Chicago-Maroon-11-01-28

CHICAGO

Character study

MAROON The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

Court Theatre's Three Tall Women, reviewed Voices, p. 5

FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2011 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 24 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM

RANKINGS

U of C's Core beats peer curricula with a B on survey

By Giovanni Wrobel News Staff With the backing of one of the largest databases on suicide terrorism, political science Professor Robert Pape argued Monday against the belief that suicide terrorists are created and motivated by Islamic teachings. Instead, suicide terrorism is a product of invading forces occupying their holy lands and killing their kinsmen, he said.

Pape presented his new book, Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism & How to Stop It, in the International House’s Assembly Hall.

“This is not a global jihad swirling around the world; this is regional opposition to Western military presence. That’s what this data reflects,” Pape argued.

Pape presented the findings of his research team of more than 45 people,

which has compiled one of the largest and most detailed databases on suicide terrorism. The data demonstrated that the majority of suicide attacks could be directly linked to issues related to foreign occupation, he said.

“This is probably the most reliable database—I suspect not just on suicide terrorism, but I dare say, perhaps terrorism—because you can really be confident of the information that

PAPE continued on page 2

RESEARCH

U of C flu research may lead to a one-time vaccine

Choke author adds a new twist to test prep

By Jingwen Hu News Staff Yearly flu shots could someday be a thing of the past, according to researchers from the University of Chicago and Emory University.

Scientists have identified five antibodies that can potentially be effective against future flu viruses, following a study of the 2 00 9 H1N1 virus.

The studies, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, found that the antibodies neutralized all flu strains from the past 10 years, including the Spanish and Avian flu. “ Th e s e t y p e o f a n t i b o d i e s occurred so frequently, it was quite compelling,” said University researcher Dr. Patrick Wilson.

While seasonal flu mainly targets the elderly and the young, the H1N1 attacked young and healthy people, said Emory University researcher Dr. Jens Wrammert. It

H1N1 continued on page 2

Psychology professor Sian Beilock has something to say for students preparing for midterms: Forget allnighters in the Reg. Students who want to ace tests should grab a journal and get in touch with their feelings instead.

In a new study, Beilock and fourth-year graduate student Gerardo Ramirez found that just ten minutes of written reflection can ease test anxiety and yield better results.

The research, first published in Science on January 14, found that expressive writing or reflecting on fears related to an upcoming exam eases stress and can raise results by an entire grade point. Students in the test group averaged a B, while the control group averaged a B-.

“What students show on a test is not necessarily indicative of their ability,” Beilock said. Instead, test anxiety inhibits students from recalling key materials and can have a huge effect on the results, with a

12-percent accuracy drop in the control group.

The research, which began three years ago, first examined how written expression would affect college students taking a math test in a highstress environment. The researchers also tested 9th-grade students, finding similar results.

Participants who wrote about their fears prior to the math test increased accuracy by five percent, according to the research. The researchers also found that reflecting on an unrelated topic did not improve test performance.

Just in time for midterms, Ramirez and Beilock agreed that the findings are especially applicable to the average U of C student. “I’d definitely advise [University students] to give it a try,” Ramirez said.

"Ideally, [students] should write more than ten minutes if they can.”

However, according to Ramirez, even 10 minutes of reflection can have beneficial results on exams.

Following the publication of the article, titled “Writing About

TEST continued on page 2

29%

(209 Schools)

19%

(136 Schools)

A

B C D F

Baylor University U. S. Military Academy University of Texas

Columbia University Illinois State University Ohio State University University of Chicago University of Georgia

Emory University Dartmouth College Miami University Northwestern University University of Pittsburgh

Brandeis University Harvard University University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania

Brown University UC Berkeley Yale University

The curricula at 35 percent of the schools ACTA surveyed, including the U of C, received B grades.

DISCOURSE

Panel defends Smithsonian display of Wojnarowicz film

By Asher Klein MAROON Staff

RESEARCH

By Amy Myers Associate News Editor

ACTA continued on page 2

(104 Schools)

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

14%

Robert A. Pape, professor of political science, discussed the root cause of suicide terrorism during a talk given at the International House Monday evening.

In a recent study released by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), the College received a B for its Core requirements, earning a higher grade than many Ivy League institutions.

The study, titled “What Will They Learn?”, focused on the number and types of courses that colleges require for their core curriculum. The College fulfilled four out of seven requirements, but did not satisfy the Council’s standards for foreign language, U.S. History/ Government, or Economics.

According to the Council’s website, though the College “offers excellent Humanities and Civilization Studies sequences, which introduce students to a wide range of classic and modern texts,” it did not get credit for History because the courses are not specifically U.S. History or Government.

Nor did the College receive credit for the foreign language category because students are required to take a language class for only one year, instead of the three semesters that satisfy ACTA’s

35%

2%

By Gabe Valley MAROON Staff

(17 Schools)

Rethinking suicide terrorism

(252 Schools)

DISCOURSE

Government officials who play politics with works of art miss the point, said a Smart Museum–sponsored panel on the right to display controversial art in public institutions.

“Is it the purpose of the state to equate democracy to feeling comfortable?” English Professor Lauren Berlant asked a crowded room in the Cochrane-Woods Arts Center last night.

The talk came two months after a short, silent film called “A Fire in My Belly,” which is now on display at the Smart Museum, was removed from a queer-themed Smithsonian Museum exhibition. The removal was prompted by criticism from the political right, including the then-incumbent Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

It is a decision the four panelists lamented for artistic, public policy,

ART continued on page 2

Illinois State University professor Barry Blinderman describes David Wojnarowicz's controversial short film, "A Fire in My Belly."

ADAM JANOFSKY/MAROON

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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | January 28, 2011

POLITICS

Comparing fifth ward candidates' platforms

By Jingwen Hu News Staff Fifth ward candidates have cited education, security, and the economy as top priorities in the race for the alderman chair.

Carol Hightower-Chalmers, Anne Marie Miles, Glenn Ross and Michele Tankersley are all vying to unseat three-term incumbent Leslie Hairston in the February 22 election.

The Maroon spoke with Hairston, Miles and Tankersley. The Hyde Park–Kenwood Community Conference’s (HPKCC) candidate questionnaire provided information regarding Chalmers. No information was available regarding Ross’s platform.

All the candidates agreed the Tax Incremented Finacing (TIF) process needs more transparency.

Hairston, who has served as fifth ward alderman since 1999, said she would continue to bring retail to the ward. “I’ve been talking to developers and retailers. It’s the developers that bring the retail,” Hairston said.

She cited past projects like Staples, Aldi, Jewel/ Osco, Save-A-Lot, and Starbucks as signs of an improving retail environment under her leader-

ship. Hairston used $250,000 of TIF funds to bring in the Starbucks on East 71st and South Stony Island Avenue, which she believes was a sign that “the community is on the way up.” She said that the majority of the employees hired by new businesses have been from the fifth ward.

Tankersley, a counselor at Chicago Public Schools, criticized Hairston for using fifth ward TIF money to build South Shore High School at East 75th Street and South Constance Avenue, which is part of the eighth ward, and accused her of spending too much in order to attract Starbucks.

Hairston argued that the South Shore High School benefits the fifth ward as well, with a location situated on the boundary between the eighth and fifth wards.

Tankersley would rather allocate TIF funds for a mini-Walmart and hopes to address unemployment, violence, and education with a new community center.

She encouraged exposing drug dealers to positive influences. “I want to show them that they have skills… that their illegal skills can be flipped to legal skills,” she said.

Chalmers, who has worked for Carol Moseley

Suicide attacks decreased with troop withdrawals, dispelling "surge" plan PAPE continued from front page you’re seeing,” Pape said.

Pape proposed that the U.S. Navy and Air Force should adopt a policy of “off-shore balancing,” which would significantly reduce the number of ground forces. They would be replaced with off-shore forces that could conduct air, naval, and rapid ground operations more safely, without being vulnerable to suicide terrorism.

Pape suggested that Washington should examine not just the correlation of suicide terrorism and foreign occupation, but the timing of those events.

Pape presented video footage of six of the most notorious suicide attackers: four were 9/11 hijackers, and two were the London suicide bombers. Each of the terrorists explained that the primary motivating factor for their cause was to remove foreign occupying forces from their homeland, and to stop the killing of their people.

“Islamic fundamentalism is a poor predictor of who becomes an al-Qaeda suicide terrorist,” Pape remarked at the end of the videos. “A much better predictor: Sunni countries where we’ve

stationed combat forces.”

“The conventional wisdom is that suicide terrorism is a product of Islamic fundamentalism, but over half of all the suicide attacks [from 1980–2003] are not associated with Islamic fundamentalism,” he said. “The world leader [in suicide terrorism before 2003] was not an Islamic group. They were the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka—a Marxist group, a secular group, a Hindu group.”

Pape also commented on how troop withdrawals have correlated with reductions in suicide attacks, dispelling the 2008 surge rhetoric as counterproductive. “We’re putting the terrorists out of business; that’s cutting the fuse of a terrorist threat that really matters,” said Pape.

“This is why the Bush administration’s so called ‘information war,’ the Madison Ave. war against terrorism, went nowhere. This isn’t about getting Saudi clerics to kind of declare terrorism immoral by Muslim Islamic standards,” Pape said. “This is really rooted in the policy itself.

If we’re really going to again cut the fuse—stop suicide terrorism, that threat—we have to stop what motivates suicide terrorists to join in the first place.”

Film depicting ant-covered Christ is not anti-religious, panel says ART continued from front page and public discourse reasons, though constitutional law professor and former Dean of the Law School Geoff Stone was somewhat more straightforward. “Art requires a separation from politics,” he said. “That’s a hard thing for politicians to do. They have constituents.”

The film is a collage of sometimes jarring depictions of disturbing images and parts of life in 1980s Mexico, including ants crawling over a crucifix—an image that drew ire from conservatives, who argued it was inappropriate for families during the holiday season. Made by artist David Wojnarowicz, the work is not considered anti-religion, the panel said.

Stone mentioned that there hasn’t been much talk over First Amendment violations after government officials threatened to reduce the Smithsonian’s funding for showing “A Fire in My Belly.” The government cannot ban or exclude blasphemy on property designated for public use, though it can speak out against it.

“The government is allowed its own message and its own communication, and it can do that in a way that is discriminatory,” he said.

Director of the Cultural Policy Center at the Harris School Betty Farrell said the backlash, which is similar to a number of others in the

past 25 years, presents a unique opportunity to understand the state of cultural policy in the U.S. today.

She said it allows the nation to understand the function of public art in America and “the very iconic meaning of the Smithsonian as our national museum.”

Wojnarowicz was no stranger to controversy, according to Barry Blinderman, director of the University Galleries at Illinois State University.

Blinderman curated a Wojnarowicz retrospective in 1990, two years before the artist died of AIDS. The exhibit courted national controversy through an image portraying Jesus shooting heroin that a conservative activist called “an orgy of degenerate depravity.”

A family-values nonprofit copied and disseminated that image and 13 others made by the artist. Wojnarowicz sued and won one dollar when the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, “which he said he’d spend on either an ice cream cone or a condom, depending on what mood he was in,” Blinderman said.

He also noted that at the time, the ants crawling on the crucifix elicited no such concern. “In Normal, IL, it was fine with everybody,” he said.

The video is on display at the Smart Museum until February 6.

Braun and was on the advisory committee for the fifth ward from 1991 to 2001, collaborated with the U of C to create a community rehabilitation program later implemented by the Department of Planning.

Miles, who served as president for the Comer Children’s Hospital Service Committee and has children who attended the Lab Schools, proposes a fifth ward Advisory Council to develop a plan to stimulate the economy.

She also suggested a regional garbage pickup service, which would be able to drive more efficient routes. According to Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, such a switch could save $30 million for the ward.

Miles wants to improve the efficiency of the police by promoting more communication between different police precincts in the fifth ward. “The precincts officers don’t always hear what’s going on in other precincts,” said Miles.

Miles also wants to replicate the UCPD’s blue light system throughout the ward with a CPD system for all residents, while Tankersley called for blue lights installed at all the bus stops.

All the candidates want to improve education by funding after-school programs or hiring tutors.

Wrammert: "The main impact here is the promise it holds" H1N1 continued from front page was this anomaly that prompted the study after the pandemic first broke out.

What the researchers found was that, unlike other antibodies that bind to the head of the hemaggluttinin protein (HA), the five new antibodies from the H1N1 virus bind to the stalk of the HA protein.

Since the stalk does not mutate like the head, flu vaccines would not require yearly updating.

Stalk-binding antibodies have always been in the body, but they were thought to be very rare. The H1N1 virus was unique in promoting the production of stalk-binding antibodies in the body. Because virus stalks don’t tend to mutate, some of the stalkbinding antibodies can be used to protect against many flu viruses, the doctors found.

The study continues with people who received the H1N1 flu shot, and a drug manufacturing company is currently conducting its own tests regarding these antibodies.

“The main impact here is the promise it holds…to produce a vaccine that gives broader protection,” Wrammert said.

U of C administrators say ACTA study will not influence Core ACTA continued from front page requirements.

The University did receive credit for the other four categories ACTA examined: Literature, Math, Composition, and Science.

The standards comprise what ACTA considers to be seven key subjects. To receive an A, an institution must require six or seven of the Council’s standards. ACTA’s study reviewed 718 colleges and universities across the U.S. and found that many are wanting in their general requirements: Only 17 schools received As, including St. John’s College, the Air Force and Military Academies, and University of Texas at Austin.

None of the Ivy League schools recieved A’s; Columbia received a B, Harvard a C, and the University of Pennsylvania a D. Brown, with its zero-requirement curricula, received an F. ACTA claims that even these prestigious colleges “are not demonstrating a commitment to a broad-based general education curriculum.”

ACTA professes on its website to ignore current college rankings, instead designating grades “based on applying objective criteria to institutions’ curricula.”

The Council claims to highlight information that traditional rankings do not consider, but Associate Dean of the College Michael Jones questioned the relevance of the ranking system. “If they’re only looking at the number of requirements, it really

reduces the value of the study,” he said. “The exact number [of courses required] doesn’t seem to be a good measure of the quality of the education.”

University officials remain fervent about the Core, maintaining that it is one of the most important facets of the College.

“The Core is just over 75 years old, and more than any other single aspect of our curriculum, it has come to define the ethos and purpose of our approach to liberal education,” said Dean of the College John Boyer in an e-mail.

One of ACTA’s aims in releasing the study is to bring to the fore some major problems in liberal education today. But it’s unlikely the administration will alter undergraduate requirements.

“I don’t see any reason why this report would change what we do in the Core,” said Jones. “I think that the Core remains one of the most important features of our curriculum and a key reason why students are applying to the College,” Jones said.

At the student level, the Core is seen as an important element of education, but not necessarily consistent in providing a rigorous general education.

“I think it sets down a lot of important systems of thought.…But it’s not an objective foundation,” said Adrienne Swan, a second-year in the College. Swan said she found some Core classes to be much more challenging than others, and that just counting up requirements was a poor indicator of overall learning.

Washington Post, BusinessWeek covered Beilock study on test taking TEST continued from front page Testing Worries Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom,” the study has since been featured in other publications, including The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, and the Los Angeles Times.

“I think it’s exciting that we’re able to get our work out on a large audience,” Beilock said. She noted that test anxiety has universal appeal, since it doesn’t just affect students.

Beilock studied similar high-pressure situations in Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To.

The book also covers test anxiety and explores the performance pressures in business and athletics.

Ramirez was at first surprised by interview requests and the media attention. “Obviously, after publishing the work, it dawned on me that people would find this very important,” he said. “It’s a very simple intervention.”

“We’re still thinking up potential followups,” said Ramirez, who plans to continue his research into test anxiety. In particular, the researchers plan to evaluate the “specific mechanism from which people benefit from the writing” beginning this year.

CORRECTION » The January 21 article "Hyde Park Laws Cork Barcade Proposal" misstated Laura Green's alma mater. She attended Roosevelt University.

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.

CHICAGO MAROON

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| VIEWPOINTS | January 28, 2011

VIEWPOINTS

EDITORIAL & OP-ED JANUARY 28, 2011

EDITORIAL

CHICAGO MAROON

The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

JORDAN HOLLIDAY, Editor-in-Chief JAKE GRUBMAN, Managing Editor ELLA CHRISTOPH, News Editor ADAM JANOFSKY, News Editor PETER IANAKIEV, Viewpoints Editor ALISON HOWARD, Viewpoints Editor HAYLEY LAMBERSON, Voices Editor JORDAN LARSON, Voices Editor NICK FORETEK, Sports Editor MAHMOUD BAHRANI, Sports Editor JESSICA SHEFT-ASON, Sports Editor VICTORIA KRAFT, Head Copy Editor MONIKA LAGAARD, Head Copy Editor HOLLY LAWSON, Head Copy Editor MATT BOGEN, Photo Editor CAMILLE VAN HORNE, Photo Editor JACK DiMASSIMO, Head Designer JOSH SUNG, Web Editor AMY MYERS, Assoc. News Editor CHRISTINA PILLSBURY, Assoc. News Editor SHARAN SHETTY, Assoc. Viewpoints Editor ILIYA GUTIN, Assoc. Voices Editor

VINCENT McGILL, Delivery Coordinator IVY PEREZ, Senior Designer DOUGLAS EVERSON, Designer ANDREW GREEN, Designer ALYSSA LAWTHER, Designer VINCENT YU, Designer SABINA BREMNER, Artist JANE BARTMAN, Copy Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD, Copy Editor HUNTER BUCKWORTH, Copy Editor MARCELLO DELGADO, Copy Editor DANIELLE GLAZER, Copy Editor DON HO, Copy Editor JANE HUANG, Copy Editor ALISON HUNG, 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.

©2011 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: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

Silent night

The administration should provide late-night social spaces on campus Where will you be at midnight tonight?

If you’re a student in the College, you almost certainly won’t be asleep in bed, so you might be looking for something to do. But don’t go looking in the Reynolds Club, in Ida Noyes, in Ratner, or in Crown, or really anywhere else on campus outside the dorms. Come midnight, every building on campus that might pass for a “social space” or “community hub” will be bolted shut, driving College students either back into their dorm rooms or to apartments throughout the neighborhood.

This is surely one of the great ironies of our campus: At the times of the week when students are most likely to be socializing—right around midnight on Friday and Saturday—

the College offers no meaningful venues for socialization. Few of us are of age to enjoy the Pub, and while house lounges are OK, visiting friends in other houses or dorms is a hassle, especially when more than a few people are gathering. If you want to meet up with people from class or an RSO, the most convenient and comfortable places to do that are nearly all off campus.

This wouldn’t make sense at any school, and least of all at one like ours, where administrators are encouraging upperclassmen to remain in campus housing.

Ultimately the appeal of dorm living isn’t the proximity to mediocre cafeterias or the availability of fourperson quads with kitchenettes.

People will choose to stay in hous-

ing in greater numbers once doing so is an appealing option socially, but for now, the center of student social life is off campus and away from the dorms.

That will still be the case long after any of us graduate, but it doesn’t have to be true forever. The College can begin the change now by establishing social spaces on campus. The offerings don’t need to be elaborate—for half a quarter’s tuition check, a common room could be outfitted with some televisions, couches, a Coke machine, and an Xbox—but they should reflect the realities of 20-year-olds’ social lives. At 11:30, we still have plenty of energy to play pick-up at Ratner or start watching a movie, and if the College wants to keep us around

campus, it has to give us something that caters to us at that time of night.

The University is, in a sense, lucky in its effort to keep more students on campus: It’s not as though Housing and Dining Services have to compete with some vibrant local nightlife that’s pulling us away. It is hardly worth repeating that Hyde Park has an entertainment vacuum in need of filling. The upshot is that in some dorm room at midnight tonight, there will students asking themselves what they’re going to do next, and it’s time that the U of C give them an answer.

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

SHARING THE LOOT

WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN HOWARD

Planning for the long term

Not a bad rap Whether or not it’s a joke, Turquoise Jeep Records is good

Reframing the immigration issue is key to solving it objectively

By Tyler Lutz Viewpoints Columnist Of all the words I could have chosen to stand alone and unadorned at the beginning of this column, I have no doubt that “immigration” is one of the most awkward-looking. The word itself evinces a sort of movement, begging for an end point.

Immigration reform. Immigration debate. (The) Immigration problem.

Immigrant rights. Immigrant—I think you can fill in the blanks from here.

And its lexical shift from an objective, tangible noun to an ethereal and innately biased adjective, a qualifier, doesn’t go unnoticed. The debate, the problem, the attempts at reform, almost everything surrounding “immigration” inevitably elicits passionate emotional responses, evoking and challenging many of the most profound of our “self-evident” truths.

How far has the shift gone? If people tell you today they don’t have an opinion on immigration, that they prefer to think of it in concrete terms as an objective phenomenon, they’re probably either lying or suffering from a particularly acute case of political apathy.

Even still, if I were to tell you about what I really think about immigration, I am willing to bet that it is very nearly identical to what you think, and that any real differences in our opinions lie merely in the details.

I am a member of the Emerging Minds Project, a nascent student

cohort sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs aimed at inspiring critical engagement with contentious social issues. When we convened last Thursday to cover the topic of immigration, I went with the expectation that our disparate backgrounds would quickly lead us into a heated debate. Instead, we came to a consensus within the first few minutes of our discussion and decided the following: Immigration, at least in America, cannot be unbounded. Any number of arguments on grounds of stability or political efficiency could convince you of this. And yet, given what America’s astoundingly effective political and economic structures have to offer to immigrants, and given in turn what these immigrants can contribute to America, immigration should, and perhaps must, continue in some form.

I think it’s reasonable to say that we weren’t the only ones sharing these views.

One might look at this debate and determine that any real differences in opinion must hinge on such innocuous quantitative questions as, “Where exactly does the happy medium reside?” After all, on one hand, American citizens (correctly) bemoan the short-term social and structural upheavals that immigration causes, while immigrants on the other hand (also correctly) contend that they don’t want to be denied the opportunity here when no one really suffers as a consequence, particularly in the long run.

That’s it then, right? There’s only one question at work here, namely, “Whose interests matter most?”

It’s an unsettling way to phrase the issue. Bad politics. We seem to know instinctively that the instant in which

IMMIGRATION continued on page 4

By Alison Howard Viewpoints Editor Flynt Flossy is my favorite rapper.

You might ask, “Why not Jay-Z or Kanye?” or perhaps, “Who in the world is Flynt Flossy?”

And in all honesty, I can’t actually tell you who Flynt Flossy is, beyond that he is a rapper represented by Turquoise Jeep Records. I’ll back up: Turquoise Jeep is not so much a music label as a movement. Its Facebook page says it was “created for the people,” and it is fueled by the music videos posted on YouTube.

Flynt Flossy is joined by Yung Humma, Pretty Raheem, Slick Mahoney, and Whatchyamacallit, but these artists are not so much individual musicians as they are part of the larger brand that is Turquoise Jeep. When the label finally released an album, they called it “Keep the Jeep Ridin,’” and they included music from all the artists involved. As an album, it’s hugely selfreferential; the artists frequently guest on each other’s tracks, and most of the songs have some reference to Yung Humma’s hit, “Fried or Fertilized?” (As in, “how do you like your eggs?”).

The music is vulgar, hilarious, and undeniably catchy. The videos have low production values and quality dance moves. And the whole enterprise—with lyrics like “Go grab my belt: you need a spanking, baby,” and video footage of dolphins jumping over rainbows—begs the question: Are they for real? After all, when almost every song sexualizes breakfast food, it’s difficult to determine

whether the record label is a serious endeavor with a truly special kind of earnestness or an elaborate joke.

The answer, as far as I can tell, is that yes, they are real. This answer doesn’t actually answer the question, but instead renders it obsolete. Their intentions as to how they want their music to be interpreted are unclear, and it’s impossible to go directly to the source to find out. After all, their identities as musicians are simply manifestations of the music they put out, and not the actual “birth certificate” identities of those involved. Flynt Flossy and company are Turquoise Jeep. If you Google their rapping names, you will find no legal names, no references to past lives, no success stories about busking in the streets or selling tickets to comedy shows in Times Square before being signed to the label. And if you go on the Jeep’s Facebook page, or look on their website, or even read one of the few interviews with one of the crew, you will find nothing to suggest that they are not entirely serious about their projects. They are pure entertainment, the method musicians of the Internet.

One of the funny things about liking something ironically is that it can lead to sincere affection, and oftentimes, irony is an excuse to like something you’d feel borderline guilty about liking sincerely—like Wal-Mart, or mustaches.

In the same vein, you may start listening to the music of Turquoise Jeep because it’s hilarious—especially when coupled with the music videos (the “Fried or Fertilized” video takes itself so literally, the dance moves for the chorus show somebody miming handling a frying pan and then, well, fertilizing). But if you keep listening to them, maybe you’ll start thinking things like “This has a great beat,” “These lyrics are really clever,” “Oh wait…I don’t like this ironically anymore. I just like it.” And then you too will no longer care whether or

JEEP continued on page 4

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CHICAGO MAROON

| VIEWPOINTS | January 28, 2011

First Prize $1500

Humanitarian perspective muddles the immigration debate IMMIGRATION continued from page 3 political discourse strays into questions of protecting those personal interests over these, mine over yours, something has gone horribly awry.

And indeed something has.

We’ve lost sight of America in our analysis.

America shouldn’t be primarily a mediator between our private interests. Indeed, it should be all but blind to these in most cases. To the eyes of my country, I am nothing more than a shell containing a precious kernel of human life and a handful of rights added for good measure.

And I wouldn’t have it otherwise. There’s a trade-off here: I submit to being a mere variable, a number as a citizen, because I acknowledge that doing so best enables the state to protect that kernel of life within me and the basic rights it entails. After all, how could I realistically expect to live under a just, effective government if it is clogged with endless (arbitrary) considerations of its citizens’ often disparate private desires?

Here then is the source of the real rift generating the tremors of the immigration debate: How much humanity are we willing to sacrifice today in order to foster a healthy, sustainable, and just immigration policy, and thus a sound America in the future?

Let me try to rephrase this: I spoke above about the (fallacious) spatial dichotomy around which the immigration question is typically

framed. Inside versus outside. These people here and not those people there. In reality, the divide is—or at least should be—temporal in nature. Our government still exists “for the people” in the end, but we need some way of ensuring that this ‘people’ includes future citizens and generations as well and not only us.

Real progress might require distributing the sacrifice in a way that is uncomfortable for people living today.

An America with a just and effective immigration policy can be more than just a nebulous, unattainable dream. But to move beyond the suffering and disillusionment caused by our current state of affairs, we have to be willing to step out of our skin and ask the cold, rational question of how best to pursue justice and efficacy over the long term, and only then factor in the necessary apolitical, here-andnow human considerations. And in moderation at that.

The hard truth: The more we approach immigration from a strictly humanitarian perspective and the more we let ideas of suffering—be it ours or theirs—contaminate our approach to improving the situation, the more we are reaffirming the injustice and inefficiencies built into the present system, and thus the more this suffering will be an ever-present reality.

Second prize $500

www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/crerar/crerar-prize

Tyler Lutz is a second-year in the College.

Submission deadline: April 4, 2011

Artists, audience can interpret Keep the Jeep Ridin’ differently JEEP continued from page 3 not Turquoise Jeep Records is a joke label or a serious label, closer to Weird Al or Jay-Z. Because then it will be its own entity, something that is enjoyed uncategorically and unconditionally.

In the end, one thing is clear from Turquoise Jeep Records, and it’s that they genuinely enjoy what they’re doing. They take their absurdity, their satire, and their humor, their art very seriously. And when I say absurdity, satire, and humor,

that’s my own interpretation of what it is that they could be doing. Turquoise Jeep doesn’t interpret their own art: they make it and then leave the interpretation up to us. They do whatever it is they do well, and that’s why Flynt Flossy is my favorite rapper, and I’m one of many fans who wants to Keep the Jeep Ridin’.

Alison Howard is a third-year in the College majoring in English.

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VOICES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT JANUARY 28, 2011

THEATER

Court's character-driven Women is a play without plot

By Gabriel Kalcheim Voices Amazon Over the last 20 years, plays that eschew traditional action-based plots in favor of internal conflict as the source of dramatic power have become more and more popular.

Three Tall Women, now playing at Court Theatre, is one such production. It is writer Edward Albee’s sortof theatrical elegy to his mother, Francis Cotter Albee, but it is to be admired that Edward Albee didn’t take the easy route of giving us three long monologues on the meaning of these different stages of life.

Act I gives us Francis Albee at 92 (the stupendous Lois Markle)—here c a l l e d w o m a n “A” — w h e n h e r memory is starting to fail her.

Accompanying her is a middleaged nurse, who goes by woman “B” (Mary Beth Fisher), and a young representative of the old woman’s law yers—woman “C” (Maura Kidwell)—who has come to inquire about unpaid bills. It is only in Act II that we see all the incarnations of Francis Albee together on stage, as the young lawyer becomes Francis at age 26; the nurse, the same woman at 52.

All three women occupy the stage at all times, making this is a play of biting dialogue, not gratuitous soliloquizing. The result is mixed: Albee obviously writes very fine dialogue and is extremely adept at personifying each woman with a characteristic, unmistakable voice

of her own. We hear a character speak, and we know exactly what sort of person we are dealing with.

The trouble is that Albee does not always seem to know what he is writing about. An obvious theme of the play is the arc of human life, as well as the different perspectives one gains at these three ages, but at times it seems Mr. Albee has not quite milked this for what it’s worth.

It is as if there is always some relevant commentary on the human experience in the background that is not always brought to the fore as much as we would like.

The first half hour of the play,

THREE TALL WOMEN Court Theatre Through February 13

that time when keen dramaturges are leaning forward in their seats, is more or less filled with one comical instance after another of the 92-year-old woman’s faulty memory. And Mr. Albee certainly has a predilection to think that to unearth the inner truth about life is to unearth the truth about sex, an idea which is taken a little far in this play. Still, the 92-year-old woman “A” is a powerful character, whose painful relations are at times quite moving. Veteran actress Lois Markle’s performance alone is the best reason to see this play. In the

first act, “I think I know, and then I don’t remember what I know,” a line said with brilliant passion by Markle, is truly affecting. Also powerful is the old woman’s constant paranoia that she is being robbed “right and left,” likening the loss of her faculties to an assumed loss of material wealth.

Fisher and Kidwell also assessed their characters extremely well in Act I. And yet the single flaw of this production is that neither of the two younger women makes the transition to becoming Francis Albee in Act II. Fisher keeps all the gritty honesty and casualness of delivery of the hired nurse in Act I, and Kidwell is the same confident, yet apprehensive, young lawyer of 1990s. Neither have any hint of the air we would expect in a woman who was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and later became vice chairman of the Westchester Country Club. It is only after we hear a reference to woman “C” being tall that we even realize the transformation has even occurred.

Perhaps Albee is to blame for this flaw; I cannot say for sure. What I can say, however, is that if Albee took the pains to make the ideas of Three Tall Women build and cohere as wonderfully as these finely drawn characters—and a more formal plot probably would have helped in this regard—we would have seen a more sustained and engaging work of theater.

From left to right: Woman A (Lois Markle), Woman B (Mary Beth Fisher), and Woman C (Maura Kidwell) show off their matching dresses.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL BROSILOW

THEATER

Who's afraid of the big bad Steppenwolf?

By Ana Klimchynskaya Voices She-Wolf Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? isn’t about Virginia Woolf. It’s about coming to terms with reality and doing away with illusions. And that’s what Steppenwolf ’s produc-

tion seems to be: entirely real, not an illusion. In fact, it doesn’t even feel like a play. It feels like you’ve walked into the setting and the story and you’re living in it, and this is thanks to Steppenwolf ’s shockingly realistic set and impeccable acting.

Virginia Woolf? tells the story of an older academic, George (Tracy Letts), and his wife Martha (Amy Morton), the daughter of the university’s president. The couple welcomes a new professor, Nick (Madison Dirks), and his wife, Honey (Carrie Coon), to the uni-

George (Tracey Letts, left) and Martha (Amy Morton, second right) duke it out, while Nick (Madison Dirks, far right) restrains Martha and Honey (Carrie Coon, center) wonders why she ever got into this mess.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL BROSILOW

versity with drinks in their home after a faculty party, and the evening slowly spirals out of control as secrets are revealed about both relationships and the people in them.

As the audience watches, the lives of four very real people unfold.

Ultimately, the cast brings Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to life.

They make it look like magic.

Amy Morton is perfect as the bossy, sometimes obnoxious and inappropriate (but actually disappointed and vulnerable) Martha.

Tracy Letts does well playing the obedient, tired, and old academic, but his moments of anger seem forced. Though Honey doesn’t have too large a role, Carrie Coon is very good at being drunk and crying. Madison Dirks, although physically not always convincing as a young, athletic, and up-andcoming professor, is impeccable acting-wise. For more than three hours, including two intermissions, the entire cast is perfect with every line, every cue, and every emotion.

You have to wonder if they’re even acting.

The stage adds to the incredible sense of realism. It looks just like the home of an old professor— cluttered, bookshelves crammed full of books, and tottering piles of

tomes scattered all over the place.

There are rugs, old couches, and magazines. A cart of drinks stands in a corner for those long nights when he’s writing a difficult paper, or more likely, for letting him forget his dysfunctional relationship with his wife. Steppenwolf even took the effort to construct a near-house on stage. There are individual rooms, doorways that lead to corridors, and even staircases that might just lead somewhere.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Steppenwolf Theatre Through February 13

And the moment the actors walk onto this set, it’s as if the audience is privy to every aspect of their lives.

The love the couples secretly feel for each other even as they shout insults, the regret and disappointment, George’s fear of the power and success of the younger science professor—all come to the fore.

Steppenwolf takes the idea behind Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? seriously. Reality is what they strive for, and the notion of any sort of illusion inherent in theater is done away with.

6

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | January 28, 2011

Voices STD (Stuff to Do) Friday | January 28 The University of Chicago Revels returns with The Ballad of Scavenger Gulch: A Tale of Lost & Found. The musical play features professors David Bevington and Philip Hoffman as gun-slinging art-lovers and author Sara Peretsky as an unscrupulous Vegas impresario recruiting for Vegas shows. For those who want to grab dinner and a show, there will be an optional dinner for $35 before. (Quadrangle Club, 8 p.m., $10) What will Chicago be like once it is finally free of Mayor Daley’s grip? What will the city do with all the signs with Daley’s name on them? Find the answers to these questions and more at “Chicago A.D. (After Daley)” at the Jackson Junge Gallery. The various works on display address everything from the Daley legacy to the parking meter fiasco to the expansion of O’Hare. (1389 North Milwaukee Avenue, 11 a.m.—8 p.m., free)

Saturday | January 29 Bay Area rapper Lyrics Born ventures into the cold Chicago winter to perform at the Abbey Pub. The Japanese-American artist, known for his unique style of “Em-singing,” will be appearing with Keys N Krates, The Opus, and organic hip-hop band Abstract Giants. (3420 West Grace Street, 8:30 p.m., $20)

Sunday | January 30 Ring in the Year of the Rabbit at the Chinese Student & Scholar Association’s Chinese New Year Party. Although the New Year isn’t until February 3, there will be plenty of performances, authentic Chinese food, and traditional New Year games. For those who want to work for their food, the party is free for volunteers who show up before 4 p.m. to help make dumplings. (International House, 4 p.m., $5)

With Christine Yang

Monday | January 31 Get out of Hyde Park and take advantage of free admission to the Field Museum. Current exhibits include “The Romance of Ants,” which features a colony of live ants, and “Gold,” which examines the history of the rare metal. Of course, Sue the T. Rex will be there to greet you in the main hall. (1400 South Lake Shore Drive, 9 a.m.—5 p.m., free)

Tuesday | February 1 The latest in the Chicago Tribune’s Chicago Forward forums on public policy examines the state of health care in Chicago. The discussion, titled “A Healthy Chicago,” includes Oprah’s second-favorite doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Dean for CommunityBased Research at the University Medical Center Dr. Eric Whitaker, among others.

(50 East Erie Street, 6 p.m., $10)

Wednesday | February 2 In honor of Groundhog Day, Doc Films will hold a special screening of the 1993 film Groundhog Day. The film, which stars Bill Murray as a jaded weatherman reliving the “holiday,” was added to the United States National Film Registry in 2006 because it was deemed culturally significant. (Max Palevsky Cinema, 9:30 p.m., $5)

Thursday | February 3 Get your skank on with Less Than Jake at the Bottom Lounge. The ska-punk band is on tour to promote its new CD TV/EP, which is a collection of covers of commercial jingles and TV theme songs. The Super Villains and Off With Their Heads will open for the band. (1375 West Lake Street, 6:30 p.m., $17)

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

The Fun Corner.

CORE: Comic Only Read Entelligently

By Alyssa Martin

"a lowercase puzzle"

Across 1. Sufjan Stevens’s 2010 album The Age of _____ 4. Cash dispensers 8. Youkilis or Braun 14. Chinese Actress Ling 15. Four AM practice sport 16. Mediterranean or Baltic, in Monopoly 17. Colombian Marxist guerilla grp.

18. First part of a children’s rhyme, or a 2010 Kingston/ Bieber hit 20. It gets turned on by a good idea, perhaps 22. Throw money at 23. Feel sick 24. Record 26. Precursor to Joules 27. Dunder-Mifflin, for one 30. The Magnetic Fields’ “I Think I _____ a New Heart” 32. Zenith 33. Platoons 35. Twice, a cheerleaders’ tool 38. Einstein’s great contribution 42. Brazilian grp. that’s tired of being sexy 43. Well-known Julius Caesar 44. Thailand, once 45. French bread 46. Gertrude who was the first woman to swim the English Channel 48. “_____ Breaky Heart” 51. Stats for Roy Halladay 53. Place for an hour hand 54. Citizens of England, Scotland, Wales, informally 56. First Doctor Who serial: “An ______ Child” 61. Junk toss from the mound 63. Old Tokyo 64. Busty mountain range 65. Information 66. Each and every 67. Contraceptive for Elaine on Seinfeld 68. Western actor Jack 69. Sound of disappointment Down 1. First murder victim 2. Spanish surrealist with a pet anteater (!)

3. After burn?

4. Vinegar acid 5. Clef for flautists 6. Restaurant card 7. Cheap beer 8. Throw a wrench in 9. Christmas and New Years, notably 10. Cried 11. Child treated in therapy?

12. Seeking damages 13. Obeys, as a warning 19. African American Vernacular English, outside of academia 21. 575 poem 25. Acquires 27. Crude cartel whose only former members are Gabon and Indonesia 28. Lawyers’ charges 29. “Who” and “what,” briefly 31. Letters that follow the names of some gentlemen 33. Finishing, like the last of the milk 34. “I’m doing the same old, what about you?” in chat lingo 35. Duo 36. Where you stop, when you give your word to stop at third 37. Sad Keanu, e.g.

39. Turkish title 40. Archaic commoner 41. New Pornographers jam on Twin Cinema 45. Programming language that issssssss very readable 46. Horse betting system for predicting 1st and 2nd place 47. Moroccan currency 48. Assists a criminal 49. Radiohead’s breakthrough single 50. Aware of, as with “the jive” 52. Clem of either the rock band, or the William S. Burroughs novel 55. _____ Tongs, Animal Collective album 57. “And these other dudes who I wrote the paper with...”

58. Team that pulled off the signing of Miami Thrice last summer 59. Good types of cholesterol 60. Egg center 62. North by Northwest foil, briefly

Sudoku is provided by Laura Taalman (A.B. '94) and Philip Riley (A.B. '94).

The Voices Blog Check us out online at ChicagoMaroon.com/Voices-blog

M

7

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | January 28, 2011

Hamlet (1964) Grigori Kozintsev, director

University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Shostakovich’s Late Film Scores: music from The Gadfly, Hamlet, and King Lear Barbara Schubert, Conductor

Mandel Hall

Saturday, January 29 8 pm

1131 E. 57th Street

Donations requested: $10 general /$5 students

event hotline: 773.702.8069 • music.uchicago.edu Persons with a disability who need assistance should call 773.702.8484.

Peace Corps 50 Years of Promoting Global Peace & Friendship

Information Session & Diversity Panel Tuesday, Feb. 9th 6:00 p.m.

Cloister Club, Ida Noyes Hall University of Chicago 1212 E. 59th Street

Life is calling. How far will you go?

800.424.8580 l peacecorps.gov/50

Be part of the next Peace Corps generation.

Today and Tomorrow!

The Quadrangle Club Revels: The Ballad of Scavenger Gulch Wild West meets Wild Chicago with Professor David Bevington as a gun-slinging cowpoke, Barbara Flynn Currie as the sheriff, author Sara Paretsky as an unscrupulous impresario recruiting for Vegas shows, and Rockefeller Chapel Dean Elizabeth Davenport as a corporate wife with a long-hidden secret. Contemporary art, ancient loves, cowboys, chorus girls and found art come together in this whimsical tale of love lost and found.

Friday, January 28 $35 Dinner (optional)/$30 Show/$10 Student Tickets Saturday, January 29 $70 Dinner and Show Package For tickets, call the Quadrangle Club at 773.702.7221

Stefanou’s play improving gradually after injury

Maroons need dominant rebounding to stop high-scoring Case

M. BASKETBALL continued from back page

W. BASKETBALL continued from back page

McGrath said. “He’s slowly getting that comfort level back.”

Looking toward Friday’s match, McGrath knows that Case Western’s record of 3–2 in the UAA and 7–9 overall does not depict the team’s true potential. The Maroons have begun watching tapes of Case, and they know the plan of attack.

“When you watch them on tape, they’re really scary,” McGrath said. “We need to control the boards.”

A loss would be devastating to the Maroons’ conference position. The Maroons are in a fourway tie for fourth place in the UAA; Case is currently in third.

“We’ve got to win on Friday and the guys are ready for that,” McGrath said.

While the Maroons are concentrated on Friday’s match for now, they understand the importance of beating not just Case, but Carnegie Mellon as well. Carnegie is tied with the Maroons in the UAA standings.

“If we don’t win, it puts us in a tough position as far as the UAA goes,” McGrath said.

McGrath understands that Carnegie Mellon is a threat not to be overlooked because of their 2–3 record in the UAA and 5–10 record overall.

“They are a very high-energy team,” McGrath said. “They play very hard.”

If this weekend ends with two victories for the Maroons, McGrath knows they have the possibility of winning the UAA title.

“Coach [McGrath] has told us we can still make a run at the league championship if we play to our potential,” Williams said.

The Maroons are hoping to be victorious this weekend with the support of the home crowd and raucous atmosphere at the Ratner Athletic Center.

“It should be a fun weekend of basketball,” McGrath said.

averaging 9.9 boards a game—2.5 more than her nearest challenger—while Halfhill and fellow 5-foot-9 third-year guard Meghan Herrick both make the UAA’s top 20 despite their small stature.

Case, although fielding a talented forward in Erin Hollinger, the UAA’s leading scorer, ranks dead last in rebounding.

With a rebounding advantage nearly guaranteed, the Maroons’ main concern stems from Case’s unusual defense.

“They play a 1-3-1 zone, which is unique in the sense that we have not seen it this year,” Roussell said. “They have the length and athleticism to cause teams trouble in this defense, so we need to be smart in how we attack it. We have played well against zones to this point, and hopefully we can continue to do so this weekend.”

Should the Maroons win tonight, they would likely remain undefeated through the first half of UAA play, which concludes with Sunday’s 2 p.m. home match against a weak Carnegie (2–14, 0–5) side.

Considering that ninth-ranked Wash U (13–3, 4–1) and 13th-ranked Rochester (13–3, 4–1) won’t be able to match that feat, the Maroons could see their national ranking jump.

For Halfhill and the rest of the team, that’s all that matters. “I really believe that our team’s attitude has changed drastically since the beginning of the season and that is why we are playing so well together,” she said. “We all realize our roles on the team and we all are genuinely happy for each other’s successes.

This is a team that just has a winning mentality and will do whatever it takes to win and doesn’t care who necessarily gets the credit.

We have high expectations for this season.”

Kung confident national title is within reach this season W. TENNIS continued from back page ing matches. We had a great fall season with strong results in singles and doubles, so we’re definitely hoping to continue that success. We need to stay confident and keep fighting for every point in our matches. We only fell a little bit short of the national title the last two years, so we know that we have what it takes to win it

all,” Kung stated.

Higgins concluded, “Each match gets harder each year and I’m proud of how we have handled this adversity. Just like last year, our main goal is to win a team national championship. We know that without determination and participation from everyone we will not be able to reach [that] goal.”

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.

5430 S. Harper, Large 3br, 2bth, new rehab with sunroom, eat-in cab. kit, dishwhr, new hrdwd flrs, A/C, on-site laundry, 1 blk Metra & shopping. $1,750. Jerry, 312-608-1234, jettinger@hallmark-johnson.com

5432 S. Harper, 2br, new rehab apt with sunroom, cab kit, dishwhr, new hrdwd flrs, A/C, on-site laundry, 1 blk Metra & shopping. $1,250. Jerry, 312-608-1234, jettinger@hallmark-johnson.com

Have an Android?

There’s an app for that.

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

IN QUOTES

SPORTS

“Saw two Mormon missionaries biking in my neighborhood. Expecting a knock at the door: “Have you heard the good news about Jimmer?””

—Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples, tweeting after BYU’s Jimmer Fredette dropped 43 points on previously undefeated San Diego State, leading his Cougars to a win.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Sweet home Chicago

By Matt Luchins Sports Staff

Third-year Bryanne Halfhill scores against Emory. The Maroons are outscoring opponents by an average of 15 points during their current nine-game win streak.

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

With a nine-game win streak, a national ranking of 14th, and sole possession of the UAA’s top slot, 13–3 women’s basketball returns home to host Case tonight at 6 p.m. in Ratner.

In a game featuring five of the UAA’s top nine scorers, defense will likely take a backseat, but the Maroons feel confident in one defensive statistic: rebounding.

“Coach [Aaron] Rousell has stated from day one in practice that rebounding is what is going to win us big games,” third-year guard Bryanne Halfhill said. “At the beginning of the season, he made it clear to the team that if you want to play then ‘get after it on the boards.’ I think Case will be a good match for us on the boards.

However, I think they have more to worry about, especially with us having Taylor [Simpson] on the boards!”

Simpson, a third-year forward, easily leads the UAA in rebounding,

W. BASKETBALL continued on page 7

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Shooters hope to return to form against Case

By Alexander Sotiropoulos Sports Staff After a three-game losing streak, men’s basketball hopes to recover this weekend with two home conference games. The Maroons face Case Western at 8 p.m. tonight and Carnegie Mellon at noon on Sunday.

Head coach Mike McGrath does not want the team to look at the past, but towards the future.

“You can’t stop being enthusiastic,” he said. “We have time.”

Despite two tough losses to Brandeis by a score of 59–53 and NYU by a score of 62–47 this past weekend, the Maroons feel the trip along the East Coast was a learning experience.

“The weekend obviously wasn’t good for us, but it pointed a lot of

things out that we still need to work on,” third-year guard Michael Sustarsic said.

One aspect the Maroons feel they can work on is their offense. The Maroons have been shooting at a decent clip from the field this year with a .436 field goal percentage and a .386 shooting percentage from behind the arc. However, this past weekend the Maroons struggled, converting only 30 percent of their shots against NYU and 32 percent against Brandeis. The Maroons are looking to improve these numbers heading into this weekend’s games.

“We’ve been focusing a lot on finishing around the basket with defense there,” Sustarsic said.

“We have been focused on execution and making sure we are doing things the right way every time,” third-year

forward Tom Williams added.

To finish around the basket, the Maroons look toward aggressive play from their big men, especially Steve Stefanou. Stefanou is coming back from an injury and has played a com-

bined total of 29 minutes over the past two games. However, McGrath senses the improvement Stefanou is making every minute on the floor.

“He looks better every day,”

M. BASKETBALL continued on page 7

HOT SHOT 50% FG%

46.2 45%

35%

3P%

40%

The Maroons are having their best shooting season since 2007–2008. The Maroons won the UAA title that year and went on to the NCAA tournament.

40.3

42.4

43.6

38.6

38.2 33.5

35.7

30% 25% 20% 0% – 07 8 0 2 00 2

– 08 9 0 2 00 2

9– 0 10 20 20

– 10 11 0 2 20

Third-year Matt Johnson goes up for a reverse layup against Wash U. Johnson is leading the team in scoring with almost 15 points a game.

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

Maroons look to continue past success

By Charles Fang Sports Contributor “The only thing we need this year to win it all is to keep our head in the game, every single point, no matter who is on the other side of the court,” s ays second-year Linden Li. “We all know we deserve it.”

The Maroons’ women’s tennis team is definitely not lacking in confidence as the season begins.

After coming so close to the national championship last season, perhaps it is well-deserved.

“I’m really looking forward to the upcoming season,” reveals third-year Jennifer Kung. “We’ve been working hard in practice, and we’ve been doing more conditioning than we did in the past two years.”

Kung captured seventh place at the National Small College Championships last year.

One of the younger teams in recent memory, this year’s women’s squad has only one fourthyear, Chrissy Hu. Hu and thirdy e a r d o u b l e s p a r t n e r Ke n d r a Higgins won the doubles title at the 2010 ITA National Small College Championships.

However, the past remains just that, as the Maroons look forward to an exciting season.

“Our first match out will be against UAArival Case Western, so we are hoping to start out strong,” Higgins added.

“We’ve been practicing more than before, with morning, afternoon, and night practices,” Li confirmed, speaking of the team’s determination.

Although the team is young, the Maroons will be returning the same eight women who started last year’s season.

“Though some people may think we have a disadvantage with no new players, I think we have an advantage since we all know how to play together as a team, both off and on the court,” contends Li. “We all are very comfortable playing with one another and know each other’s games like the back of our hands,” says Higgins, a previous NCAA champion.

“We do not have a young team anymore, and this experience will hopefully increase our success during the upcoming season.”

After the success of Higgins and Hu as doubles champions, the team changed its numb er two and three doubles teams in order to maintain solidity throughout.

“Last year, we weren’t as dominant in doubles as we would have liked, particularly against the top teams,” explained Kung.

“It’ll be great to see our hard work pay off when we start play-

W. TENNIS continued on page 7