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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2011 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 28 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM

DINING

POLITICS

With dining contracts ending, U of C calls for bids

Rahm under fire

By Hans Glick News Staff With current supplier Aramark’s contract set to expire this summer, Campus Dining Services has been requesting proposals from potential bidders in the food services industry. The move is part of the Global Dining Initiative (G DI), an ongoing, campus-wide evaluation of dining services that school administrators hope will usher in a more unified and responsive campus dining experience.

Along with discussing an expansion to the flex dollar system into what administrators are tentatively calling Maroon Dollars, the University has determined several top priorities in what they will look for in proposals, including more freedom with dining payment.

“You as a student shouldn’t have to worry about whether those dollars are attached to campus or off,” Associate Vice President for Student Life Karen Warren Coleman said. “You should be able to eat at South Campus but also go to a student-run café, and wouldn’t it also be nice, if you could, to use it at Five Guys on 53rd Street?”

Administrators say that the timing of the search complements the GDI’s comprehensive approach to improve campus dining. The contract expiration coincides with the

end of all but one of the nine contracts held by the U of C’s retail cafés, which Coleman said would allow them to better integrate campus dining.

At present, the third-party operators in charge of the cafés control the hours, offerings, and prices at their locations, and have a strictly contractual relationship with the University. “What you lose there is any sort of programmatic focus,” said Coleman. “It makes it more difficult to figure out, ‘How do you meet the needs of a student community? Could you stay open late, could you close early?’ And it’s really that vendor making decisions without University oversight.”

Mason said that Campus Dining Services is working to develop the technology and business solutions necessary to support a more fluid flex dollar system which could be used at places beyond the dining halls and markets both on- and off-campus.

The University has requested proposals from dining services only once since 1989, when it moved from independent to privately run dining operations. “The food service industry has changed drastically over the last decade with modernization and different offerings on different campuses,” Coleman said. “It’s really time to

DINING continued on page 4

Opposing candidates grill Emanuel at DuSable mayoral forum

Front-runner Rahm Emanuel took heavy criticism from other mayoral candidates during a debate hosted by The Defender at DuSable Museum last Wednesday.

LLOYD LEE/MAROON

By Haru Coryne News Staff Last week’s Chicago mayoral debate was characterized by blizzardinduced late arrivals, race politics, and allegations regarding Rahm Emanuel’s loyalty to the Second City.

Th e c a n d i d a t e s c o n v e n e d

Wednesday at Hyde Park’s DuSable Museum of African American History for the campaign’s first debate to feature all six mayoral candidates.

Patricia van Pelt-Watkins, Gery Chico, and William “Dock” Walls all delivered their opening statements before the arrival of their competitors, Carol Moseley Braun, Miguel del

Valle, and Rahm Emanuel. Scheduling conflicts arose due to last week’s blizzard, which led to the original event’s cancellation.

Emanuel, who had been speaking at an LGBT forum, emerged from behind the curtain and leapt directly into his opening statement amid rau-

DEBATE continued on page 2

STUDY ABROAD

CAMPUS LIFE

Cairo students discuss time abroad

Bottled water ban gains SG support

Protesters gathered in the streets of Cairo during the revolution.

Because of the unrest, U of C students studying abroad there were transferred to Paris to finish their program.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLY GU

By Jonathan Lai Senior News Staff Second-year Isamar Villasenor will always remember the events that took place three weeks ago by the sounds of the cell phones ringing.

“I think I had the ringtone recorded in my mind—the ringtone of the phones—because we all had the same

ringtone, and the phones would ring every five minutes. Even on the plane, when phones are not allowed to be turned on, I could hear the ringtone. That’s how much we were communicating,” she said.

Villasenor was one of sixteen students who, along with program assistant Tanya Treptow and faculty member Sooyong Kim, were

evacuated from Cairo the weekend of January 29 as a populist protest movement spread throughout the Egyptian capital. The evacuation process presented the University with hurdles in passports, citizenship, and crowded airports.

After protests broke out on Tuesday, January 25, classes were held in student apartments. According to second-year Dory Fox, it didn’t seem like cause for concern.

“There was hardly anything going on on Thursday [January 27], it really seemed like everything was sort of calming down,” she said.

At midnight Thursday, Fox and eight other students set out on a bus for an excursion to Egypt’s Sinai region.

The other seven students remained in Cairo, planning to meet up on Saturday afternoon. But by then, protests had stepped up and the students in Cairo were unable to leave the city.

When the decision to evacuate came down later that day, two students’ passport issues rose to the forefront.

One of those students, second-year Richard Pichardo, is a dual-citizen

CAIRO continued on page 4

By Peter Slezkine News Contributor The U of C isn’t necessarily known for its partying, but one RSO is saying the campus has a drinking problem. With bottled water, that is.

A subgroup of Green Campus Initiative (GCI) is looking to ban bottled water across campus, and with SG’s support, the group is looking to educate students about the environmental and economic advantages of using tap water while looking for ways to make it more available.

SG Assembly passed a resolution Thursday proposed by GCI 14 to six in support of the reduction of the sale and distribution of bottled water on campus. While the resolution has no direct consequence, it demonstrates SG’s backing of the ban.

The issue of bottled water was first brought to the attention of SG by UChicago Students Against Bottled Water (SABW), a GCI subgroup that has been active since Spring 2010.

“Our goal is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the consumption of bottled water at the U of C,” said third-year SABW leader Joe Sullivan.

The SG resolution does not contain any mention of the environmen-

tal impact of bottled water, though it does refer to health concerns associated with the looser regulation of bottled water compared to tap water, and to the economic inefficiency of purchasing a product that is available for free.

“The economic thing is what’s going to get people to agree with it most because not everyone is going to be passionate about the environment,” Sullivan said. “But they will think about paying $1.50 for a bottle of water when they could be getting it for free.”

In addition to the SG resolution, SABW is also working on educating students about the initiative. The group has circulated a petition that has already been signed by over 500 students and faculty; SABW also posted signs on refrigerators where bottled water is sold in the Aramark shops.

Next, the group will ask the SG Funding Committee to deny money for bottled water to RSOs that request it in their budgets.

But Richard Mason, director of Operations and Communications for Housing and Dining Services, believes that an education campaign

BOTTLED WATER continued on page 4

2

CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 15, 2011

DISCOURSE

Watkins calls Emanuel's budget measures "offensive"

MFIRE conference honors Becker

By Crystal Tsoi News Staff At a private conference with a guest list that included A-list economists, Nob el L aureates, and dignitaries, the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics (M F I RE) honored Professor Gary Becker at the University of Chicago Law School Friday.

Various panels throughout the day discussed the role of the market in the modern economy and future breakthroughs in the field of economics. Panelists included leading economists like Steven Levitt, Edward Snyder, and Kevin Murphy, all from the U of C, along with economists from Harvard University and Stanford University.

Václav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, also spoke during the luncheon about the impact that the work of Becker and other U of C economists has had on both the policy of the Czech Republic and Klaus as an economist. This event, like most of the conference, was closed to the press.

Th e c o n f e r e n c e c o n c l u d e d w i t h a biographical account of Becker’s academic career and work by Nobel Prize laureate and professor of Economics James Heckman. Heckman traced Becker’s impressive career and his groundbreaking research in the field of economics. Becker famously studied economics of discrimination and family decision-making, winning him a Nobel Memorial Prize in 1992 in the field of Economic Sciences.

“I must say that I’m somewhat intimidated by the occasion and the audience here, but I’ll try to give it a go,” confessed Heckman. “I’ve been asked to talk about Gary Becker and I think it’s a daunting task

in light of all the work that has been written about him.”

Despite the seriousness of the event, Heckman saw this as an opportunity to “cast Gary Becker in a somewhat different light.” Heckman managed to slip in a few jokes, telling the audience, “He does have a very interesting personal life and in fact, unknown to most of you, he has a secret life as a body-builder and a champion athlete,” a statement accompanied by a PowerPoint slide of a young Gary Becker in tight swimming shorts on the beach.

Heckman believed Becker’s accomplishments could be best summarized in the words of Milton Friedman: “Gary Becker is the greatest economist who has lived and worked in the last half century.”

Comparing Becker to Issac Newton, Heckman said he believes that the work and legacy of Gary Becker may never be fully understood in regards to his work in “unveiling the mystery of the labor market, migration, turnover, wages, schooling, deferred compensation, crime—a whole host of things.”

The conference played out against the backdrop of MFIRE, whose mission statement seeks to “expand and enhance the research environment that characterizes economics at the University of Chicago,” MFIRE Director Lars Peter Hanson reiterated.

Using Becker as the prime personification of M F I R E’s mission, Hanson emphasized the Nobel Prize winner as a champion of the Institute. “He backed the idea from the start and has been a solid supporter and frequent participant in our initiatives so it’s most appropriate and truly a pleasure for the Institute to honor him tonight.”

DEBATE continued from front page cous applause, just as Watkins wrapped up her own opening address.

For Emanuel, however, the tone of the debate cooled as he answered questions. Despite the scattered attendees waving “Rahm for Mayor” placards, the catcalls and relative silence after many of his responses created the impression that the former White House Chief of Staff was seen as an outsider by many audience members.

The lukewarm reception turned to specific criticisms during a discussion on the misappropriation of tax increment financing (TIF), when Walls attacked Emanuel for working in the White House while there were “children dying in the streets in the city of Chicago.”

“You never came back and said that you wanted to bring more police officers to the city of Chicago,” Walls said. “You broke my heart, because you are a Chicagoan.”

Still, the debate remained civil for most of its run. The final question, on tackling the city deficit, drew specific answers with relatively little vitriol, though Chico took a moment to criticize Emanuel’s “tax-swap” proposal.

The proposal, which Chico has attacked in the past with televised ads, would lower the sales tax on most goods by a quarter of a percent in exchange for a 20 percent tax hike on services like limousine rentals and tanning salons.

Emanuel defended it as a hike on luxury services in order to spread the tax burden away from the “single mother who’s trying to get school supplies for her kid.”

The applause for Emanuel’s rebuttal quickly turned to mutters of disapproval when he suggested cutting the $500 million the city spends annually on employee health care by adopting a “comprehensive wellness plan” modeled on those of private companies.

One attendee-requested question, regarding whether each candidate would support reparations for the descendants of black slaves, highlighted the racially-charged atmosphere that

pervaded the debate. All six candidates declared that they would support such a measure, though Emanuel expressed reservations.

“We have to be honest and frank with ourselves. We have a budget deficit that also needs to be addressed. And that means…making tough decisions, it means investing in the areas that will lead to economic growth,” said Emanuel.

Opponent Watkins harangued Emanuel with a response that seemed to put him at odds with the audience.

“When I hear Rahm Emanuel talking about a budget deficit when we’re talking about reparations, to me, that’s offensive,” she said, increasing in volume as cheers continued to ring out from the predominately black audience. “This country was built on our backs. The backs of our ancestors. They bled, they died, they came in chains, and they died in pain. So don’t talk to me about budget deficits right now.”

Questions surrounding race emerged again as the candidates tackled a question about Chicago’s recidivism rates, particularly among adult black males. Again, Emanuel garnered a cold response with his answer, which insisted that existing programs for probationary criminals need to be publicized.

Chico pledged that he would prioritize the issue. He also said that he would force more accountability on employers who weren’t hiring ex-convicts, recounting the story of a felon he had met whom nobody would hire.

“The biggest problem we have is getting employers to step up and give people a chance,” he said. “You know, we’re a compassionate people. We have to give people second chances.

Nobody’s perfect.”

Braun chose to focus on the economic aspects of the question. “The best antipoverty program is a job. The best anticrime program is a job,” she said, citing small-scale employment programs, particularly those aimed toward youths, as being an effective way to cut recidivism rates.

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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 15, 2011

AWARDS

OBITUARY

Nance, Robbins garner Cambridge scholarships

Hansen, cinema studies founder, dies

By Christina Pillsbury Associate News Editor Two U of C students, Annie Robbins and Greg Nance, were named Gates Cambridge s ch o l a r s l a s t w e e k , m a k i n g t h e m t h e College’s ninth and tenth recipients of the award.

The two fourth-years were among 30 scholars chosen out of 800 applicants.

Robbins is a chemistry and biochemistry major currently performing research on the microenvironment of breast cancer, is an active member of Mission for Vision, and a volunteer at La Rabida Children’s Hospital.

Being named a recipient of the College’s Lillian Gertrude Selz Prize in 2008 didn’t prepare Robbins for finding out she was named a Gates Cambridge scholar.

“I’m still in shock, I’m kind of a nerd about it, I keep checking my e-mail to tell me that it was really someone else,” Robbins said.

At Cambridge, Robbins will pursue a Masters in Philosophy in clinical biochemistry. studying the cellular mutations in patients with lipodystrophy, a disease characterized by abnormal fat cells.

She hopes to experience different approaches to scientific research while studying in the UK.

By Gio Wrobel News Staff

“I’ve talked with some scientists over there, and they have breaks for tea, so they must manage their time better,” Robbins said. “Grad students here definitely don’t take breaks.”

Student Government (S G) President Nance, a political science and international relations major, will pursue a Masters of Philosophy in Management.

Nance, a 2010 Truman Scholar, is the founding director of Moneythink, a finance mentoring program for high school students. He hopes to both expand the organization to Cambridge and continue directing the program on a strategic level from across the Atlantic.

He plans to use cross-industry experience learned at Cambridge to serve in Teach for America upon his return to the U.S. and continue his entrepreneurial work.

“Eventually I hope to serve as a superintendent in Seattle public schools, and in this way, come up with solutions to the big problems in American education,” Nance said.

In addition to his coursework, Nance will be a lightweight member of Cambridge’s boxing team.

“I box for the Chicago boxing club, and am hoping to take that to the next level with intercollegiate boxing,” Nance said.

Miriam Bratu Hansen, Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities and founder of the U of C's cinema and media studies department, passed away February 5 after battling three forms of cancer. She was 61.

Hansen also held a professorship in the Department of English Language & Literature, where she studied American and German cinema, international silent film, classical and contemporary film theory, theories of mass culture, modernism and modernity, theories of the public sphere, and the Frankfurt School.

“Very intense, extremely driven, and if you were her student you had not only an advisor but also a surrogate mother,” said Yuri Tsivian, a friend and colleague of Hansen.

“Her greatest academic contribution,” he said, “is her book Babel and Babylon, in which she defined the new understanding of film reception and offered a new unprecedented and deep insight into a film that everyone early on thought everything was known about. And this is the famous classic Intolerance by David Griffith.”

Hansen’s work has helped pioneer the study of observance as it relates to cinema, and how the audiences of older films were intended to view and engage with early cin-

ema. She closely studied early silent films in the context of observance because of their unique ability to engage audiences using only the visual medium.

H a n s e n ’ s r e l a t i o n t o t h e Fr a n k f u r t School of social theory, a 1930s group of neo-Marxist thinkers that included Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno, influenced her understanding of the role of cinema in America. She studied with Adorno at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt before teaching at Yale and Rutgers, and then eventually came to Chicago in 1990.

The University of California Press had planned to publish Hansen’s latest book in the spring, on the Frankfurt School of cultural theory and cinema. However, due to her death, the publication of the book may by delayed until later in the year.

“She devised and named a new theory, which she called vernacular modernism, which explains the back-and-forth between American Hollywood cinema, and its East Asian, Chinese, or Japanese counterparts,” said Tsivian. “[It’s] what Japan and China took from Holly wood and what they changed according to their vernacular need.”

Miriam is survived by her husband, Michael Geyer, a historian at the University, whom she married in 1991, and by her brother, Micha Bratu.

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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 15, 2011

Administration open to changing current unlimited meal plan

Dining services set up filtered water stations in three locations

DINING continued from front page

BOTTLED WATER continued from front page

go back to the marketplace.”

Coleman said interested companies will submit their proposals by late March, at which time a 25-person selection panel made up of faculty, students, and staff will start the process of choosing a supplier.

When their initial contract expired in 1996, the University chose to maintain its relationship with Aramark after a competitive bidding process. The resulting contract— which was originally intended to last until 2004 but was extended due in part to the construction of South Campus Residential Commons—will expire on August 15.

“We’re very serious about putting this out there and exploring an opportunity for a new supplier. If Aramark ends up being that successful supplier, then great,” Coleman said.

There will also be a reevaluation of the dining plan, which switched to all-you-careto-eat last year.

While the unlimited meal plan has ignited vocal frustration among some students,

administrators say it’s difficult to determine what system would best suit the student body as a whole, because student reviews are mixed.

“The unlimited meal plan is kind of a lightning rod,” said Mason. “There are staunch supporters who really like not having to think about it...and there are others that [say,] ‘It’s too much and it doesn’t fit my needs and my lifestyle’... We’ll need to think about how to capture the things that people like about the unlimited meal plan and try to address the things that people don’t, and find a way to put together a meal plan program that’s able to balance that.”

Once a food service provider has been chosen—and especially if a company other than Aramark is selected—the transition into the new-look dining system will likely be a gradual process, especially with regards to any capital and facility improvements that may be required. “It will look different in some substantial way, but there will probably be, in year two and year three, continuations of some of those changes,” Mason said.

alone will not change the student body’s attitude toward bottled water. According to Mason, students buy bottled water for the convenience, not because they mistakenly believe it to be better than tap water.

Mason said the solution is to provide usable alternatives to bottled water. “Campus dining has put some water hydration stations in the Maroon Market and Hutchinson Commons and Midway Market as places that people can fill up with filtered water for free,” he said.

Mason added that if the hydration stations become popular, sales of bottled water would drop significantly. “I could certainly envision a time when there would be very little bottled water offered,” he said. “If there’s not demand for it, there’s no reason to sell it.”

One department on campus has opted for a more immediate approach. In December, Facilities Services adopted a policy designed to eliminate the use of plastic water bottles.

“We would really like to be a model on campus for how you can be really green,” said Ilsa Flanagan, Director of Sustainability, an office

within Facilities Services.

But such immediate action may not be realistic in other departments. “I’ve been trying to make Joe [Sullivan] and some other students aware of the various issues they might encounter,” Flanagan said. When Facilities Services moved back into the newly-renovated Young building this fall, the infrastructure was in place to make a transition from bottled water possible, but not all buildings have access to water lines.

“I don’t really support the idea of a general ban, because I just don’t think that that fits into the ethos of the University of Chicago,” added Flanagan. “When you’re able to convince someone to change their behavior, that’s going to be more sustainable in the long run.”

Though Flanagan warned that it may take time to make the necessary infrastructure changes, she did comment on the speed with which the movement against bottled water had developed.

“I’ve only been here a couple of years, but this seems to be the fastest-moving campaign I’ve seen on campus,” Flanagan said.

kids in strollers over their heads, it was really crazy. And people were passing out because it was so hot.”

Because the group of nine was carrying their own luggage as well as that of their Sinai counterparts, they missed their flight and the next was cancelled. The remaining students were placed on a list for U.S. evacuation flights, but they ran into their own passport issues when it emerged that third-year Ming Liu is a Canadian citizen. Merritt was able to get Liu onto a Canadian flight to Frankfurt, Germany, where she spent the night before being reunited with the other students in Paris.

Reliving the experience, the students interviewed said that the kindness of the Egyptians was a constant theme throughout.

“The best moment was when we landed in Greece, and the [Egyptian] flight attendant, what did she say? She was like, ‘We hope you enjoy your stay in Athens. Thank you for choosing Lotus air,’” said Treptow.

The moment was striking, said ElShafie. “We were just like, ‘Oh my god, you’re serving us, and you’re getting us to safety, and your families are in Cairo where there are robbers on the streets.’ It was really moving, that’s all I have to say,” she said.

Students transferred to Paris could not contact friends stuck in Cairo airport CAIRO continued from front page and had the wrong passport with him. Fox, the other student, had lost her passport earlier in the week and was expecting to pick it up on Sunday. But the Study Abroad Office started making phone calls, and Fox said, “I don’t know how it happened, but I managed to do transcontinental travel without a passport.”

After the students in the Sinai region left for Paris, the status of the students still in Cairo remained in the back of their minds.

“We had no idea what was going on, on a personal level for them, and we had a hard time when we got out of Egypt and they were still

in the airport. We were very concerned about them. When we were in Paris and they were still in the Cairo airport, it was just awful and weird,” Fox said.

Meanwhile, those in Cairo were attempting to evacuate but huge crowds prevented them from reaching their scheduled flight on Sunday, according to fourth-year Sara ElShafie.

“The terminal was packed with people and you literally could not move. It was really like every person for themselves, every family for themselves, people were just trying to force their way through the crowd,” ElShafie said.

“Passing their luggage over their heads, passing

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| VIEWPOINTS | February 15, 2011

VIEWPOINTS

EDITORIAL & OP-ED FEBRUARY 15, 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 DARREN LEOW, 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 ALYSSA MARTIN, 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.

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Setting the table Transparency, responsiveness should be guiding principles for the Global Dining Initiative If you haven’t heard of the U of C’s Global Dining Initiative (GDI) before now, you aren’t alone. The GDI, which is currently reviewing campus dining options and helping select vendors to run the dining halls and cafés, has maintained a low profile since it began last fall. There’s no website, and besides those students involved with Student Government (SG) and the Inter-House Council (IHC), few of us have heard the first word about the GDI. Although most of the GDI’s planning has been behind the scenes until now, leaders of the GDI did take questions from student representatives during last Wednesday’s College Council (CC) meeting. Going on the record with the CC is an excellent way to begin informing students about the

GDI, and we hope that meeting will be the first of many open to students not directly involved with the Initiative.

Since nothing inflames the passions of college students quite like discussions of the food we’re served, keeping the GDI’s work public whenever possible is just smart PR, and it will strengthen the results of the group’s work, too. Surveys and focus groups— which the GDI has used to generate student feedback until now—are helpful, but publishing the GDI’s results and plans will encourage feedback from more students with a far broader base of knowledge, and help foresee troubles before they arise.

Past that, making clear that the GDI is interested in feedback from all students would mark an important departure from precedent. Students

have raised innumerable concerns about Aramark and Sugar Plum Cafés over the years, but perhaps most frustrating is the sense that campus dining is beyond their control, and that no matter how much they complain, not much actually changes.

We get that feeling, for example, when the same dish appears on the buffet week after week, though no one seems to eat it and we fill the comment box with ideas for replacements.

And we felt that way in 2008 and 2009, when the unlimited dining plan was implemented with only minimal changes to address student concerns about cost and logistics.

If there were ever a time to let students know that their input counts when it comes to campus dining, it’s now. The GDI should make it a prior-

ity to speak openly with all students while selecting a new vendor. It should look for companies that will be attentive to student feedback throughout the course of their contracts, and will continually use our ideas to shape and reshape their offerings.

Students, after all, are the only people on the campus required to purchase meal plans, and they make up a large portion of those who shop at cafés as well. If the GDI is actually going to revamp campus dining, it’s only fair that it do so while giving students all the information they need to speak their minds about their stomachs.

of what was being posted, and the cameras had not zoomed in to the point of readability. Gregory himself seemed dumbfounded by the number of posts appearing and rapidly disappearing, allowing him no time to actually read what people were discussing.

When protesters in Tahrir Square told CNN correspondents that they were witnessing a Facebook revolution, there was no problem, because those were live reactions from protesters. But when anchors in Atlanta repeat this declaration without separating the emotional response of those witnessing the events from the facts of the matter, there is a problem.

The Egyptian guests on many of the news programs that reported on the revolution fought hard to clarify that although Facebook and

Twitter were important tools, they were not the cause of the revolution.

Dubbing what happened in Egypt as a “Facebook Revolution” not only insults the incredible effort and sacrifice by so many Egyptians over the 18 days leading up to Mubarak’s departure, it is also bad journalism.

What happened in Egypt was not a Facebook or Twitter revolution. It wasn’t even a social media revolution.

It was just a revolution.

However, those in power, whether cable news producers or anchors, were all too eager to elevate the importance of the American inventions of Facebook and Twitter in motivating the Egyptian revolution, tainting much of the coverage of Egypt for domestic viewers.

On a more superficial but equally telling note, the producers of the

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

KNOB CREEK

White noise Fluff displaces insight and substance in American media

By Lloyd Lee Viewpoints Columnist Two events happened over the weekend that displayed the dismal state that this country is in regarding popular culture and mass media: the news reporting of the Egyptian revolution, which saw Hosni Mubarak step down as the president of Egypt, and the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, which aired on Sunday evening.

American popular culture and

mass media have become a jumbled mess of mediocrity, making the task of winnowing what is actually good evermore difficult. I knew this already, but watching some of the coverage of these events cemented this viewpoint.

While their colleagues were reporting from Cairo, journalists and pundits back in Washington, New York, and Atlanta were all too fascinated by the conversations surrounding the protests on Twitter and Facebook. David Gregory couldn’t sign off from Meet The Press before showing his viewers what was happening on TweetDeck—a Twitter client—and the incredible importance that social media served in Egypt.

I immediately wondered what was gained by having a giant screen display Twitter activity. There was hardly any substantial explanation

MEDIA continued on page 6

OP-ED

Giving democracy a chance Democracy in the Middle East must be a top priority for the U.S.

By David Kaner Viewpoints Contributor I knew the revolution had arrived when it showed up on my Facebook newsfeed. I spent the summer of 2009 in Egypt, and the friends I made there had only hinted at their dissatisfaction with the government.

Suddenly, these sentiments were boiling over. Profile pictures changed to photos of protestors, or big red Xs photoshopped over Hosni Mubarak’s sneering face. Statuses called for the overthrow of the government and advertized protest locations and times.

Before I could even get a response from my summer host brother about

his family’s safety, Egypt vanished from the web. The internet had been shut down completely across the entire country. Nearly a week went by in infuriating, absolute silence.

Then, just as quickly as they had gone, my friends reappeared online.

One had suffered a bad leg injury.

My host brother sent me a message about how he and other youths in the neighborhood had set up a watch and were fighting looters daily with batons, knives, and “sometimes guns.”

As the people of Egypt attempt to transition to democracy over the coming months and years, the best I, or any other American, can do to express solidarity is to demand a

change in our foreign policy. This crisis, the one that preceded it in Tunisia, and the smoldering anger throughout the Middle East at dictatorships, is largely a result of the United States’ misdirected goals in the region.

In the name of stability, we have propped up nearly every regime from Rabat to Riyadh. It doesn’t matter if it is to ensure the supply of oil or to fight terrorism. It’s morally reprehensible, damaging to both the people of the Arab World and the interests of the United States. It must stop, and we must be the generation to stop it.

Believe it or not, the United States is not perceived as a lost cause in

the Middle East. President Obama’s address to the Muslim world at Cairo University in June 2009 was a major step in repairing relations. According to opinion polls taken before the protests, Egyptians went from having a mostly negative to a mostly positive view of America at this time.

I certainly never imagined, arriving a month later, that strangers would wave to me and smile while shouting my president’s name.

But positive steps like Obama’s speech are undermined when an Egyptian fighting for basic rights can pick up a tear gas canister hurled at him and find “Made in America” stamped on the bottom. It smacks

EGYPT continued on page 6

6

CHICAGO MAROON

| VIEWPOINTS | February 15, 2011

Grammys just another instance of American superficiality MEDIA continued from page 5 Grammy Awards were also too eager to elevate what is popular over what is important in honoring the best music making of the year.

The awards included performances by mediocre Americans, mediocre Canadians, mediocre pubescent Canadians, and even some mediocre performances by icons (sometimes we just need to say goodbye).

Then there was Cee Lo Green, dressed in a full-feathered costume, along with Gwyneth Paltrow on top of a piano. I didn’t realize starring in a movie about country music qualified you to perform at the Grammys. The person who started this crazy costume rage, Lady Gaga, emerged from a giant egg to perform her single “Born This Way,” with horns on both forehead and shoulders. Unfortunately, Gaga’s fame is founded on her freakish persona rather than

any talent that she may actually possess.

At the end of the situation in Egypt and at the Grammy Awards, what was most saddening was what was lost by the inclusion of fluff and circumstance. The time spent on Facebook discussions could have been replaced by more debate about Egypt and the changes that the Middle East is going through.

Instead of putting mediocre talent on stage at the premiere awards ceremony for the music industry, Grammy producers could have simply included good musicians.

Hopefully American audiences will realize that quality media and entertainment make for a quality existence. Unfortunately, it seems like America still has a long way to go.

Lloyd Lee is a fourth-year in the College majoring in political science.

Gap between American rhetoric and policy fuels terrorism EGYPT continued from page 5 of hypocrisy.

I understand the fear that democracy in the Middle East would lead to extremists seizing power. However, much of the appeal of groups like Al Qaeda comes from their ability to point out the sickening contradiction between American ideals and actions. Take away this moral gap and you take away their next recruitment video. In the long term, supporting democracy and civil society will result in much less favorable conditions for terrorist groups.

The democratic revolution in the Middle East is still in its infancy, but it is here and it’s real. The resignation of President Mubarak on Friday, which would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago, may prove to be the moment when the tide turned for Middle Eastern dictatorship. After far too much ambiguity

from Washington, it was encouraging to hear President Obama finally express full-throated support for the revolution—but it should have come before Mubarak was out the door. As we move forward, we cannot be seen as conspiring with local regimes to keep them in power, as we were accused of in Egypt.

Changing the status quo in our foreign policy will not be easy, nor will it be comfortable, but it is necessary. Time after time when this country finds itself on the side of the oppressor, that situation winds up blowing up in our faces. It happened in much of Latin America, it happened in Iran, and without careful diplomacy, it could happen again in the Middle East. The 21st century belongs to democracy, not despotism. America cannot afford to pick the losing side.

David Kaner is a first-year in the College.

VOICES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 15, 2011 THEATER

Won't you take me to folksytown?

UT stages the crazier side of a classic

By Charna Albert Voices Natural Born Killer

T

he University's 51st Annual Folk Festival came to Ida Noyes and Mandel Hall last weekend. Here, Frank Fairfield plays the guitar at Mandel. The festival included several genres of folk, ranging from bluegrass to traditional Irish and Cajun music.

JAMIE MANLEY/MAROON

THEATER

Despite hype, Mary is all bark and no bite

By Pete Brooks Voices Captain Obvious Questions of race and sexuality have, for better or worse, become fixtures in contemporary American politics. In Mary, premiering at the Goodman Theatre, playwright Thomas Bradshaw sets out to unmask still-present problems of civil rights, but only echoes all too familiar platitudes.

MARY Goodman Theatre Through March 6

Mary opens in David’s (Alex Weisman) dorm room, where he and his boyfriend, Jonathan (Eddie Bennett), are about to depart for winter break. In one of many dull bits of exposition, the play lays out all the background you need: It is 1983, the fear of AIDS is in full bloom, and Jonathan is coming to visit David at his home in Maryland after Christmas.

The play really begins to take shape once we are introduced to David’s family. Plenty of space is devoted to his mother, Dolores (Barbara Garrick), who desires to open a model plantation on the family’s property—for educational purposes, of course. Meanwhile, his father, James (Scott Jaeck), rehearses what he hopes will be a series of talk show appearances to discuss his banal battle against prostate cancer.

All this talky characterization seems inefficient at best, especially when the dining room’s massive portrait of Thomas Jefferson does the job nicely.

February in Chicago is enough to make anyone feel like he or she is going ins ane. But even those who manage to keep their demeanor sunny amidst midterms and snowpocalypses identify with UT’s sixth-week production Crime and Punishment and its antihero, the brooding and murderous Raskolnikov.

“The thing about Raskolnikov is he wants to be different, just like everyone else,” said cast member and graduate student Matt Seidel, who mentally prepared to play the role of an insane, misanthropic killer by spending long days alone and thinking. “Everyone has that desire to be special and unique.

What makes Raskolnikov different is what he does to try to create that uniqueness. He loses control completely.”

This new award–winning adaptation of Crime and Punishment

by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus tells the story of Dostoyevsky’s famous novel through scenes set completely in the killer’s head. Porfiry Petrovitch, the cunning detective, and Sonia, the young prostitute whom Raskolnikov loves, urge him to reflect on the feelings that drive him to commit murder.

Acting in a play that is set entirely within the main character’s head was a new experience for the actors. Second-year Hayley Doner, who played Sonia, said the key to making such an introspective play realistic and accessible was to keep all the character’s intentions and needs in perspective.

“Sure, it’s all in Raskolnikov’s mind, but you need to know that all the characters are real and have their own objectives and desires in the present moment,” she said.

The most challenging part of putting on the production was internalizing and capturing characters that have such an inconceivable scope of human emotion, Doner said. The many characters

that the three-person cast tackled included a murderer, a prostitute, and a drunkard.

First-year Alessio Franko played Porfiry Petrovitch, the investigator who suspects Raskolnikov’s guilt.

It required some extra imagination to play such a sly character.

“They say to understand a character you should imagine you’re sitting down to have a beer with him,” he said. “But that wouldn’t help me to understand Porfiry. You can’t trust anything he says. My character’s just confusing.”

Another challenge the actors faced was playing multiple characters: Doner played Sonia; Alyona, the old woman whom Raskolnikov murders; and Lizaveta, Alyona’s sister. Franko played both Porfiry and Marmeladov, Sonia’s drunken father. It required the actors to make bolder choices. Franko, for example, used two different speaking voices for his characters.

Seidel, who is currently writing a master’s thesis on Dostoyevsky, said the adaptation is quite different from the novel. It focuses more on Raskolnikov than Dostoyevsky’s literary masterpiece, cutting out secondary characters like Razumikhin, a character in the novel who acts as a foil to Raskolnikov.

“It’s the same story, but it’s not about the same thing,” said Franko.

Th e s m a l l c a s t m a d e f o r a close-knit, collaborative rehearsal process. The actors agreed that director and second-year Jesse Roth made the process dynamic and involved.

“Part of having a three-person cast is that after rehearsal we can all sit down and really talk about how it went,” Franko said.

Th e d y n a m i c a n d u n i q u e rehearsal process paid off, and tickets sold quickly for the performances.

“I was so incredibly pleased and proud with the run of Crime and Punishment,” said Roth. “The actors performed beautifully and the performance seemed to affect the audiences. It was a wonderful experience.”

Dolores (Barbara Garrick) and James (Scott Jaeck) go to great lengths to seem like a traditional, jolly couple.

COURTESY OF LIZ LAUREN

By the time Jonathan arrives, evocations of the Old South are beginning to border on nauseous. He is introduced to Mary (Myra Lucretia Taylor), the family’s housekeeper/ slave. The woman is subservient, illiterate, and nearly unpaid. She lives in a cabin on the property with

her husband, Elroy (Cedric Young).

Jonathan’s welcome dinner erupts into a slew of jokes at Mary’s expense. But most importantly, she is continually denoted by a particular racial epithet that I’m certain can’t be printed here. The audience’s

MARY continued on page 9

Interrogator Porfiry Petrovich (Alessio Franko, left) and murderer Raskolnikov (Matt Seidel, right) give a good example of irony.

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

8

CHICAGO CHICAGO MAROON MAROON || VOICES VOICES || February January 28, 15, 2011 2011

FILM

THEATER

Chicago welcomes Wiseau's new camp classic

Darren Criss' crew comes to town in sci-fi musical

By Blair Thornburgh You Are Tearing Me Apart, Voices!

By Katherine Stewart Voices Rocketman

Tickets were sold out weeks in advance.

Costumed fans lined up outside the Music Box Theater in the February cold, armed with cameras and red roses to greet the film’s stars.

Employees at the local CVS wearily directed moviegoers eager to stockpile the requisite props. Was Rocky Horror enjoying an out-of-season revival? No, it’s The Room, and it’s becoming the best worst movie of our time.

Filmed in 2003 for a reported $6 million, The Room tells the melodramatic story of a love triangle between a man, his “future wife” Lisa, and his best friend Mark. The plot (and the dialogue) border on incomprehensible, due in large part to the performance of its writer, director, and leading man, Tommy Wiseau. Wiseau’s dubbedover dialogue, runaway plot twists, and inexplicable penchant for awkward staging (characters chat while squatting in a corner, enjoy romantic interludes on spiral staircases, and, at one point, play a pickup game of football while dressed in tuxedoes) made the film a prime target for mockery, and it quickly developed a cult following after its independent premiere in Los Angeles.

Midnight showings have since popped up around the country with costumes, improvised dialogue, and accessories becoming de rigueur.

Each sighting of a framed photo of a spoon, for example, is accompanied by a shower of plastic cutlery and an enthusiastic cry of “SPOON!” If The Room is the “Citizen Kane of bad movies,” then Wiseau is its Orson Welles. Wiseau’s origins, like his accent, are vaguely foreign and mysterious at best. His on-screen persona carries over to real life. Like his character, Johnny, Wiseau favors dark suits, sunglasses, and a stringy mass of black hair. Having rebranded the movie as a “black comedy” to embrace its culticon status, he now travels around the country to showings of the movie to meet fans, attempt to answer questions, and, most importantly, sell DVDs, T-shirts, and bobblehead dolls.

Wiseau’s two-night engagement in Chicago is part of his current nationwide tour. His appearance on stage at the Music Box on Friday night was met with a standing ovation, and he wasted no time in launching into a series of bows and a rambling string of thank-you’s.

He doggedly refused to give a straight answer when the first fan to the microphone ventured the famous question of Wiseau’s nationality.

“Next question!” was the only response, punctuated with a chuckle. Asked for his opinion on the current situation in Egypt, Wiseau advised that “all Egyptians watch The Room a hundred times,” before stirring the crowd into a round of “USA! USA!” A fan celebrating his birthday was brought onstage only to have Wiseau flip him over in a somersault and serenade him.

Also in attendance was Greg Sestero, the film’s line-producer-cum-supporting-actor (he plays Mark, the main character’s best friend) and a one-time male model. Unlike Wiseau, who embraces his fans and his own weirdness alike, Sestero seemed a bit uneasy onstage, giving short answers to questions and keeping a good distance from the cartoon-like antics of his co-star. However, he and Wiseau agreed that neither is interested in doing adult film, and revealed that he would be releasing a tell-all book in the fall about his experience making The Room.

Both Wiseau and Sestero stayed after the film and Q&A for an extensive meet-and-greet with the audience. With a line that stretched almost to the back of the theater, they signed autographs, posed for pictures, and recorded endless variations of the film’s famous line “you are tearing me apart, Lisa!” for over an hour. Irony seemed to be cast aside as a tuxedo-clad foursome took turns pounding fists with Wiseau and groups of women giggled nervously at Sestero’s side. The movie may be objectively terrible, but the fans’ enjoyment is genuine, and Wiseau is happy to oblige. As the moderator noted onstage, “There is no one in the industry who is better to his fans than Tommy Wiseau.”

Formed at the University of Michigan, Starkid Productions has exploded in popularity around the country. The troupe first hit it big with A Very Potter Musical, which has upwards of 50 million views on YouTube. Starkid’s co-founder and main composer, Darren Criss, is now even a regular on Glee. It’s no surprise then that Starship garnered a fantastically excited audience for its premier Chicago performance. Judged as the best place to expand its form of internet theater, Chicago now accommodates Starkid Productions.

Starship opens with a misunderstood bug named Bug (Joey Richter) who lives on an uncharted planet in the distant future. He admires the heroic and adventurous lives of the earthly Star Rangers for their philanthropic duties (preserving mankind by colonizing other planets), and aspires to become one in the future.

However, his aspirations take a backseat when he is sentenced by the Overqueen (Jim Povolo) to take a menial job planting eggs. But when a Starship lands on his planet, Bug’s life begins to take action.

He meets February (Denise Donovan) who has been taken hostage by the other bugs of his colony, and it’s love at first sight (at least for

Bug). Bug then vows to become a Star Ranger to save her, struggling through obstacles of love and devotion as he wavers between his true love February, his obligations to his colony, and the love of a more suitable match, Bugette (Lauren Lopez).

The plot then takes an Avatar-esque twist as Bug is allowed to realize his dream when he is transformed into a human with the aid of the evil scorpion Pincer (Donovan Saunders). Bug then joins the other Star Rangers in the pursuit of saving his beloved February. But trouble always seems to find them along their mission and they need to integrate the efforts of both the Star Rangers and the colony of bugs to make their mission a success.

Instead of using makeup and costumes to transform into bugs, Starkid used puppets.

Although the use of puppets did seem a bit juvenile at first, the cast exhibited sheer creativity with each one—every character was brought to life through the multi-talented (and multi-cast) actors. Lauren Lopez, for example, received much praise for her roles as Taz, the toughest Star Ranger, and Bugette, Bug’s biggest fan.

The songs in Starship are just as innovative; Darren Criss and the performing ensemble do not disappoint with this original score. One particular song that really stood out was “Kick it up a Notch,” when Pincer talks Bug into becoming a human. This song exhibited the singing talent of the minor characters, and the dynamic range in tones shifted the musical’s proficiency to a higher degree. Starship also had an enjoyable dialogueto-song ratio—an important aspect of musical theater. Consequently, there were hardly any scenes lacking vitality. And in true Starkid tradition, the songs contributed to the many laughs that occurred throughout the audience.

So, Starship proves to be a successful follow-up to A Very Potter Musical. Bug’s experience surely relayed the message of what it really means to be human. It all took the persistence of determination that usually dies in us. The audience is shown the glory in the hardships we easily take for granted.

but also the ways in which artists from the time period drew inspiration from classical figures. A painting of the sacrifice of Polyxena demonstrates the 18th century’s interest in classical figures in relation to tragedy. A pale Polyxena lays down as her executioner, arm tensed, raises a knife to her breast. In a flurry of activity, the other figures in the composition shield their eyes in horror, anticipating the bloodshed that will come with the martyrdom of the heroine.

Moving away from the grandiose tragedy found in classical and Greek tradition, the Grief and Sentiment portion of the exhibit presents the heartbreak found in everyday Victorian life. For example, Joshua Hargrave’s painting “The Child’s Grave” (1857) picks up on sentimental culture and practices surrounding a family suffering through a child’s death. The bright, spring atmosphere and naturalistic rendering of the figures almost undermine the suffering of the family, but the viewer is ultimately led to empathize with the family members through their consoling gestures and the sadness evoked in their expressions.

The stage is another place in which tragedy is mediated and is an intriguing source of inspiration for artists. One of the loans which most impressed Leonard is Édouard Manet’s “The Tragic Actor” (a portrait

of actor Philibert Rouvière as Hamlet) from the National Gallery of Art. In a sort of meta-representation, the solemn and somewhat austere portrait of Rouvière acts not only as a representation of Hamlet’s despair, but also a tribute to Rouvière, as he died while the painting was being finished.

In Solitude and Melancholy, the final section of The Tragic Muse, abstraction and solitary figures are frequently used to grapple with tragedy. From Picasso’s dark and brooding portrait of sculptor Joseph Cardona to Auguste Rodin’s contorted and pained bronze sculpture of Adam, artists near the turn of the century distanced themselves from typical tragic iconography and sentimental c u l t u r e . Th e r e s u l t , a s t h e c o l l e c t i o n aptly demonstrates, is the creation of an entirely new method to depict human emotion.

It may be difficult to completely understand the emotions involved in something as extreme as martyrdom or beheadings.

However, as The Tragic Muse and Leonard elucidate, these seemingly ineffable acts do have emotional value in artistic representation.

“These older works can seem so remote from us in some ways, but I think everyone can find something to grab onto,” Leonard said.

First they parodied Harry Potter, and now they’re going to space. Starkid Productions has come to Chicago to perform Starship, their fourth sidesplitting musical, at Hoover-Leppen Theatre. Written and directed by Matt Lang with the help of co-writers Nick Lang, Brian Holden, and Joe Walker, Starship lives up to Starkid fans’ expectations.

STARSHIP THE MUSICAL Hoover-Leppen Theatre Through February 23

ART

Smart's Muse tracks transformation of tragedy

By Mitch Montoya Voices Oedipus Rex How can art make us feel strong emotions like grief and horror, and why? This immensely complex question was the starting point for The Tragic Muse, the Smart Museum’s most recent exploration into our darkest emotions.

Comprised of a variety of paintings and sculptures from 19 00 and b efore, the exhibit is a beautiful and smart sampling of pieces that address the relationship between art and emotional tragedy.

According to Ann Leonard, the curator of the exhibition, the show was inspired by a number of new acquisitions for the Smart and was an attempt to have the new works interact with long-held pieces in the Museum’s permanent collection.

A group of Victorian paintings particularly epitomizes the kind of emotional and sentimental evolution that Leonard wanted the exhibit to explore. Anna Lea Merritt’s Ophelia was, for L eonard, an exceptional work that illustrates how art’s mediation of dark emotions has fundamentally changed.

“It is a sentimental portrait, but also particularly a painting that is completely outside of the realm of what we would today think of as ‘art.’” she said. “For me it was

very interesting to put the kind of painting that people at the time would have responded to very strongly, from accounts that we know, against even older examples of strong emotional appeal and the 1900 examples.”

THE TRAGIC MUSE Smart Museum Through June 5

Leonard also collaborated with members of the University’s staff to develop the philosophical grounding of the exhibit.

Glenn Most, professor of Social Thought a n d G r e e k P h i l o s o p h y , E r i n Ne r s t a d , Ph.D. candidate in English, and Sarah Nooter, assistant professor of Classics, among others, contributed to much of the progression and thought behind the exhibit.

Beginning with pieces from the 1700s, The Tragic Muse is divided temporally and philosophically into four sections: Fate and Tragedy, Grief and Sentiment, Tragic Actors and Actresses, and Solitude and Melancholy.

The Fate and Tragedy portion of the exhibit not only illustrates the conventions of portraying tragedy and sadness,

9

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | February 15, 2011

The Fun Corner.

CORE: Comic Only Read Entelligently

By Alyssa Martin Solution to today's puzzle

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

Mary's messy morals derail skilled acting

F E B R UA RY 1 0 T H R O U G H J U N E 5 , 2 0 1 1

THE T R AGIC MUSE Art and Emotion, 1700—1900

5550 South Greenwood Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60637 smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Admission is always free.

M

Want to write for Voices?

Drop us a line!

You can reach the Voices editors at Voices@ChicagoMaroon.com

Mary (Myra Lucretia Taylor) and Elroy (Cedric Young) reassure the audience about their plan to castrate someone.

COURTESY OF LIZ LAUREN

MARY continued from page 7 reactions were telling. Audible gasps filled the theater each time Mary’s nickname was brought up, as though the audience had to prove their innocence.

Tension builds between David and his mother as the two argue over Mary’s place in the family. Meanwhile, David’s father begins to question his son’s sexuality. Here, Bradshaw could have taken the opportunity to develop his characters more, but he lets it fizzle. He wants to convince us that his characters are intricate and honest, but he isn’t willing to escape stereotypes. Instead, each character is laden with superfluous details that feel like a last-ditch effort to imbue the play with some sort of realism. The gay kids sport predictably neat hairstyles and colorful sweaters, but— surprise!—they’re not too bad at hunting. The conservative parents are prudes at the dining table, but unafraid to crack sex jokes when no one is looking. For all the time lost on them, one hopes these particulars will have some bearing on the theme. Spoiler: They don’t.

The only characters that escape reduction are Mary and Elroy. Mary’s warm demeanor turns cold when she discovers a container of lube in James’s bedroom. In a plot to cure him of his sin, Mary and Elroy decide to shoot Jonathan in the crotch. Shortly after, the two regret their decision and question their Christian justifications, but the perplexing reversals are not over. Mary’s convictions are in constant (and seemingly arbitrary) flux until the play’s conclusion, when we begin to wonder what it’s all for.

Bradshaw’s tactic isn’t necessarily misguided. After all, this play is a satire, right?

The trouble is that Bradshaw never decides what it is that he intends to satirize. For such an overtly political play, Mary is hardly able to make any statement at all. Sure, it draws questionable parallels between the civil and gay rights movements. It invites you to muse about the possibility of a post-racial country. It even makes a personal case for accepting homosexuals. Still, it all seems so obvious. Don’t we already know all this? Bradshaw doesn’t seem to think so. He stuffs the play’s conclusion with a long speech that serves as little more than a primer on gay politics, just in case you haven’t heard of Prop 8, say, or the Defense of Marriage Act. Maybe, then, we should look past the play’s flat politicking. The cast maneuvers their roles deftly and with enormous humanity; we want to love them all. But, scene after scene, we are forced to accept them as pawns in Bradshaw’s cruel and rambling game.

More than anything, the play proves that race and sexuality are still issues that make audiences squirm. When Mary is unable to muster any cleverness, it begs its audience to be shocked. In fact, the Goodman Theatre seems to be bracing itself for the backlash that may ensue (they urge theatre-goers to share their feelings on a special blog), but the play’s edge is grossly overhyped. Despite all the questions it leaves hanging, one is never broached: If we have to question our ability to be post-racial or post-gay, haven’t we already failed?

10

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | February 15, 2011

Win streak is longest since 2006 W. BASKETBALL continued from front page Meghan Herrick, who scored a game-high 21 points. The team made only one of its eight attempts from behind the arc in the first half but improved in the second, sinking six of seven. Roussell credits improved ball distribution with Chicago’s second-half success.

“We tried to take things away from the basket and spread things out a little bit,” Roussell said of the team’s halftime adjustments. “Once we moved the ball better, we were in much better shape.”

Th i r d - y e a r s B r y a n n e H a l f h i l l a n d Morgan Herrick also reached double-digit point totals for the Maroons, finishing with 13 and 10 points respectively. Halfhill came just short of a triple-double, accruing nine assists and eight rebounds.

In stark contrast to the Rochester game, the Maroons dominated Emory 81–62.

With great shooting and dominant play on the boards, the Maroons contained Emory’s fast-paced play and led the game from start to finish.

“Emory plays a very fast style and we were able to build a lead early,” Roussell said. “After we settled down defensively, the lead continued to balloon.”

Fourth-year guard Dana Kaplan scored a career-high 19 points against Emory, sinking seven of eight from the field. Yet despite her great shooting, she was quick to give credit to her teammates for her success.

“I was shooting well from the three, but the shots were there because my teammates were making the extra pass and moving the ball well,” Kaplan said.

She also emphasized the strength of the team’s transitional play. “We scored a lot today because we pushed the ball on the fast break. We’ve been killing it in transition in the UAA,” Kaplan said.

Rebounds played an important role in the Maroons’ defensive efforts this weekend.

Third-year Taylor Simpson led the team in both games with 10 rebounds against Rochester and nine against Emory, helping the team with advantages of 44–31 and 49–28 respectively.

With the season coming to a close, Roussell showed gratitude toward the team’s fourth-years for their contributions.

Both he and Kaplan believe that much of the team’s success this year is due to its chemistry.

“I thought Karly [Kasper] and Dana both had ‘senior weekends’ for us in which they just did whatever was necessary to help our team win each game,” he said. “They have been so good for us for four years, and they can sense a great culmination to their careers…. They will do anything to make it happen.”

He continued, “I just think our seniors have been such an instrumental cog to our success this year and they are really doing great things for us right now. All three of them make our team chemistry such an asset for us, on top of really playing well for us on the court as of late.”

“There’s something about this team that’s different than any other team I’ve been on,” Kaplan echoed. “We really hold each other accountable, and we’re comfortable with doing that. People will tell us after games that they can tell how good our chemistry is by just watching us play. To be a part of that in my senior year is about as much as I could ask for.”

Chicago’s victories this weekend give the Maroons a two-game lead over Wash U for first place in the UAA standings. With three games remaining, victories this upcoming weekend will clinch the conference title for Chicago.

Brizzolara leads conference runners by two tenths of a second in 200-meters TRACK AND FIELD continued from front page jump and 13.75m placing him sixth in the triple jump.

Second-year Dee Brizzolara finished fourth over 200-meters and fifth over 60-meters.

Brizzolara’s time of 22.54 in the 200-meters is the best posted by any UAA runner this season by over two tenths of a second. Fourthyears Arthur Baptist and Brian Andreycak placed fourth in the 3,000-meters and second over the 60-meter hurdles.

The women fared slightly better. Fourthyear Kristin Constantine met national provisionally qualifying standards in two events.

She threw a whopping 12.79m and 17.04m, respectively, to place second in the shot put and weight throw.

“I was pretty excited to get a better mark in the weight throw, but I was more excited to hit a national standard in the shot put. I hadn’t hit [a provisional mark] in about two years, so it was really good to finally hit it again,” Constantine said of her performance.

“I’m hoping to get further marks in the next few meets, but that’s fine for this point in the season. Naperville’s my hometown, so it was fun to do well when my family was there!”

Other standouts on the women’s team were fourth-year Ashley Eaves and third-year Rachel Ohman. Eaves won the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.48, and Ohman won the 5,000-meter with a time of 18:27.21.

“I felt as though my [400-meter] performance represented what much of the team was going through; although it wasn’t my best performance of the season, I used it as an opportunity to compete hard and try my best, which paid off in the end. While the time I ran is not the performance I would like to end up with for the season, it was great for the week and I am pleased with not only my results, but our team’s results as well,” Eaves said.

The Maroons will host the Margaret Bradley Invitational on Saturday, February 19 at Henry Crown Field House.

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11

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | February 15, 2011

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Overtime loss at Emory eliminates Chicago from UAA contention

By Alexander Sotiropoulos Sports Staff Men’s basketball finished a weekend trip along the East Coast with two conference losses. The Maroons (8–14, 5–6 UAA) lost to Rochester on Friday 65–53 and fell to Emory in an overtime thriller on Sunday 91–87. The South Siders remain tied for third in the UAA standings while Rochester and Emory secured the top two spots respectively.

Going into Friday, Chicago hoped to mirror its victory one month earlier, when the Maroons defeated Rochester at home during Beach Night with a score of 79–73. However, Chicago has struggled on the road. Prior to the game on Friday, the Maroons lost three of four road conference games.

Ending the Maroons’ road woes was difficult, as they faced an aggressive Rochester team. “I knew they were going to be very hard to beat,� head coach Mike McGrath said. “They run their stuff very well.� “They’re pretty tough around the basket,� thirdyear forward Steve Stefanou added.

The Maroons looked toward their specialty of shooting to guide them through the game.

Unfortunately, Chicago shot only 35.7 percent from the field in the first half and 30.8 percent

behind the arc. Third-year guard Matt Johnson, who has averaged the most points per game this season for the Maroons, was only allowed two points in the first half. “Rochester had some really good defenders on me, and I just couldn’t get my shots to fall,�

Johnson said. “I picked up two fouls in the first half as well, which took me out of my rhythm some, too.�

Despite the unfortunate shooting performance by the Maroons, the men controlled the rebounding game throughout the first half. Chicago had an impressive 22 rebounds in the first half, but still trailed at halftime 29–25. “We felt like the way we were playing defensively in the first half, we should’ve been up 8 or 10 points at halftime. But we had a stretch where we turned the ball over several times in a row and gave Rochester some easy baskets, and it was a close game because of that. When we had leads, we were never able to pull away,� Johnson said.

The Maroons hoped to turn the game around in the second half, but missed several key opportunities to take control of the game. With 10 minutes remaining, Chicago took a two-point lead at 49–47, but a three-pointer made by Chris Dende gave Rochester the lead for good. Stefanou and second-year forward Matt MacKenzie led the

team, scoring 12 points.

Chicago tried to maintain its composure going into Sunday. In spite of the bleak chances of winning the UAA and receiving a bid for the NCAA Division III tournament, the men knew they would prove themselves as one of the best teams in the UAA if they defeated Emory. However, the Maroons did not want to replicate the performance they had against Emory just one month earlier, where Chicago fell 78–70. McGrath came in with a new outlook toward the game. “We had a different plan defensively on Sunday than we did the last time we played Emory,� he said.

Johnson learned what Chicago needed to do to secure a victory this time around. “Emory tries to make you play at their fast pace, which can cause teams to commit turnovers or take quick shots,� he said. “We wanted to play our game, run our offense, and execute well.�

The Maroons did not play as well as McGrath and Johnson hoped for in the first half. Poor shooting and subpar rebounding led to a 16-point deficit in the first half. Going into halftime, McGrath was unsure of the men’s determination. “I told them that we have to decide what type of team we are going to be: one that wins or one that loses,� he said.

Chicago took McGrath’s words to heart. The

Maroons began playing more aggressively in order to draw contact and earn trips to the line. “I wasn’t having a very good shooting day, so in the second half I focused on being strong with the ball and trying to draw fouls by being aggressive,�

Johnson said. “Free throws were also a way to slow down Emory’s offense‌[giving] us a chance to get back and set up our defense.â€?

Free throws determined the course of the rest of the game. The Maroons shot a whopping 36–42 from the line. With 1:02 remaining in the game, third-year guard Chase Davis hit a crucial jumper to tie the game at 78–78. A strong defensive stand gave the Maroons the last opportunity with the ball, but third-year guard Tommy Sotos’s three-point shot fell short.

Overtime was just as close as the last few minutes of regular play. Emory had a three-point lead with nine seconds remaining. Chicago fed the ball to three-point specialist Matt Johnson, who missed the potential game-tying bomb. “The shot at the end of overtime felt good when it left my hands,� Johnson said. “Unfortunately, it just didn’t drop.�

The Maroons will play Brandeis at the Ratner Center on Friday at 8 p.m. and look to give the crowd something to talk about in their final home games of the season.

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SPORTS

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MEN’S TENNIS

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

FABULOUS FIFTEEN Chicago one win away from UAA title

By Eugene Chong Sports Staff

Meghan Herrick drives to the hoop against Case on January 28. Herrick totaled 32 points and 13 rebounds in Chicago’s victories over Rochester and Emory this weekend.

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

Women’s basketball won their 14th and 15th consecutive games this weekend, defeating Rochester and Emory. The wins improved the team’s overall record of 18–3 with a conference record of 11–0.

Rochester’s advantage in size initially caused the Maroons difficulty, and Chicago trailed 28–26 at halftime. Led by 46.7 percent shooting from beyond the arc, however, the Maroons fought back to seal a 66–56 win.

“Rochester is a very big team that took away some of our inside game,” head coach Aaron Roussell said. “It was a back and forth game early on and it wasn’t until we got some [3-point shots] to fall in the second half that we were able to build a lead.”

Chicago took the lead early in the second half off of a threepointer from third-year guard

W. BASKETBALL continued on page 10

16

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY

12

With the Maroons one victory from their longest win streak since 2006, a look at the team’s winning and losing streaks since that season.

8

4

W

L

4

2006–2007

2007–2008

2008–2009

2009–2010

2010–2011

Longest W: 16 Longest L: 4

Longest W: 9 Longest L: 1

Longest W: 4 Longest L: 2

Longest W: 5 Longest L: 2

Longest W: 15 Longest L: 1

TRACK AND FIELD

Maroons finish at top of field at Chicagolands

By Gracie Sonnabend Sports Staff Men’s and women’s track and field performed impressively at this weekend’s Chicagolands meet in Naperville. The men placed fourth in a field of 17, and the women were second in a field of 19.

The ladies’ overall score of 109 points, just behind North Central’s winning score of 153.33, was bolstered by several strong individual performances. With 62 points, the men scored only one point less than third-place Carthage, but North Central swept the field with a total of 182.5 points.

“Our meet this weekend showed that we have been working hard in practice these past few weeks.

While many of us did not have PRs and were run down from mid-terms or were feeling sick, we still went into [the meet] with the mindset that we were going to compete hard, and that is exactly what we did,” said fourth-year Ashley Eaves.

“I was really proud of our team for giving it their all, and if we can get

second place at a competitive meet like this now, I can’t wait to see what we will do at our conference meet in a few weeks when we back down in our training cycle and begin to peak.”

“There wasn’t as much competition this year. This was mainly preparation for the upcoming conference meet, where it really c o u n t s , ” s e c o n d - y e a r Wi l l i a m Whitmore elaborated.

Whitmore won the 5,000-meter run for the Maroons with a time of 15:14.52. “It was a tough fight, but I held off this guy from UIC,” said Whitmore. “Everyone wants to score big at events like the Chicagolands Championships.

It felt good to get the win for Chicago.”

While only Whitmore won his event, the Chicago men pulled off high placements in the 60-meter hurdles and 3,000-meter run, also nabbing points in the long jump and triple jump. The latter were claimed by fourth-year Drew Jackson, with 6.67m placing him third in the long

TRACK AND FIELD continued on page 10

Kayla McDonald (left), Jennifer Porter (center), and Michaela Whitelaw run the 800-meters during the Chicago Duals on January 29. McDonald took third in the 800-meters at Chicagolands with a time of 2:21.88.

DARREN LEOW/MAROON

Maroons win two after loss at Kenyon

By Charles Fang Sports Staff It was an early test for men’s tennis in Ohio over the weekend, and they passed after an initial setback against Kenyon. The men from Chicago won two of three dual meets over the weekend as they gradually began to realize their preseason goals.

The previously 17th-ranked Maroons saw their three-game win streak end on Friday as they lost to 12th-ranked Kenyon. The Lords captured four of six matches in singles play and triumphed in two of three doubles matches. A view of their dominance came from the box scores with the Maroons winning just five sets in the nine total matches.

“Obviously we were not pleased with the result of the Kenyon match, but it was an eye-opener for us as we are starting to realize just how important each and every match is to this team,” responded first-year Krishna Ravella.

The Maroons responded with a resounding victory at Denison on Saturday, winning four singles and one doubles match to win by aggregate, 5–4. Top seeds for the Chicago crew, fourth-year Will Zhang, first-year Zsolt Szabo, and third-year Troy Brinker all earned wins in singles while the sensational duo of Ravella and Szabo continued their winning ways in the deuces department.

“Rebounding the way we did against Denison, although we did not play as well as we would have liked to, was key,” Ravella adds. “It was a momentum builder going into Sunday’s match against D-I Dayton, whom we lost to last year.”

The Maroons cleaned up nicely when they encountered Dayton on Sunday as they swept the duals 7–0, winning every singles and doubles match.

“To rebound the way we did and finish the weekend with two strong wins is a sign of positive things to come in the future,” assures Ravella.

To be sure, the Maroons are not content to rest on their laurels. “If anything, we have learned a lot from this weekend,” adds Brinker. “I feel as if our entire team has been baptized with a new life and Kunal Pawa is John.”

The Maroons are also concerned with finding areas of improvement.

“There are things we need to work on, such as our doubles play, but slowly and steadily we are getting there,” affirms Ravella of the Maroons’ resolve. Their improvement in doubles is quite evident, and the inspired play of the pair of Ravella and Szabo should provide a model for the others.

The Maroons look to improve on their 5–2 record in a home game against Kalamazoo this coming Sunday.