Chicago-Maroon-10-04-09

FRIDAY APRIL 9, 2010

CHICAGO

AROON

VOLUME 121

IN VOICES

IN SPORTS

Kinks in the system

Bat man

» Page 11

» Back page

Tony Kushner describes the thrill of a live audience.

First-year Jack Cinoman hits for the cycle and bags a national hitting award.

ISSUE 35

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

DISCOURSE

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Rasmussen: NATO needs more flexibility

With Moose Party as only opponent, Next Generation slated to win election

By Ella Christoph News Editor and Kelly Zhang News Staff

NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen speaks on Afghanistan in the Max Palevsky Cinema Thursday afternoon. Rasmussen advocated for more connectivity between military and civilian efforts.

CAMILLE VAN HORNE/MAROON

By Asher Klein News Editor NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen argued for a more flexible, more engaged NATO as the end of the mission in Afghanistan comes into view at a talk in Ida Noyes Hall yesterday.

The “comprehensive approach” Rasmussen argued for would involve NATO in training local security

forces and working with non-member countries, like China and India, to provide security in places like Afghanistan—a more involved role than the organization has served in the past.

“To my mind, a fundamental lesson of Afghanistan is that NATO can take on the toughest operation in the world...I believe that when this mission is complete, the Alliance will emerge stronger, more

effective and more united than ever,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said NATO will soon begin formally evaluating NATO’s participation in Afghanistan—which drew fire this weekend from Afghan President Hamid Karzai—and touched on the end of NATO’s work in Afghanistan.

“Our mission in Afghanistan will end [when Afghanis] themselves

NATO continued on page 2

Candidates for Student Government (SG) positions officially put their hats in the ring We d n e s d a y , b u t t h e r a c e f o r Executive Slate is already all but decided. Next Generation is running almost unopposed, since the only other slate to enter the race is Delta Upsilon's (DU) Moose Party, which has stated it is not running to win.

The Next Generation slate is composed of third-year and undergraduate liason to the board of trustees Greg Nance, second-year and representative David Chen, and first-year and current representative Patrick Ip. Nance is running for President, Chen for Vice-President for Student Affairs, and Ip for VicePresident for Administration.

The Moose Party, perennial satirist of SG Elections, is composed of Delta Upsilon brothers Riley Heckel, a third-year running for President; Cyrus Eslami, a firstyear running for Vice President of Student Affairs; and Alex Casariego, a first-year running for Vice President for Administration.

The party has lost for 16 years running, and isn't seeking to win this year either.

Greg Nance is also a DU brother, and Casariego said that, while the Moose Party will have a fullfledged platform, the party is more interested in bringing humor to the election. “We definitely do support Nance. We definitely do want to get some of the vote but we're not actually trying to win,” he said.

Nance expects his fellow brothers and opponents on the Moose Party slate will be especially prepared to put on a good show at the elections, but doesn't anticipate tough competition from the party, which is composed of three of his best friends, he said.

Still, Nance regretted that his party did not have more competitors. “This is a sub-optimal outcome for democracy. Serious competition would keep us on our toes,” he said.

Fi r s t - y e a r D U b r o t h e r a n d Moose Party supporter Jean-Michel Hoffman was enthusiastic about the inter-fraternity competition. “The election will be a win no matter what for us,” he said.

C u r r e n t Vi c e P r e s i d e n t f o r Administration and second-year

ELECTION continued on page 2

ACADEMICS

STUDENT LIFE

English department drops Critical Perspectives

Graduate Students United demands union recognition by U of C

By Hannah Fine News Staff The English Department will no longer offer its required course Critical Perspectives next year due to a scheduling fluke, according to the director of the undergraduate English program.

Undergraduates will also need only three period courses—courses that cover writing from a specific time period—rather than four to graduate with a major, although English majors will still have to take one of a number of theory classes. Other distribution requirements will stay the same.

Those graduate students who would have taught the class next year happened to take leaves of absence at the same time, Director Christina von Nolcken said. “What’s happening for next year is just this little bit of ad hoc tinkering so that the undergrads can have a sensible program,” she said, adding that the department will meet next year to make a final decision concerning the course and the department in general.

“We always wanted to have a course that all majors and minors in English would be able to discuss together, and we always hoped that Critical Perspectives could perform

that function,” von Nolcken said.

Future English majors can petition von Nolcken to have a theory course fit the requirement, von Nolcken said.

Prospective majors will also have to take one course from each of three literary periods: pre-1650, 1650-1830, and 1830-1940. Currently, students must take two courses in literature written between 1450 and 1750, and two between 1750 and 1950.

Future graduate student hiring decisions will not be determined

by Critical Perspectives. Whereas English graduate students used to teach the course to fulfill their financial aid packages, new graduate students will teach classes aligned with their own research interests.

“We look for the very best we can get in both categories of professors and graduate students, and then we look at what they can do,” von Nolcken said.

Some students who spoke to the Maroon said they would not have taken the class, given the option.

However, many ultimately enjoyed the course. Fourth-year Christopher Shea took the class last winter and said he loved it. “I probably wouldn't have taken it,” Shea said, “but I'm happy I did. It's sort of a Core course because of its breadth.”

ENGLISH continued on page 2

Part 1 of a 2 part series on

Graduate Student Tuition

By Ilana Kowarski News Staff Graduate Students United (GSU) is lobbying for University recognition as a union, and may seek legal counsel to combat the University's policy of withholding union acknowledgment.

G S U seeks to unionize, after a February statement by Provost Thomas Rosenbaum and Deputy Provost Cathy Cohen announced the decision to freeze advanced residency (AR) tuition rather than lower it, GSU member Duff Morton said.

According to Morton, a fourth-year anthropology and SSA graduate student, the provost's AR tuition committee decision convinced many GSU members that the administration needed to be pressured more.

Outside unions might assist GSU organizers in their lobbying campaigns for higher wages and lower tuition, GSU representative and fifth-year English graduate student Andrew Yale said. The group will decide whether to affiliate with an outside union by the end of May, members said.

GSU has had conferences with five nationally recognized unions to discuss the possibility of affiliation, Yale said. “We are investigating the possibility of affiliating with an outside union. That way, we can get more money, resources, and lawyers. We can be a union of thousands rather than hundreds,” he said.

GSU will march with the unions they have contacted in Chicago’s annual May Day parade, and various unions will visit campus the following week to make presentations to convince GSU members to affiliate with their organizations. GSU will vote on whether to affiliate or remain independent through an online poll.

“The option to not affiliate —to remain an independent union—is also very much a possibility,” Yale said.

“The absence of formal recognition does not prevent us from coming together and calling ourselves a union.”

In a March statement, GSU said the University's decision proved that graduate students need collective bargaining power. “[The Provost] believes we have no power on this campus, and without a united, strong voice, we really don't,” GSU wrote.

“It is time to unionize.”

Graduate student tuition has been frozen since 2008, and given a historical five percent annual tuition increase, many graduate students will

have saved $1,350 by spring 2012, according to the Provost's February announcement. AR can be up to $5,300 per quarter in some departments.

GSU may gain legal recognition as a union if the University voluntarily recognizes it, Yale said. A 2004 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling said that universities are not obligated to recognize graduate student unions, but according to an April 1 New York Times article, with two recent Obama appointments, NLRB will likely change the ruling on graduate student teachers.

Mandatory University recognition of GSU as a union would be significant, Yale said. “Until now, the University administration has talked mainly to committees and Student Government about graduate working conditions, but they were not obligated to listen to us. But, with a recognized union, the University would have to listen. It would be written into the contract.”

Cohen said that while the University does not treat GSU as a union, the administration still considers its arguments. “Anytime we make decisions about graduate students, we speak with graduate students,” she said. “At least I personally have had an open door policy when it comes to graduate students, and I have

UNION continued on page 2

2

CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 9, 2010

Uncommon Interview

Third-year Greg Nance hangs out at DU and plays chess when he's not teaching kids how to manage their money.

LLOYD LEE/MAROON

WITH

» Greg Nance

T

hird-year and undergraduate liaison to the Board of Trustees Greg Nance is running for Student Government (SG) president this year, but his work at SG isn’t the only thing that defines him. Nance has worked at Merrill and Morgan, started a program called Money Think that teaches Chicago Public School students financial literacy, and won a Truman scholarship last week—a $30,000 award “for juniors with exceptional leadership potential.” The Maroon sat down with Nance to talk about his work, playing chess in his spare time, and running for office against his frat brothers.

CM: You’re a DU brother and DU’s Moose Party is the only other slate running this year. What’s it like having your brothers as your competitors?

GN: I really like playing chess, whether it’s going to Ray School down the road to mentor or playing online. I also love hanging out with my brothers at DU. We have a fantastic time hanging around, shooting the breeze.

GN: In a way it’s unfortunate for the democratic

—Ella Christoph

—Additional reporting by Asher Klein

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com

ChicagoMaroon.com ChicagoMaroon.com

UNION continued from front page attended GSU meetings and met with GSU members. That doesn’t mean we always agree, but I do get their input.”

Unionization might harm graduate students by damaging their relationships with faculty, according to Cohen. Students at New York University and Yale voted against unionization to avoid negative faculty attitudes, she said.

“Graduate students’ relationship with the administration is already compromised without a union,” Yale said in reply. “Admittedly, the administration and we often do not agree, but there is already a hostile feeling among graduate students against the administration.

Graduate students would be well-served by an organization like GSU that works towards improving working conditions,” Yale said.

ChicagoMaroon.com

May Yeung said the Moose Party may be a potential contender in the race. “In previous years, the Moose Party has brought up the concerns of the students,” said Yeung, referring to some of the slate’s more serious platform items, like using Flex Dollars off campus.

Yeung said that the current Executive Slate is concerned about the number of contenders.

“Measures were taken to encourage people to run,” she said; one such measure was extending the petition deadline two days to Wednesday. In past years, Yeung reports that petitions have been due on either Monday or Tuesday of second week.

First-year Frank Alarcon (another DU brother, who will run a serious campaign), second-year David Akinin, and third-year Rafael Menis are running for Undergraduate

Liason to the Board of Trustees. Alarcon is a College Council representative.

The College Council Class of 2011 has only three candidates running for four available positions - current representative Jason Cigan, Namita Gupta, and Isabel Hujoel. According to third-year Executive Chair of the Election and Rules Committee Paul Connell, vacant seats are not an anomaly. “They’re usually filled by write-in candidates,” Connell said, with “100 percent confidence” that the spot will be filled that way.

The candidates for the College Council of 2012 are Edward James III, Youssef Kalad, Nakul Singh, Pamela Villa, and current representative Sohrab Kohli. For the Class of 2013, Nelson Zhu, Emmie Schlessinger, Rebecca Kim, Neil Shah, Vicki Peng, Jakub Tucholski, Athena Xie, Sam Scarrow, and current representative Travis Benaiges are running.

Third-year Sean Bowen took the class last winter quarter as well, and would take it again.

“I think it was good for developing close reading skills and it gave me a good theoretical foundation to work from, and I found it really useful for advanced classes,” said Bowen, an English and Russian double major. He said that if Critical Perspectives isn’t brought back, “there should be some required class that does what Critical Perspectives tries to do.”

Current Critical Perspectives students had differing reactions. Second-year Caroline O'Donovan, an English and Political Science major taking the class, was frustrated the change was not announced (it has been accounted for on the English department’s Web site). “No one, not my advisor, told me maybe you should hold off on taking this class,” O’Donovan said.

O'Donovan said she would rather take a class on a specific theory she is interested in, although first-year and potential major Caterina MacLean, who is also in the course, said she enjoys it so far.

“I was surprised because I had heard such bad things about the class, but I actually liked it so far, even though everyone was like, it’s pretty boring, pretty dry,” MacLean said. “I wish that the English Department had communicated a little better when they knew they were changing the requirements.”

Trent Bowen, a third-year physics major and English minor, offered a critical perspective of his own. “I don't see why people complain about one required class. As a physics major you have, like, eight.”

ChicagoMaroon.com

ELECTION continued from front page

Cohen: Unionizing could jeopardize student-faculty relationship

ENGLISH continued from front page

ChicagoMaroon.com

Write-in candidate will fill final spot for CC Class of 2011

John Mearsheimer, the political science professor who moderated the questionand-answer session, said in an interview afterward: “The issues [Rasmussen] talked about are important,” Mearsheimer said, “but for the most part they don’t speak to the core problems that plague us in Afghanistan.” He cited the Karzai government and the size of the country as obstacles to success.

Although Rasmussen said the mission in Afghanistan demonstrated that NATO “can take on the toughest operations in the world,” Mearsheimer said it would fail given that the Karzai government is “not only corrupt but incapable of running the country, which means that we are supporting a government that has no legitimacy. There’s no way we can win in Afghanistan with a government like that in charge of Kabul.”

He added that there is little the United States can do to defeat the Taliban, even with NATO support. “From an American point of view it helps to have all the NATO troops we can possibly get, but the fact is there’s no way we’re ever going to have enough troops to defeat the Taliban and pacify Afghanistan. The country is simply too big and the Taliban too elusive for the United States and its NATO allies to defeat it,” Mearsheimer said.

ChicagoMaroon.com

can take responsibility for themselves and run the country. The more we invest now, the sooner the date when they will be able to take over themselves,” he said in the question-andanswer session that followed.

Investment in civilian infrastructure was one of the five “lessons” Rasmussen said he learned from a 2009 visit to the region. In all its missions, Rasmussen said NATO must coordinate military operations and economic development with civilians in-country; work with non-member states with stakes in the region; update members’ militaries to make them more easily deployable and purchase such technology on behalf of those members who cannot do so on their own; work to train security forces to stop armed conflicts rather than fight them; and realize that the organization can be a powerful force in what amounts to regional politics.

An overarching theme was connectivity. Rasmussen said that when he met with American General Stanley A. McChrystal, NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan, days after becoming secretary general, McChrystal briefed him with “a graphic display of all the factors, military and civilian, we had to take into account if we are to succeed, and all the interconnections between them. There were hundreds of lines, going in every direction.”

The point of the projection, Rasmussen said, is that “everything is connected. In Afghanistan, there can be no development without security. But equally, there can be no lasting security without development.”

Rasmussen is the 12th secretary general of NATO, a position he took in August 2009 after resigning as Prime Minister of Denmark.

A member of the Liberal party in his native country, Rasmussen served as the Danish Prime Minister for seven-and-a-half years, from 2001.

NATO will soon publish a document, called the Strategic Concept, that will guide NATO policy for the next 10 years, Rasmussen said, and he noted the importance of the document.

It is being prepared by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and must be agreed upon by the heads of NATO’s member states.

After the talk, which was presented by the University’s Center for International Studies and the Chicago Council for Global Affairs, Rasmussen was asked to justify NATO’s involvement in the region.

“The purpose of our military operation in Afghanistan is to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists. If we left Afghanistan we risk that terrorists will once again use Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacks on Europe or elsewhere,” Rasmussen said.

Students disappointed that requirement change went unannounced

ChicagoMaroon.com

Mearsheimer: Rasmussen didn't address big problems with Afghanistan NATO continued from front page

CM: You seem like a pretty busy guy. What do you do in your free time?

ChicagoMaroon.com

CM: So how did you move from knowing about

GN: It was definitely a lot of trial and error. As we taught our lessons, we refined them. This point didn’t go over well, but when we talked about LeBron James and what he spends his money on, the kids loved it. Or when we talked about Lil Wayne and his marketing, the students became very interested in marketing. Gradually, we created a curriculum that really appealed to the students and was also fun for us to teach.

process, just in that we would like for more slates to turn out, have one or two competitors because I think that really helps shape the debate, that keeps us on our toes. At the same time, the Moose Party is composed of three of my best friends who are going to have a lot fun making fun of me up there, so I’m looking forward to that part of it.

ChicagoMaroon.com

GN: I was elected as the External Relations Director of [Financial RSO] Blue Chips in April of 2008, and usually the job of the External Relations Director is to bring top national firms to campus to do recruiting with members, but at this particular time, the market was going belly-up and no firms were trying to hire college kids, and they weren’t interested in coming to campus and speaking with Blue Chips members. So I shifted gears. I decided it would be great if Blue Chips members had an easy way of doing community service, doing something that we knew something about. We consulted more and more educators, and talked to principals about what kind of program they would like.

finance and investment to knowing how to teach them?

ChicagoMaroon.com

Greg Nance: My father was a Finance major for part of his time during undergrad and he has been investing for his three children’s college funds. When I was 14, he began showing me the tricks of the trade and we spent a lot of time investing my college savings. It was a real passion in high school. I was pretty geeky with all my finance and stock books. It came time for recruiting during my first year, and I basically got very lucky to land a shadowing opportunity with Morgan Stanley and a full time internship with Merrill Lynch.

CM: How did Money Think get started?

ChicagoMaroon.com

CHICAGO MAROON: You have interned and shadowed at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

You’re a Political Science major and these look like the kind of positions that Econ majors fight to the death over. How did you get those positions?

CHICAGO MAROON

| VIEWPOINTS |

3

April 9, 2010

VIEWPOINTS

EDITORIAL & OP-ED APRIL 9, 2010

EDITORIAL

Shooting blanks CHICAGO MAROON

The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

JORDAN HOLLIDAY, Editor-in-Chief JAKE GRUBMAN, Managing Editor ASHER KLEIN, News Editor ELLA CHRISTOPH, News Editor EVAN COREN, Viewpoints Editor HAYLEY LAMBERSON, Voices Editor BLAIR THORNBURGH, Voices Editor AUDREY HENKELS, Sports Editor WILL FALLON, Sports Editor A. G. GOODMAN, Sports Editor VICTORIA KRAFT, Head Copy Editor MONIKA LAGAARD, Head Copy Editor HOLLY LAWSON, Head Copy Editor CAMILLE VAN HORNE, Photo Editor MATT BOGEN, Photo Editor JACK DiMASSIMO, Head Designer ABRAHAM NEBEN, Web Editor ADAM JANOFSKY, Assoc. News Editor LIAT SPIRO, Assoc. Viewpoints Editor PETER IANAKIEV, Assoc. Viewpoints Editor JUDY MARCINIAK, Business Manager JAY BROOKS, Business Director

Reg report does more to quiet controversy than prevent recurrence Last week, the administration released its report on the arrest of fourthyear Mauriece Dawson by a UCPD officer in Regenstein Library. In addition to presenting findings from a month-long investigation of the incident, the report details a series of “systemic responses” that are part of the administration’s commitment “to implementing a set of thoughtful institutional changes that will prevent a recurrence.” Despite the thorough review process, the announced changes offer a web of bureaucracy, but little hope of preventing a similar incident in the future.

In response to the library review of the incident, which determined that the “processes and procedures [in place] are not sufficient for circumstances like those” surrounding Dawson’s arrest, library administrators will work with a student committee to draft a library code of conduct. But that code, which will look to “the best practices of peer universities” in order to “articulate what constitutes acceptable behavior in the University’s libraries,” will likely prove to be little more

than a formalization of the same common sense policies that were poorly executed in the Regenstein incident.

For instance, many of our peer institutions qualify library misconduct with vague and all-encompassing language, like UC–Berkeley’s prohibition of “any behavior that interferes with library activities.” At other institutions, the common sanctions in response to such a violation include asking a student to leave library premises, reporting the student to the police, and seeking subsequent legal prosecution. It is difficult to believe that the University’s library code of conduct will markedly improve upon these guidelines from other institutions, none of which would have materially altered the library’s response to Dawson’s behavior.

Many of the outlined changes to U C P D procedure suggest a similar attempt to throw unnecessary bureaucratic initiatives at the problem. Most notably, the University will create an independent position “to conduct investigations into

complaints against the UCPD,” but the report offers no evidence that the current process of investigating complaints failed in either this circumstance or in related instances.

In fact, the internal review and the temporary outside consultant substantiated the two formal complaints filed with the UCPD in response to the circumstances of Dawson’s arrest. And University policy already provides for an Independent Review Committee—composed of University staff, faculty, students, and members of the broader community—which reviews findings from the UCPD’s internal investigations. With an existing procedure for departmental and independent review that appears to have worked well in this case, it hardly seems necessary to assign these responsibilities to someone else.

Finally, the proposed “Cooperative Initiatives,” like the University-wide program training staff that interacts with students, extend beyond the superfluous and into the insulting. Proper interaction with students is a common sense matter,

and if a staff member is unable to treat students collegially, it’s unlikely that a brief seminar will help. If the University wants to implement systemic change in response to this incident and the outcry that followed, these are the wrong places to look.

If in fact systemic changes are necessary, those changes should deal directly with how UCPD officers respond to violations by members of the University community. Rather than “continu[ing] to train officers not to engage in [racial] profiling” and to avoid excessive use of force, as outlined in the report, administrators could revamp those training programs entirely or mandate stiffer penalties in the wake of police abuses.

Instead, the report offers a litany of window-dressings that will allow this controversy to blow over—at least until another incident occurs and another round of bureaucratic reforms is in order.

unpaid internships and reports that many, in fact, are not legal under existing law. Based on the fact that the article was the most popular on the Times’ website a couple of days ago, the piece is being treated like an exposé on child labor in America. The poor suffering college students, fetching coffee, and not even being compensated. The reality is not like this, of course, and most col-

lege students know this: Unpaid internships aren’t as great as paid internships, but most of the time, they’re well worth it.

L ast summer, my roommate had an unpaid internship, working at a small, high-brow magazine that likely would not have been able to pay him if it had to.

It was not the best summer for him: He got a job as a waiter, often pulling sixty-plus hour

workweeks with the jobs combined. His take -home pay was just enough to scrape through the summer, as he subsisted on Ramen noodles. And yet he did it. He took the best job he could find, considering all the factors.

And he’s one of many success stories: He got several great clips under his belt, parlaying them into another journalism job; his

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

ANDREW GREEN, Designer IVY PEREZ, Designer CHRISTINA SCHWARTZ, Designer

OP-ED

JESSICA SHEFT-ASON, Designer MATT TYNDALE, Designer ANNA AKERS-PECHT, Copy Editor

Free labor

HUNTER BUCKWORTH, Copy Editor MARCELLO DELGADO, Copy Editor JORDAN FRANKLIN, Copy Editor DANIELLE GLAZER, Copy Editor LAUREN LARSON, Copy Editor

Government should not crack down on unpaid internships

MIRANDA LI, Copy Editor LAUREN MAKHOLM, Copy Editor SAALIKA ABBAS MELA, Copy Editor

Matt Barnum Columnist

ALEX WARBURTON, Copy Editor LILY YE, Copy Editor WENJIA DOREEN ZHAO, Copy Editor

The CHICAGO MAROON is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters.

Circulation: 6,500 The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the MAROON.

Approximately one hundred o f m y Fa c e b o o k f r i e n d s h a v e posted that The New York Times article about unpaid internships.

“The Unpaid Intern, L egal or Not” explores the growth of

UNPAID INTERNSHIPS continued on page 4

©2010 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

OP-ED

Memo to the South: You were the bad guys

SUBMISSIONS The CHICAGO MAROON welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: Viewpoints CHICAGO MAROON 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space.

Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words.

Op-ed submissions, 800 words.

CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Voices: Voices@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy Editing: Copy@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: jmarcini@uchicago.edu

Southern rejection of Confederacy long overdue

Peter Ianakiev Columnist

When my eighth-grade Georgia h i s t o r y t e a ch e r i n f o r m e d t h e class that the Civil War was not about slavery but about “states’ rights,” the class as a whole took it as a fascinating revelation, one that showed that Lincoln was ultimately not as noble as we had been told up to that point, and that the Civil War itself was fun-

damentally not a conflict between a good side and a bad side, but rather a conflict between two different philosophies on the relationship of the individual states to the federal government. The goal of this article is not so much to argue about consensus among historians; one needs only to read the statements of secession that South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas issued to understand that the fundamental reason for the Confederacy’s existence was the protection of slavery. What is fascinating, and

ultimately troubling, is that so many Southerners have never arrived at this obvious conclusion, or if they have, they have gone to great length to represent the Confederacy as something other than what it obviously was: a plainly evil regime.

A few days ago the governor o f Vi r g i n i a , B o b M c D o n n e l l , breathed new life into this debate when he issued a proclamation declaring April to be Confederate History Month. The proclamation invited Virginians everywhere to “reflect upon our

Commonwealth’s shared history,” and “to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the civil war”—all without including the slightest mention of slavery.

Here is my request to all intelligent people currently living in the South: It’s time we put an end to this idiocy. It’s time Southerners stop pretending that the Confederacy’s main goal was anything other than trying to preserve slavery; it’s time Southerners stop white-washing

CONFEDERACY continued on page 4

4

CHICAGO MAROON

|

VIEWPOINTS | April 9, 2010

Despite purported patriotism, Southerners continue to honor secessionist tradition CONFEDERACY continued from page 3 the lives of people like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee—yes, they are no doubt fascinating people and brilliant generals, but they fought for a cause that, by any reasonable standard, was evil. That’s that.

I don’t care how wise and charismatic you may consider Robert E. Lee to be; when you get down to it, the man fought and killed for the cause of slavery. And if someone ever tries to argue that, somehow, the Confederacy was not that bad or that it was not primarily concerned with preserving slavery, please consider the words of its vice -president, Alexander Stephens: “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the

Prohibiting unpaid internships may disadvantage the less-connected UNPAID INTERNSHIPS continued from page 3 employer got top-notch work for free.

Win, win.

Yet under federal guidelines, there can be no win-win situations. As the Times article reports, an employer may “derive no immediate benefit” from an intern’s work. By that standard, every unpaid internship is illegal.

It’s ridiculous to assume that a company will offer internships out of the goodness of the company’s non-existent corporate heart.

Companies do what’s in their own best interest; luckily enough, that often aligns with the interests of college students looking for experience and willing to work on the cheap.

The article cites “many students and administrators [who] complain that the growth in unpaid internships undercuts that effort by favoring well-to-do and wellconnected students, speeding their climb up the career ladder.” But is eliminating these unpaid internships the solution to this legitimate problem? If anything, it seems more likely that “well-to-do and well-connected students” would have even more connections in industries where interns are wellcompensated. Meanwhile, the less-well-off might be denied the very (unpaid) internships that they need to make connections and climb the social ladder.

The Times reports day-to-day tasks of interns as if uncovering some great shocking fact: “One Ivy League student said she spent an unpaid three-month internship at a magazine packaging and shipping 20 or 40 apparel samples a day back to fashion houses that had provided them for photo shoots.”

The horrors! An Ivy League student wasting time doing menial work for no pay! But there’s a reason that the students stick with such jobs: They get the opportunity to make meaningful connections, talk with people in the industry, see what life is like at the company, and nab a few good references.

Th e n o t i o n t h a t t h e g o v e r n m e n t i s needed to protect college students from the unpaid jobs they themselves take is a flawed one. We take such jobs because we want to and because we know it’s worth it in the long run. If such work is made illegal, then the jobs will disappear.

And with college students, we’re not talking about an undereducated group, one that needs to be protected from predatory employers—no, by and large, I think it’s safe to say that college students are savvy job hunters. We search for paid jobs first—and employers know that a paid internship will get more candidates than an unpaid one— and if we can’t find one, some of us settle for an unpaid offer. Employers who offer us that option aren’t taking advantage of us; they’re offering us new opportunities.

— Matt Barnum is a fourth-year in the College majoring in psychology.

great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.”

Why a region of the country that consistently considers itself to b e far more patriotic than any other frequently expresses sympathy with a secessionist cause that fought in the name of a horrific institution, I will never understand. I can only hope it is due to ignorance and wishful thinking, to Southerners hoping that the Confederacy really was not that bad, that its existence is not a horrific blot on the history of the South, that it can be defended or justified. And I sympathize with this problem, to some extent. After all, what country does not have awful sins

in its past? It can be hard to acknowledge that the country you love was once on the side of evil. But moral responsibility and maturity require that Southerners awaken to this reality. We can’t pretend that the country or geographical region or whatever it is that we love so much has had a perfect, spotless history, much less when the blemishes on that history are things as colossal as segregation and slavery.

Over 140 years ago, in our nation’s most difficult trial, the good guys prevailed. It’s time Southerners accepted this and moved on.

— Peter Ianakiev is a second-year in the College majoring in political science.

Agree? Disagree?

Speak your mind. >> Log

on to ChicagoMaroon.com to comment on any of our Viewpoints op-eds and editorials, as well as any of the articles in the paper.

5

CHICAGO CHICAGO MAROON MAROON | VOICES | VOICES | November | April 9, 20, 2010 2009

VOICES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 9, 2010

DISCOURSE

Kushner gives notes on life and the liberal arts

By Ella Christoph Voices Perestroika

Tony Kushner drives the point home during his conversation with UT/TAPS on Wednesday.

EMILY LO

/ MAROON

Playwright Tony Kushner’s talk given in Mandel Hall this Tuesday got off to a rough start when the sound system faltered and Kushner was given a handheld microphone. Asking if he could have one clipped to his lapel, moderator Charlie Newell offered to trade and began unbuttoning his shirt to remove the mic. The mishap fittingly foreshadowed Kushner’s later description of why he loved theater, which, unlike film, holds the possibility of failure in front of a live audience. “I find it exciting in a kinky sort of way,” Kushner said.

Artspeaks, a U of C organization that brings speakers from the arts to campus, hosted Kushner. In addition to his talk on Tuesday, the playwright participated in an open conversation with University Theater/Theater and Performance Studies on Wednesday and was interviewed during the Jean and Harold Gossett Lecture on Thursday.

Kushner’s play The Illusion, based on 17th-century playwright Pierre Corneille’s play of the same name, is also currently playing at Court Theater.

Kushner devoted most of Tuesday’s talk to discussing the play. He began writing it while he was writing Angels in America—between the first and sec-

ond acts of Millennium Approaches. A theater, hoping to put on a production of The Illusion, came to Kushner when they realized the only existing translation of Corneille’s 1636 play was written in iambic pentameter. Kushner doubted the play would work, fearing that the play’s “surprise punchline” would lose its effect once critics gave away the ending, but he decided to give it a try.

Plus, Kushner said, he was stuck on Angels in America. “[It was] just craziness, and the angel hasn’t arrived yet, and I’m 120 pages into it,” he said.

The Illusion achieved critical and financial success—Kushner said it was the first time he was able to live off money he made writing. Critics liked the play so much that when Angels in America came out, they thought The Illusion was the real success and Kushner’s glory days were past.

Kushner also discussed his relationship with his parents, which played an integral part in both Angels in America and The Illusion. He said his relationship with his parents was complex when he was growing up, in part because he was gay. As he grew older, he became capable of seeing it from the perspective of his parents. His father, too, has changed: “After Angels he had a big turnaround—now he’s like the Poster Parent for PFLAG or something,” said

Kushner.

In The Illusion, a father sees three separate visions of his prodigal son. “It is a play to a great degree about paternity,” said Kushner. “It sort of ends up as a gray mess of middle-aged disillusion.”

“I’m very fond of my father but we had a tough relationship when I was growing up because I was gay and that was very difficult for him to deal with.”

Kushner is currently working on a screenplay on Abraham Lincoln for a movie that will be produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. Kushner, who seems to have a talent for evoking contemporary preoccupations in apparently timeless works, described President Barack Obama as “The most Lincolnian figure to come into the White House since Lincoln.” At first knowing nothing about Lincoln, Kushner said he is now obsessed. Kushner has read “well over 150 to 200 books on Lincoln,” and while he said that usually after doing intensive reading for research he forgets everything as soon as he’s done, “I think with Lincoln it will become a lifetime obsession.”

Appropriately enough, the playwright also discussed his college experience during the talk. As a voracious reader, Kushner discovered Marx, Brecht, and his favorite playwright Shakespeare.

movie-based-on-comic-about-comics, Dave’s local comic store puts up a sign boasting “Kick-Ass: The Comic Book... coming soon!”

Visually, the film pops, with bright colors everywhere from the sags in Kick-Ass’s turquoise wetsuit to Hit Girl’s violently violet bob to the candy-apple hue of Red Mist’s getaway car. While the film’s final fight scenes were wellchoreographed, gory fun (thanks in part to the upbeat music), some of the earlier, less fantastic ass-kickings are grittier, with painfully realistic bone-crackings,

stabbings, and hit-and-runs. But their lack of elegance is effective, driving home one of the film’s main themes: Even behind a mask, your nose can still break. And, if the title weren’t enough to tip you off, Kick-Ass is emphatically not a movie for kids, in spite of the young age of most of the cast.

Despite its violence and almosttoo-earnest attempts at geeksploitation, Kick-Ass ends up an enjoyable film, with a surprisingly genuine amount of heart—not to mention blood.

KUSHNER continued on page 6

FILM

Nerds get their revenge in Kick-Ass

By Blair Thornburgh Voices Harley Quinn Pity the poor geek in superhero movies like Kick-Ass. His is a world where Spider-Man never went big at the box office, where comic books never enjoyed a trendy rebirth as “graphic novels,” and where dweeby, hornrimmed glasses aren’t sold at American Apparel. For this kind of geek, life sucks.

It’s enough to make a kid want to fight for something.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a true geek: He reads comic books

KICK-ASS

April 16 Wide Release

religiously, hangs out with his hapless fellow nerds, and strikes out regularly with girls. Bored with the everyday life of a high school kid, Dave decides to answer the question he’s always wondered about: “How come nobody’s ever tried being a superhero?” One internetpurchased wetsuit later, Dave becomes Kick-Ass, an amateur vigilante whose weapons of choice are two homemade batons and whose Bat-Signal is a MySpace page. Dave soon learns real life isn’t like the comics—real-life bad guys have blades and bullets—but KickAss remains undaunted. Even after landing himself in the hospital, Dave returns to the world of crime fighting, racking up YouTube hits, and scoring victories for the little guy.

It’s only when he meets fellow crusaders Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage)

and the pint-size, pugnacious Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) that the real danger starts. Nothing is as it seems as Kick-Ass finds himself tangled in a revenge plot against crime boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). Another superhero, Red Mist (Christopher MintzPlasse), a.k.a. Chris D’Amico, volunteers to be his sidekick, all the while working undercover for the family business, and the beautiful and elusive Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca) finally shows interest in him...platonically. Dave realizes that maintaining a double life is harder than it looks.

As Dave, Johnson possesses a gawky, foul-mouthed kind of charm, as he balances the character’s relatable desire to, well, kick ass with the deeper problems of identity and morality that his superhero persona throws at him.

Likewise, Mintz-Plasse’s Chris/Red Mist successfully recycles the actor’s “McLovin” schtick into a deeper and darker (though equally nerdy) teenager.

But the film’s truly dynamic duo is that of Cage and Moretz. As Big Daddy and his nebbishy alter-ego Damon Macready, Cage relishes the two sides of the homebrew superhero (his gravelly, halting, “disguised” voice is a clever jab at Christian Bale’s Batman). Moretz has a tough job for a nine-year-old, playing a nimble, vicious assassin with a killer potty mouth and a propensity for flashy knives. She ably brings Hit Girl to life with just the right mixture of brashness and vulnerability to avoid crossing into self-parody.

Based on the comic by Mark Millar & John S. Romita, Jr., Kick-Ass does much to stay true to its halftone roots.

Narrative titles appear, comic-book style, in the corners of the screen, and superheroes and obscure Japanese manga get name-checks. Yet true to any Hollywood version of a comic, the movie deviates rather sharply from the original canon in a few key places. While this alters some of the character arcs and changes the story’s original ending, it also makes for a vastly more viewable version than a direct translation would have been. The film also retains a good sense of humor about itself: In a tonguein-cheek nod to the meta-status of the

Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) fights crime with the power of interpretive dance.

COURTESY OF LIONSGATE

6

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | April 9, 2010

Voices STD (Stuff to Do) Friday | April 9 Once a month, when weather permits, galleries and studios in the Pilsen art district keep their doors open late for 2nd Fridays Gallery Night. As an added bonus, most of the more than 30 creative spaces participating in the event also host free wine receptions. (South Halsted and 18th Street, 6 p.m., free)

Saturday | April 10 While Thom Yorke may be listed as a headliner at this year’s Coachella festival, he will actually be appearing as a part of the band Atoms for Peace. The supergroup, which also includes Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, among other prolific musicians, is on a short tour in preparation for the Southern California festival. (1106 West Lawrence Avenue, 8 p.m., $50) Though Twitter seems to be his instrument of choice these days, John Mayer

Kushner believes confusion is key to college

With Christine Yang

also plays guitar from time to time. Catch him on tour for his album Battle Studies, appearing with special guest band Michael Franti & Spearhead. (1901 West Madison Street, 8 p.m., $34)

Sunday | April 11 The world-renowned Tsinghua University Dance Troupe will be performing Peking Opera and traditional Chinese dances as part of International House’s Global Voices Performing Arts series. The dance troupe, numbering over 1,000 members, is currently on tour to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Tsinghua University.

(International House, noon, free) Catch the Western Conference-leading Blackhawks as they take on the Detroit Redwings in the game of the season. This Sunday’s Central Division rival game will only be a precursor to the hockey that is to come in the post-season, as the Hawks vie for the Stanley Cup. (1901 West Madison Street, 2 p.m., $25)

Monday | April 12 In 2003, Chicago Tribune reporter Howard Reich wrote a report on how his 69-year-old mother was forced to relive the Holocaust experiences from her early childhood as a consequence of her late-onset Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The article became a book and—just recently—a documentary. Prisoner of Her Past follows Reich on his journey to Eastern Europe in an attempt to discover the truth behind his mother’s history. (164 North State Street, 6 p.m., $7)

Tuesday | April 13 I can has a home? Learn more about the new RSO geared towards volunteering with local animal shelters at the Paws UChicago study break. There will be pizza, a movie, and a presentation by the pet adoption website Hyde Park Cats. (Stuart 102, 6 p.m., free)

Wednesday | April 14 Molly Ringwald is no longer the starlet she

was in the ’80s, and Emilio Estevez now earns his living by directing episodes of CSI: New York, but their youth will be forever immortalized in The Breakfast Club. The classic coming-of-age film about a fateful Saturday morning that brings five students of different high school cliques together is part of Doc Films’ John Hughes series. (Max Palevsky Cinema, 9 p.m., $5)

Thursday | April 15 In his documentary Coffee Futures, filmmaker Zeynep Devrim Gürsel uses the Turkish tradition of reading coffee grounds as a means of exploring the contested issue of Turkey’s potential accession into the European Union. The film will be followed by a lecture by Zeynep K. Korman, titled “Reading the Residues: Fortune Telling Cafés in Istanbul.” (Cobb 307, 7 p.m., free)

Have an event you’d like to see in STD? E-mail STD@ChicagoMaroon.com

steppenwolf

KUSHNER continued from page 5 “The only thing you need to do to understand Shakespeare is to count to two, because everything is a double relationship,” he said.

Another heavy influence was Brecht. “The only thing I wanted to do was to meet Brecht, which was difficult to do because he had died a month after I was born,” he said. Kushner’s first play was about an “extraordinary event that happened in 16th century France,” he said cryptically. Kushner doesn’t show the play to anybody now, which he described as not very good.

Kushner earned a B.A. in medieval studies from Columbia University, and he is a passionate proponent of liberal arts education. College should be about confusing you as much as possible, Kushner said. It’s the perfect time to read literature and texts that are challenging—and challenge the way you see the world—when you’re in college, he said, because your brain is still “spongy” but you are no longer tormented by the throes of puberty.

Mourning the rise of college degrees in the fine arts, he applauded the U of C for not granting a theater degree. (When a student in the audience informed him that a degree in Theater and Performance Studies does exist, he confirmed with her that it did, in fact, include reading, and said that was acceptable.)

“People who have no idea what acting is, literally no idea, are professional actors.” he said. “Having actors who know how to read books would be a great thing.” Not knowing how to read well is potentially dangerous for playwrights, Kushner warned. “If you can’t read well you’re going to not, probably, write well...unless you’re Shakespeare or Yeats, but there are, like, three of those people.”

Studying theater is especially enlightening, he said, giving you a critical consciousness. “It teaches you not to be a fool,” he said.

He spoke eloquently on the beauty of theater and the unique qualities that separate it from other mediums—beyond the thrill of an art form just as prey to sound system problems as Mandel Hall.

Kushner said a play is never finished because it constantly changes as new, different productions come into being. “You can’t say it’s done...and when it is done it’s gone, it’s no t just finished. It’s evaporated.”

“I love the difficulty of writing for the theater. I love the inescapable poverty of the form,” he said.

Kushner, who spoke about the devastating experience of losing his mother to cancer after decades of overzealous radiation therapy, said the job of the writer is to tell the truth, as much as possible.

“Art has the promise of a kind of resurrectionary power, but nothing, as far as we know, brings the dead back.”

$15 ow Available Anytime

STUDENT TICKETS! N

WE KNOW YOU’VE GOT A BUSY SCHEDULE, SO WHY NOT HAVE THE OPTION TO PLAN AHEAD? Students can purchase $15 tickets to The Brother/Sister Plays and Endgame online and in advance.

Visit steppenwolf.org and use promo codes BROSIS15 or ENDGAME15.

Students are limited to 4 tickets per order and MUST present a valid student ID for each ticket purchased.

All reservations will be held at the box office.

The Brother/Sister Plays Through May 23

Endgame Through June 6

Exclusive Student Email List Be the first to hear about dirt-cheap ticket offers and special events— for more info email students@steppenwolf.org.

Stay in touch with Steppenwolf:

buy online at steppenwolf.org or call 312-335-1650.

Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 North Halsted, Chicago IL Public Transportation, Red line North/Clybourn or #8 Halsted Bus Pictured: Phillip James Brannon in The Brother/Sister Plays

7

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 9, 2010

Cinoman: Maroons have chance to reach playoffs

CLASSIFIEDS

CINOMAN continued from back page 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.

Classifieds are not accepted over the phone, and they must be paid in advance. 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 attn: Classified Ads. Deadlines: Wednesdays and Fridays, 12 P.M., prior to publication. The CHICAGO MAROON accepts Mastercard & Visa. Call 702-9555.

Need Cash?

Earn up to $1,000 during finals week!

Help your friends get more cash for their books and earn money in the process. Better World Books needs your help buying textbooks and collecting textbook donations. Contact Jim at 574-904-9139 or go to www. betterworldbooks.com/campusoperative

TERRIFIC 5-BEDROOM HOUSE ON RIDGEWOOD COURT. AVAILABLE NOW!! CALL TO ARRANGE SHOWING 773-562-0819. $599,000

BUSINESS CHINESE Learn Business Chinese 8 credits or Chinese in Chinese Business Law 5 credits Summer Program in Beijing www.studyabroad-china.org

West Hyde Park: Large room with private bath in modern townhouse, $600/mo.

773-055-4156

games. One thing we have to try to be is consistent. We’ve had some tough losses where we haven’t played our best. If we get to our peak and play as well as we can as a team, we can definitely compete for a spot in the playoffs.

CM: Obviously your hitting has been great, but are there any aspects of your swing that you’re looking to improve, anything specific you’ve been working on?

JC: I guess I could always use more power in my swings. Generate more power. And just trying to hit the ball solid every time.

CM: Who are some of the players you admire?

JC: Professionally? I’ve been asked a lot

After shutting out Thunder in first game, Maroons drop second half of double-header SOFTBALL continued from back page

LOVELY VINTAGE 2BD, 1 BA GARDEN UNIT IN A SAFE CONDO BLDG. $650/MO. THOSE INTERESTED CONTACT: MS. WATSON AT (773) 955-0875

who my favorite player is and it’s always a tough question for me. I admire Tim Lincecum. He’s a pitcher and I’m a hitter, but he’s the same size as me and we both try to overpower our opponents.

CM: Sox or Cubs?

JC: Cubs.

CM: Obviously when people think of great batters, they can’t help but think of Mark McGwire and the asterisk he has left on baseball. Have you ever done steroids?

JC: No, I would never do anything like that.

CM: Have the fly honeys been all over you since you received your award?

JC: No they have not. But maybe being on the front page of the Maroon will help.

The offense for the Maroons has indeed been strong this season, and provided one of the major highlights of the double header.

Kathleen Duffy recorded four RBIs over the trip, bringing her career total to 88 and making her the all-time RBI leader at Chicago.

Unfortunately, the Maroons’ defense is

not playing up to the level of the offense.

Still, the Maroons know exactly what they need to do to make this season a success.

“Our goal has to be to play complete games,” Kmak said. “Our pitching needs to remain strong while our defense continues to improve and our offense continues to work together. No matter what, we need to find a way to win games if we expect to make the NCAA tournament.”

CHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGO CHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGO CHICAGOMAROON.COMCHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGO CHICAGOMAROON.COMCHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGO CHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGOMAROON.COM CHICAGO CHICAGOMAROON.COMCHICAGOMAROON.COMCHICAGO

53rd + GREENWOOD LARGE, SUNNY 1BD WITH SPACIOUS BATHROOM IN A QUIET BUILDING ON QUIET BLOCK. HARDWOOD FLOORS, LAUNDRY IN BASEMENT, HEAT INCLUDED. LARGE YARD GREAT FOR STUDENTS! $740/ MO. CALL 312-613-0974

Announces a Public Colloquium

The

Power of Books: Some Personal Accounts

Christina von Nolcken

Associate Professor Department of English and Medieval Studies

Mark Payne

Associate Professor Department of Classics

William Schweiker

Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor Divinity School

Tuesday, April 13 4:30 P.M. Stuart 105 Reception to follow This lecture is recommended for students considering a major in Fundamentals. More information about Fundamentals will be available at the event.

Fundamentals: Issues and Texts Persons needing assistance should contact Cabell King (702-7144).

IN QUOTES

SPORTS

“Why I am excited about my drug test in 10 minutes: I’m getting ready to piss excellence, with a splash of cranberry n red bull” —Chad Ochocinco, tweeting Tuesday morning.

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

Q&A: Rounding the bases with Cinoman

Maroons split doubleheader with Wheaton

By Matt Tyndale MAROON Staff

First-year Jack Cinoman was named NCAA Hitter of the Week for games played March 29 through April 4.

CAMILLE VAN HORNE

/ MAROON

CINOMAN’S NUMBERS OVER THREE GAMES

By Will Fallon Sports Editor

MARCH 29 TO APRIL 4 BATTING AVERAGE

.882 (15-for-17) RUNS SCORED

8 RUNS BATTED IN

13 DOUBLES

5 TRIPLES

1 GRAND SLAMS

1 TOTAL BASES

25 SLUGGING PERCENTAGE

1.470

First-year outfielder Jack Cinoman was named NCAA Division I I I National Hitter of the Week for the games of March 29 to April 4 yesterday. Cinoman batted .882 over three games, going 15 for 17 with eight runs scored and 13 RBIs. After his monstrous week, which included hitting for the cycle with a single, double, triple and a grand slam by the fourth inning of the Maroons 29–3 demolition of Lawrence, we spoke to Cinoman to try to get to know a little about the man behind the bat.

CHICAGO MAROON: First off, how does it feel to be the best batter ever?

Jack Cinoman: The best batter ever for a week? I’m honored. I want

to try to be the best batter of the season. I have high goals. I guess a week just isn’t enough for me.

CM: You’re only a first year but having a great first season. How has the rest of the team made you feel welcome?

JC: We have a bunch of great guys on the team. Everyone knows their role and everyone accepts their role on the team. There are guys from all ages on the team and everyone accepts everyone.

CM: Aside from the most recent loss, the team has strung together a few good wins, particularly the double-header against Lawrence.

How do you feel about the outlook of the season?

JC: I think we’ve showed a lot of bright spots. We’ve definitely played up to our potential for a couple of

Fair weather has not brought fair play to the Maroons. Chicago (13–6–1) continued a tumultuous mid-season after splitting a double-header Monday at Wheaton (14–10), posting a dominating 5–0 shutout in game one only to lose a close second game by a score of 4–5.

Inconsistency has plagued the Maroons ever since their return from Florida. Their impressive 10–2 record over spring break was good enough to earn a 21st national ranking, but the Maroons have struggled, going 3–4–1 since the break.

“We haven’t performed with the same consistency in all facets of the game since our return from our spring trip games, and we haven’t been able to perform for 14 full innings,” head coach Ruth Kmak said. “Our pitching, particularly second-year Sarah Neuhaus and first-year Kim Cygan, really stepped up against Wheaton.

Behind Sarah, our offense executed hit-and-runs and steals well and we were able to score somewhat consistently through the fifth inning. Unfortunately, in game two, our execution was not as consistent offensively and we were not able to push in the runs we needed.”

The Maroons dominated in game one. Second-year Julia Schneider hit a single to left field in the first inning and was brought in by fourth-year Kathleen Duffy, giving the Maroons an early onerun lead. This proved to be the decisive run as the Maroons held Wheaton to just four hits with no runs, while only committing two errors.

However, the second game was a different story.

While committing no errors, the Maroons’ defense was lacking as they gave up eight hits. The game appeared to be much of the same as Chicago went up 2–0 in the top of the first, but Wheaton quickly responded by scoring three runs in the bottom of the first. The Maroons seemed unable to respond.

“In the second game against Wheaton, they tallied three runs on us in the first inning, and we never seemed to get back from that deficit throughout the game,” second-year Liz Payonk said. “A big contributor to that was the fact that we have so much confidence in our offense, so there was never a point where there was a huge urgency to get ahead. Our offense has been excellent this year, and it is very exciting. However, when our hitting is there, we sometimes let up on our defense.”

SOFTBALL continued on page 7

CINOMAN continued on page 7

BASEBALL

Chicago’s hot streak ends at home against Concordia

By Nick Foretek Sports Contributor With the unruly sun emerging only after the first pitch, the Chicago men’s baseball team placed its three-game winning streak on the line at J. Kyle Anderson stadium against Concordia Chicago (16–3).

The game ended in a 9–5 defeat for the Maroons, but also demonstrated the team’s ability to contend with strong competition.

The Cougars are ranked 29th in the nation by the ABCA poll for D-III baseball teams.

In the second inning of Tuesday’s game, two doubles and a single by the heart of the Cougar lineup ensured two early runs against third-year starting pitcher Marshall Oium.

Coming off a tough relief appearance last week against North Park, Oium managed to effectively skate

in and out of trouble for the first six innings and was able to induce a double play with the bases loaded to eventually work out of his second-inning jam.

The Maroons quickly struck back, capitalizing on an RBI single by center fielder Jack Cinoman in the bottom of the third to come within one run. Cinoman, recently named NCAA Division III National Hitter of the Week, had three hits on the day.

After relinquishing only four runs throughout the first six innings, Oium came out for the seventh with the score tied.

“In the seventh inning I was over 90 pitches,” Oium said. “Obviously I shouldn’t have thrown more than 90.”

The seventh inning proved too much for the fading Maroon arms, as the Cougars’ offense scored three runs on the way to their 17th victory

of the season. After knocking Oium from the game by belting two consecutive doubles en route to scoring the go-ahead run, the Cougar offense had finally emerged.

Second-year Preston Atteberry, in relief of Oium, surrendered two singles and threw two wild pitches, giving the Cougars a 7–4 lead by the middle of the seventh.

It would prove to be all the insurance the Cougars needed.

Maroon-designated hitter Tony Logli’s RBI double in the bottom of the seventh, one of his two hits of the day, established the possibility of a Maroon resurgence.

However, stellar bullpen appearances by Cougar relievers Micah Buss and Tim Milroy frustrated Chicago’s inchoate comeback.

The Maroons dropped to 8–7 on the season. They will play next on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Dallas at St. Xavier.

Fourth-year Lauren White bats against Wheaton last spring.

MATT BOGEN

/ MAROON

CA LEN DA R Friday

4/9

•Women’s Track and Field host Chicagolands, 12:45 p.m.

•Softball vs. North Park (DH), 3 p.m.

Saturday

4/10

•Men’s Track and Field host Chicagolands, noon •Women’s Tennis @ Wheaton (Ill.), noon •Baseball vs. Dallas (DH) @ St. Xavier, 1 p.m.

Sunday

4/11

•Men’s Tennis @ Lake Forest, 9:30 a.m. and vs. Cathage @ Lake Forest, noon •Women’s Tennis vs. Coe, noon •Baseball vs. Dallas, 1 p.m.

•Softball vs. UW–Oshkosh (DH), 2 p.m.

Monday

4/12

•Women’s Tennis vs. St. Mary’s (Ind.), 4 p.m.