BIG BOI MAROON CHICAGO
The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892
MCs hit Mandel Hall Voices, p. 5
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2010 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 15 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM
MEDICAL CENTER
ADMISSIONS
Die-in on quad protests UCMC
Early apps keep soaring 6,960 high schoolers apply early, a 280-percent increase from six years ago By Gabe Valley MAROON Staff
Applied: 2,773 Admitted: 1,137
2010
Applied: 2,461 Admitted: 985
2009
DISCOURSE
Applied: 3,053 Admitted: 1,385
2011
APPLICATIONS continued on page 2
Applied: 4,424 Admitted: 1,062
2012
More than 50 young people wearing t-shirts splattered with red paint, among them a handful of University students, dropped to the ground on the main quad on Friday as gunshots echoed out from a loudspeaker. The protesters were staging a “ diein” to dramatize a need for trauma care on the South Side, part of a campaign to pressure the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) to reopen its level one adult trauma center.
The UCMC closed its trauma center in 1988 because overwhelming need made the center too expensive to maintain, the University said. Trauma centers are staffed 24 hours a day by doctors and surgeons who specialize in trauma medicine. “Stand up if you are alive,” said a protester over the loudspeaker as others lay on the ground and University students looked on. “How you can you ignore, we’re dying at your door? How can you ignore, we’re bleeding on the floor? How can you ignore, we’re shot next
Applied: 3,774 Admitted: 1,128
2013
By Ella Christoph News Staff
Applied: 5,873 Admitted: 1,676
2014
DIE-IN continued on page 2
U of C students and members of Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) dropped to the ground on the quad Friday to protest the lack of a level one trauma care center on the South Side of Chicago. DARREN LEOW/MAROON
Applied: 6,960
2015
door?” the protesters chanted from the ground. At a press conference held outside the Medical Center, on East 58th Street and South Maryland Avenue after the die-in, the protesters demanded a meeting with UCMC administrators. UCMC spokesperson John Easton said the UCMC agreed to set it up. In a November 12 press release, the UCMC said it recognizes the increased strain on remaining South Side hospitals as others have shut down, but also stressed that the UCMC’s ability to
A record number of early action applications flooded into the College this year, marking an 18.5 percent increase—one of the largest increases among peer institutions. 6 , 9 6 0 h i g h s ch o o l s t u d e n t s applied through Chicago’s nonbinding early action program; 5,873 applied last year. Administrators see the growth as part of a pattern of yearly gains in application numbers for the College. “The increase continues a longterm trend of growth in the number of students of high ability who aspire to attend the University,” University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said. Over the past six years, early applications have increased by 280 percent. Only once in those six years has there been a fall in the amount of early applications received. The trend is also mirrored in overall applications, which saw a 42 percent rise last year—a greater increase in applications than at any other college in the nation. “Never has the University of Chicago been more popular,” said a November 5 New York Times article
Early applications by class
CRIME
Latino journalists keep Attacks prompt new Midway security reporting despite deaths Two students assaulted by groups of men Friday night By Janet de la Torre News Staff Journalists Alejandro Paez Varela and Claudia Mendez shared their experiences reporting on the drug trade crises in Mexico and Guatemala under lifethreatening circumstances Thursday in the Social Sciences building. Varela, deputy managing editor of the popular Mexican newspaper El Universal, said he doesn’t think twice about publishing risky stories, even though the Committee to Protect Journalists reported 38 journalists have been killed so far in 2010 worldwide, 10 of them in Mexico. “You have the right to know that a [political] candidate is being supported by drug money…someone is going to have to say it, and in the end that’s my job,” Varela said. The drug crisis is an ever-growing problem in Latin America, where drug cartels compete for drug transportation
routes to their most demanding consumers—Americans. Mendez said in her home country of Guatemala, the drug trade, along with organized crime and kidnapping, is one of the “problems we inherit from war.” Mendez works in Guatemala for the newspaper El Periodico, in a country where more than 70 journalists have been victims of drug lords. Mendez attributed many of her country’s internal problems to the establishment of American military bases on Guatemalan land 40 years ago to check the influence of Cuban communism. Mendez reported instances where she sent colleagues on assignments but “didn’t want to admit [she] was afraid” for their safety. In response to a question from the audience about the legalization of drugs, Mendez said that it was a quick solution that didn’t address underlying issues. “The job of the academia [is] to come up with solutions instead of legalization.”
By Sam Levine News Contributor Two University students were attacked and robbed by groups of men in separate incidents near the Midway between 9:20 and 9:30 P.M. Thursday night. The attacks triggered two campus security alerts, which were sent to members of the campus community in the hours that followed. The second victim was knocked unconscious and transported to the University Medical Center for treatment. University of Chicago Police Department (U C P D) spokesman Bob Mason did not know if the victim had been released from the hospital. Another group attack took place at 1:10 a.m. Saturday morning on East 53rd Street between Greenwood and University avenues, according to the UCPD
Daily Incident Report. The victim was pushed into an alley by five to six men, struck in the face, and had his cell phone, iPod, and wallet taken, the report said. Police suspect the same men may be responsible for the Thursday night attacks, according to Mason. One took place on East University Avenue between South 60th and 61st Streets, while the other happened by the Linne statute on the Midway between South University and Greenwood Avenues. “Due to the close proximity and times of the incidents, it is possible that the same people could be responsible for both attacks,” Mason said, adding that police did not think gang activity played a role in the attacks. In both cases, students were approached by more than three men, and were hit in the head. No
arrests have been made. Mason said that while the Saturday morning’s incident was similar, it was not necessarily linked to those on Thursday. He noted that the style of attack is common. In a campus-wide e-mail sent out on Friday night, UCPD Chief Marlon Lynch and Vice President for Student Life Kimberly GoffCrews wrote that UC P D had added daily security guards and foot patrols to escort students across the Midway between South Dorchester and Ellis Avenues from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. UC P D patrols have also increased patrols in the main quad and along 57 th Street. “These patrols are not meant to be a quick-fix response to these incidents,” Mason said. “We’re going to keep the patrols out
MIDWAY continued on page 2