator, bringing to life the work’s program of man’s struggle against the torrent of existence. And what better way to show the organ’s unparalleled capacity for imitation than by appropriating the diverse symphonic colors of Les preludes? Where the ears heard the fanfares and pastoral idylls and of a 100-piece orchestra, the eyes saw but a single man at the console, hands and feet a furious blur. Is it all that surprising that Rockefeller felt intimate under the spell of Laube? Given the magnitude of his playing, I was surprised that Rockefeller was big enough.
After 12 years, reunited Blur strikes back with The Magic Whip Miriam Benjamin Arts Contributor Like many legendary guitarists, Blur’s Graham Coxon is mainly filed under “quiet, brooding genius” (see also: George Harrison, John Squire, Bernard Butler). Of
course, there are those who see him as an unqualified guitar prodigy, right up there with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and point to headman Damon Albarn as the true brains behind Blur. Coxon’s characteristic dissonant, jagged chords mark an obvious
talent, but Blur in its ’90s heyday relied heavily on Albarn’s pop sensibility, using Coxon’s art-school penchant for the avant-garde to distance the band from its Britpop contemporaries. However you rate the importance of what comes out of Coxon’s guitar,
The Magic Whip (Blur’s first album in 12 years and the first since it reunited in 2009) clearly demonstrates the influence he exerts on Blur’s sound. It is, as Albarn put it in an interview, “a proper Blur album.” I revisited Think Tank,
Blur’s 2003 album without Coxon, in preparation for this review. Think Tank is, in no uncertain terms, a masterpiece—all of songwriter and lead singer Albarn’s myriad influences are splashed on the record. It’s generally classified as rock, but Think Tank
is like no rock album I’ve heard: There’s some jazzy sax, the sitar, a Dead Kennedys– esque punk song, and I think maybe even the chorus of “A Little Fall of Rain” from Les Misérables. It’s glorious, and Coxon’s distinctive guitar BLUR continued on page 6
Rhythmic Bodies in Motion’s Disenchanted spreads the magic of dance to Mandel Hall Shoshanna Coalson Arts Contributor We are all familiar with the ins and outs of fairy tales—Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, etc. These fairytales are all named for their princesses, specifically the heroines. They are the focus of these stories, and, in mainstream tellings of these stories, all receive happy endings. On the flip side, the villains of these stories are often ignored in favor of their more glamorous counterparts. This Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m., Rhythmic Bodies in Motion (RBIM) will be exploring the villainous side of fairytales. Fairytale villains are often portrayed as pure evil, rewarded only with an unhappy ending. However, RBIM will explore not only the differences between good and evil characters, but also the complex emotions that exist outside of traditional fairy tales. For example, Yvette McGivern, a second-year in the College and RBIM’s assistant artistic director, choreographed a piece embodying the emotional torment of heartbreak. “The piece is mainly about the
mental state that you’re in when your heart is broken. It’s all about reconciliation, or not, at the end of your heartbreak,” says McGivern. Often, you wonder how it is possible to voice such emotional depth through a medium as silent as dance. “If you understand the emotion that you want to portray, and the emotion that you feel, that’s how you can best present that emotion to others,” McGivern said. One approach to choreography is finding that one song that perfectly embodies the feelings you want to communicate. Natalia Grudzień, a third-year in the College and co-chair of RBIM’s Performance Company, immerses herself in the song until she finds the perfect moves. “I listen to [it] a million times, until I get a good sense of the climaxes in the song, the quiet parts, and what general mood I feel in each part of the song…then I see what comes naturally to me.” RBIM provides students who would not otherwise choreograph with a chance to showcase their work. The RBIM Performance Company in particular (a smaller sect of RBIM that consists of about fourteen people) provides this opportunity:
“We always have offers coming in to perform at events, large and small, and we accept many of them…because we like to give our dancers a chance to choreograph and showcase their own ideas,” said Grudzień. “That’s what I think really makes RBIM’s Performance Company unique.” RBIM’s singularity is perhaps matched only by its inclusivity: its no-cut auditions create a diversity of dance experience in the group. Patrick Chen, a second-year in the College and a previous participant in an RBIM swing piece, insists, “I had zero previous dance experience, except for some square dancing units that I did in P.E. in high school… RBIM looked like it could be kind of cool. I just wanted to learn something new.” Diving headfirst into dance with no experience as Chen did can seem daunting, but RBIM dancers are adamant that dance should be open to everyone. McGivern said that she also discovered her love for dance through RBIM. “If you want to dance, you should be able to dance… regardless of whether you’ve ever danced before. Nobody should stop you from doing that.”
Emily Ehrmantraut, Nora Loughlin, Luna Shen are feeling the fantasy in Disenchanted. COURTESY OF DIANE LEE
The University of Chicago Program in the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine presents a lecture by
Laura J. Snyder – St. John’s University Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and the Reinvention of Seeing Thursday, May 7th 4:00pm to 6:00pm Social Science Research Building, Room 105 1126 E. 59th Street “See for yourself!” was the clarion call of the 1600s. Scientists peered at nature through microscopes and telescopes, making the discoveries in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and anatomy that ignited the Scientific Revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses, mirrors, and camera obscuras, creating extraordinarily detailed paintings of flowers and insects, and scenes filled with realistic effects of light, shadow, and color. In the small Dutch town of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a city bureaucrat and cloth-salesman, made his own microscopes and used them to discover a realm of living creatures never before imagined: microscopic life. At the same time, Leeuwenhoek’s neighbor Johannes Vermeer was experimenting with lenses and a camera obscura, experiments that taught him how we see under different conditions of light and helped him create the most luminous works of art ever beheld. By extending the reach of sight the new optical instruments prompted the realization that there is more than meets the eye. But they also raised questions about how we see and what it means to see. In answering these questions, scientists and artists in Delft—particularly Leeuwenhoek and Vermeer—changed how we perceive the world. The Social Science Research Building is located at 1126 East 59th Street. The building is accessible for all. Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance are requested to call (773) 702-8391 in advance.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 1, 2015
6
“Love, blues, and drinking”: Madeleine Peyroux at the Winery
Vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, bassist Barak Mori, and guitarist Jon Herington on stage during their West Loop performance this past Monday. LILY GORDON
| THE CHICAGO MAROON
Lily Gordon Arts Contributor
When I listen to jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux’s haunting cover of Elliott Smith’s “Between the Bars,” I imagine a couple clutching each other, slowly dancing cheek to cheek. How better to deal with the painful lyrics? Perhaps by the end of the song there’s a small, salty stain dotting the shoulder of a blouse. This image materialized on Monday night, as Peyroux performed the song during an encore on the last of her three sold-out shows at City Winery in the West Loop. A couple in their 60s, trying to beat the crowd to the valet, stopped
short of the door when they heard, “Drink up baby; stay up all night” in Peyroux’s drizzly, buttery-rich voice. Along with others, I shouted a request for “Between the Bars.” She was hesitant: “You really want to end on something sad like that?…. Well, we are in a bar after all.” Indeed, most audience members were not without a glass of wine or beer. The song’s melancholy is representative of her repertoire and of Keep Me in Your Heart for a While, her greatesthits album released in October by the Concord Music Group. Its two discs feature renditions of Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” Billie Holiday’s “Getting Some Fun Out
of Life,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love,” as well as her original tracks “Don’t Wait Too Long,” “I’m All Right,” and “Once In A While.” Peyroux joked onstage that she knows just three types of songs: “love, blues, and drinking—and my favorite is when that’s just one song. Thanks to Randy Newman for that.” She performed Newman’s “Guilty,” which is included on Keep Me in Your Heart for a While, taken from 2013’s The Blue Room. With musical accompaniment—and occasional harmonizing—from bassist Barak Mori and guitarist Jon Herington, Peyroux performed a smattering of favorites from the new album, as well as unrecorded songs including her
“...the references to Asia give the album a sort of Lost in Translation vibe.” BLUR continued from page 5
licks aren’t much missed; bass player Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree hold down the fort. Now it’s 2015. Albarn has a Mercury Prize–nominated solo album, a Grammy award for Gorillaz, and more side projects than kids—he doesn’t need Blur as a vehicle for his interests anymore. Think Tank wasn’t really a Blur record; it was more of an Albarn solo record featuring James, Rowntree, and plenty of weird shit. The Magic Whip, thanks to Coxon, is a Blur album through and through. This is better, if less sonically interesting, than an Albarn solo endeavor. The music for The Magic Whip was recorded in 2013 in Hong Kong. Blur was due to play a five-day festival there, which was canceled, so it spent those days in a recording studio. Coxon and producer Stephen Street, who worked on the first five Blur albums, molded this album without Albarn (who returned to Hong Kong to finish the lyrics in late 2014). The result of these reunions is Blur’s most Blur-sounding album since its 1994 Parklife. With The Magic Whip, it’s as though Albarn dropped tales of England for a vaguely pan-Asian theme and told
Coxon some variation of “Do your thing, man.” Blur’s lead single, “Go Out,” has a lock on the bass line from “London Loves” (off Parklife), rendering it both catchy and nostalgic. Coxon gamely adds his signature crunchy chords to opener “Lonesome Street” and “I Broadcast.” Happily, Blur realized that most of its best songs, especially from the later albums, are slow ones, and so The Magic Whip has some great examples of classic Blur balladry (“My Terracotta Heart,” “Pyongyang,” “Mirrorball”). And Think Tank hasn’t been completely disavowed; Albarn loves synthesizers the way people love their pets, and this is evident on the more out-there tracks like “Thought I Was a Spaceman.” Lyrically, Albarn is at the top of his game; it’d take me a year and probably a dissertation to dissect everything. “There Are Too Many of Us,” inspired by the Sydney hostage situation, is pure poetry: “There are too many of us; that’s plain to see./ We all believe in praying for our immortality.” A lyrical motif of alienation runs through The Magic Whip; considering that Blur is four white English dudes, the references to Asia give the album a sort of Lost in Translation vibe.
The Magic Whip is a tad disappointing in that Blur has always been a forward-looking band that works hard to make sure each album is different from the last (except maybe for the Britpop trilogy—Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, and The Great Escape—but I see those as one grand project and less as individual records). Think Tank was the Everest of Blur’s sonic experimentation: With Coxon at the helm, The Magic Whip lands Blur somewhere on Kilimanjaro. Still up there, still very impressive. And—as to be expected from Blur—by harking back to its 1993–95 period, it throws us for a loop. After 24 years, we’ve all learned the drill: Expect nothing but artsy innovation from a new Blur album. Albarn’s general weirdness still abounds on The Magic Whip, but since that’s no longer new, the album also gives us something not represented in today’s music: the Britpop-era Blur sound. Counterintuitively, The Magic Whip proves Blur’s continued relevance by reassembling all the hallmarks of its past: Albarn’s lyrical brilliance and ear for melody, James’s and Rowntree’s solid rhythm section, and a reminder that Blur isn’t Blur without Coxon on guitar.
new, self-penned “Garbage Man.” She describes this last song as her “idea of a love song for the 21st century” and a jazzier version of the great Jamaican-born dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson’s “More Time,” a reggae-tinged tune whose lyrics envision a life with more time for quiet pleasures. She prefaced the latter with a promise for something more cheerful later on—“if you need that.” Peyroux made a similar assurance after performing her first two songs, Hank Williams’s “Take These Chains from My Heart” and the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love”: “Yes, I know I should try to cheer you guys up. I plan on doing that—just not right now.”
But the audience was there to listen to whatever Peyroux wanted to give them, something real—not something happy. Peyroux doesn’t keep her pain a secret. While she says she’s happy today, she has experienced profound sadness in her life: She grew up with an alcoholic father and at one point ran away from home. She’s currently writing a memoir about her experiences living on the streets of Paris, before her career as a musician bloomed. As she said, she’s attracted to blues, to songs about drinking. Leo Sidran, musician and host of the podcast The Third Story, recently said to Peyroux in an interview, “You have your influences, you try
to sound like them, and you never will be them. In failing to sound like someone else—that is where you will become yourself. You’re kind of fucked if you really succeed, because then you don’t know who you are.” And he’s right. The audience was there to hear Peyroux’s take on the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s sad love songs, embed them with her own experiences, and enhance them with her rich voice that—even at a nearwhisper—is layered with nuance and range, and could never sound like the original performer. After all, I wouldn’t have been there if I didn’t want to feel the intense need to grab somebody, hold them close, and dance.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 1, 2015
This Week in Sports…BY
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
THE NUMBERS with
MATT STAAB
Andrew VanWazer
DIVING: STAAB SPLASHES NAME ONTO RECORD BOOK Ahmad Allaw Associate Sports Editor Atop the board, the mind clears and the focus narrows. A steady breath matches the beating pulse. After a pause, the feet begin to shuffle forward and the floor underneath to shake. In a moment, the diver makes his final leap, launching his body through the air and into the familiar water below. There is something beautiful in each dive. The hours of practice, the nervous breath, the unceasing will—all are condensed into just a few seconds. The final result, however, lasts for much longer, particularly when Chicago fourth-year Matt Staab is the one making the
jump. Staab got his start from a young age, but his source of inspiration wasn’t the grandeur of Olympic diving or flawless leaps of form. Instead, he found his passion close to home. “I actually got into diving through my brother. He wasn’t very athletic growing up and diving was sort of at the end of a long list of different sports he’d tried. He ended up being very talented at it and I started less than a year after him,” says Staab. Moving through the years, Staab developed into a standout diver. By the end of high school, with no shortage of athletic opportunities, he had to choose where to spend the next four years of his life. His decision, as he
Matt Staab directs himself for a perfect dive into the pool. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
7
recalls, turned out to be quite easy. “UChicago just had that unexplainable ‘it’ factor for me. I immediately felt welcomed and at home the moment I stepped on campus. From an athletic standpoint, it seemed like a school where I could make an immediate impact on the team as a diver, which was exciting too.” The rest, as they say, is history. As soon as he arrived, Staab proved to be a special athlete, dominating the one- and three-meter dives. In both the 2012–2013 and 2013–2014 seasons, Staab was named UAA Diver of the Year, UAA champion, Honorable Mention All-American, and All-American in the oneand three-meter dives. This year, he set a new UAA record for the three-meter dive. His list of athletic accomplishments, of which the above are just a few, is long and impressive. Although it will not be long before his time in college ends, Staab’s name will remain indelibly etched in Chicago’s record books. Staab’s impact, however, isn’t limited to athletics. He has been just as impressive out of the pool as he has been in it. Each of the past three years, he has been named to the UAA All-Academic team. Last year, too, he earned CSCAA First Team Scholar All-American and UAA Presidents Council Scholar-Athlete Team honors. But looking back, Staab doesn’t talk much of his individual awards or accomplishments in the pool. Ever the humble athlete and person, he recognizes something else as far more important, far more essential, and far more rewarding: the people he has met, the lasting friendships he has made, and the camaraderie he has experienced. “It sounds corny, but the best part of my experience here is the people I’ve gotten to know. I have made lifelong connections at UChicago and the friends I have here are people I will always have in my life. We already joke about who’s going to get married first and who’s going to host the best wedding,” says Staab. “Without a doubt, the thing I’ll miss most from an athletic standpoint will be travel meets with the divers. We’re such a crew when we’re together and the team bonding on those trips is almost concerning. We have such a blast.” So as his time winds to a close, Staab will cherish his remaining moments on campus. Looking to the future, though, he doesn’t plan on staying away from home for too long. “I applied for the Chicago Booth Scholars Program and have my interview coming up soon. I’ve always planned on getting my M.B.A. at some point and the idea of working for a few years before coming back here to get it is so appealing to me. It would be the perfect continuation of the UChicago education I value so much.” And so, when Staab graduates, he will forever be a part of UChicago and UChicago will forever be a part of him. To those who want to make the most of the undergraduate experience and to leave a mark, he leaves a word of advice. “Get involved in something that will make you more than just a student. Everyone here is smart and studious but it’s important to develop an identity beyond that. Be it through athletics, an RSO, or a part-time job, putting yourself out there and finding a passion beyond academics will make your college experience much more meaningful.”
The two biggest sporting events of this weekend are products of two not-so-big sports—speaking in terms of popularity, that is. However, in terms of the cold, hard cash that will change hands over the next two days, this weekend is as big as it gets. Saturday’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, along with horseracing’s annual Kentucky Derby, are sure to be heavily publicized, heavily wagered on, and watched by millions. In fact, one particular boxing bet that made headlines was the wager between actor Mark Wahlberg and rapper Diddy; Diddy will send $250,000 to Wahlberg if Pacquiao is victorious and vice versa. But it’s not just A-list celebrities who are exchanging money; Las Vegas is expected to see near record amounts of action in its sports books this weekend. With the NFL draft and the NBA and NHL playoffs also underway, May 2 will be one of the biggest overall sports days and payout days in recent history.
47–0 - Record of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. entering Saturday’s bout, an undefeated mark that includes 26 knockouts 38 - The number of career knockouts for Manny Pacquiao, whose 57–5–2 record sets up one of the greatest matchups in boxing history
74 - Combined age of both boxers (Mayweather,
38 and Pacquiao, 36), a more “elderly” version of a fight that was originally carded for March 13, 2010
$99.99 - Price of pay-per-view through Comcast for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, a record price for a single event
$1,520 - Price of a basic MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel room per night over the weekend. The fight will take place in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. $83,333 - Mayweather’s earnings per SECOND, if the fight goes a full 12 rounds
$1 million - The estimated value of the cus-
tom-made belt that the winning boxer will take home
47 - Years since horseracing has seen a winner of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a feat where the same horse wins the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes
141 - Years since the first running of the Derby in 1875 when Aristides won with a time of 2:37.7
1:59.4 - The fastest ever time for a horse at the Kentucky Derby, accomplished by winner Secretariat in 1973 5:2 - Current odds of the favorite, American Pharaoh, to win the Derby
$1,028.74 - Average ticket price on the sec-
ondary market for a ticket to the Derby, held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY
2,100 - Number of roses planted around the winner’s circle for post-race celebration
142,000 - Estimated number of hot dogs to
be consumed by Kentucky Derby attendees this Saturday
19 - Number of Kentucky Derby winning horses
whose names began with “S,” the most for any letter I’ll take the undefeated Mayweather in the fight, but with those statistics, my Derby money may just be on the 30:1 longshot Stanford.
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SPORTS
IN QUOTES “I never thought I’d say this but I’m excited to go to Cleveland” – Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah comments on his team’s upcoming series against the Cavaliers
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
EIRENE KIM
VOLLEYBALL: KIM SPIKES HOME A STORIED CAREER Katie Anderson Associate Sports Editor Eirene Kim came into her senior season with the UChicago volleyball team set to take what should have been a welldeserved victory lap. In just three years as a libero for the Maroons, Kim had already established herself as one of the most dominant and successful athletes in recent school history. In the 2013 season, Kim beat her own record set in 2012 for most digs in a season with 802. During that year she also set the record for most digs in a single game with 42 against Bethany College. Speaking of that banner year, Kim said, “My favorite memory as a volleyball player here was my junior year season. We had such a special team with so many awesome players. Winning UAAs was an unreal feeling, especially because no one really thought we could do it. It’s fun to be the underdog.” With her name in the record books and the program’s first UAA title and a co-UAA MVP title under her belt, there seemed little Kim wouldn’t be able to do during her senior year. However, it would not be more accolades or records that would go on to make the story of Kim’s senior year exceptional. Instead, it would be her strength in the face of adversity, the pure guts she displayed in the final games of her career, and her dedication to the sport she loved that would allow her story to transcend the sport itself, reminding us of the power and resilience of human will. The first change to Eirene’s senior season came with the arrival of new coach Sharon Dingman. Kim’s unrelenting leadership helped ease the entire team into the transition.
Kim approached the switch with nothing but optimism. “Senior season was a fun experience,” she said. “We had a new coaching staff and a new team dynamic. It felt like we were rebuilding our team after such a great previous season, but we prevailed.” Upon her arrival in Chicago from the University of Iowa, Dingman immediately recognized Eirene’s unmatched ability as a leader and competitor. “I’ve coached 30 years and there is no better story for me to tell than Eirene’s,” she said. “My transition was made easy because all the fourth-years were open and welcoming to new coaching. They set the example from the first day we were together in the gym. However, because Eirene is our leader, it was most important for the team to witness her enthusiasm with the change. She listened, worked diligently at making changes, was open in her dialogue with me and her teammates. All of that isn’t as simple as it sounds, especially with the amount of success Eirene had experienced prior to my arrival. When a team’s leader displays trust, it makes for an easy transition.” Yet Kim’s major test of her final year came 20 games into the 2014 season, when she fell victim to the injury female athletes everywhere are all too aware of: a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). This common yet devastating knee injury usually requires a surgery that keeps an athlete out of commission for at least six months. Kim, however, had different ideas. Instead of having surgery, she opted to take on a rigorous rehabilitation program with plans of returning to the court to play the final few weeks of her career on a still-torn ACL. “Eirene’s character, love for her teammates, and her sheer
competitiveness was always present but never to the level we experienced after she tore her ACL,” Dingman said. “It requires courage and supreme dedication to work four to six hours a day in rehab, and to deal with the mental challenges of injury. She was able to do that because she had one goal—get back on the court with her friends and teammates. When that happened, our team had a new purpose. She invigorated us with her spirit and her skill. It was joyful to watch us play the last three weeks of our season with Eirene on the court. She was the reason we finished second in UAA and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament.” Looking back on her senior season, Kim said, “Emotionally and physically, it was a long season, but with everything that happened to our team, I think we were incredibly strong and resilient.” Beyond being an exceptional competitor, Kim took full advantage of her time in the classroom as well. As a Law, Letters, and Society major, she is also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, having held leadership positions in the sorority, including service and philanthropy chair and chief educational officer. She has also done work for Maroon TV and has previously contributed to The Maroon as a sports writer. Additionally, she participated in research for Professor Robert Pape’s Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism. Kim earned UAA All-Academic honors in her second-, third-, and fourth-year seasons. After graduation, Kim will stay in Chicago to work as a paralegal at Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery. After gaining a couple years of work experience, she plans to apply to law school. As her time in Hyde Park
Fourth-year Eirene Kim returns a serve at a volleyball game against Carthage College last fall. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
comes to a quick end, Kim uses her experiences to offer advice to the peers she will leave behind. “If I could offer any other piece of advice to other UChicago students, I would tell them, don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing,” she
said. “Find what makes you happy and do you. I think people get lost at this school occasionally because they feel like if they aren’t doing what everyone else is doing, then they must be doing something wrong. Find your core group of people, be happy with yourself, and work hard.”
Kim’s senior season fully embodies her advice. Her impact on UChicago volleyball will surpass the record books, as she has left her mark on Chicago athletics as a whole, demonstrating what can come from a player’s unrelenting love for the sport.
South Siders split doubleheader to end season
Softball
David Kerr Maroon Contributor The Maroons made the drive out to the suburbs on Tuesday to cap off their season and take on the Elmhurst Bluejays in a doubleheader. The Maroons split both games in a tight fashion, winning the first game and losing the second. The first game was marked by an exciting finish for the Maroons, an 8–6 comeback victory that set the tone for the afternoon. Chicago started fast
with three quick runs at the top of the third inning. Second-year second baseman Anna Woolery knocked in an RBI single to get things going for the South Siders. Second-year outfielder Maggie O’Hara was not to be outdone as she followed up Woolery’s RBI single with a two-run double. The Bluejays responded quickly in the bottom of the third with four runs of their own to leave the score 4–3 in favor of the home team. The Bluejays would continue to add to their
lead, making it 6–3 going into the sixth inning. Down 6–3 in the top of the sixth, the Maroons were looking to make a comeback and it came in the form of first-year outfielder Sara Koniewicz, who roped a two-run single to break things open. The Maroons would not look back as third-year outfielder Devan Parkison and Woolery added RBI to make the score 8–6 in favor of the Maroons. First-year first baseman Alyssa Stolmack attributed the Maroons’ ability to come back in
the first game to their resolve. “I think we put together a lot of great things and never gave up in the first game, especially when we were behind,” she said. Game two would not end as well as the first had for the Maroons, as they lost a nail-biter to the Bluejays 4–3. Elmhurst would jump out to a 3–0 in the second inning and would never look back from there. It took the Maroons five innings to get on the board as first-year Molly Moran knocked in an RBI single and Parkison
hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 3–2 in the top of the fifth. Elmhurst would respond with another run in the bottom of fifth, which proved to be the deciding run in a 4–3 loss for the Maroons. The second game was highlighted by a major accomplishment by Parkison, who met school record for steals in a season in the sixth inning. Her 26th steal of the season tied with the 22-year-old record set by Kim Dennis in 1993. As the season comes to a
close, Stolmack reflected on their season with pride and optimism for the future, saying, “I am so proud of how hard my team battled through what was, at times, a pretty tough season in terms of schedule and injuries and other factors out of our control. We are really looking forward to an exciting recruit class for next season.” The Maroons finished their season with a record of 15–19 and will look to start a new chapter next year in the spring of 2016.