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OICES

The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2010 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 18 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM

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TRANSPORTATION

FACULTY

SafeRide forum draws four students

Council bridges faculty gender gap Part two of a two-part series on the

Faculty Gender Gap

By Christina Pillsbury Associate News Editor

CRYSTAL TSOI/MAROON

By Jonathan Lai and Crystal Tsoi News Staff Just four students attended the forum on concerns over SafeRide organized by Student Government (SG) and Director of Transportation Rodney Morris in response to an online petition that garnered 500 student signatures. At the meeting Tuesday in Cobb, Morris said he believes current plans for improvement, combined with more student

input, can improve the SafeRide system.

Among the four students attending, three were creators of the petition; the other student, fourth-year Katherine Isaac, was the only unaffiliated undergraduate to attend.

Though Morris expressed frustration over the low turnout and called for future meetings, he discussed several changes being made that are intended to improve evening transportation. “There are deeper issues, and we can’t just do it with seven people in the

room,� Morris said, referring to the three administrators and four non–SG affiliated students who attended. “Getting things changed takes a little time, but we are working on the process. I need your help, I need your input, I need your honesty.�

Morris said that the University is looking into hiring a dedicated dispatcher for SafeRide, that transit supervisors will take two-hour shifts at night, and that a script is being written that will

SAFERIDE continued on page 3

HYDE PARK

Former UCMC admin starts alderman campaign

By Jingwen Hu News Staff Anne Marie Miles, a former president of the U of C’s Comer Children’s Hospital Service Committee, announced last Tuesday that she would join eight other candidates challenging incumbent Fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston.

Miles is on the steering committee of Safe Youth Chicago of the Union League Club of Chicago. A former president and secretary of the U of C’s Comer Children’s Hospital Service Committee, she has also been an active presence in the Lab

Schools, which both her daughters attended.

Miles hopes to stimulate economic development and increase security in the ward that encompasses Hyde Park and South Shore, advocating the expansion of emergency blue lights to beyond the immediate University of Chicago vicinity. “The fifth ward has for many years been known for the independent voice of reason in the city council‌I just don’t see it in the current moment,â€? Miles said.

Last summer, Hairston used ward funds to finance $62,000 worth of free parking lots. Miles said she

would have used that money to fund employment. “I thought in a summer of astronomical youth unemployment that money could have been used to employ people,� Miles said. “Full-time jobs, part-time jobs, summer jobs...it just seemed wrong to me.�

Miles grew up in Morningside H e i g h t s , Ne w Yo r k C i t y. S h e practiced elder law in New York City before moving to Hyde Park in 1999 with her husband Emil Coccaro, chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Chicago.

INSIDE

Grey City Journal The MAROON's quarterly magazine

In this issue Lipstick Killer (X ’50) A question of corporatization Q&A with Andrew Abbott Woodlawn, revisited Daddio, a personal essay

WLC continued on page 3

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Director of Transportation Rodney Morris and second-year Undergraduate Liason to the Board of Trustees and Frank Alarcon share thoughts on future SafeRide improvements at a poorly attended forum last Tuesday in Cobb.

Women make up about a quarter of full-time faculty at the University of Chicago, leaving many women in departments with few or no other female colleagues. “If you’re the only woman [on a faculty], this is not a good place to be,� said Linda Zerilli, director of the Center for Gender Studies. “There’s always that feeling that you’re the woman up there speaking, and that you represent all women, so you’d better say something smart.�

Designed to help eliminate obstacles to recruiting and retaining female faculty, the Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) is trying to make the University of Chicago “the destination for women in academic careers,� WLC member

and Associate Dean of the department of medicine Halina Brukner said.

The WLC now holds semiannual luncheons in an effort to help female faculty find support from women across academic disciplines. They are the group’s latest efforts to make the University more welcoming and supportive to women at an institution where women are largely underrepresented. In every department save one—Slavic Languages and Literature—women account for less than one-third of faculty.

The University’s gender gap is comparable to that of peer institutions, but Zerilli said that’s a poor measure. “We’re always comparing ourselves to Princeton and Harvard, and saying ‘We’re not worse,’� she said. “Yes, but what’s the standard?�

Associate Provost for Program Development Mary Harvey established the 12-member WLC in June 2008 at the request of Provost Thomas Rosenbaum. WLC member and Professor of medicine Suzanne Conzen said the group is still gathering data on

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Law students promise public service with pro bono pledge

By Jonathan Lai News Staff Along with 95 of her peers, firstyear law student Mishan Araujo promised to donate at least 50 hours of legal volunteer work through a new, Law School–run program at the end of October. “I would have probably tried to do it on my own, but it would have been more difficult,� she said.

Araujo is taking part in the Law School’s new pro bono pledge, which is itself part of the larger Public Interest Program. The pledge, which took place during National

Pro Bono Week, is part of an effort to encourage students to serve the public and to help them get experience in real-world situations. “This is another way of telling law students that even though they’re not quite yet lawyers, they have a professional obligation to give back to the community in their new profession, in a law-related way,� said Susan Curry, director of public interest law and policy. “They can help meet great client need, and we know that students will be receptive to this.�

The program, which helps students find pro bono projects in order

PRO BONO continued on page 3

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CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENT | November 30, 2010

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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 30, 2010

With daycare center in the works, Women's Leadership Council now aims to build faculty connections WLC continued from front page “what seems to be any obstacles for retaining and attracting women to the U of C.” The council’s first major campaign—to add an on-campus daycare center—is underway. “There was one thing that didn’t need any data and that was child care, so that was one thing we did tackle,” Conzen said. Junior faculty often find problems trying to balance their careers while starting families.

The planning committee met yesterday to sort through corporate applications for building, designing, and running the childcare center, set to be completed in 2012. While the plans for the daycare center are in the works, members point to increased networking opportunities as the council’s biggest development.

The WLC was “struck by limited ability for faculty to meet other faculty among other divisions,” in its initial stages, according to committee member Lenore Grenoble, associate chair of the department of Slavic languages and literatures.

This spring, the council brought together

female faculty from across the University for a luncheon to hear their concerns and to encourage a community across divisions. The council found that the camaraderie established in this gathering was as important as hearing concerns from the women. The WLC, composed of faculty members from each of the major academic divisions, is looking to create other avenues of support and to help departments find ways to recruit and retain female faculty.

The council is looking to educate hiring committees about methods to attract and retain the best female faculty. But its scope is limited to campus-wide education initiatives because search committees are closed within each department.

Hiring, Mason said, is a “more tricky problem because search committees are very local matters and our ability to get involved is very limited, so we focus on things University-wide.”

While efforts to improve the gender balance among the faculty gradually move forward, the WLC is focusing on strengthening the community of female faculty who are at the University.

Without the ability to directly impact hiring, the council hopes improvements like the childcare center and a career office that places faculty partners in University jobs will encourage women to join the U of C faculty.

For the moment, the WLC will continue to hold quarterly luncheons for junior and senior faculty and hold more seminars with outside experts on recruiting and retaining women. Council members said they hope these luncheons will provide an opportunity for women to meet interdepartmentally.

“It has been our experience that it’s enjoyable to get to know colleagues from other disciplines,” WLC member and Professor of neurobiology Peggy Mason said. “It’s fun for us and we actually look forward to our meetings, so we want to give the same experience to other women.”

Luncheons have been separated by junior and senior faculty, but bringing the two together will enhance mentoring opportunities. Zerilli said women mentors are often essential for junior members of an academic division—especially in the

physical sciences, where women are most underrepresented.

“This does not mean that men cannot mentor women, of course,” Zerilli said. “But we know from studies that having a female mentor can make a real difference in a woman’s ability to envision a career in science or math for herself.”

Professor of organismal biology and anatomy Victoria Prince said having a female mentor as an assistant and associate professor was essential for her success. Prince is one of just three women among 23 full-time faculty members in her department. With so few women in many departments “It is generally a problem that women are disproportionally asked to be members of committees,” Prince said. “I was lucky to receive mentorship here as a junior faculty member about when it’s okay to say no and when you should say no,” said Prince.

According to Grenoble, campus culture can discourage women from seeking out mentors. “It seems that there’s a stigma of weakness if you need mentoring,” Grenoble said. “And that’s kind of funny because everyone needs mentoring.”

Morris blames student frustrations with SafeRide on service's lack of mission statement SAFERIDE continued from front page allow dispatchers to politely encourage students to head toward shuttle routes if they are nearby.

According to Morris, many students take SafeRide despite other available options, a problem that stems from the absence of an established mission statement for SafeRide usage. “This is where we need a group decision from you, the student body, as to what SafeRide is for,” he said.

Aside from these changes, Morris does not see expansion of the service in the near future. “Putting more buses out there? Not necessarily the best thing to do,” Morris said. “We’re looking into it, it’s an option, but if we don’t change what SafeRide is for it’s just going to add insult to injury.”

The Facebook petition, written by four first-year

graduate students, argued that SafeRide’s requirement for students to wait outside for shuttles is a safety issue. It further requested that SafeRide answer all calls made during its hours of operation and for vans to arrive when promised by dispatchers.

Noticing that hundreds of students signed the petition, SG partnered with the Department of Transportation to hold a forum in hopes of allowing students to air their grievances and make suggestions for improvement. Fourth-year and SG President Greg Nance, second-year and SG Vice President of Student Affairs Patrick Ip, and second-year Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees Frank Alarcon attended. Daniel Pascale, director of communications and security technolo-

gy, and Brandon Dodd, assistant director of transit, also attended with Morris.

Students at the meeting agreed that SafeRide is often misused, though they still had concerns over inability to reach a dispatcher, long wait times, and lack of estimated arrival times.

Morris described a lack of clarity over SafeRide’s usage as a cause for the majority of student frustration. He said usual SafeRide delays occur when students are not ready for pickup, when they ask drivers to change the van’s route, or do not tell dispatchers in advance about multiple destinations.

To make it easier for students to track down standard evening transportation routes, Morris said flatscreen TVs displaying the TransLoc map of various shuttles’ locations will be installed in the

Reynolds Club, the Regenstein Library, and the Ratner gym throughout next quarter.

Alarcon proposed using the UCPD Umbrella Coverage services as another means of alleviating the strain put on SafeRide. Umbrella Coverage has historically been underused, according to fourth-year and SG Community and Government Liaison Allen Linton, but may be more appropriate than SafeRide for students only needing to walk a few blocks.

Alarcon expressed hope that future forums would involve more of the community. “There are various factors that affect turnout: students are very busy, holidays are coming up, it’s cold outside.

We’ll hold future forums and hopefully get some more turnout just so Rodney and his staff can hear more ideas and more perspectives.”

You have books, but do you have a

Pro bono pledge part of new Law School focus on public interest law

book collection?

PRO BONO continued from front page

• Do you love searching for books on a particular topic?

• Are you interested in the physical features of books, such as illustrations or bindings?

• Are you passionate about owning books by a favorite author or on a specific topic?

If so, you may be eligible to win the…

T. Kimball Brooker Prize For Undergraduate Book Collecting Prizes awarded: $1,000 to a fourth-year student $500 to a second-year student Applications are due by 11:59 p.m., Wednesday, January 19, 2011 to brookerprize@lib.uchicago.edu www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/alumnifriends/brooker

to satisfy the pledge, is open to all Law School students. The pledge is the main component of the program, asking students to commit to 50 hours of supervised volunteer legal work.

In order for the hours to qualify, students may not receive academic credit or financial compensation—and it must be supervised by attorneys or faculty members.

Araujo took the pledge because the program makes finding organizations easier. “It’s a more streamlined way of getting access to the different areas of law that need pro bono help,” she said.

In order to help students find qualifying work, the Office of Career Services (OCS) will offer help with pro bono opportunities, a new focus for the office, according to Curry.

“This is a formal way for the Office of Career Services to recognize that pro bono service is also critical to the development of a career,” said Curry.

Over the course of three years, 50 hours may not seem like a lot, but they are still important, according to Associate Dean of Career Services and Policy Initiatives Abbie Willard.

Araujo said she jumped on the program right away because it allowed her to continue her other extracurricular obligations. “We always want to do more, but students do also

work in clinics, and work on journals, and do other things outside of school. It’s important to give students an option where they can fulfill the requirement and not have to give up their other extracurriculars,” she said.

According to Dean of the Law School Michael Schill, the Law School’s pro bono program is part of a larger public service program.

“We are launching a public service program at the Law School. This is a piece of a broader program that will involve a variety of elements to enhance our training of students to go work in jobs in government, the non-profit sector, as well as advocacy organizations,” he said.

Curry said the launch of the program is a part of the Law School’s new focus on public interest law and voluntary service. “This institution values community service and values a high level of legal education. We believe that making it a voluntary program is consistent with the practice,” she said.

In addition to learning the importance of pro bono work as a résumé booster, Curry said the program will allow students to try out different types of law to see what focus they want to pursue. “You’ll have something to put on your résumé, something about which you can speak in interviews. And more importantly, it might just give you an idea of what you want to do with your legal career,” she said.

CORRECTIONS » The November 23 article “Rape Victim Demands A Form Of Counseling The SCRS Is Unable To Give” incorrectly described the scope of Rape Victim Advocates. It is a Chicago-based rape crisis center that provides direct services, including counseling, to sexual violence survivors in the area.

The MAROON is committed to correcting mistakes for the record. If you suspect the MAROON has made an error, please alert the newspaper by e-mailing

Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com.

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CHICAGO MAROON

| VIEWPOINTS | November 23, 2010

VIEWPOINTS

EDITORIAL & OP-ED NOVEMBER 30, 2010

EDITORIAL

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 PETER IANAKIEV, Viewpoints Editor ALISON HOWARD, Viewpoints Editor HAYLEY LAMBERSON, Voices Editor JORDAN LARSON, Voices Editor WILL FALLON, Sports Editor NICK FORETEK, Sports Editor VICTORIA KRAFT, Head Copy Editor MONIKA LAGAARD, Head Copy Editor HOLLY LAWSON, Head Copy Editor MATT BOGEN, Photo Editor JACK DiMASSIMO, Head Designer JOSH SUNG, Web Editor BURKE FRANK, Assoc. News Editor ADAM JANOFSKY, Assoc. News Editor SHARAN SHETTY, Assoc. Viewpoints Editor ILIYA GUTIN, Assoc. Voices Editor JUDY MARCINIAK, Business Manager VINCENT McGILL, Delivery Coordinator JESSICA SHEFT-ASON, Senior Designer IVY PEREZ, Senior Designer DOUGLAS EVERSON, Designer ANDREW GREEN, Designer REBECCA GUTERMAN, Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER, Designer VINCENT YU, Designer SABINA BREMNER, Artist AMISHI BAJAJ, Copy Editor JANE BARTMAN, Copy Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD, Copy Editor RITODHI CHATTERJEE, Copy Editor MARCELLO DELGADO, Copy Editor DANIELLE GLAZER, Copy Editor DON HO, Copy Editor VICKY HO, Copy Editor JANE HUANG, Copy Editor ALISON HUNG, Copy Editor SAMANTHA LEE, Copy Editor TARA NOOTEBOOM, Copy Editor LANE SMITH, Copy Editor GABE VALLEY, Copy Editor ALEX WARBURTON, Copy Editor BELLA WU, Copy Editor LILY YE, 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.

©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

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: jdimassimo@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy Editing: Copy@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: jmarcini@uchicago.edu

Final resort Offering alternate exam dates would level the playing field and avoid overburdening students It’s 10th week, and that means the Reg will experience a surge of sleepless residents, the skies will darken to an ominous black, and campus will fall silent except for the beckoning whisper of winter break. In these last two weeks, studying for finals becomes the top priority for students, with reading period offering the only respite between classes and exams.

Ev e n i n a l l t h i s d o o m a n d gloom, a particularly dark possibility stands out: taking two or more exams on the same day. Since this situation puts students at such a clear disadvantage, it’s unclear why they are rarely allowed to reschedule.

In a five-day exam week, with an average load of four classes, it’s normal for two or more finals to fall on the same, dreadful day.

Such a dilemma currently has no

viable solution: Professors almost never allow postponement of an exam or paper, so the student is forced to accept that, in all likelihood, their efforts on one of the two will be compromised.

All teachers should allow for an alternative exam date sometime during finals week. Professors and the administration should support any and all fair methods by which students can alleviate the stress of exams. If a student will do better on an exam by not taking it on the same day his 10-page paper is due, then he should be offered the option to take it at a later date. If a student is overly burdened on one day of exam week, it makes sense to request the postponement of one of the finals.

There is no detriment to such a policy: In fact, requiring alternate exam dates might even create a

fairer system, since those students that don’t have same-day exams enjoy an unfair advantage. An administrative mandate forcing professors to offer “late” exam days would level the playing field and create more balanced finals schedules for the student body.

Some might worry that such an initiative would both inconvenience professors and facilitate w i d e s p r e a d ch e a t i n g . B u t t h e University already requires that professors offer early exams for graduating fourth-years; the reason for opposing exam rescheduling therefore cannot be rooted in the inconvenience imposed on teachers. Cheating, the other possible problem, is also a nonissue: It has not prevented the College from offering early exams to fourth-years, so why should we expect that cheating would

suddenly run rampant if similar accomodations were offered to younger students?

Difficult workloads are part of the package when attending a top-tier university, and finals are always a trying time. But if there is a sensible way for students to maximize their performance on exams, then there is no reason why it shouldn’t be allowed.

Offering a second exam date during finals week would not resolve every possible conf lict, but it would eliminate the vast majority of them. So the next time a student asks for an alternative time to take a final, cut her some slack.

Rescheduling a final is better than failing one.

The M AROON Editorial Board consists of the Editor-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.

OP-ED

COLD SNAP

A more courageous U of C

Thinking about Thanksgiving

The University’s stance on investment policy and social values is ultimately contradictory

We should rethink the meaning of Thanksgiving by separating myth from reality

By Colin Bradley Viewpoints Columnist I’m sure almost every student at the U of C has listened to a brief history lesson from Dean Boyer, often referred to as the University’s “resident historian.” I recently read two publications by him that remind us of two very important documents in the University’s history—two documents that are all too easily forgotten by the student body at large and that present a debate which needs to be brought to the public eye.

We are proud to prove that the U of C is not where fun goes to die, but it’s time we show that it is not where global citizenship goes to die.

The first document is a preliminary draft for a World Constitution written by, among others, President Hutchins and Mortimer Adler in 1948. The second is the Report of the Committee on the Role of the University in Political and Social Action, or more popularly, the Kalven Report of 1967. These two documents present two diametrically opposed views on the University’s responsibility to the world at large—an issue which is as

relevant now as it has ever been in the history of this institution.

The World Constitution is exactly what the name entails—a fully formed constitution for a new world federation (seriously, I highly recommend you read it; see the Mortimer Adler archives online). Hutchins understood that after the role the U of C played in ushering in the nuclear age (it was the first home to the Manhattan Project), it had a responsibility to “unite the world.” As Boyer puts it, Hutchins and Adler “felt that their dual obligations as private citizens and public intellectuals mandated that they speak out on significant civic issues.” The second document strikes quite a different note. The infamous Kalven Report stands today as the primary document governing the University’s social and political policies. The Kalven Report essentially states that in order to protect the individual rights of faculty to voice opinions on controversial issues, the University itself cannot publicly take a stand in either direction. The report argues that since the University is a place for furthering knowledge, “it is not a lobby” and cannot “take collective action on the issues of the day without endangering the conditions for its existence and effectiveness.”

So how are these documents, over 60 and 40 years old, respectively, relevant to students today?

When the Kalven Report was published, it was not greeted warmly by students, nor is it greeted warmly now. The University’s inherent role in social and political communities is unavoidable—it shapes the thoughts

KALVEN continued on page 5

By Emily Wang Viewpoints Columnist In the past few days, I’ve come to the realization that the dreaded Freshman 15 doesn’t come from the dining hall, but at home, where Mom and Dad and Grandma and Aunt Sally fret over how skinny you’ve gotten. In response, we joke (although for many, it’s the sad reality), “Well, I don’t have time to eat—I’m too busy crying over my problem sets!” And of course, in true mom fashion, your mother believes you and proceeds to feed you until it causes you physical pain to crawl away from the dinner table.

Thanksgiving, for every college student who has the privilege of going back home for the four-day holiday, is one continuous feast.

Family and friends attempt to make up for your nine weeks of malnourishment in as little time as possible. I, for one, had three epic Thanksgivings in a row, not to mention all the leftover-ridden meals in between. But I’m not complaining, by any means; the “I’m too full!” pain is probably the best kind of pain there is.

It’s a nice respite from all the times I forgot to eat in the midst

of frantically writing papers and studying for midterms and then suddenly realized, at two in the morning, that I was starving.

S o Th a n k s g i v i n g i s m o s t l y about eating, eating…and more eating. But what, exactly, does Thanksgiving mean to us, as college students, as almost-adults, besides the extra pounds? The frequent case against celebrating Thanksgiving is that it’s rooted in a falsified encounter between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans that we continue to perpetuate generation after generation; the real story, according to those who have completely renounced the holiday, is one of the mass extermination of the Native American population through epidemics of Old World diseases. The first Thanksgiving was declared not in some joyous shared meal between Pilgrims and their Native American friends, but after the safe return of the men from the colony who had gone to participate in the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women, and children. This “celebration,” then, is a cruel reminder of the suffering of an entire indigenous population, of an entire culture, that never recovered from these supposed encounters of cultural sharing.

This is certainly a valid, and much more historically accurate, argument. Yet the holiday’s most fervent supporters contend that Thanksgiving has been redefined over time—that its origin no lon-

THANKSGIVING continued on page 5

CHICAGO MAROON

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Challenging our culture’s understanding of Thanksgiving will make it a better holiday THANKSGIVING continued from page 4 ger matters because we have other things in mind; namely, family, friends, and tradition. Thanksgiving is a time of heightened awareness of the loved ones in our orbits, of being thankful for our past, present, and future collective experiences. This, too, makes a lot of sense, and for most people, this justification will do. But then again, this particular impression of being part of a collective seems to give Thanksgiving an extra layer of irony: A holiday that so transparently evokes a time in our nation’s history where one group’s arrival nearly led to the extinction of the other now symbolizes community, both on a personal level and a cultural level.

If we’re not consciously celebrating the dishonest, Disney-fied conception of how the first Thanksgiving came about, should we feel guilty? The greater implications of

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VIEWPOINTS | November 30, 2010

my feasting never crossed my mind during my three Thanksgivings, but I recognize now that I have a responsibility to the Native American peoples and to myself to scrape beneath the surface of the traditions I’m buying into. At this point in our lives, we should be questioning everything, constantly trying to find the closest thing to the truth, or at least the best truth.

From the standpoint of someone who just participated, victoriously, in Chinese Thanksgiving, Indian Thanksgiving, and American Thanksgiving all in succession, I do think that the holiday break is worthwhile, even necessary. As my multicultural experience can attest to, Thanksgiving has become a holiday of cultural convergence, although it can’t be of much comfort to Native Americans to see that Thanksgiving has evolved.

If it really is about connection and not

difference, though, it’s morally repre hensible to continue to teach America’s youth the fictitious Thanksgiving tale that I believed for the majority of my life.

Until we separate, from the beginning, the myths from the realities, Thanksgiving will continue to have its other fundamentally unethical significance.

Thanksgiving, I must profess, is my favorite holiday. It gets better every year, especially as we get older and suddenly find ourselves adults—the bonds of friendship become tighter, family reunions grow less frequent and therefore bittersweet.

Yet I know, if we confront, and ultimately change, the way we instill Thanksgiving into our national culture, it could be so much sweeter.

Emily Wang is a first-year in the College majoring in English.

AB URBE CONDITA

EARLY CITIES AT HAMOUKAR DURING THE CHALCOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE

Dr. Clemens Reichel WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010 7 PM - ORIENTAL INSTITUTE

Free and Open to the Public Excavations at Hamoukar in Syria have substantially enhanced our understanding of the emergence of cities in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. By 3500 BC, this site accommodated an early walled city with complex bureaucracies.

By 2200 BC, it had expanded to an urban metropolis with large public buildings and elaborate private houses. This lecture presents new insights gained during the 2008 and 2010 excavation seasons at Hamoukar.

Dr. Clemens Reichel is the Director of

Excavations at Hamoukar in Syria, an Assistant Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology at the University of Toronto, an Associate Curator of the Ancient Middle East at the Royal Ontario Museum, and a Research Associate at the Oriental Institute.

The Oriental Institute

ǺǺǾǾ &ĒĤĥ Ǿȁĥę 4ĥģĖĖĥ t oi.uchicago.edu Have an Android? There’s an app for that.

Search “Chicago Maroon” on appbrain.com to access the MAROON’s new Android app.

The University should not take a neutral stance regarding its investments KALVEN continued from page 4 of its accomplished alumni and conducts influential research in countless fields. More immediately, however, it has a significant corporate legitimacy. It has one of the nation’s largest endowments, and this money is invested all around the world. Billions of dollars in investments make an impact. The University cannot be neutral on this—its investments fund other firms which do take stands in either direction.

But it is. Why? The Kalven Report.

There is an interesting paragraph which was excluded from the final draft of the Kalven Report. Drafted by Gilbert White, a member of the committee, it states that “in instances where the public significance is large or where the University’s influence is clearly strong it may appropriately…make inquiries.” What exactly does this mean? It means that when the University is faced with what will ultimately be termed “paramount social values,” it can and must act collectively.

But now the question arises: What do we consider a paramount social value? Surely not apartheid in South Africa; most certainly not state-funded genocide in Darfur; irreversible environmental degradation may be a social value, but it is definitely not paramount. Or so maintains your University.

One of the University’s primary modes of social and political influence is the investment of its endowment. Yet, since the University has resolved to take no stance on most political and social issues, it has no structure in place to consider the ethical implications of its investments. The current manifestation of this is a laundry list of questionable investments. But there is one situation in particular that I’d like to discuss here.

Consider an issue which the University has deemed a “paramount social value”: namely, environmental sustainability. To this end, the University has created the Sustainability Council and SAGE, two relatively visible and commendable groups on campus. But here is where the Kalven Report proves an impossible policy to maintain. The University, against all odds, has taken a stance on the environment— but it still has not understood that a neutral investment is impossible. Every step taken towards sustainability by University-sponsored groups (SAGE, Sustainability Council) is undercut, if not completely overshadowed, by the University’s investments in environmentally devastating companies like Arch Coal and Alleghany Energy, to name only a few. While we install new recycling bins and toilets with two options for flushing to conserve water, we also financially support companies that blow the tops off mountains and dump them in local water sources. So while the University interprets the Kalven Report to allow for taking a stance on the environment, it simultaneously interprets the same report to maintain ignorance over its investments—two mutually incompatible policies.

As long as the University interprets the Kalven Report to justify its hands-off investment policy, it will never be able to make any progress on those “paramount social values” which it has deemed important. Dean Boyer reminds us that a great university such as ours “should have the capacity, the courage, and the commitment to think about and to act upon the future.”

The University of Chicago certainly has the capacity. Many students, administrators, and faculty even have the commitment. But the courage is lacking. We are proud to prove that the U of C is not where fun goes to die, but it’s time we show that it is not where global citizenship goes to die. It is time we turn from the disaffection of the Kalven Era and return to the globally minded, courageous optimism of Hutchins and Adler and their World Constitution.

Colin Bradley is a first-year in the College.

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CHICAGO MAROON | Voices | November 30, 2010

Oscar Contenders 1. Toy Story 3 Toy Story 3 is one of, if not the most, highly praised movies of the year. The numbers alone speak for themselves: It has a 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92 on Metacritic. It’s also the end to a consistently well-reviewed trilogy (Lord of the Rings, anyone?). Add to this a dash of nostalgia and Pixar’s nearly infallible luck at the Oscars, and the Toy Story 3 team had better plan on bringing a wheelbarrow to carry home all their awards. A win for Best Animated Feature is obvious, and it very well may win Best Picture.

2. The King’s Speech While it won’t be released in the States until later this month, this film already has so much Oscar buzz it’s practically deafening. The Academy might as well give Colin Firth his Oscar now, as his performance is basically the only thing being said about this movie (that and the relatively tame movie’s R-rating because of a few curse words). Many saw Firth’s turn in A Single Man as deserving of the Best Actor award last year, so all signs point to this year as being when he finally gets what he deserves.

3. Inception If ever there was a film worthy of being called Oscar-bait, Inception is it. The all-star cast, the Academy-favorite director, the score, and, of course, the smart, imaginative screenplay all mean that this movie makes itself a strong contender in multiple categories. While the ensemble

By Hayley Lamberson cast means that Inception likely won’t receive any acting awards, it’s safe to say it will bag Best Original Screenplay and probably Best Original Score.

4. The Social Network No one expected The Social Network (or more commonly, Facebook: The Movie) to actually be good. Sure, it may be directed by David Fincher, but one of its stars is Justin Timberlake, of all people. But positive review after positive review came out, and the movie is now generally regarded as a success. The sheer factor of surprise could very well be what gets this film a few Oscar nominations.

Since Fincher keeps getting shafted for Best Director (especially for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), this may be the year the Academy decides to hand it over.

5. True Grit True Grit is a western starring Jeff Bridges and directed by the Coen brothers, who also re-wrote the screenplay from Charles Portis’s 1968 novel of the same name. That alone is worth a handful of Oscars, right? There’s little to no doubt that this movie will be good, but its late release date and the hype surrounding other films may deter this one from winning any of the major awards. Still, True Grit looks like it’ll be a fine example of the raw frontier atmosphere the Coen brothers are so good at creating, which could allow it to pick up some of the more artistic awards like Best Cinematography or Best Art Direction.

Worst Fashion Trends

By Madalyn Frigo 1. Plaid As part of the ‘90s resurgence, all things plaid have become popular. Even the classic grunge look of a plaid shirt tied around the waist is now fashionable. Its worst incarnation is probably the layering of plaid over plaid, creating an unintentional lumberjack look. Men are particularly susceptible to this mishap by pairing their plaid with Timberland boots (it’s okay, though, if they plan on chopping down a tree later). While plaid can be stylish when paired with the right accessories, make sure an axe wouldn’t be the accessory to complete your look.

For women, plaid looks best on a skirt, dress, or jacket.

And always make sure to complete the grunge look intended with the right accessories and not stray into Fargo territory with Ugg boots.

2. Furry boots To keep one’s feet warm during Chicago winters, boots are a must, especially ones with fur on the inside to keep your toes extra toasty. Lately, though, there has been an excess of furry bunny boots trekking through the streets. These boots, however, go beyond Uggs and are covered with fuzzy fur on the outside. Furry boots make feet look like bunnies or like they are sprouting fur.

To avoid looking like Big Foot, stick to boots with fur on the inside only.

3. Shutter sunglasses Ever since Kanye West sported a glow-in-the-dark pair at the 2008 Grammys, shutter sunglasses have slowly

been creeping their way into the fashion scene. The glasses serve no practical purpose and are clearly just an accessory. In fact, they can hardly be called sunglasses as they can’t block out sun. They barely even function as glasses—it’s difficult to see outside of the striped lenses. Basically, do not wear these while driving or even walking. Making anyone who wears them look like an alien or a Kanye West wannabe, these shades should be left for the music videos.

oices Albums

By Lyndsey McKenna

courtesy of allmoviephoto.com

top

I

f 2010 is any indicator of what’s

coming in the next decade, then get comfy, because it’s going to

be a boring ride. For god’s sake, a movie about Facebook starring Justin Timberlake is one of the best-reviewed movies of the year.

courtesy of rick chung’s flickr

4. Thigh-high stockings This is the look of extra high knee socks, layered over a pair of pants. It always causes me to do a double take: Are those really socks outside a pair of pants? Not only is this look ugly, it is unflattering. The socks cut off right at the fleshy part of the thigh, highlighting the top half of the thigh as the main part of the leg—not a slimming look. Keep your socks in your pants.

Sure, Kanye might have created a masterpiece, but

5. Ripped tights First there were the ripped jeans, then there were the ripped leggings, and now, we are down to barely any material at all with ripped tights. Many movie stars have been pairing their ripped tights with shorts, making it look as if they were just clawed at by the paparazzi and escaped with minimal clothing left. The main concern is what will fashion rip up next, because after tights, what else is there to rip? To avoid looking homeless or as if you were just attacked by a bear, keep the rips in your jeans only.

and her corrupting the young minds of Sesame Street viewers, she was simply the most important person of

where’s the scandal, where are the shocking outbursts on live television? You better hide your kids and your wife, because it’s getting dangerously dull out here.

If this was an exciting year for anyone, though, it was Katy Perry. What with her cotton candy scented album

2010. Let’s not let this happen again. Let’s start making our own lives more interesting, because it sure as hell seems like no one else will. So get rid of those tired, trite plaid shirts and slip on some daisy dukes (with bikini tops to match, of course), and keep on chasing those teenage dreams.

By Michelle Lee

2. “OMG” Usher featuring will.i.am Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh my gosh, you make me want to say, “Stop!” Is Usher really a valley girl in disguise? Even his velvety voice can only get away with so many “oh my gosh’s.” With 30 percent of the lyrics comprising “oh” or “baby,” this song gets old fast. Still, we can’t help but wonder what manner of beauty has so stupefied Usher as to replace his smooth charisma with a sixthgrade girl’s vocabulary. Honey must really got a booty like pow, pow, pow.

3. “Caifornia Gurls” Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg If this song were a food, it would be a saccharine, gooey confectionary monstrosity of powdered sugar,

whipped cream, and maraschino cherries. Add to that a pair of daisy dukes and bikinis on top and you’ve got “California Gurls” (yes, that’s “Gurls” with a “u”), an odd mix of bubble-gum pop and California cool. We don’t mind that mishmash so much as Katy Perry’s strange warbling as she belts “oh” up and down various octaves. It’s a mystery whether she’s yodeling or shrieking from sunstroke. Even so, with its catchy tune and cheery beats, “California Gurls” brightens up even the gloomiest days. It’s unforgettable.

4. “Love the Way You Lie” Eminem featuring Rihanna Never has a song so brilliantly glorified sadomasochism. Eminem strikes again with this angry anthem on venomous love-hate relationships. Is he trying to send a message about domestic abuse? Alcoholism? Pyromania? We don’t know, but hearing Eminem’s distinct cutting voice makes us melt a little bit inside every time. Yes, Eminem, you can tie us to the bed and set this house on fire. We like the way it hurts.

5. “Hey, Soul Sister” Train Over a decade later, Train is still holding strong. Their newest song “Hey, Soul Sister” whisks us back to the good old days with wistful chords and a whimsical ukulele. The warm and fuzzy feelings evoked can’t be escaped. Indeed, Train seems to follow us everywhere, serenading us at home, at supermarkets, and in the car.

But no matter how often we hear it, Train’s high crooning voice is like cough syrup: sweet, soothing, and selfmedicating for the soul.

3. The Suburbs Arcade Fire Few bands can construct ambitious, concept-driven albums and consistently produce superb results. But for Arcade Fire, whose previous albums tackled the themes of death and religion with few shortcomings, it seemed that making a statement on suburban living

courtesy of nw lens’s flickr

was naturally the next move. The Suburbs is grand in its scope: Over the course of its 16 songs, the album delves into the problem of appearance versus reality that exists in both suburban and urban living. It is easy to say the album portrays a naïve longing for urban life and casts doubt on the validity of suburban lifestyles, but this isn’t the case. A sense of nostalgia permeates the album. Arcade Fire manages to construct a thesis on suburban living that is as sonically wonderful as it is thought-provoking.

4. High Violet The National High Violet, not unlike The National’s previous album Boxer, isn’t one whose brilliance is immediately evident. High Violet requires a few listens before the listener can appreciate the album’s dense soundscape.

Every song is vast and layered, and it takes time to adequately digest each track. Singer Matt Berninger’s vocals are lush and rich, and for a first-time listener, often off-putting. The album opener, “Terrible Love,” builds and builds until a chaotic conclusion. On High Violet, it seems that every word and every note is intentional, and upon each subsequent listen, this is more and more evident.

5. Halcyon Digest Deerhunter Halcyon Digest is an autumnal album. It sounds crisp and evokes an eerie sensation of nostalgia, and the songs are as textured and variable as changing leaves. On the album closer “He Would Have Laughed,” a song dedicated to the deceased Jay Reatard, the initially playful melody provides a sharp contrast to the somber conclusion of the work. The entirety of the album dwells on the theme of solitude and isolation but is never trite. Its sounds are experimental and sprawling, but Halcyon Digest is striking for its approachability. It is forthright yet full of contrast, sonically gorgeous yet its lyrics are anything but.

Viral Videos

By Charna Albert

2. Chatroulette Piano Improv At the zenith of the Chatroulette craze, an unidentified pianist known only as “Merton” posted a video of himself playing the piano for the random strangers he connected with during his session. The encounters are hilarious, with the strangers either disconnecting almost instantaneously (as is typical of Chatroulette) or, in the case of a group of teenage girls, typing repeated hearts. The best part, of course, is that none of the people Merton connects with realize he is making fun of them to a camera. Merton gained further notoriety when a rumor began that the mysterious pianist was actually the pop singer Ben Folds. Both Folds and Merton discounted this, though Folds later paid tribute to Merton, singing to Chatroulette on a giant screen at a live concert. Merton was forced to take his original video off YouTube after it garnered millions of views, most likely due to someone in the video requesting privacy rights, but an edited version is still available.

courtesy of allmoviephoto.com

courtesy of little o2’s flickr

2. This Is Happening LCD Soundsystem “And so you wanted a hit/well, this is how we do hits/ you wanted a hit/but that’s not what we do,” James Murphy proclaims in his signature speaking/singing voice on “You Wanted a Hit.” This defines LCD Soundsystem’s third album, This Is Happening. The album is a collection of hits for LCD Soundsystem, who are admittedly quite different from how the music industry would define them. The album kicks off with “Dance Yrself Clean,” a slow build with a chorus of triumphant “oh’s” that is later reiterated near the album’s conclusion on “Home.” Murphy’s lyrics are full of irony and tongue-in-cheek humor—even more so than before—and the beats are still the dance rhythms that characterize the band. This is Happening proves that LCD don’t take themselves too seriously, but can still turn out top-of-the-line musicianship.

1. The “It Gets Better” Project Video series like the “It Gets Better” campaign affirm YouTube’s potential to enact social change. After Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old high school student from Indiana, hung himself after being the target of repeated bullying because of his sexual orientation, celebrity sex columnist Dan Savage launched the project to tell other gay and lesbian teens that it gets better as you grow older. YouTube’s accessibility allows homosexual adults to bypass the restrictive rules of churches and schools that will not allow them to reach out to gay teens who are being bullied. And as the project has gained critical acclaim, politicians and public figures have also stepped up to offer their support. Hopefully, the “It Gets Better Project” will make a difference in the lives of the teens being bullied and serve as a wake-up call for a society that lets it happen.

Overplayed Songs 1. “Airplanes, Part 2” B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams and Eminem Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? Not really. But after a storm of radio replays, remixes, and Facebook statuses mimicking the lyrics, now every time we look up and see an airplane, this song comes to mind. Nonetheless, featuring vocalists Hayley Williams of Paramore and Eminem, “Airplanes” draws from the best of rock, pop, and hip-hop to create a triad of musical deliciousness.

Williams is at the heart of the song with her lyrical but tough rocker-girl voice, while B.o.B keeps the beat with his skillful rapping. Eminem is just the icing on top. As long as these three keep singing, we’ll keep pretending that we haven’t already heard this song five million times.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West In the wake of the poorly received, Auto-Tune-laden 808s & Heartbreak, West originally claimed that this album would be a follow-up to College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation. But, born of recent controversies, what he delivered was My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a self-aware but not self-loathing journey into the mind and ego of West himself. The rhymes are West’s best and the production is his finest. And if that weren’t enough, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy features every prominent hip-hop artist at the moment, plus a few from left field, like Elton John and Bon Iver.

3. Bed Intruder A distinct genre of YouTube video takes serious footage and makes it humorous. On July 28th, a Huntsville, Alabama news station aired footage of a particularly

colorful interview with Antoine Dodson, the brother of an attempted rape victim. The interview itself became an Internet meme, and gained further fame as it began to inspire parodies. The most famous of these parodies was created by the Gregory Brothers, the producers of the YouTube channel Auto-Tune the News, who Auto-Tuned Dodson’s voice to make it sound like he is singing an R&B song. While many find the parodies bigoted and offensive for the way they seem to be laughing at Dodson, he has taken his overnight fame in stride, now maintaining a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, and YouTube Channel.

4. Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like Perhaps the most famous advertisement of the year, this commercial aims to transform Old Spice’s image from your 60-year-old professor’s cologne to your boyfriend’s. The ad features a shirtless Isaiah Mustafa, who is now a celebrity in his own right, producing a number of other videos for Old Spice, including one in which he answers women’s questions in nothing but a towel. The ads play up vague, stereotypical female desires, such as “two tickets to that thing you love,” which turn suddenly into a stream of diamonds. The Old Spice ad sometimes veers towards chauvinistic territory, promising “anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady,” but it’s a nice change to see a popular ad feature a scantily clad man.

5. Yosemite Bear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow With over 20,000,000 views, this video of two rainbows over Bear Mountain with audio of a man almost literally having his mind blown demonstrates the sometimes arbitrary nature of how Internet memes are created. The video became popular after Jimmy Kimmel posted it in a tweet on July 3rd, and has now received coverage from ABC News, CBS News, and the Huffington Post. Paul Vasquez, who posted the video and is now more often referred to as “Double Rainbow Guy,” has said his over-the-top response to the rainbows was not due to drugs, but that he was “on pure rainbow power.”

A CHICAGO MAROON Publication

Grey City Journal

VOLUME 8

"The City Grey that ne'er shall die"

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2010

PRICE - FREE

LIPSTICK KILLER U OF C STUDENT MURDERED THREE AT 82, CONVICT SPEAKS TO GREY CITY

By CHRISTINA PILLSBURY

In 1946, before William Heirens had turned 18, he’d already skipped his senior year of high school, gained admission to the University of Chicago, been elected vice president of the University’s Calvert Club, burglarized dozens of apartments, and gained national notoriety for committing one of the most gruesome killing sprees in Chicago history.

More than six decades later, Heirens and his defenders still claim he was railroaded by overzealous police and prosecutors, and by newspapers and reporters hungry for a story. Time has worn away Heirens’s memory of his arrest and trial, but he remains insistent that he is not a murderer. Last month, GREY CITY went to Dixon Correctional Center to speak with Heirens about a lifetime spent in the public eye and in a prison cell.

STORY ON PAGE 8

THE STUDY OF STUDYING

By BEN SIGRIST Professor Andrew Abbott doesn’t mind mixing things up. His time in academia has taken him from Andover to Harvard, to Chicago, to Rutgers, and then back to Chicago. He’s done advanced mathematics, researched the operations of libraries, and written about the evolution of professions.

So when GREY CITY met Abbott for an interview, it was little surprise that the conversation jumped from Abbott’s high school years to the golden age of the U of C, from his time teaching the Core to his thoughts on faculty governance, and from ideas about reshaping the University’s philosophy to why first-years always write five-paragraph essays.

STORY ON PAGE 2

WILLIAM HEIRENS, 1946

The Kid From Woodlawn

By MICHAEL LIPKIN

Tom Crane grew up a few blocks south of the Midway in the 1930s, and the University seemed to exist in another world. “It was like a medieval castle,” he said.

But when Crane was stricken with a serious illness when he was three, the “culturally removed”

institution saved his life. Three years later, he was brought to the Medical Center again when he suffered a serious injury. Still, Crane never expected the institution would come to play such a prominent role in his adult life.

By MEG BROOKS

research. However, President Robert Zimmer said his administration always foregrounds faculty interests when making decisions.

At the heart of this debate is the question of who runs the U of C. STORY ON PAGE 6

STORY ON PAGE 11

Esprit de Corporatization

By ASHER KLEIN

The University today spends and receives more money than ever before, often thanks to wealthy donors.

Some faculty think administrators are working too hard to bring in those donations, risking the University's commmitment to unfettered faculty

DADDIO, AN ESSAY

My dad’s band is the Gravediggers because his bar is The Graveyard, but the bar’s name is happenstance.

It was originally a motorcycle repair shop of the same name and my father wanted to keep the old sign.

I like to think the name suits them.

These are the kind of musicians who can hear “Stormy Monday in A-flat” and then play it without hesitation, who can tell you stories about the Greats as though they’ve met them or because they actually have.

And yet they joke about missed notes between numbers and tease each other about their age. On slow nights, Bob, the pianist, refers to the weak, scattered applause as a “round of indifference.” They laugh, and keep playing.

STORY ON PAGE 4

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

EDITORS Jordan Holliday Michael Lipkin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Asher Klein MANAGING EDITOR Jake Grubman PHOTO Matt Bogen

DESIGN Jack DiMassimo Douglas Everson Ivy Perez Jessica Sheft-Ason Vincent Yu COPY EDITORS Don Ho Victoria Kraft Holly Lawson Gabe Valley Bella Wu Lily Ye

GREY CITY 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Phone: (773) 834-1611 www.chicagomaroon.com/grey-city The GREY CITY JOURNAL ran as a weekly supplement to the CHICAGO MAROON from 1968 to 1993.

In its new incarnation, GREY CITY seeks to delve into larger issues affecting the University of Chicago campus and its community. The magazine is produced by CHICAGO MAROON staff members and runs every academic quarter

2

CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

the study of

a Q & A with Andrew Abbott

studying I

n Andrew Abbott’s Sosc classes, the student is the subject. A sociology professor, Abbott quizzes his students on their personal lives, how they read for class, and how they write papers. He also experiments with new teaching styles, like the day when he tried to capture the feel of an online message board by giving each student a blue book to record his or her latest ideas about the class reading. After drafting initial “posts,” students traded blue books every five minutes and responded in writing to each other’s thoughts, resulting in student-generated discussion threads.

These experiments are more than a whim for Abbott (Ph.D. ’82). He’s something of a jack-of-all-trades, and his varied research interests have led him to pioneer computational methods, theorize on the development of professions, and examine the organization of knowledge. So when he wanted to know more about the way students think, he turned to the sociological methods that have served him as a researcher for more than 30 years.

But Abbott is more than just a researcher. He’s also part of the most powerful faculty body on campus, the Committee of the Council of the Senate. The Committee’s seven elected members meet twice a month with administrators, acting as the voice of the faculty on matters of University governance.

G REY C ITY : You’re deeply involved in the faculty Senate, and you've said that one of the great things about the University is that it’s faculty-run. Over the past two years, some have raised concerned over the creation of the Milton Friedman Institute and other issues have led some to question the faculty’s role in directing areas of research.

Do you think the University will continue to be faculty-run?

Andrew Abbott: Yeah, the University will continue to be faculty-run. It is faculty-run.

The provost is an active faculty member who goes to his lab every Friday afternoon.

The president is the former chair of the math department. These are active scholars. Obviously, [President Robert Zimmer] is not doing math anymore, but these are people who are faculty. But much more importantly, the deans, the masters, the people who rotate steadily through these positions…they’re chairing provost committees. They’re doing this kind of stuff.

One of the reasons the University will continue to do this is that it’s cheap.

Unlike Harvard, we don’t have a lot of minor deans and administrators who do this and that and the other thing. The faculty is doing it. The faculty is actually running their own centers. There are, for example, about 100, 150 centers and institutes here. Every single one of those has to be run by a faculty member.

It’s also true that, let’s face it, academics are pretty profoundly committed to what they do. I’m sure that for any given faculty member there are at least 100 people somewhere else on the faculty who think that faculty member’s work is either useless, stupid, evil, unnecessary, or whatever.

And this is true of anybody. Anybody you can think of will have attitudes like that.

It’s also true that probably every faculty member here secretly thinks that there are other whole units of the University that, really, we don’t need…. But it’s also a community where people are concerned and are having debates and fighting about this stuff, and that’s a whole lot better than having the place be asleep.

spend-down strategy. We were probably the most unusual university in the world for 40 or 50 years. We did that by spenddown. We would like to continue being one of the most unusual universities in the world, but not continue spending down. That means the central question for the University going forward, the big

“It was the mos t exciting place in the world.

It was also going broke because there’s no t a business plan tha t could sus tain tha t over the g haul.” long GC: If you were to do a sociological study of any aspect of the University, what would you like to do?

AA: The central problem for the University of Chicago is really very simple. Between 1930 and 1990, the University of Chicago pursued what the non-profit world would call a “spend-down” strategy. They allowed the College to get very small by indulging in all kinds of wild experiments. Basically, the University spent a substantial chunk of its endowment being an extremely unusual place. An unusual college, a very small college, a university that was heavily graduate-focused, that had more graduate students than it had undergraduates.

There’s never been a university like that anywhere else. Wildly exciting. Wildly alive. Filled with faculty, most of whom were not teaching any undergraduates. It was completely —it was the most exciting place in the world. It was also going broke because there’s not a business plan that could sustain that over the long haul.

The decision was made to stop the

challenge, is to figure out how to do that.

I think that means we have to do it basically off of pure intellectualism. We have to envision a kind of university, a way of approaching knowledge, and a way of thinking about things that makes us unique and that people are going to come and be excited about.

GC: In your Sosc classes, you’ve experimented with your teaching methods, with the goal of using a different teaching method in every class. What have you learned from this experimentation?

AA: Mainly what I’ve learned from experimenting is that I didn’t know much before, and that students are far more unique than one thinks. Some of the general beliefs we have about undergraduates are correct, but some of them are not. I taught at Rutgers for 13 years before coming to the University of Chicago. That’s a very different kind of teaching. There you tend to give lectures to large rooms, and I got very, very good at that. I’m kind of an exhi-

bitionist and an egomaniac, and it works very well to do that. It’s very physical kinds of stuff. I’ve taught intro to sociology to 600 people without a microphone. It’s just a grand public performance. But it’s also true that if, as I occasionally did, you read the exams and see what people are actually learning, [laughs] it’s pretty frightening. It’s pretty easy for you to persuade yourself that your students are learning a lot when maybe they aren’t.

So what happened to me in teaching the Core—you talked about these experiments—was that in the mid-’90s I created the course Democracy and Social Science, and that went very well for some years. I chaired the course for five years, I think.

But eventually it began to get really stale, I didn’t feel the classes were very good, and the whole thing was just bad. I decided to reform things. So I spent a lot of time in my classes, in the first place, trying to figure out who the students are.

I do a lot of ethnographic writing where students write stuff for me without any name on it, and say who taught them how to write and how they learned to write. That’s how I discovered last year that a fair number of students entering the University of Chicago think that all essays must have five paragraphs. The reason they write long, amorphous paragraphs is that, as people ask them to write longer and longer papers, they still keep to five paragraphs. So the paragraphs get longer and longer, and it’s really strange. That turned out to be extremely useful. It turned out to be great news to everybody when I talked about it in the Core staff meeting. Nobody had actually ever thought of, “Well, let’s just ask them how they’ve been taught to write so far.”

GC: You studied history and literature as an undergraduate at Harvard. What brought you to study sociology as a graduate student at the University of Chicago?

AA: I went to Andover in the days when it was transitioning between being an old, upper-class bastion and the kind of school that it is today. This was in the mid-’60s, and it was just making the transition. There were lots and lots of very, very smart kids there who were basically upper-middleclass kids trying to get a pipeline into the Ivies. And so the curriculum was very conservative, but took advantage of these new students to push you as far and as fast as you could go. I did real analysis in high school. I did number theory in high school. And on the English literature side, my senior-year English teacher also taught courses at Harvard.

I had a bunch of APs, enough to skip a year at Harvard. So I went to Harvard, and because I was skipping a year I had to major immediately. I wanted to major in social studies, which was an elite major that Harvard had in those days. I basically had a minor in every single social science, and I was really interested in that stuff. So when it came time to go to graduate school…I was looking for a social science in which I could do a lot of different things. Sociology was the obvious choice, so I kept doing it.

I applied in sociology. I applied to various places, including Harvard, which turned me down, something I reminded them of when they offered me a job some years later.

But at the University of Chicago I made a different application. I applied to the University graduate school when I was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. So I got the U of C material and I decided [the Committee on] Social Thought was where I should

go. That just sounded absolutely great to me: really abstract, very philosophical. Just suited my ambitions, interests, egomania, whatever you want to call it. But I had gone to Harvard and at Harvard, committees are committees and can’t grant degrees. So I interpreted the Chicago announcements as saying that you were in Social Thought to have your head in the clouds and then you were also in a real department, like sociology, with your feet on the ground. So I filled all the forms and stuff for admission to the department of sociology at Chicago, even though I thought I was actually applying to the department of social thought. So I applied to the department of sociology at the University of Chicago by mistake, got into it, and eventually became the chair.

That’s a kind of a funny story.

The broader story is I went into sociology because I really couldn’t make up my

tory. Some of it’s been ethnography. I’ve just done whatever I’ve damn well pleased for the last 40 years.

GC: In an Aims of Education speech you argued that students shouldn’t view their education as just another tool to get ahead, but should take advantage of opportunities for their own sake. How does the University help students do that?

AA: Most of what happens to you in college is a function of what you do. It’s a function of the student, not of the University.

This is a place that certainly affords the possibility to get an extraordinary education, to just study all different kinds of things, to open your mind up in new ways at the same time, maybe, as you’re specializing in something…. The central issue is whether students take advantage of that.

What it looks like from the faculty’s side,

"If...you read the exams and see wha t people are y learning, g, it's pret p y frigh f g tening." g ac tually ty mind what kind of work I wanted to do as an academic. I wanted to be able to do work that took advantage of all the different stuff I learned. And, certainly, my basic project at Harvard was to learn lots of different things, to learn some psychology and some sociology and some political science, and I just took courses in everything when I was there. I didn’t learn much in terms of skills, so sociology gave me the opportunity to do whatever I wanted. Some of my work has been very mathematical. Some of it’s been talk. Some of it’s been theory. Some of it’s been his-

and I think especially from the advisor’s side, is there’s this huge, wonderful table spread out and most people just eat a Big Mac with fries, or whatever. They just eat food that they like. I think there are many of us, the older folks, the advisors and faculty, who feel that students are very unnecessarily tracked. We think that students have this relatively narrow vision of what they can take.

On the other hand, when you’re that age, things seem really consequential! Just like when you’re a first-year, your grade on your first paper seems like the whole world

CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

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MATT BOGEN/GREY

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because, as of that moment, it is the whole world. It’s your entire grade point average.

And so, of course, you take it very seriously, whereas by the time you’re a fourth-year student you realize that one more paper is not going to move your grade point average very much at all.

On the other hand, I look at my own college career and realize that I just took all the courses I damn well pleased and it kind of worked out in the end. I could have gone into law or any other field without much difficulty. And that would be true actually for the majority of people here.

So what’s to say? It’s hard to know what the College should do to try to get undergraduate students to educate themselves, to set that as their challenge for themselves, rather than acquiring credentials. I mean you really have already bought the credential when you get it in. It’s that simple.

You’ve got it. You do that and you pay the money. You’re going to get the credential.

And, furthermore, you’re going to get a pretty good credential because your grade point is going to be pretty good. It’s just going to work out that way…. It’s very easy for [professors] to say because we’re looking back at this and our lives turned out fine even because of all this accidental stuff…

That’s why I do think you have to surprise students into learning. Just do the unexpected, because that’s one of the things all of us do to make daily life manageable, you try to make it expectable—set it up so you know what’s coming, what’s going on, you’re going to do this. So this might be a much better interview, for example, if I suddenly took my pants off and started dancing on the table, right? This would be an unforgettable interview. But, you know, we’re just having an interview.

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CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

THE KID FROM WOODLAWN

by Michael Lipkin

T

om Crane was three when he caught lobar pneumonia: practically a death sentence in 1936, the year he fell ill. Tom remembers his sister dragging him through the December slush in their Woodlawn backyard. Their mother yelled at her for getting Tom soaked.

Soon, Tom got chills, spiked a fever of 106, and was put up in his parent’s four-poster bed. He fell into a coma for a week, and Dr. Frank Wall, from the University of Chicago Hospitals, tried to open his sinuses to let him breathe. It was the first of two times before Tom reached age seven that the University Hospitals saved his life.

Dr. Wall pulled out Tom’s eyelashes and stuck a hypodermic needle through Tom’s eye socket, beneath his eye—the doctors had to hold Tom down as he struggled and kicked through his nightmares. Tom’s mother was usually ushered out of the rooms during the procedures, but she provided her own remedy.

Vapo-Cresolene lamps, a kind of quack cure from the Great Depression, were a popular all-purpose fix. A kerosene lamp would heat a platter of liquid; the instructions directed users to burn cresolene, a coal tar derivative, to kill spasmodic croup, scarlet fever, or diphtheria. It could even be used for animals, the box said, for “the distemper and pneumonia in horses and does; gapes and roup in fowls.”

Mrs. Crane didn’t trust cresolene and instead burned liquid eucalyptus in the lamps. That’s one of the few things Tom clearly remembers from his recovery. “In the height of my pneumonia, I’d come out of the coma, or a fitful sleep, and I’d ask her, ‘Light the lamp. Light the lamp,’” Tom said.

leaning against the wall for support. His sister and cousin downstairs laughed at the toddler desperately grasping towards the Christmas tree, falling over and over, but when his mother asked, they carried Tom to the tree. “It was a delight, just to see things,” he said.

Tom’s family couldn’t get him an appointment at the Medical Center until the next morning, so his father cradled him in a rocking chair at home, singing lullabies to soothe Tom’s moans.

"People from Woodlawn This is the story Tom told me over a year ago when he called the campus newspaper, the Chicago Maroon. Maybe his memory was sparked by something we had written about his old neighborhood, or about some new research grant at the Medical Center, his former employer. In surprising detail, he told me about growing up on 61st and Drexel in the 1930s, and his pneumonia. He went on about other visits to the hospital, his time in the Army, and his eventual job at the University’s nuclear cyclotron during its heyday.

Tom came from a blue -collar background and lived in a two-story greystone just south of the Midway—still there at 959 East 61st Street. Growing up around the University, he saw frat houses fly banners with hammers and sickles on May Day and read yellow stencils on mailboxes: “Ban the A-Bomb, Support the Communist Party.” And now, decades s i n c e h e ’d l e f t , To m w a n t e d t o s e e Woodlawn again.

Th r e e y e a r s a f t e r h i s p n e u m o n i a , Tom was back in the hospital. He had gone with his father on a fishing trip to Kankakee, IL, to get away from the city and his father’s backbreaking work as a roofer. When his father wasn’t looking, Tom climbed a tree and fell, breaking his

used to look at the University as being a little bit out of the mainstream...

It was above you."

Once admitted, Tom passed through the Billings Hospital’s marble rotunda on his way to see Dr. Howard Hatcher, the University’s first orthopedic resident. Hatcher took one look at the metal cast, loosened the wing nuts holding it together, and flung it into a trashcan.

“That cast is an instrument of torture and that county hospital will never see it again,” Hatcher said. He then pricked each of Tom’s fingers looking for any sign of feeling. With each finger that failed to twitch, the odds of saving Tom’s arm from amputation shrank. Finally, Tom’s pinky jerked.

Tom was sent to the children’s ward, still screaming in pain. From his bed in the middle of the room, Tom could see that the other children in the room were in worse shape than he was. One girl, maybe four or five years old, had broken her pelvis and had a cast from her waist to her ankles; she cried constantly as the

Tom awoke that first night in the hospital to flashlights and ghostly figures moving about the room— Tom's family couldn't afford surgery, so the doctor stole hours after his shift to work pro bono.

When the fever finally broke, Tom was nursed on pineapple juice. On Christmas morning, he was so excited at the prospect of seeing the tree that he ventured out of bed on his own. His legs weak, Tom stumbled and crawled down the hall,

arm in a compound fracture above the elbow. The local county hospital set the arm in a metal cast so tight it cut off Tom’s circulation. The trip back to Chicago was torturous, each bump on the road sending Tom into another fit of pain.

nurse turned her every which way to try and make her comfortable. A boy about Tom’s age had the bed next to the window, which let in the soft spring breeze carrying the smell of newly cut grass from the Midway. The boy was despondent

and would only stare out the window singing: “Bring back, bring back, bring back my Bonnie to me.”

Tom was awoken that first night by flashlights and ghostly figures moving about the room. The figures spoke in low whispers and gently lifted him onto a litter with wheels. He was whisked to a room with equipment that glowed with a bluish-white light; he was brought back to this room night after night. This, Tom would realize years later when he worked at the Medical Center, was the operating room Dr. Hatcher used to work on his arm. Tom’s family couldn’t afford surgery, so Hatcher stole hours after his shift to work pro bono.

Tom had a stroke several years ago, but his childhood memories are still remarkably sharp. His stories are full of vivid but seemingly trivial details. He can rattle off the first and last names of people he met 50 years ago or important addresses: Ira Null, U of C Human Resources; DeForest Training School, 4242 North Ashland Av e n u e ; To m S k e l l i n g , h i g h - s c h o o l friend; 808 East 63rd Street, his father’s childhood home.

Perhaps that’s because Tom surrounds himself with his past. He and his wife still sleep on the same four-poster bed he slept in during his pneumonia. He owns two Vapo- Cresolene lamps and eucalyptus extract—a dollar each on eBay. He knows, and has written drafts of, the life story of Dr. Wall, details culled from working with his protégés at the Medical Center and research done on his own time. Tom wrote letters to Wall’s son, a doctor himself, and tracked both the careers of father and son.

Whenever Tom tells his own story, he starts with the 1893 Columbian Exposition. He likes to start at the beginning, he said, and the World’s Fair and the University of Chicago are tied together in his mind. “The University was like a giant medieval castle, in that the populace was drawn in around it,” he said. But the seemingly stuffy subjects and the lack of a football team kept Tom and his family from respecting the University. “People from Woodlawn used to look at the University as being a little out of the mainstream,” he said. “Being in a working-class family, you couldn’t understand the intellectual concepts. It was above you.”

Woodlawn was tough in the 1940s, and Tom and his friends were no exception. University graduate students often visited the neighborhood to study people like Tom. “You know, gangs, urban people,” he said. Two students—a slender, Swedish couple on thin-wheeled bicycles—often hung out with Tom and his friends. “One day, he didn’t show up,

CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

MICHAEL LIPKIN/

GREY CITY

but she did. She was lucky to get out of there,” Tom said. “‘You’re a Communist.

You believe in sharing things,’ my friends said. ‘How would you like to share some of that with us?’” Tom grimaces as he remembers his friends closing in on the woman before she ran off. “When I say the guys I hung around with had a different perspective—what we saw around the University was a little removed.”

Tom’s perception changed when he was delivering pizzas as a teenager in Hyde Park. Without a football team on campus, Tom was taken aback to see a hulking grad student answer the door on one delivery. When he found out the student played football in college, Tom asked how a football player managed to get into such a rigorous graduate program. “He gave me such a lecture on being scholarly,” Tom said. He began dreaming of getting out of Woodlawn and going to college. “I don’t know if he knows to this day what an impact he had on my life.”

Around the same time, Tom’s father, a pinochle and three -cushion billiard champ, opened a gas station near their house. His father’s connections to organized crime ensured that runners of the “policy rackets” visited the station to pay their respects and keep it afloat.

O n e a l l e g e d h i t m a n , “a t y p i c a l Humphrey Bogart type,” would often tell Tom to appreciate what a great father he had. “He had left all that. My father counseled me against gambling. ‘Tom, you can only lose. Stay away from it.’”

Tom returns to his father often, comparing him to his supervisers at the University, or Dr. Hatcher, whom Tom practically deifies. “They were exactly like my father. Their word was law.”

The advice from his father and the football-player-turned-student pushed Tom into technical training. Drafted into the Army towards the end of the Korean War, Tom chose to build and repair electrical devices: infrared sniper scopes, mine detectors, and searchlights. When he came back to Woodlawn, his technical expertise made him think work at the University was the natural next step.

His first job was a bit of shock: assisting professors at the Fermi Institute’s underground cyclotron. The cyclotron, one of the most complex pieces of equipment on campus, was used to study radioactive particles. “And here I was, with only seven college credits,” Tom said. “I went to night school under the G.I. Bill. Only seven college credits so far, and I was working around nuclear physicists.”

Tom took Geiger readings throughout the complex and assisted researchers in dozens of experiments. The self-styled “kid from Woodlawn” was soon a part of the University community. Grad students shared their latest findings with him, and during their downtime, tutored Tom in the college math classes he was taking. “They were such a giving bunch of people,” he said.

The lab’s work soon turned to radioactive material’s medical applications, and Tom was transferred to the Medical Center. As cancer patients elected to receive radioactive implants, Tom prepared the materials and watched in the operating room. “For any isotopes that were put into patients, we had to be there,” he said.

But the methods used at the Medical Center weren’t initially successful, and Tom had to attend dozens of postmortems. After being saved twice by the hos-

pital himself, he now saw patients who weren’t as lucky. “I saw a lot of death and dying,” he said. “It made me appreciate things more.”

Tom suggested we visit his old house together, but his wife, Madeline, was initially against the plan. Even though his memory of the distant past is clear, Tom’s stroke makes him easily confused about the present. He can forget what train he’s supposed to catch or where he’s going. Tom was insistent though.

His wife relented, as long as she could come along—so my girlfriend and I picked both of them up from the train station.

Tom's father's connections to organized crime ensured that runners of the "policy rackets" visited the gas station to pay their respects and keep it afloat.

This was Tom and Madeline’s first train ride together, and they talk about the novelty as they get into my minivan.

They’re clearly a devoted couple—they remember the Woodlawn bowling alley where they first met and argue about insignificant details. “They had the most delicious pizzas there,” Tom said. “I never had them,” Madeline replied. “They did.”

“I had the burgers.”

We drive through Tom’s old haunts, past

where his father’s gas station once stood, and pulled up on the house he lived in when he was three. While my girlfriend and Madeline talk about the colleges her grandkids attend, Tom stands in the yard and points to the room where his father used to sit on the fl oor and read the Sunday funnies.Tom walks around to the back, and points to a window. When his father stormed out of an argument, his mother threw hot tea out the window, trying to scald him.

He points to another window—this is the one he looked out of while he was sick with pneumonia, and his voice weakens.

His eyes water, and I begin to get uncomfortable. Tom pulls me aside and gives me a speech that didn’t help. “Sometimes, you feel like you’re forgotten in life. You’ve not only honored me, you’ve honored my family,” he said. “Basically, I’m a commoner. And you’ve taken this occasion to really take an interest in myself. What I’m saying is, you’ve taken this story of a commoner, and you have done a great honor to me.”

The four of us pile back into the van and drive over to the Medical Center to find Tom’s old office, which, in a strange coincidence, was the room he stayed in after breaking his arm in 1939.

Madeline is tired from the day’s walking, so only Tom and I get out of the car.

Like little boys, we hold our hands up to the windows and peer into the main hall, looking at the rotunda Tom was carried through almost 75 years ago. The memories don’t come flooding back, Tom says, because he’s blocked out most of the bad ones, and he’s already told me most of the good ones. We take a few steps back and look at the building’s façade until we see the window of his old office. Tom is uncommonly silent.

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CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

Esprit de

Faculty wonder whether a business mentality is steering the University's research focus

by Asher Klein

MATT BOGEN/GREY

F

or a university to be considered great these days, it must have both great teachers and a great deal of money. Its administrators must weigh the research needs of its faculty with the financial needs of the corporation. But a group of University of Chicago faculty claim that too much of University administrators’ time and resources are spent attending to the bottom line—that there is a new, structural hunger for money that seems to leave faculty’s interests by the wayside.

At the heart of the matter is the fear that the administration no longer shares the faculty’s values, especially after a vocal protest two years ago against the controversial Milton Friedman Institute produced few results. It is born of a feeling that the University Senate, which represents faculty, can’t or won’t exercise the power it is given. “I think this is a University that’s more responsible to its faculty than most, but the idea that we are a faculty-run university with some kind of democratic structure and where major policy issues percolate upward from the Faculty Senate” is a fiction, English professor W.J.T. Mitchell said.

President Robert Zimmer and Provost Thomas Rosenbaum defended the way the University is run at length in a June letter to faculty. In an interview yesterday, Zimmer expressed confidence in the way his administration makes decisions and faith that they are made for the right reasons. “We are in a constant effort, and we need to be in a constant effort, to make sure that this is the place that faculty can do their best work. That’s a huge piece of the University’s responsibility,” Zimmer said.

But faculty aren’t so sure the University is living up to that promise. Many concerns over the corporatization of the University were outlined in a petition circulated among faculty in May. It argued the University’s intellectual life has been corrupted by certain administrative actions. “The University becomes an instrument through which other kinds of actors—some well-intentioned, and some decidedly not—seek to advance their own pet projects and interests,” the petition said.

A recent flash point in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) department exemplifies this alleged change in mission—where fundraising for a faculty project takes precedence

and faculty interest becomes an afterthought.

According to professors Janet Johnson and Cornell Fleischer, who both signed the petition, Martha Merritt, a study abroad administrator, told NELC faculty this summer that a wealthy donor had provided funds for a study abroad program in Cairo. The program seemed to have been directed by the donor’s wishes, though Merritt and NELC chairman Theo van den Hout are adamant this was not the case. The faculty took umbrage at the fact that it hadn’t been consulted on the program’s direction until what seemed like the eleventh hour.

“The University of Chicago calls itself a university that is run by its faculty. If that’s true, then faculty should be involved in major discussions of things like this,” said Johnson, who also said she didn’t think administrators acted in bad faith.

Though the program was soon changed on the advice of faculty, the move came just a few months after the petition that alleged that money has undue influence on University decisions. “The administration is quite frank in saying that [the Cairo program] was not going to happen without a donor,” Fleischer said, “and that doesn’t necessarily sound very good to those of us who are concerned about the galloping corporatization of University life and governance.”

Signed by 174 faculty members, or about eight percent of the faculty, the June petition was released after months of bad feeling over the establishment of the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics (MFIRE). The petition, released by a faculty group called the Committee for Open Research on Education and Society (CORES), called MFIRE part of the trend toward corporatization: “We would hate to think that the University’s evident fixation on financial assets and its desire to exploit the Friedman brand name for fund-raising purposes would lead it to neglect its most valuable assets—its students, faculty and staff—while committing itself to a project whose very name reinforces a narrow, retrograde, and now demonstrably failed set of social and economic policies,” the petition said.

A collaboration between the Economics Department, the Booth School, and the Law School, the Milton Friedman Institute for Reasearch in Economics is so named because CORES organized in opposition to its founding

as simply the Milton Friedman Institute in 2008.

CORES’s outcries spurred the first full meeting of the faculty in 14 years, an annual event that had fallen by the wayside. The group was concerned that the Institute was created mainly as a fundraising tool, to capitalize on the recent death of Milton Friedman. “I think that signaled to us the University’s aggressive interest in fundraising and its willingness to function in a novel fashion, creating academic units and programs for their fundraising appeal,” said religion professor Bruce Lincoln (Ph.D. ’77), a CORES leader, in a recent interview.

There were public protests, panel discussions between prominent economics professors and CORES co-chairs, and a closed meeting of the University Senate, as the collected faculty is known. CORES wanted Zimmer to put the Institute’s establishment to a vote; instead, there was a compromise—an addendum to the name that clarified its research-oriented mission. Yet the name change didn’t allay CORES’s concerns.

The allegation of corporatization is a serious one at a school whose president often touts its longstanding guarantee of an environment where academics can argue unimpeded. In a long response to CORES’s complaints, Zimmer and Rosenbaum—both U of C professors as well—asserted the need for faculty involvement in University governance while defending recent investment decisions. “Our donors support our work because they believe in the values of the University of Chicago and want to enable us to achieve our highest aspirations,” they wrote on June 9. “These donors understand the importance of academic freedom and the essential role of unfettered inquiry. This University has stood firmly on the principle that such external support must never direct or limit our intellectual pursuits.”

But MFIRE is only one part of CORES’s scattered constellation of evidence that purports to show the influence of the corporate on the University. They say another donor, the Chinese government, will play an even more active role in directing the curriculum of Chinese language study at the University. China backs the U of C’s recently established Confucius Institute, one of over 300 set up around the world, including one at the University of Michigan and one in

CITY

the Chicago Public Schools. The Institutes run Chinese language training centers funded by the government of China. They have been called an organ of propaganda by Sweden’s Parliament and Canada’s intelligence agency, and in 2007, faculty at the University of Pennsylvania voted against a proposed Confucius Institute on their campus.

The U of C’s Confucius Institute was approved without ever coming to a faculty-wide vote, but Zimmer and Rosenbaum discussed it with a committee of faculty from the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department before giving it the go-ahead; a June press release said it will be run by a number of University administrators. Professor Donald Harper, who has since taken the chairmanship of the Center of East Asian Studies, said the discussion with faculty was meant to vet the proposal more than offer final approval. “It wasn’t as if it was on the vote of the China Committee that it happened,” said Harper, who also signed the CORES petition, though he did not discuss it or corporatization with Grey City.

Lincoln described such discussions of administration-backed initiatives with groups most closely concerned as “theater of consent,” meaning conversations held more to produce the impression of accord than to generate alternatives or create real compromise. These displays are a way of glossing over dissent while being able to note that administrators received input on contentious issues, Lincoln said. However, administrators always maintain the importance of input received from any group during decision-making processes.

Another major concern for CORES is the redirection of University resources away from Ph.D. programs and towards undergraduate programs, professional schools, and one-year, terminal M.A. programs like the Masters of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH), Masters of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS), and Master of Science in Financial Mathematics.

The University of Chicago of the 1970s was a more informal, less bureaucratic place with a much different way of thinking about its students—especially undergraduates, who made up a much smaller proportion of the population.

But the school changed in the 1990s, when an analysis of University finances by President Hugo Sonnenschein led him to conclude that enroll-

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ing more College and M.A. students would help sustain the University’s finances. “Even saying that created a furor among many faculty who don’t like economic thinking,� said Richard Shweder, a professor of human development and psychology who has been at the University since 1973.

Sonnenschein created three faculty-led committees that spent a year assessing the University’s educational work and its strained finances.

Then came University-wide reform, resulting in an increased focus on the College and professional programs, as well as the requirement that all faculty teach undergraduate courses.. Shweder and others said increased faculty responsibility brought more money and more bureaucratic red tape. Such bottom-line thinking persists, according to Lincoln and other CORES members.

Lincoln gave a slew of reasons why Ph.D. work needs to be prioritized, including challenging faculty and training the next generation of thinkers. “It’s where novelty occurs. It’s not just the transmission of established wisdom, it’s where the rethinking of critical problems is likeliest to occur,�

Lincoln said. The College, but especially the terminal M.A. programs, bring smart students to the University in a “broad and unfocused� program that isn’t likely to produce deep, scholarly thought in the same way as Ph.D. programs—professors’ time is better spent on students with more academic background and ability. “I think what those [M.A.] programs do is well worth doing, but I’m not sure this is the kind of institution that should be doing it,� Lincoln said. “I’m pretty certain that doing that is not in the best interests of this institution, except possibly in financial terms.“ Enrollment in MAPH, MAPSS, and the Financial Mathematics programs have consistently increased since their inception (see top figure). The MAPH program had 102 students last spring. With tuition and fees for a student tak-

ing three classes at $42,444, the MAPH program would have brought in over $4 million that year.

The Ph.D. program has increased as well, albeit at a slower rate (see bottom figure). While administrators have developed a graduate aid scheme that works to ensure Ph.D. students receive funding for four years of study, many think more funding is necessary.

The flip-side of Lincoln’s argument is that the terminal M.A. programs provide students with the exposure to serious intellectual work that might spur them onto great scholarship at the U of C or elsewhere. Shweder called the programs “a brilliant institutional innovation,� bringing in needed funding while allowing smart students to explore stimulating graduate coursework. Philosophy professor Candace Vogler, who co-directed the MAPH program for a number of years, said MAPH is a vast improvement over the system it succeeded, in which many Ph.D. students were cut after just a few years. To them, increasing M.A. programs doesn’t supplant the intellectual mission of the University, it enhances it.

Shweder did not sign the CORES petition this spring, though he did publish a scholarly article in 2006 arguing that corporatization has broadened oversight of faculty research, which is meant to be unfettered. “The petition as it developed did have a lot of points in it that should be discussed and raised,� he said, but the opposition to MFIRE seemed unreasonable. “To oppose something of quality that has the support of brilliant members of the faculty...I think there’s a live-and-let-live quality that’s very important.� Shweder said the opposition to MFIRE seemed instead to come from those faculty who don’t like bottom-line thinking.

But bottom-line thinking is a reality the University must deal with every day. Clyde Watkins (A.B. ’67) worked in the Development

Office for six years during the ’70s, eventually serving as an associate vice president, before becoming an education consultant. In the 1970s, he said, the University raised $30–35 million a year; in 2008, the U of C finished a five-year fundraising drive that exceeded its $2-billion goal. $500 million now goes to research each year, according to the director of the Institutional Review Board, which oversees research. CORES accuses the University of “metastatic growth of administrative staff,� but according to Watkins, all large research institutions have adapted the size of their fundraising staffs.

CORES isn’t advocating for any specific changes, but Lincoln said a medium for faculty input on University-wide policy already exists, and should provide the kind of check that would have put MFIRE or the Confucius Institute up for a faculty-wide vote. The body of the faculty that engages with the administration is called the Council of the Senate, a 51-member group elected from the Senate that meets with Zimmer monthly.

The voice of the faculty isn’t heard because the Senate and the Council of the Senate have become a sounding board for administration concerns—a model the administration has espoused— or a “theater of consent,� Lincoln argues. “I think the structural forces that produce those kinds of errors are clear, I think they’re large, I think they’re powerful. I think you sound the alarm early, and you make your concerns very clear to warn against going further in those directions,� he said.

Shweder had a similar take on the root of corporatization: Zimmer and Rosenbaum have the best intentions, but “it’s not personality, it’s structural issues that you worry about,� Shweder said.

Zimmer views the structure of the University as less problematic, arguing that University-wide decisions are made through a system of distrib-

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Both programs bring in tuition, and CORES claims that developing them over more intellectually rigorous Ph.D. programs represents a trend towards corporatization. In a recent interview, President Zimmer was open to faculty reconsidering the relative size of the Divisions.

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Lincoln says Ph.D. programs are where the meat of scholarly work is done on campus. The work professors do with M.A. students, Lincoln says, can be a drain on faculty resources. That the administration continues to invest in these programs, the CORES argues, is a sign the University is becoming more corporate.

uted authority that is necessarily complex. “You have literally hundreds of people making important decisions about the Unviersity, and it’s good that there’s this distributed authority. At the same time, when you’re going to be dealing with people who don’t like something or people who want something, those things need to be addressed in a vehicle that’s appropriate to the authority level involved,� Zimmer said.

Lincoln, a Council member himself, said the University statutes give the body jurisdiction over all academic matters, but faculty rarely introduce motions, something he attributed to a lack of real information on day-to-day financial and administrative numbers. The reactive nature of Council meetings means they are just “a top-down process of disseminating the company line,� he said. “Rarely is anything turned back.� Lincoln said that among the information he would like to review at Committee and Council meetings are detailed budgets and an overview of administrative staff.

But when asked if the Council had access to the information it requested, Zimmer said, “We’ve attempted to give everybody the information they’ve asked for, and if people want more information, we can provide more.�

Another group, the seven-person Committee of the Council of the Senate, meets every other week with Zimmer and Rosenbaum. But there are problems here, too. “It really sits and listens and gives some comments. It’s not like we can decide on major things,� said statistics chair Yali Amit, who serves on the Committee. Though he co-chaired CORES in 2008, Amit didn’t sign the petition, which he said raised no new issues on MFIRE, and that its other complaints were not sufficiently substantiated. Still, he said the Committee would benefit from more information.

For Lincoln and CORES members, the ideal of faculty leadership is a more of a myth than anything, and one most faculty may not be interested in pursuing—Amit questioned whether faculty will ever want to be very involved in governing the U of C. “The Administration is always going to set the agenda. There are faculty initiatives, people come up with ideas, but I think they’re the ones sitting there, that’s their job. Large-scale agendas are rarely set by faculty,� Amit said.

Zimmer said he told faculty at recent Council and Senate meetings that his Administration is always acting in the faculty’s best interest. “That is what we need to keep asking ourselves at all times: Are we responding to changing conditions of all sorts so that we are ensuring that faculty are continually saying that this is the best place to do their work?� And he noted in the interview that the Provost has set up a faculty committee to assess any systemic problems raised by professors.

Lincoln heard Zimmer speak at the Council and Senate meetings and took his words as a tentative move towards a discussion of corporatization. “I felt like he’s taking it seriously, and if so that’s a hopeful sign,� Lincoln said. “It’s not concrete, material progress, no changes of policy were announced, no reversals of decisions we really think were very ill-advised, but there’s a discussion that’s ongoing, and that’s good news.�

GREY CITY JOURNAL

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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

LATE EDITION

MURDER, THEY WROTE THE STORY OF THE LIPSTICK KILLER

By CHRISTINA PILLSBURY Early in the morning on January 7, 1946, six-year-old Suzanne Degnan was reported missing from her bedroom. A ransom note demanding $20,000 for her return was found by her bedroom window. Later that night, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) discovered her dismembered body scattered in sewers across the North Side.

Newspaper headlines blasted the grisly details. The crime remained in the news for months as authorities uncovered more and more evidence.

At 9 a.m. that January morning, William Heirens (X ’50) was missing from his U of C math class. By 10 a.m., he was in his humanities lecture. The 17-year-old Heirens was a tall, broad-shouldered, darkhaired young man whose academic aptitude allowed him to skip his senior year at St. Bede’s, a Chicago boarding school.

After matriculating at the University, he became vice president of Calvert Club, then a Catholic group on campus.

Heirens often spent his nights drinking whiskey with his roommate in SnellHitchcock and casually seeing girls. He had also been arrested for a number of burglaries since 1942, and done several stints in juvenile prison. The burglaries continued into his college career.

While Heirens kept up this double life at the U of C, police investigated the Degnan murder. Experts soon matched the handwriting and fingerprint found on the ransom note to evidence gathered from the scene of a murder that took place a month before.

The naked corpse of 31-year-old Frances Brown had been found on December 11, 1945, in the bathtub of Brown’s apartment.

Brown’s pajamas were wrapped around her head, suggesting a connection to an Edgewater murder earlier that year, where the victim was left in a similar state. Brown had a butcher’s knife rammed through her neck; a bullet wound in her skull. One bloody fingerprint was found on a doorjamb. But the evidence that would grab the city’s attention was a message scrawled in lipstick on the wall above Brown’s body: “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.”

Whether a cry for help or a taunting jab at the police, the chilling message was photographed and splashed across newspapers throughout Chicago. The note gave reporters a moniker for the murderer: the Lipstick Killer.

Degnan’s murder intensified the exhaustive manhunt for the Lipstick Killer. For the next six months the CPD took fingerprints from every person they arrested in hopes of finding a match with the killer. Police detained two suspects in that time, but both were eventually released, and public interest in the case remained high. On June 26, almost six months after Degnan’s

CHARGED WITH HIS CRIMES

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

17-year-old University of Chicago student William Heirens, second from right, is arraigned in July, 1946. murder, the Chicago Tribune called it “one of the most atrocious American murders since the Loeb-Leopold case.”

The U of C reference proved prescient.

Later that same day, police apprehended Heirens as he attempted to rob an apartment in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. Almost immediately his fingerprints were deemed a match to the fingerprint in Brown’s apartment. Evidence, including a confession he gave while in custody, began to mount against him.

On September 4, Heirens pled guilty to the three killings. The next day Harold G. Ward, chief justice of the Cook County Criminal Court, sentenced him to three concurrent life terms. Heirens, now inmate number C-06103, was transferred to Stateville Prison in Joliet, Illinois.

63 years later, Heirens has been imprisoned longer than any other person in America.

During an interview with Grey City last month at Dixon Correctional Center, a medium-security prison in Dixon, Illinois, Heirens sat hunched, his gray hair slicked back, his face in a gruff, squinting stare.

The 82-year-old speaks in a comforting, grandfatherly tone. He shifts back and forth in his wheelchair while reliving his experiences slowly, putting together memories from more than a half century past. He often draws a blank—Heirens has little memory of the ordeal that shaped the rest of his life.

The last thing he remembers before his arrest is his Core humanities class at the University of Chicago. “They had a book reading for that year—I forget the name of the book, The Brothers Karamazov or something like that,” Heirens said. “I wasn’t a fiction reader before. I was only a fact reader, and so that was new to me, fiction reading. And I couldn’t read as fast as the other guys, so I was kind of slow in class.”

Through a furrowed brow, as if trying to remember more, Heirens paused. “And, well, then I got arrested.”

Police chased Heirens out of the Rogers Park apartment he was robbing that June day and through the complex, until an offduty officer dropped a flower pot on his head, knocking him unconscious. While in

WILLIAM HEIRENS WAS A KNOWN BURGLAR AND HAD BEEN IN AND OUT OF JUVENILE PRISON FOR YEARS. AS A STUDENT AT THE U OF C, HE LED A DOUBLE LIFE.

custody at Bridewell Hospital, connected to Cook County Jail, police routinely ran his prints. Heirens’ fingerprint was matched by nine points of similarity to the one found on the ransom note and smeared in Brown’s apartment. Officials told the Chicago Sun-Times this was “adequate for identification.”

Meanwhile, detectives searched Heirens’s U of C dorm room in Gates Hall, looking for goods stolen from the murder sites.

The Tribune reported there were war bonds, jewels, three guns, cameras, and other stolen items in Heirens’s dorm room.

The total value was over $3,400—almost $37,000 when adjusted for inflation.

The most damning items police found were two surgical kits which included knives and saws. Degnan was dismembered with such great precision that investigators believed her murderer had used special tools in the process.

Heirens became the police’s prime suspect, and State’s Attorney William Tuohy began the interrogation process. During an interview with psychologists who later declared him sane but psychologically unstable, Heirens confessed to all three murders.

Then Herbert J. Walker, a handwriting

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

GREY CITY JOURNAL

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

9

Courtesy of the Illinois Department of Corrections

FRANCES BROWN’S MURDERER SCRAWLED A NOTE IN LIPSTICK ON THE WALL ABOVE HER BODY: “FOR HEAVENS SAKE CATCH ME BEFORE I KILL MORE I CANNOT CONTROL MYSELF.” expert, concluded that Heirens’ printing matched that of the lipstick message and the ransom note. It seemed the case was closed.

Today, it seems that the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit exactly. The handwriting expert recanted in early January of the next year; the Herald American reported that he said the handwriting on the ransom note and the lipstick message had “few superficial similarities and a great many dissimilarities.”

Some have questioned the legitimacy of the lipstick note itself. “It would be out of the ordinary for a man to pick up a piece of lipstick and write a message with it....

Others [believe] a sleazy crime reporter scribbled the message on the wall for a cheap headline,” crime historian Richard Lindberg wrote in his 1999 book Return to the Scene of the Crime .

Heirens has maintained for years that the fingerprint evidence was constructed by the police. “A ransom note is very easy to fake a finger print on. You just touch that and you’ve got a fingerprint on you,” he said. “And that’s all there was to it, and it was just one fingerprint.” He also scoffed at the idea that the surgical tools were his.

“I think I had a razor blade to go make model airplanes, that’s about it,” he said.

Heirens doesn’t know where the evidence against him came from; he only claims his innocence. When asked who he thought committed the Lipstick murders, Heirens pounded the table. “I can’t be a detective, run up and down and question everybody, put a gun to their head, say ‘You either confess or I’ll blow your head off!’”

He said the police needed a scapegoat to quell an increasingly impatient public.

“They were considering me because I was a burglar before that,” Heirens said. “But then they linked it in with a couple of murders—the first one was a woman who was murdered in her room. I [robbed] that building a couple of times myself...then I didn’t think any more of it, and before you know it I was arrested and interrogated by police.”

Some legal and criminal experts are still convinced that Illinois is holding the wrong man.

Dolores Kennedy, author of 1987’s Bill Heirens: His Day in Court and a legal assistant at the Medill School of Journalism’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, has written the Illinois parole board multiple times asking for Heirens’s release. She believes Russell Richard Thomas, a former nurse at

the Woodlawn Hospital, was responsible for the crimes that cost Heirens his freedom.

Thomas had a history of violence against women and kidnapping, and left ransom notes that Kennedy believes resemble the note found at the Degnan house.

Thomas confessed to the Degnan murder from a Phoenix prison cell the day Heirens was apprehended. But two days later, the Chicago Daily News printed discrepancies in Thomas’s story, and before Thomas could be seriously considered as a suspect, attention shifted to Heirens.

Thomas soon recanted.

Heirens thinks Thomas’s confession was more convincing than his own. “He confessed to the murder that I’m accused of.

He was in Arizona, and he told the police there, ‘God told me to confess,’” Heirens said. “While I’m sitting in jail, he’s saying that stuff, and his confession was better than what they got from me.”

Some writers claim Heirens’s confession is suspect as well. Kennedy is one of a number who suggest that police brutality and mind-altering drugs used during the interrogation coerced a confession out of the 17-year-old student.

Heirens says that before his interrogation he knew little about the series of murders tied to his name. “It might’ve been mentioned on the radio, but in Chicago, you hear [about murders] all the time,” he said. “It was part of life in Chicago in those days.”

The interrogation lasted several days while Heirens was in Bridewell Hospital, where he was admitted for treatment of the concussion suffered during his arrest. Newspapers reported that he implicated another man during this time, and gave details about the murders. The full transcript from the interrogation was lost between his stay at Bridewell and his day in court.

Heirens said his questioning “was kind of rough,” but he couldn’t remember being beaten or given any drugs. He does remember resisting. “They wanted me to confess to the murder and I refused to, so they kept on grilling me,” he said. “They kept at me until they said, ‘They’re going to kill you if they convict you.’”

Though Heirens himself may not have been abused by the CPD, he knew of the police’s reputation for violent interrogations. Hector Verburgh, a 65-year-old janitor who worked in an apartment building near the Degnan home, was the first suspect arrested in connection with the crime.

Police brutalized Verburgh during his dayslong interrogation. “They hung him up by his hands over a bar behind him, and they crippled him,” Heirens said, recalling the news coverage of the story. Verburgh later

successfully sued the CPD for false arrest and brutality, and won $20,000.

Police believed George Murman, the man Heirens named as an accomplice to the murders, was actually an alter ego. Psychologists submitted a report to Chief Justice Ward: “These conversations regarding ‘George,’ in our opinion, reveal a power for hysterical fantasy, to be expected in a hysterical individual passing through long sustained emotional conflict.” When this detail leaked to the press, it cemented Heirens’s reputation as a psychotic; on June 28, 1946, the Sun-Times printed that he “lived a Jekyll and Hyde existence.”

But Heirens claims that he never named a second person, that George was a police creation. “The police in their interroga-

tions, asked ‘What’s your name?’ and I told them. And they said, ‘No it ain’t, it’s George.’ I said, ‘That’s my middle name, not my first name.’ And then he said ‘Yeah, your name’s George.’ So that’s how George came into it.”

His foggy recollection of the interrogation may be due to drugs administered by the police. The Tribune , Sun-Times , and the New York Mirror all reported that Heirens was given sodium pentothal, more commonly called truth serum, during the interrogation. A sedative then used on veterans to dig up their most unsettling memories from combat, sodium pentothal is most often used today in inducing medical comas and lethal injections.

According to U of C psychology profes-

CENTRAL BOOKING

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

Heirens collapses as he is photographed in Cook County jail in 1946.

GREY CITY JOURNAL

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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

IN PRISON, HEIRENS TOOK CLASSES THAT SEEMED USEFUL. “I FIGURED LOGIC WOULD HELP ME GET OUT OF PRISON,” HE SAID. “IT DIDN’T DO ME A DARN BIT OF GOOD.” sor David Gallo, the effects of the drug might have influenced Heirens’s memory.

“The reliability of information that’s generated during interrogations is questionable, especially when the exact methods that were used are unclear,” said Gallo, who has not studied Heirens’s case specifically.

“The social pressure from authority figures can distort the information that one produces, and this can subsequently affect the accuracy of one’s memory. It might not be enough to convince an innocent person that they’re guilty, but it might at least confuse their memory.”

With enough evidence for prosecutors to mount a convincing case against Heirens, his attorneys suggested he accept a plea bargain, which the state also favored because it would keep a minor out of the electric chair. Prosecutors required a public admission of guilt, and on July 30, police officers, Chicago officials, and reporters gathered in court for Heirens’s confession.

By then, few doubted that Heirens was responsible for the murders. A month earlier—and just days after Heirens had been singled out as a suspect—Police Commissioner John C. Prendergast told the Tribune , “He knows he did it, and he knows we know he did it.”

Two weeks later, the Tribune ran a story detailing Heirens’s actions the nights of the murders. Even though Heirens hadn’t yet confessed to anyone, the Tribune was convinced it had a scoop. “For a while, Heirens maintained his innocence. But the whole world believed his guilt. The Tribune had said he was guilty,” the Tribune wrote on August 7, 1946.

But the prisoner was not ready to admit defeat. “They wanted a confession. They wanted all these police officials to hear what it is,” Heirens said. Though he had earlier agreed to plead guilty, once in court, he wouldn’t go through with it.

“They asked me [to confess to] the Degnan murders, and I said, ‘I don’t know anything about it but what you people told me.’”

Chicagoans were convinced police had found their man, so Heirens’s very public change of heart caused an uproar. “My attorneys had a fit. Everybody did, really, because everyone was expecting a confession story. They were broadcasting it all over the country.” Heirens added, with a smirk: “And I just messed up their show.”

But the state’s case against Heirens continued. The plea bargain dissolved, meaning he would go to trial, and from his Cook County jail cell, Heirens could feel the electric chair looming large. His attorneys spoke of it; prosecutors threatened him with it.

“When they got me back to my cell, and my attorneys got back to me, they told me how I screwed up by not going through with the confession story for them. They said ‘You’re doomed for the execution now,’ and I was—if the state’s attorney would’ve tried me, with everything going on the way it was, I would’ve been convicted just like that, and there’d have been no appeals,” Heirens said. “So I changed my mind. I went along with them. I said ‘I won’t go back on you.’”

On September 4, William Heirens pled guilty to 26 charges of burglary and three counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to three concurrent life terms the next day.

Once convicted, Heirens was transferred to Stateville prison, where reporters initially visited him on a regular basis. But media interest slowly faded, and Heirens eventually resumed his education through correspondence courses. His first-choice institution was no longer an option. “The University of Chicago wouldn’t let me take any courses from them—they barred me.

After I got arrested and convicted they just wouldn’t have nothing to do with me any-

more,” Heirens said. “I wanted to go into philosophy with them, but they wouldn’t let me take it.”

Heirens continued to “shop around for classes” by ordering college catalogues from his cell. “I liked cultural anthropology, because it was about people and how life changes among different people that you live with,” he said. And free from strict graduation requirements or looming job prospects, Heirens could afford to take whatever classes seemed useful. “I took a logic course because I figured logic would help me get out of prison,” Heirens said.

“It didn’t do me a darn bit of good.”

On February 6, 1972, at age 43, Heirens walked in the Lewis University commencement ceremony, becoming the first Illinois prisoner to earn a college diploma from jail. Prison security accompanied Heirens to the nearby commencement, as did Heirens’ notoriety; photographers jumped up on chairs in hopes of getting any shot of the killer-turned-graduate.

After graduation, Heirens worked for the superintendent of Stateville Prison to develop a program to help inmates get their degrees. He put together a library and assembled necessary paperwork to jumpstart the prison’s education system. One of the teachers from the Stateville program was so impressed with Heirens that he wrote to the parole board. According to Heirens, the teacher singled his program out as one of the best in the country.

Heirens has spent over 60 years in prison and has been the center of a media circus. Fact and fiction have twisted and tangled into one: he claims he based his confession on an earlier Tribune story that trumpeted his guilt, his interrogation was likely a drug-induced dream, and his life has been turned into books, movies, and articles over which he had little control.

His life is confined to a cell, but his story

MEDIA CIRCUS

is a public spectacle.

Heirens can hardly remember the bare facts of his case. He no longer remembers most of the burglaries he admits he committed. And when he’s been in jail for 63 years, it hardly matters any more.

Gallo, the U of C professor, researches memory function and how people can reconstruct their memories from outside accounts. In addition to normal memory loss, many other factors have shaped the memory of 82-year-old William Heirens, Gallo said. “Because he’s read a lot of accounts of what happened in the media he might not trust his own memory. He might just have convinced himself that he doesn’t know what he did.”

Heirens spent his early years in prison trying to clear his name. But as his faculties failed him, he has come to accept he’ll always be best known as the Lipstick Killer.

Gallo thinks this resignation may help Heirens cope with his experiences. “He might have decided a long time ago that he wanted to just put the ordeal behind him and move forward with his life,” Gallo said.

“He might be at a point in his life right now where his memory is not that important anymore. That may be true if he did the murders or if he didn’t,” Gallo said.

Except for some praise from a correspondence course teacher, Heirens has few happy memories. “They’re all bad,” he said. “Even my graduation was bad. [Other students] wouldn’t even talk to me.”

Heirens has talked with hundreds of reporters, and each time he surrenders control of his story. When reading over what they’ve written, he laments the details they’ve left out, the explanations that might convince others of his innocence. And with age, Heirens’s memories have only gotten dimmer, sapping what little control he once had over his own story. “There’s all kinds of things I’ll want to have said, but I didn’t say,” Heirens said, before returning to his cell. “I’ll regret that later on.”

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

Heirens, middle, being taken to a police lineup on July 1, 1946. He would confess to the Lipstick murders that September.

CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

11

COURTESY OF JAN MEHLICK

Daddio an essay by Meg Brooks

M

y daddy is a jazzman. He wears a suit that’s almost black but not quite—one button, pressed slacks, starched shirt. No tie. He wears leather shoes. One on the floor and one on the beat. They reflect the stage lights like his hollow-bodied 1980 Gibson. He wears cufflinks, he drinks club soda with lime. The tips of his fingers are callused and quick. He closes his eyes when he sings and smiles at the end of each song.

But only on Wednesdays.

Wednesday is the night my father’s bar fills with dancers. They take over the space in front of the stage in the corner, feet in comfortable shoes practicing their steps in miniature. The regulars, grungy East Atlanta hipsters, and young families out to dinner, turn around from the bar and peek out of the dark booths when the altrock radio fades. Three middle-aged men, one full head of hair between them, busy themselves on the worn Persian rug, positioning the mic stands and navigating the twisted topography of black cords. When the guitar is plugged in, the bass stood upright, and the lid of the old beat-up piano lifted, they are a band.

They are the Gravediggers, because the bar is The Graveyard, but the bar’s name is happenstance. The building was originally a motorcycle repair shop of the same name and my father wanted to keep the old sign. I like to think the name suits them. I’ve never met a man who digs graves for a living, but I imagine his personality would be like those of the guys in the band— reserved, deliberate, and practiced, but with a dark, crucial sense of humor. These are the kind of musicians who can hear “Stormy Monday in A flat” and then play it without hesitation, who can play every Jimmy Reed song ever written— they’re all the same, really—and who can tell you stories about the Greats as though they’ve met them or because they actually have. And yet they joke about missed notes between numbers and tease each other about their age. On slow nights, Bob, the pianist, refers to the weak, scattered applause as a “round of indifference.” They laugh, and keep playing.

urban planning business. He is an excellent negotiator; he is fond of reminding me that he “plays chess while everyone else is playing checkers.” He wears a suit and tie, he checks e-mail on his phone, he flies business class. But he spent most of his young adulthood as a touring musician and a writer. He was in a band called Choo Choo Wizard; he published his first book when he was 21.

I wish I could have known my father as a young man; I imagine the thrilling, mysterious life of a different version of the person I know. Long curly hair and bell-bottom jeans with holes in the knees, book in one hand and guitar in the other, library cubicle by day and dive bar stage by night. It took him six years to get his degree because he was touring to pay his way through school. He says the only things he really learned in college he learned in the hours he spent in the library reading everything he found interesting. He started out teaching himself in libraries, and ended up designing them. The few times I saw Dad on stage with his guitar when I was little were the first moments I realized I could be proud of my parents, not just the other way around. These occasions were few; his public performances were

mostly as a businessman.

But at home my dad was still a musician—I often woke up on Saturday mornings to the sound of the Gibson from downstairs, Dad playing whatever was in his head. Our house was always filled with Howlin’ Wolf, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Louis Jordan, Frank Sinatra, and I fell in love with all of them. I learned to work the record player and clean vinyl when I was six. Dad taught me to play basic blues guitar when I was 12. My hands weren’t really big enough, so I had to cheat the chords.

When I was 14, Dad and I went to New York for a weekend to see Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross at the Blue Note.

We sat at a little round table in the smoky darkness beside the stage, and after the show Dad suggested we go up to their dressing rooms and see if we could meet them. I didn’t know you could do things like that—these were two of the Greats, they were too big to exist off the stage. But I stumbled up the stairs in the heels I wore to pretend I was older, and knocked on Annie Ross’s door. I talked to her about singing for what I insist was half an hour but my father says was no more than five

We let the blues do the negotiating-music as mediator. This is how we reconcile. We pour the day into something melancholy and heavy and sweet.

minutes. The pictures we took in the dressing room are like strange family photos—grandma in her robe and stage make-up, grandpa in his tux, Dad and daughter grinning like idiots.

These musicians had a kind of power, and it seemed my dad had it too.

C

horal music, I discovered in high school, had a different kind of power.

The intricacies of chords and harmonies I learned from being one voice among 40 were stunning and gratifying; I sometimes had to stop singing for a few bars to grin and catch my breath. Though the method was foreign to me—I practiced at home by singing along to CDs of a grating synthesizer—there was suddenly structure and theory behind the magic of Dad placing my fingers just so on the neck of the guitar.

But Dad didn’t come to my choral concerts. I told myself it was because he didn’t like the music, but even when I joined our 12-person vocal jazz group in my junior year he was conspicuously absent. Maybe, I thought, we lack that magic that draws him to this music, the feel behind the notes.

We sounded too much like the synthesizer; no amount of music theory can teach you to swing.

But peering into the audience time after time and finding my mother’s face without my father’s, I wondered why he couldn’t learn to love what I loved. Halfway through “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” I was so mad I could have hurled my microphone into that empty seat in the third row. By the end of “Every Time We Say Goodbye” I was fighting back tears. It’s impossible to sing and cry at the same time, even when you’re singing the blues.

T

M

y father is a businessman. Since the early ’80s he has worked as an architect and developer, and now he runs his own

MATT BOGEN/GREY

CITY

hose early Wednesday nights at the Graveyard five years ago were lonely.

There were no swing dancers and few customers. Anyone who has ever tried to open a restaurant will tell you that the first three or so years are miserable, and most places don’t make it. But my father and his best friend George tried anyway; it was something they had always talked about. When Dad found the old motorcycle warehouse and redesigned it with booths and a bar and the stage in the corner, George quit his job to become the head chef. The restaurant survived the initial troubles, but their

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CHICAGO MAROON | GREY CITY

MATT BOGEN/GREY

friendship didn’t. I hadn’t really thought about my father’s friendships, but suddenly it seemed that he didn’t have any. No more college bandmates, no golf buddies, no one to share a cigar with on the porch. Just business associates. It was lonely, but he adapted. The businessman negotiated and the musician improvised.

Now Wednesday nights find him sitting at a packed bar with a new band.

Bob, Bill, and Jim. They joke from time to time that they only play with people with one-syllable names.

Thank goodness I meet this criterion, because it means that on those Wednesdays when I’m home from the University I can pretend to be one of them. Before we play, I usually sit at a table by myself and watch. They eat alone, but they drink together. There are minutes of quiet storytelling broken by bursts of laughter, and I want to know what they talk about. I sit alone and observe them, like some rare species evolved beyond mine.

The tips of the fingers on Bill’s left hand are completely flat, like pads on frogs’ feet. I think they would stay that way even if he stopped playing the bass. Watching Bob play is like watching a bear play the piano: He hunches over and his arms move back and forth from the shoulders, his large hands seeming to pound indiscriminately on the keys, somehow producing chords. They hardly ever rehearse; they’ve had years of rehearsal. Stepping onto the stage with musicians like this is like being inducted into some exclusive club; I only pretend to belong.

The first Wednesday I got up the courage to go sit with Bob at the bar, he told me a story about the time he met Ella Fitzgerald. She was singing in some little bar in New York, and he was one of the only people in the place. She finished her set and sat at the bar, and he went to say hello. She looked around at the empty tables and said, “Well, I guess no one loves old

Ella anymore.” I told Bob that was one of the saddest stories I had ever heard, and then I thought about my father. My father alone in the library, in his office, on the porch. “That’s how it is,” Bob replied. “You know, when you sing ‘Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby’ you sound like Dinah Washington.”

When they’re not telling stories about their encounters with the Greats, the old bluesmen talk about their families. When I listen to them tell me about their wives or where their daughters go to college, I think about Dad teaching me to play a Dm7 on the guitar. Dad in our kitchen making silly faces until my mom, my sister, and I laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe. Dad here in his bar with the guys, where the only empty table was the one I had just left. I’ve always been my father’s kid, but now that I’m older I also have the privilege of being his friend. We keep each other company.

The music is lonely, but the musicians aren’t.

When I got home from those high-school choral concerts I would walk into the parlor and find this man with circles under his eyes, flannel socks, gray in his beard. And the Gibson.

And we let the blues do the negotiating—music as mediator. This is how we reconcile. We pour the day into something melancholy and heavy and sweet, something that we make but which is separate from both of us. He sings melody, I sing harmony, I love what he loves, and we deride my choir mates for their inability to swing. Squares, man.

I

’ve gotten better at pretending, at stitching myself into their scene. The seams are smoother. The swing dancers ask me to dance. I can order a beer. And I can sit at the bar with Bob, Bill, and Dad, and dish out musician attitude like the pros.

Occasionally, a drummer will sit in with us, but they never last long. It’s 10 minutes until we start our set, the drummer-of-the-month

CITY

is nowhere to be seen, and none of us is surprised. I mention something Chet Baker said once about how it takes a hell of a drummer to be better than no drummer at all. The guys laugh and I want more. I tell a joke Dad’s told a thousand times.

“Hey, what do you call a musician without a girlfriend?

“What?”

“Homeless.”

More laughter; they are so tickled when the protégée repeats the old standards. But from my mouth the jokes sound weak and tinny like the choral synthesizer. Without years of playing to more empty tables than full ones, without aches from hauling equipment in and out of venues where there’s no guarantee you’ll get your cut of the cover charge, and watching the music you play slowly become obsolete— without these things I can never really be one of them. But I’m young and I think what they do is anything but obsolete, and that’s enough of a novelty for them to keep me around.

Besides, I don’t sing like the synthesizer; I sing like Dinah Washington.

We start to move towards the stage and I ask Bob if he looked at the chords we wrote out for the new song. He smiles and puts a heavy bear hand on my shoulder. “Nope. We’ll just make it up.”

And we do.

Adaptability is what makes jazz and blues songs great. The standards are standards for a reason, but it takes very little to make them unique. Because they’re strong to begin with, they can bend to the musician’s will. And the best musicians know exactly how they want to bend the standards, often transforming them into completely new songs. Listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “My Funny Valentine,” and then listen to Chet Baker’s. Same words, same tune, but

one will make you laugh and the other will make you cry.

My father knows how to bend the standards.

It is astonishing how seamlessly he manages to be a developer, a musician, a restaurateur, and a dad. Each has a different walk, a different tie, even a different laugh. But I get to know all of them. The developer and the restaurateur sent me to college, the musician handed me the Gibson when I was 12, and the dad still teaches me to improvise.

T

here is a thing that happens when you play music with the same few people again and again. This thing is as intangible as music itself, and just as thrilling. Call it a vibe, a groove, an understanding. It’s the feeling of simultaneous safety and freedom lent by the combination of talent, practice, and guts.

Bob starts the intro, and whether we’ve done this song a hundred times or never, I can imagine I hear through the pounding of the piano and the slapping of the bass and the patter of the guitar—I am here, I am listening, you are listening. I am following you, we are following each other. Let’s go to the bridge. And if we miss a change or skip a chord we’ll come right back around. One wrong note is wrong, two wrong notes is jazz.

I wear a suit, but mine is true black. My jacket has two clasps instead of buttons.

I wear leather shoes that reflect the stage lights, but mine are heels. One on the floor and one on the beat. I wear earrings, I wear stockings. My fingers have no calluses. I close my eyes when I sing and I look at my dad at the end of every song.

I leave the vibe on the stage and slip back to my table. I watch them finish the set, my feet still tapping and my cheeks flushed, and I realize I can see it. I can see them making choices about the music with no words or gestures at all. I can see them swing. It is seamless.

COURTESY OF MEG BROOKS

8

CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENT | November 30, 2010

9

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | November 30, 2010

The Fun Corner.

Chicago Mashups 83. John, Paul, George, and Ringo, e.g.

84. Short skirt 87. The Beatles (1968) vs. Film Studies Center 92. Revise 93. Chatty library locale 94. Lecher’s look 95. Ft. Collins campus 96. Doctor Who’s robotic nemesis 98. Cecil ___ Mille 99. They get smashed at parties 102. “Human network” sponsored by Ellen Page 105. Predicament 106. Spanish fly?

110. Village People (1980) vs. Chemistry 117. Without ice 118. Oncologist’s suffix 119. Lotion letters 120. Fine-tune 121. “Where ___ sign?”

123. ___-Magnon 124. Infamous Hilton?

126. Nina Simone (1965) vs. Music 131. Sheets, e.g.

132. Bit, as a zombie 133. Dodged 134. “New ___” (Shins song) 135. “To be or ___ to be” 136. Many millennia 137. Passover meals

Across 1. Beloved morning smell 7. One “36” in 36-24-36 11. Reviewer of books, for short 14. Captain Kirk’s “final frontier” 19. Maine national park 20. “___ This” (Roxy Music karaoke from Lost in Translation) 22. Musical Endings 23. Sting (2000) vs.

Economics 25. “___ Full of Love” (Björk tune) 26. Word often mistakenly apostrophized

27. Polished off 28. Two-thirds of D.I.Y. 29. Frank Baum’s initial initial 31. Rage 32. Mustachioed Canadian revolutionary Louis 34. Nirvana (1993) vs.

Mathematics 39. “Beat it!”

41. MAROON division 42. World-weariness 43. Subside 46. Spree 48. Sacred song 52. Dim sum delight 55. Chew on

56. Collar 59. Medieval Club 60. 50 Cent (2003) vs.

Theater and Performance Studies 64. Beliefs 65. Kurosawa of “Seven Samurai” 66. Witch trial town 67. Big Mouth Billy ___ 69. Sacred places 71. “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” 75. What leaves do in the wind 79. Greek statue with a noticeable boner 81. Miami Heat genius Pat

Down 1. Low points 2. Vinegary 3. Pocket quarterback, say 4. Punch cousin 5. Money replaced by the euro 6. Photo finish 7. Med. care plan 8. Apple’s handheld software 9. “I want to hold you in the bible-black ___” (Wilco lyric) 10. Men of La Mancha 11. Some Gmail conversations 12. Buddy 13. Like llamas 14. Increase proportionally 15. D.C. figure 16. Improv 17. Egypt’s capital 18. County in East England 21. Nincompoop 24. DVR remote button 30. Hosp. staffer 33. Lard ___ (Simpsons donut mascot) 35. Park of A.K.A. 36. Chop down 37. Triangle man, in a way

38. Early middle-school event?

40. Fly south, maybe 44. Chicago-to-Detroit dir.

45. “___ Gone By” (Walking Dead premiere) 46. PSAT takers 47. Circle section 49. Small cups 50. 12, of 4 and 6 51. Madrid month 52. Prejudice 53. “My way” songwriter Paul 54. Norse God 56. Ackbar, e.g.

57. Long lunch?

58. Slope lift 61. George Costanza’s dream job 62. Pay stub?

63. Redo, in tennis 68. Ray of light 70. Ancient strongbox 72. Purge 73. “The Book of ___” (2010 film) 74. They can ruin diets 76. Former Rockets great, casually 77. Some screens 78. Jacob’s twin 80. Unit of matter: Abbr.

82. Meditative exercise 84. Garbage pizza place, with “the” 85. Pub locale, familiarly 86. Zilch 88. Jazz style 89. Brand of briefs 90. Director Spike 91. Initial lunch order 97. Tree-sitting activity 99. Olive stuffer 100. Shiba ___ (Japanese dog breed) 101. Trinity member 103. NASCAR sponsor 104. Last place?

105. “Kids, stop fighting!”

107. Pull out 108. Vocation 109. In disagreement 110. Discount department store 111. Forward, perhaps 112. Mom’s mom 113. Larceny 114. The place to keep the devil 115. Altar answer 116. Encrypts 122. Man or Wight 125. Wine prefix 127. Rock producer Brian 128. Mil. bigwig 129. Has too much coke 130. Galvin who was the first to 300 wins

CLASSIFIEDS Classified advertising in the CHICAGO MAROON is $3 for each line. Lines are 45 characters long including spaces and punctuation. Special headings are 20-character lines at $4 per line.

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 (773) 702-9555.

5116 S. Kimbark - Hyde Park large studio apt. in well maintained bldg, lots of light, hrdwd flrs, eat-in kit, miniblinds, ceil fan, laundry on site. $640 includes heat.

Available Dec. 1 Call Jerry 312-608-1234

6113 S. Kimbark Beauty Deluxe 3 bedroom 2 bath condo in beautiful 8 unit building. This unit is loaded with amenities including jacuzzi in master bath, gas fireplace, hardwood floors, central air, granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, in unit washer and dryer, and more.

Comes with designated outdoor parking.

Close to U of C. No smoking.

Available now. $1450 312-446 8946

5118 S Kimbark - Hyde Park large 1 br. apt in well maintained bldg, lots of light, hrdwd flrs, eat-in kit, miniblinds, ceil fan, laundry on site. $760 includes heat. Avail. Dec. 1 Call Jerry 312-608-1234 5 Bdr, 4 Ba Bronzeville Home FOR RENT 4929 S. Washington Park Ct Chicago, IL 60615 Rent: $1700 AVAILABLE NOW! Call 708.646.7958 Once again Tim Gant lights up the keyboards for 55th Street Jazz at the Cove. He will be joined by the sultry stylings of songstress Jocelyn Winston on Sunday, November 28th from 6-9pm. Seats go waaaaay fast, so you might want to get there early. The Cove is located at 1750 E. 55th Street.

As always — no cover, and raffle trip giveaways abound. 773.684.1013 or www.thecovelounge. com for more info.

It’s a way to make a difference one life at a time

iit.edu/psych/ M.S. and Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Counseling M.S. in Personnel and Human Resources Development

10

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 30, 2010

The Hyde Park Language Program

WRESTLING

Maroons felled by 30thranked Whitewater

By Nick Foretek Sports Editor The University wrestling team lost decisively to 30th-ranked UW-Whitewater last Tuesday, dropping eight of their ten bouts and falling by a score of 36–8.

Chicago began the match with a technical fall, earning a 5–0 lead before Whitewater responded by capturing the three following weight classes.

“Our lineup has not yet gelled regarding having our wrestlers competing in the optimal weight classes and everyone wrestling to their potential,” head coach Leo Kocher said. “We are looking to have those issues largely settled before January.”

Second-year Jim Layton defeated his opponent 18–1 by a technical fall at 165 pounds, while fourth-year Ryan Hatten, competing in the heavy weight division, earned a 5–3 decision in overtime.

Hatten and Layton stood out among otherwise unsatisfactory performances on Tuesday.

Whitewater’s Cheston Kesslhon scored the first

points of the team with an early pin, a trend that continued as the Maroons lost by falls three times, and by one technical fall.

“Ryan Hatten’s overtime win was over an excellent opponent who has been ranked 11th among D-III 285-pounders this season,” coach Kocher explained. “Ryan has demonstrated the ability to come from behind against tough opponents this year and that is a rare talent among heavyweights.”

“Jimmy Layton is still wrestling up a weight class this season at 165 and is still dominating the competition. It looks like he will be a force at 157,” he added.

Chicago (0–2) will not play a conference opponent until February at the UAA Wrestling Championships in New York. They host Elmhurst this evening at 7 p.m.

“The only championship determined by dual meet results will be the UAAs in nine weeks in New York. We want to peak then,” Kocher added. “In the meantime a lot of people are getting their chance to step up and see what they can do.”

offers its 2011 winter/spring intensive course in

Reading French Mondays evenings, 5 PM – 8:00 PM, beginning January 17, 2011, and ending in time for students to take the U of C spring graduate French exam.

Join the hundreds upon hundreds of students who have taken this course to high-pass the U of C graduate French exam (even without any prior knowledge of French) or otherwise to advance their ability to read French.

Cost: $800 www.hydeparklanguage.com cbrickma@sbcglobal.net

Interfaith Advent/ Christmas Party!

Wednesday, December 1, 5:30 pm 5540 S. Woodlawn Ave. Learn about this time of anticipation and celebration for Christians or share your own experiences of the season!

Featuring a potluck dinner (bring your favorite holiday food), an Advent Service, caroling, and tree decoration. We will also be collecting donations of money, socks, and/or small toiletries for the Night Ministry at this event (www.thenightministry.org).

Come and leave any time you like! People of every faith, including none, are invited! All questions are welcome!

For more information, email office@brenthouse.org or call 773-947-8744.

Sponsored by Interfaith Dialogue and Brent House—The Episcopal Center at the University of Chicago

The MAROON salutes Judy Marciniak, who is retiring after 25 years as the newspaper’s business manager.

Judy, thanks for so many years of hard work, and we wish you the very best.

11

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 30, 2010

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Have a Question?

How do I How do I access e-reserves?

How do I recall a book?

How do I How do I find full text articles?

Ask your Class Librarian.

Class librarians (l-r): Jenny Hart (2013), Deb Werner (2011), Julia Gardner (2012), Rebecca Starkey (2014)

St. John’s sends Chicago to third-straight loss

By Will Fallon Sports Editor Last Sunday, while other students recovered from tryptophan-induced lethargy, men’s basketball lost 90–87 to St. John’s Minnesota.

Throughout the first half, the Maroons led by a small margin, holding on to the lead until six minutes remained. At this point, the Johnnies wrested control from Chicago, holding onto their lead thanks in part to an onslaught by St. John’s point guard Andy Burns.

With a 73–71 lead at the five minute mark, Burns scored the next 15 points for his team.

Chicago came close to regaining their lead when, with just 1:14 to go, they tied the score at 81.

The rest of the game would prove to be a close struggle, as the two teams alternated final shots.

“Their point guard took over at the end of the game, and made some big shots,” said first-year Sam Gage. “We executed well offensively, but were unable to get stops on defense when it mattered the most, late in the game.”

“Our inability to get big stops defensively down the stretch, especially with their point guard was the difference,” agreed head coach Mike McGrath.

Unfortunately this is not the first time a loss has occurred at the wire. The Maroons (1–4) are well aware that their record would read differently had the games gone slightly more in their favor. Of their four losses, two have been by just a point, while Sunday’s was by three.

“Both teams were scoring pretty easily and they just ended up getting the lead at the right time,” said third-year Michael Sistarsic of the loss to St. John’s.

The only loss by a significant margin occurred

last Tuesday at Lake Forest College where the Foresters won 76–58.

“I thought that it was a tough game for us, mostly because Lake Forest played exceptionally well,” commented McGrath.

The game began with an aggressive attack by Lake Forest who scored the first three shots in the beginning minutes to set the score 8–0.

“They got out to a fast start, and we didn’t score for the first four-plus minutes of the game,” said Gage. “Every time we made a run to close the deficit, they answered with a run of their own, which was usually in the form of a few three-point baskets.”

Of the 25 threes Lake Forest attempted, they scored 15, or 60 percent. This is compared to their shots-taken average of 50 percent, and their significantly lower two-point average of 39 percent.

“We did a good job on their top player, but they shot very well from the perimeter. We needed to do a better job in this area defensively,” continued McGrath.

Despite the rocky start, it is clear the team knows what it needs to improve on, and is ready to do so in order to come through when it counts.

“We are a pretty potent offensive team and are executing well, especially considering that we have been without our top scorer,” said McGrath. ”We need to get better at the defensive end to compete for the UAA championship.”

They have quite a few games before conference play starts in January.

“We play two tough regional opponents this coming week in Wheaton and Wesleyan,” said Sustarsic. “We also start the new year with Augustana, and they’re good.”

The Maroons play at Wheaton this Tuesday.

guides.lib.uchicago.edu/classlibrarians

Become a

Resident Head

SEXUAL ASSAULT

In the University House System

SURVIVORS GROUP

Resident Heads live in the College Houses to provide guidance, advice and direction to members of the undergraduate House communities. Advanced graduate students are encouraged to apply. Single, domestic-partnered, or married persons who are at least 25 years of age can apply. Children are welcome.

Compensation is valued at approximately $18,000 for a single person.

For married persons, the value is increased by the meals and health benefits provided for spouses and children and has been estimated to be as high as $32,000.

Compensation consists of a cash stipend, furnished apartment for 12 months of the year, meals when the College is in session, and University student medical insurance for full-time registered students and their dependents.

Winter Quarter Sexual assault is a violent crime that may leave its victims feeling fear, guilt, shame and anger.

Application materials and additional information are available on the Office of Undergraduate Student Housing website at http://housing.uchicago.edu

The Student Counseling and Resource Service will be offering a support group for female survivors of sexual assault during Winter Quarter.

[ Information Sessions \ Information Sessions about this position and the selection process will be held on Thursday, January 6, in the Dames Club at 7:00PM ~ 1369 E. Hyde Park Blvd.

(Fairfax); Monday, January 10, and Thursday, January 13, at 7:00 PM in BurtonJudson Courts Residence Hall ~ 1005 E. 60th Street; Wednesday, January 19, at 7:00 PM ~ 5710 S. Woodlawn and Thursday, January 20, at 4:00PM ~ Family Resource Center ~ Ida Noyes Hall ~ 1212 E. 59th Street Lower Level.

Attendance at one of these sessions is required for all applicants.

[ APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 24, 2011 \

Student Counseling & Resource Service

This group will enable you to share your feelings with others who have had similar experiences and together find ways to heal.

Please contact Dana Regett, dregett@uchicago.edu, for more information and to schedule a pre-group interview.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW ???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO...”

—Buffalo Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson, tweeting @God after dropping a game-winning pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Best of the Best

FALL 2010 HIGHLIGHT REEL Top Individual Performances BRIZZOLARA

423

Dee Brizzolara against Carnegie.

The second-year wide receiver broke school records by scoring 5 touchdowns, three receiving and two returning kicks, for 432 all-purpose yards. The Maroons destroyed the Tartans 61-22.

LAWTON

20:57

Liz Lawton at NCAA Regionals.

Lawton capped her cross-country career by besting a field of 263 winners at the NCAA regionals, finishing the 6K course in 20:57, five seconds ahead of any other runner.

GORMLEY

4th

Emma Gormley against Brandeis.

Gormley made seven saves to shut out Brandeis at this season’s UAA title game. It was her fourth consecutive shut-out, and eighth of the season.

Top Team Performances UAA CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL

13-10

Football beats Wash U to win the UAA. In perhaps the biggest understatement of the season, Marshall Oium said about the upcoming game "Playing for the conference championship and the Founders Cup means a lot to our team." It's no Heisman, but the Chicago Boys claimed both the conference and the Founders Cup when they defeated rival Wash U 13-10. Fans were so excited that somewhere between a dozen and two dozen stormed the field.

Not even a headstanding celebration could take away from the victory.

CROSS COUNTRY

10th

Wo m e n ’ s c r o s s country at NCAAs. On the national scene the women's cross country team snagged 10th place on the chilly plains of the Hawkeye State. The Maroons were led by Liz Lawton's sixth place finish, and more heart than 10 tin men, after visiting Oz.

11

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Years since women’s soccer last won the UAA title. Defeating rivals Wash U would be nothing special but for the fact that this was the purest game of the season. By this time the Maroons had already clinched the UAA title, their first in 11 years, and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. This was a game where they had nothing to play for but honor and a love of the game, and they did just that.

Chicago celebrates after beating Wash U on November 13 to win the UAA football championship.

DARREN LEOW/MAROON

Milestones STONEWALL

8

Shutouts on the season for Emma Gormley.

“Stonewall” Gormley ended conference play with four goose -eggs, leaving opposing strikers weeping at the 18-yardline.

VOLLEYBALL

1st

WOLFF

212

Women’s volleyball earned its first-ever NCAA bid. Behind the supersized prowess of third-year All-American Isis Smalls, the team traveled to Springfield, Ohio to compete in the eight-team tournament after finishing 30-12 on the season.

Points scored by Clay Wolff. Wolff ended his spectacular career as the team leader in touchdown receptions (35) and total points (212). In addition, he captained the team to its first conference championship since 2005.

came from putting pressure on the Luther defense. “We forced their defense into a lot of scramble situations which helped us get a lot of open looks. We are a good shooting team, but when we are able to get wide open looks we turn into a great shooting team.”

The Maroons dominated inside play as third-years Taylor Simpson and Morgan Herrick shot a combined 13–16 from the field, scoring 30 points and grabbing eight boards.

“Taylor and Morgan had a great matchup inside that they took advantage of, [and that] helped us get open looks from the perimeter,” said coach Roussell.

The championship game against host La Crosse was a different story. The Maroons were four for 17 from behind the arc against a stingy La Crosse defense. The women struggled from the field as well, shooting only 37 percent for the game.

However, the Maroons’ solid defense helped keep the game close and competitive, with the lead changing 10 times in the first half alone. “We played good defense throughout that game, but we really struggled scoring,” said Simpson.

The critical point of the game came with 48 seconds left, when La Crosse’s Taylor Larson drained a three -pointer. The Maroons failed to respond on the other

end of the court, and were forced to foul. Free throws by Larson clinched the game for La Crosse.

The Maroons failed to score in the final two minutes and twenty-three seconds. “[University of Wisconsin La Crosse] is a very good defensive squad, but we found some holes that we just couldn’t take advantage of in the last few possessions,” said coach Roussell. “I think in those last couple minutes especially, we made some mental mistakes, and paid for it,” said Simpson.

La Crosse’s ranking didn’t intimidate the unranked Maroons.

Said coach Roussell, “We expected to win that game and we’re disappointed we didn’t.”

However, according to thirdyear Bryanne Halfhill, the Maroons’ leading scorer for the day, it was a valuable early-season experience to lose a tight game against a tough team.

“We’ve learned a lot from this game and we’re going to come back a better team because of it,” said Halfhill. “We’re lucky it’s still early and this loss stings, but we will make up for it the rest of the season.”

The Maroons will have a chance to redeem themselves tomorrow at home against Wheaton College, another unranked opponent. The game tips off tomorrow night at 6 p.m.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Offense falters as Maroons take loss at La Crosse

By Mahmoud Bahrani Sports Staff

Fourth-year Dana Kaplan makes a jump shot during a home game against North Central earlier this season.

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

While many students were traveling to their homes across the country for Thanksgiving, the women’s basketball team traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin for the annual Holiday Inn Express Thanksgiving Classic. The Maroons fell in the championship game to hosts UW-La Crosse—ranked 22nd in the country—by a score of 62–56. Their loss came just a day after defeating Luther 85–55 in the semifinals tournament.

The game against Luther was the best of the young season for the Maroons. A 10–0 run in the first half gave the Maroons the early commanding lead. Luther finally cut the lead down to 12 with 12:33 remaining after being down by as much as 20, but the Maroons quickly reasserted control over the game with a stifling defense. Luther did not score for an entire five -minute stretch in the second half, during which the Maroons were able to put up 18 points, placing the game out of reach.

The Maroons shot close to 53 percent from beyond the threepoint line on 10–19 shooting and made 56 percent of their shots for the game.

According to coach Aaron Roussell, the offensive efficiency