Chicago-Maroon-11-02-25

CHICAGO

MAROON The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

The Winter of UT's discontent

Red Light Winter takes the stage starting Saturday

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 31 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Voices, p. 5

POLITICS

FACULTY

One-candidate SSA student elected alderman Humanities firing SG election raises Emanuel voted mayor, Hairston, Burns win local races causes faculty visibility concerns outrage

By Crystal Tsoi News Staff

By Haru Coryne News Staff

The lack of publicity of a recent College Council (CC) vacancy has drawn student criticism on the transparency and fairness of Student Government (SG)’s democratic process, which SG members say is largely out of their hands.

After fourth-year CC chair Jason Cigan took an unexpected leave of absence, Class of 2013 representative Neil Shah assumed his role, leaving Shah’s old position vacant. The empty seat left by Shah was filled by the only candidate to run: second-year Vicki Peng, who was on the ballot for the position during normal elections last year.

Although she wasn’t present the night of the emergency election, she submitted a platform, was questioned

by College Council, and assumed her current position.

SG members and some students believe the primary reason Peng was the only candidate to run was a lack of publicity surrounding the election.

The position’s vacancy was publicized by a January 6 newsletter regularly sent to RSO primary and secondary contacts by Assistant Director of Student Development Stacey Ergang.

RSO leaders are then expected to forward the information from ORCSA to other students, though the news-

apply his SSA coursework—including his studies in clinical social work—to his new role as alderman.

Following former 47th ward alderman Gene Schulter’s unex-

A sudden layoff in the humanities department has drawn criticism and brought a formal union grievance against the University, according to faculty and sources in the human resources department (HRS).

Project Assistant Cheral Cotton worked in the humanities department for ten years, when on February 7 she was called into her supervisor’s office and was told that the department was restructuring her position. She was given one day to clear out her office.

“I was shocked. I was in disbelief.

I thought I was going to faint,” said Cotton, who had no prior knowledge of her dismissal.

Her union, the Teamsters Local 743, filed a grievance on February 14. The complaint stated that the University did not offer an opportunity for Cotton to receive training for the new job and that non-unionized administrators were taking over her former duties, according to Cotton’s union steward Mila Kuntu, a Local 743 union representative working out of the labor relations section of the human resources department.

The layoffs mid-quarter timing has left faculty members in a lurch. Cotton’s duties include ordering books and setting up film screenings.

“There’s been a lot of disorganization as a result of her being let go in the

ELECTIONS continued on page 2

FIRING continued on page 3

SG continued on page 3

U of C students spent hours helping Rahm Emanuel, who thanked volunteers during his acceptance speech Tuesday.

CHRIS SALATA/MAROON

By Amy Myers Associate News Editor The race for mayor wasn’t the only contentious election on Tuesday.

Two U of C students were on the ballot for the Chicago alderman elections—one winning in an unexpected victory. Leslie Hairston of the fifth ward and Will Burns of the fourth ward will also serve as the local aldermans this year. The winner of the 20th ward election will be

decided in an April run-off.

University graduate student Ameya Pawar will become Chicago’s first Asian-American alderman following an upset for the Lincoln Park seat Tuesday. Pawar beat out Tom O’Donnell to represent the 47th Ward in an unexpected victory.

Pawar is currently a secondyear graduate student at the University’s School of Social Science Administration (SSA), and will finish the program this year. He plans to

Winners

4th ward - Will Burns 5th ward - Leslie Hairston 20th ward - Willie Cochran

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

DISCOURSE

Uncommon Fund apps nearly triple

Student Health VP touts short SCC waits, improved service

35 out of 146 proposals advance to the second round of judging

By Christina Pillsbury Associate News Editor Though the U of C won’t see a “Harper Laser Rave” or be providing the “nation with high-potential

University of Chicago sperm” anytime soon, 35 uncommon proposals were notified yesterday that they’re still in the running to receive Uncommon Fund grants.

After four and a half hours of

debate on the 146 submitted proposals, the Uncommon Fund board voted late Wednesday night to whittle down the applicant pool by 76 percent.

UNCOMMON FUND continued on page 3

Number ofSubmissions submissions Number of

Number of Applications to Uncommon Fund Number of Uncommon Fund applications 150 150 Proposed 120 120

Submissions Chosen applications Finalists Past examples

First Chicago-wide queer conference

90 90 60 60

conference on Jersey Shore

Vermiculture workshop

Student circus show

Campus wind turbine

30 30 0

2007 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2010 2011 2011 2007

By Ella Christoph News Editor Students calling the Student Care Center (SCC) are able to book an appointment within the half day in 90 percent of cases, said Interim Assistant Vice President for Student Health and Counseling Alex Lickerman (M.D. ’92) at a student forum in the Regenstein Library sponsored by the College Council on Thursday.

About 20 students attended the forum, which also included a questionand-answer session with MAC Property Management.

The improvement in securing appointments is just the first in a series of changes Lickerman plans to make to improve satisfaction with health care services.

“I certainly understand that there’s been a lot of dissatisfaction with the student services,” said Lickerman, before going on to describe his further plans to improve the SCC and Student Care Resources Center (SCRS).

Lickerman said when he took the position in December he had four

goals for improving student health care.

First, he said that he wanted to provide outstanding clinical care, which he said he felt was already being done; second, that there must be excellent customer service that makes students feel welcome; third, that open access scheduling must be implemented to make it possible to get timely appointments; and finally, that a health promotion and wellness system be created.

However, Lickerman said the new, on-campus site for the SCC and SCRS would not happen realistically for 18 months to two years.

The current division of the two resources was problematic because of the lack of communication between the two institutions, which acts as a barrier to receiving mental health care, Lickerman said. “Right now, these are very siloed, very separate, almost like separate businesses with different corporate cultures.”

Additionally, he said, the physical issues with both centers need to be addressed: The independent SCRS building and waiting room is an impedi-

HEALTH continued on page 3

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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 25, 2011

DISCOURSE

Sudan correspondent details independence conflicts

By Rebecca Guterman News Staff

Rebecca Hamilton lectures about the challenges and opportunities for a two-state Sudan Wednesday evening at Ida Noyes Hall. Hamilton is a journalist and human rights lawyer, and has received funding from the Pulitzer Center.

DANIEL SELLON/MAROON

Kozlar loses alderman race, still hopes for a future in politics ELECTIONS continued from front page pected retirement in January, Pawar ran to fill the vacant seat with the campaign “Renew Chicago.” He ran on a platform of public service and gained endorsements from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Pawar won 50.8 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a run-off against O’Donnell.

A candidate must secure over 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off election.

He received a Masters of Science from the U of C in Threat & Response Management—a program which he said changed his life.

Fo l l o w i n g h i s g r a d u a t i o n , h e c o n t i n ued studying disasters and local impact.

He currently works as a program assistant at Northwestern University in the Office of Emergency Management.

For fourth-year undergraduate Johnny Kozlar, Tuesday meant the return to student life. The Chicago native lost in the race for the 11th Ward alderman seat, but he hasn’t given up on politics.

“Running was just a breathtaking experience,” Kozlar said. “There are so many opportunities in politics.”

Kozlar secured 22 percent of the votes, beating out Carl Segvich. Both candidates lost to incumbent James A. Balcer, who won the seat with 61 percent of the vote.

He plans to spend the rest of his final year at the University applying to medical schools and finishing his B.A. paper, which includes his own experiences in Chicago politics.

The next 11th ward election will be in 2015, a year Kozlar plans to spend studying medicine—not knocking on doors.

Still, he said the possibility shouldn’t be counted out entirely. “You don’t know until the time comes in three and half years,” he said. At 2 2 years old, he would’ve been the youngest alderman to serve.

Other University students took part in the other aspects of the political process Tuesday— as volunteers, not candidates.

Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel received 55 percent of the vote on Tuesday, thanks in part to student support, including the work of U of C first-year Benjamin Field, a fellow for the campaign.

“These last four days, from Saturday to Tuesday, have been absolutely insane,” Field said. He worked 12 hours each day, canvassing the neighborhoods and making phone calls.

According to Field, the hours of work will pay off for years. “I’m sure that [his election] will bring about a new era in Chicago’s development.”

In the second Ward, incumbent Bob Fioretti held on to his alderman seat with 55 percent of the vote. Among the five opponents, Fioretti faced Genita Robinson (J.D. ’96), the former assistant dean for admissions at the U of C Law School. Robinson garnered 31 percent of the vote.

Incumbent Leslie Hairston secured her seat in the fifth ward following a controversial campaign. With 61 percent, Hairston beat out AnneMarie Miles—the closest opponent with 21 percent of the vote.

Hairston has held the seat since 1999 and plans to continue her efforts to bring retailers to Hyde Park.

In the fourth ward, State Representative Will Burns will assume the vacant seat left by Toni Preckwinkle. Preckwinkle was elected President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners in November and the seat has since been filled by interim alderman Shirley Newsome.

Fourteen of the 50 alderman elections will end in a run-off on April 5, since no candidate won over 50 percent of the vote. Che “Rhymefest” Smith and incumbent Willie Cochran will face off in the 20th Ward for the alderman’s seat in April.

Washington Post reporter Rebecca Hamilton forecasted the challenges that Sudan faces in the coming months as South Sudan separates from the North at a lecture Wednesday in Ida Noyes.

Hamilton, a special correspondent on Sudan, reflected on her experience reporting in the area, a witness to the poverty, disease, and genocide that plagues the region. “What does it mean that two million people died?” Hamilton asked the more than twenty students in the audience. “I have said that statistic many times and the only way I can get a grip on it is that in every interview I do, everyone has [someone] killed by the war.”

The somewhat isolated, mostly Christian Southern region of Sudan voted last month on a referendum in favor of independence from the predominantly Muslim North.

With over 98 percent of votes in favor of independence, the referendum set the ground for the creation of an independent Republic of South Sudan on July 9, 2011.

The unexpected smoothness of the referendum vote and the enthusiasm of the Sudanese people impressed Hamilton. The image of a sick woman insisting on being taken to the polls in a wheelbarrow, even though her family wanted to take her to a hospital for treatment stuck with her. “As I walked closer, the family came towards me and said…she wouldn’t let them do anything [to help her] until she voted,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton suggested that the divide originated with the historical British control.

Britain ran Sudan from the north and outsourced services to missionaries in the

south, creating a religious and cultural schism. Throughout the 1900s, civil war and peace agreements alternated, with much violence erupting especially in the south.

Hamilton said some of the biggest internal problems facing the new South Sudan will be overcoming illiteracy, and gender and education issues. However, she saw independence as a gateway to improving conditions.

For the north, Hamilton suggested there might be internal confusion. “It means something if you lose one third of your territory, territory that connects you to the rest of Africa, and one third of your people,” she said.

Oil and debt will be the two main economic issues between the two regions, Hamilton added. There will have to be cooperation since most of the oil reserves are in South Sudan, but pipes lead to the north. “Sharing oil could be a blessing in the short term because both governments have self-interest,” she said.

In terms of debt, Hamilton explained that the North wants both sides to take responsibility. However, the South argues that they’re not obligated to help pay because the Northern government did nothing to help the southern region with the money it spent.

Political science Ph.D. student Amanda Blair attended the event to keep up to date on Africa, and found Hamilton insightful.

“The most compelling part was thinking about Sudan in the three contexts she presented—internally in the south, internally in the north, and the interrelation between the two,” she said.

The talk was organized by Chicago Careers in Journalism.

around1948: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Transformation

Sawyer Seminar at the University of Chicago, 2011-2012

Sawyer Dissertation Fellowships in Humanities or Social Sciences CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR TWO DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIPS (available 2011-12 or 2012-13) Deadline: FRIDAY, APRIL 8

The yearlong Sawyer Seminar on "Around 1948: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Transformation" at the University of Chicago invites applications for two Dissertation Fellowship awards for either the academic year 2011-12 or the subsequent academic year 2012-13.

These fellowships, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will be awarded to two graduate students in Humanities or Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, pursuing dissertation research in a topic related to the Sawyer Seminar.

The seminar looks at the remarkable historical moment ‘around 1948’ across a range of international locations and from the point of view of several disciplines. The significance of the seminar consists in the effort to identify, clarify, and compare the shape and form of the novel alignments and institutions to emerge in the wake of 1948.

The fellowship provides tuition, the Student Life Fee, University student health insurance on the Basic Plan (if the fellow elects to take it), and a stipend of $23,000. Please see the website for information about eligibility, requirements, and how to apply.

For more information about the Sawyer Seminar "Around 1948," please see: http://around1948.uchicago.edu Coordinated by the Franke Institute for the Humanities

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CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | February 25, 2011

Shah blames SG and administration for oversight SG continued from front page letters often don’t reach a large portion of the student body.

Second-year Samantha Lee complained about the lack of publicity, noting that she never got an email despite her leadership roles at the University. “I lead two RSOs and I never even got the memo that there was even a vacancy and I never saw any tabling and I’m at the Reynold’s Club all the time,” Lee said.

Even Peng agreed some competition would have been nice. “I think they could have pushed it off later but they already held the spot open for two weeks,” said Peng. “They could have publicized it more.”

When ORCSA’s regulations about mass emails stopped SG from notifying the whole campus, SG attempted to publicize the open positions by emailing the candidates who ran unsuccessfully in last year’s elections and tabling in Reynold’s Club, according to Shah.

The official rules are generally ambiguous: Under Article V of the Assembly By-Laws of 2010 that deals with meetings, quorums, and vacancies, clause six specifically states, “Public notice shall be given of all vacancies and the procedures to fill them by the Elections and Rules Committee at least two weeks before the election.”

But SG members are conflicted on ORCSA’s policies regarding publicity.

SG President and fourth-year Greg Nance agreed with the policy, saying SG shouldn’t use bulk emails as the primary means of publicizing information. “We find that the more we do it, the more likely we would see people hit ‘delete’ when they see our mail,” Nance said.

Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees

and second-year Frank Alarcon believes publicity is SG’s responsibility, regardless of email rules. “It is the responsibility of the College Council Chair to publicize vacancies. SG has plenty of tools it can use to share information, such as Facebook and all-student emails,” he wrote in an email.

Second-year Athena Xie, who ran for College Council last year, did get an email but felt that efforts on ORCSA and SG’s part were not sufficient. “I haven’t seen any advertisement on campus or heard from anyone personally regarding the vacancy. I think it makes sense for SG to reach out for previous candidates first because they are the students who are interested in the positions.”

But Lee believes the root of the problem is that the seats are filled by CC and not a student-body vote. “It’s irresponsible and lazy for CC to simply put a ‘blurb’ out on the ORCSA newsletter in a half-hearted attempt to ‘publicize’ the open position. SG needs to reform its bylaws and allow all students to have a say in who will be filling vacancies.”

Shah said a vicious cycle of disregard contributed to the situation: Administrators don’t give SG responsibilities because students don’t respect SG, but students don’t respect SG because the administration doesn’t give it responsibilities.

“It’s an unfortunate process that Student Government doesn’t get to share all of the important news it has. Administration doesn’t view us as an accurate representation of the student body because students don’t care for SG,” Shah said in an email.

—Additional reporting by Adam Janofsky

Proposals range from Jersey Shore conference to finals week puppies UNCOMMON FUND continued from front page The increase in proposals—last year only 54 were submitted—is chiefly reflective of the board’s new web platform-based application Joinstart and an increase in publicity, according to first-year and board member Forrest Scofield.

“There’s a few projects that I’m really excited about. There were so many diverse and so many zany UChicago activities,” Scofield said.

“There’s a project that would bring puppies and kittens from shelters during finals week,” he added with excitement.

The projects chosen cover a wide range of possibilities, including a yoga program for homeless women and children, a day-long conference on the sociological implications of Jersey Shore, an Oriental tea house, pens of kittens and puppies on campus during finals week, and the development of a bracelet that would display the wearer’s hydration levels.

Projects were judged based on feasibility, impact, and “uncommonness,” according to the fund’s website. Third-year David Showater thinks his project, the conference on Jersey Shore, is exactly what the fund is looking for.

“This is very uncommon, most people think it’s a joke, but studying Jersey Shore in an academic, analytical way is very Uncommon,” Showater said. “Just because something is considered popular culture doesn’t mean it’s not worth studying.”

If funded, the conference would be an all-day affair, flying in sociologists from around the country to speak about the changing roles of gender and ethnicity on the show, as well as studying reality TV as a 21st century phenomenon. Funding would cover bringing in speakers, food, and publicity.

Several projects were rejected because the board thought funding could be found elsewhere. “A lot of the projects were well established, like TEDx, but could get funding elsewhere or if there was another organization on campus...already involved in the project,” firstyear and board member Angela Wang said.

One project chosen for the next round, initiated by Saba Berhler, a first-year student at the Pritzker School of Medicine, has already experienced some success but fizzled out in January

without enough funding. Last fall, the free clinic at the Maria Shelter, a transitional living center for homeless women and children, ran a program that combined traditional therapeutic methods with yoga.

“We want to give these women something fun to do and tie it into an educational seminar, have a space to breathe and reflect and think about experiences,” Berhler said.

As for uncommonness, Berhler said that wellness is often overlooked among underprivileged communities. “For women in such an under-served community, wellness is often the last thing on their minds,” she said.

For those projects which have been chosen, the next step is beginning a mentorship program with students from the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the Booth School who will help them reassess their projects and budgets.

The step is an added development to the Uncommon Fund designed to help winners better utilize resources. “The mentoring part gives projects a third party view. It will take people with experience, provide oversight, provide possible connects, and resources,” Scofield said.

Additionally, the mentoring program will help some of the project teams assess their budgets, according to Scofield. Several of the projects didn’t prove themselves feasible monetarily, but the board voted them through, hoping they’ll work with mentors to review their budgets.

The hydration bracelet, a project started by Alex Golovin, requests $25,000—more than half of the fund’s $40,000—more than any other project. Scofield said this team will benefit from the mentorship in learning ways to cut corners, and find funding elsewhere.

Another way students can lower their budgets, according to Uncommon Fund board chair and third-year David Chen, is the new collaboration with Illinois Institute for Technology (IIT) students, who can view and join projects that interest them.

“After talking to a lot of students, one of the biggest problems is finding a developer. Student Government (SG) has had this problem before,” said Chen, who is the SG vice president for administration.

HYDE PARK

Movie theater coming to 53rd Street

By Adam Janofsky MAROON Staff Plans are underway to build a five-screen movie theater near the Harper Court project on South 53rd Street and East Harper Avenue, scheduled to open fall of 2012, the University announced yesterday.

The theater will be one tenant in the strand of vacant buildings that the University bought to renovate and revitalize. Five Guys will open in the corridor by the year’s end, with more tenants being announced over the coming months.

“We believe students, staff, and faculty will be interested in this venture,” said University Senior Communications Officer Wendy Parks. “It’s going to bring increased foot traffic, some excitement, especially the entertainment.”

It will be the second theater run by The New 400 Movie Theaters company, which currently operates one other theater, a four-screen cinema in Rogers Park.

The theater will offer a student discount. At their

Rogers Park location, general admission is $7.50 and student admission is $6.50 with student ID. Showings before 6 p.m. have the matinée price of $5.00.

Tony Fox, the owner, said in a University press release yesterday that he would talk to Doc Films, which is the only other theater near the University.

Some students involved with Doc Films expressed excitement for the new theater, and weren’t worried about the competition. “It would appeal to a totally different audience,” said Doc Films’s second-year Volunteer Chair Michaeljit Sandhu. “We will be happy that there will be more movies in Hyde Park.”

Parks said the new theater will bring jobs to the area and that the University kept the community as a top concern in the development, which was planned to save the empty set of buildings along Hyde Park Avenue. “It was a good fit... Fox is committed to community service and having a business that can be sustainable in the community,” she said.

Harper-Schmidt Society backs fired assistant FIRING continued from front page middle of the quarter,” said Anita Chari, a professor in the Core and a Fellow of the Harper-Schmidt Society, where Cotton also worked.

Kathleen Kish, Cotton’s former supervisor, has assumed responsibility for certain aspects of the job until the department can find a replacement. Still, faculty members have noticed Cotton’s absence.

“Currently, some of the void is not being met,” Chari said. “Some things aren’t being taken care of.”

A meeting between Cotton, Kish, Kuntu, and Katherine Karvunis, another of Cotton’s supervisors, is in the works, Kuntu said. Both Kish and Karvunis declined to comment on personnel matters.

Cotton’s job as project assistant entailed a wide range of services, with specific tasks coming from different professors on an individual basis. Her former position will be restructured to carry a higher pay grade, and will have a stronger focus on technological skills and become more restricted in scope.

According to Chari, a directive has gone out recommending that professors take their needs to Kish, who is not unionized, until the department resolves the matter—a situation that the Local 743 is interpreting as a contractual violation.

“Administrators cannot do a union-position duty,” Kuntu said. “Who can take care of the pro-

fessors like Cheral was doing?”

The abruptness of the layoff has been another source of dismay.

Cotton was given until 2:30 p.m. on her last day to completely clear out her workspace. Cotton’s email account was terminated at noon that day.

According to Professor Dina Gusejnova, this action prevented faculty members from communicating with her.

“There was no notice, no warning, no corrective action, nothing,” Cotton said. “I feel like I was treated as a criminal. I have been at the University of Chicago for 14 years.”

“We are quite shocked by this,” said Gusejnova.

She said that the only notification professors received on the day of the layoff was a short note on changes in mail distribution.

Although no specific actions have been finalized, professors in the Harper-Schmidt Society are planning to convey their dissatisfaction to the administration, according to Chari.

What follows now for Cotton is uncertain.

Cotton’s time at the University ensures that she will have preferential bidding for other campus jobs.

However, Cotton noted that preferential bidding is not a job guarantee.

The department will pay her through Monday and will continue to provide health insurance benefits for another three months.

Lickerman plans to renovate SCC space this summer HEALTH continued from front page ment to confidentiality, and the SCC is difficult to locate in the mazelike University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) building.

“Those of you who have been to Student Care know that it’s basically a dungeon,” Lickerman said.

The new scheduling system eliminated unnecessary appointment categories and rescheduled physicians so that when patient rooms are available, doctors are available to provide care as well.

Lickerman said he hadn’t been trumpeting the news because he was concerned numbers would go up as students found it easier to make appointments, and they still don’t have the resources to reach 100 percent success in timely appointments.

Currently, the average student makes three-and-ahalf visits to the SCC. He’s planning to renovate the space to create more rooms and hire one or two more doctors by September.

Still, Lickerman said, his staff now knows, “You should never be turned away if you walk in.” Lickerman said that for a small percentage of urgent cases that couldn’t be booked within the half day, a student would be able to either speak on the phone or meet in person with a nurse, who would diagnose his or her symptoms and decide

whether or not the student needed immediate care.

Finally, Lickerman said that over the course of years, he aimed to establish the top university health and wellness program in the country. He hopes to establish what he calls a “shadow curriculum” that teaches students about how to take care of their health and how to cope better with illness.

He said that while the SCRS provides good care and, unlike many other schools, does not have a waiting list, he wanted to work on prevention.

Lickerman said mental illness prevention could be summed up in one word: resilience, or “being able to survive and thrive under adverse situations.”

He said this is a skill that can be learned, and that he would rely on metrics to figure out what programs were successful and which ones didn’t really work. “I want to know what [top programs] are doing, I want to know what works, and I want to take it another step,” he said.

Another key would be to help students become well-informed health care consumers so they could “navigate the insane health care system that’s out there” when they graduate.

A student asked how one could give feedback about the SCC and SCRS, and Lickerman said he wanted to get phone calls and emails directly from students to help address their concerns.

4

CHICAGO MAROON

| VIEWPOINTS | February 18, 2011

VIEWPOINTS

EDITORIAL & OP-ED FEBRUARY 25, 2011

EDITORIAL

CHICAGO MAROON

The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

JORDAN HOLLIDAY, Editor-in-Chief JAKE GRUBMAN, Managing Editor ADAM JANOFSKY, Editor-in-Chief-Elect CAMILLE VAN HORNE, Managing Editor-Elect

ELLA CHRISTOPH, 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 JACK DiMASSIMO, Head Designer ABRAHAM NEBEN, Web Editor KEVIN WANG, 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 AMISHI BAJAJ, Copy Editor 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.

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Room for improvement

UChicago Apartments is a useful but underdeveloped tool Moving off campus will never be an easy process. There’s no getting around the drama of picking roommates, choosing whether to live near Treasure Island or Hyde Park Produce, and deciding if the convenience of living south of 55th Street is worth the rent. But for the more concrete dilemmas of the moving process—selecting a realtor, settling on a property— there’s UChicagoApartments.com, a Student Government-run (SG) web site focused on the Hyde Park rental market. The website’s concept and design are great, but there is work to be done before UChicago Apartments is as useful as it could be.

Above all, the web site is in need of a renewed publicity push, particularly now that apartment hunting season is upon us. When it launched in September 2009, SG widely trumpeted the website’s resources, like its Renters’ Guides for setting up utilities and internet. However, the

many graduate and undergraduate students who have arrived on campus since then likely haven’t heard of the resource. An e-mail campaign or fliers around campus could fix that problem.

Beyond that, the resources on UChicago Apartments need to be expanded before it becomes a definitive resource for students moving, and that’s an effort that all of us living off-campus can help with. Many students, assuming that MAC Property Management is the only viable option off-campus, go straight to their offices on East 53rd Street and never look any further. But there are many other realtors and landlords in the neighborhood, some of whom are already detailed on UChicago Apartments.

SG should work to make these realtor listings more comprehensive, and students should use the web site’s feedback links to alert SG to unlisted properties and realtors.

The greatest service offered by the website could be the comments on the realtors: honest, unfettered evaluations of their offerings, posted by current and former residents. But participation in the comments sections is low—MAC only has five comments, the most recent having been posted last August. This leaves students to rely on word-of-mouth and realtors to get input on properties and to guide their apartment search. Those of us already off-campus should visit the site to comment on our current digs, both so future students have more information when looking for apartments and so that realtors and landlords have the incentive to improve.

Once UChicago Apartments has a complete listing of the area’s apartments, with details and comments on each one, students thinking about moving to 52nd Street and Kimbark Avenue will know before signing their

lease that the landlord is especially quick to respond to service requests, for example, or only fixes holes in the wall by taping old newspaper over them. In time, UChicago Apartments could become an indispensable site, just like Course Evaluations are during registration and Yelp is when picking a restaurant.

UChicago Apartments already has a strong framework, and numerous resources for those new to Hyde Park or looking to leave the dorms, but it needs greater student participation and some additional work by site administrators before it is the complete guide it could be. With a little new development, UChicago Apartments stands to become prime real estate for Hyde Park apartment seekers.

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

COLIN THE SHOTS

United state Protests in Wisconsin demonstrate the power of a unified public

By Colin Bradley Viewpoints Columnist Anyone who heard Dr. Vijay Prashad’s keynote address at the UChicago Student Activist Conference in January is very familiar with its main theme: solidarity. Anyone who has seen the Facebook groups posted out of Egypt should have noticed their common theme: solidarity. In fact, anyone who has been following the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain—really, all across the Middle East—will have noticed the one word which seems to underline them all: solidarity.

And now, anyone following the protests in Wisconsin should notice a very familiar word: solidarity. Clearly the protests in Madison are different from those in the Arab world. But there is an interesting thread we can follow from one to the other.

Many of the protestors in the countries of unrest in the Arab world are calling for “Days of Rage.” This is a familiar name in the U of C’s activism community, shared by protests organized in the late 1960s by the former Students for a Democratic Society. At that time, SDS and the entire so-called “New Left” movement were at odds with organized labor. Now, they are united in solidarity.

Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Republicans in the state legislature are attempting to pass

a bill to strip state employees of their collective bargaining rights. This is seen as a clear attack on organized labor in the state, and has drawn tens of thousands of protestors to the capital.

Obviously, labor relations are a controversial issue in this country.

Ever since the early 1970s, when organized labor lost its grips on the Democratic Party, their influence in the government has steadily decreased.

Since their control over local political machines has largely diminished, many people just don’t believe unions to be as important as before. Most recently, the United Auto Workers were even blamed by some for pushing General Motors into bankruptcy during the financial meltdown.

The other issue here seems to be cutting government spending.

Republicans surged back into power last November with promises of stopping what they see to be rampant government spending and unsustainable deficits. They are now trying to cut spending on many domestic programs (including NPR and PBS) and, in some states like Wisconsin, on government employee salaries and pensions.

So what are the facts in Wisconsin?

Governor Walker cites unsustainable state employee pensions as a crucial contributor to the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit. To combat this, he and state Republicans are attempting to pass a bill to de-unionize public employees. The plan is that once they no longer have collective bargaining rights, public employees won’t be able to command the same wages and benefits they can today.

Interestingly, the Pew Research Center seems to have a different opinion of the state of Wisconsin’s pension fund. In fact, Pew praised the Wisconsin fund, calling it a “national

leader in managing its long term liabilities for both pension and retiree health care.” The fund seems to be healthy— very healthy. The Government Accountability Office set 80 percent as a benchmark for state pension fund solvency. In other words, if all the assets in the fund were sold at market value, a state should have enough cash on hand to pay 80 percent of its liabilities. Wisconsin sits at a robust 99.67 percent.

People all over the country are standing up in solidarity.

Wisconsin’s budget deficit simply will not be solved by stripping state employees of their collective bargaining rights. The pension fund can sustain itself remarkably well, and the unions are not being uncooperative.

Union leaders have already agreed to cuts in their health care and pensions.

Based on Governor Walker’s past, it may seem that he simply has it out for unions. In 2010, as the Milwaukee County Executive, he tried to replace the unionized security guards at the county courthouse with a private British security firm. He said he would save taxpayer money. Unfortunately, this move was beyond the limits of his power, and the arbitration to reverse his decision ended up costing taxpayers millions.

Despite massive public outrage (tens of thousands of protestors in Madison and a 61 percent disapproval rating), Governor Walker is stubbornly holding on to his position. He has already

rejected a compromise proposed by a moderate Republican to only temporarily remove union rights. And now he claims that if the bill is not passed by Saturday, 1,500 employees will have to be laid off, followed by another 6,000 over the next two years.

Based on the actual facts of the Wisconsin pension fund, this just looks like a bully’s threat—a dangerous threat.

But the public is responding. Walker’s popularity is sliding rapidly. Republican Governor Charlie Crist of Florida has already denounced Walker’s plans and Republican Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana decided to ditch a very similar bill that his state had been considering.

In fact, people all over the country are standing up in solidarity. Even UChicago students have been involved.

Some current and former students are either already in Madison or heading up at the first opportunity. But reports from activist leaders in Madison say that the front lines have already shifted away from the capitol. This Saturday at noon local time, “Save the Dream” rallies will be held in front of all 50 state houses across the country. This is a chance for people all across the country to express their support not only for organized labor, but also for ending these cheap and quick budget fixes that threaten to undermine the American working and middle classes.

Maybe these domestic protests were inspired by the recent uprisings in the Middle East. They are certainly being supported by them now. A local pizza chain in Madison has received orders to deliver to the capitol protestors from people in at least 15 countries, including Egypt—a country very familiar with solidarity.

Colin Bradley is a first-year in the College.

VOICES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 25, 2011

THEATER

Now is the Winter of UT's discontent

By Wenjia Zhao Voices Missed Connection

But there will be no nudity in this production, Bishop says. Though he would prefer to stick to the script, he concedes that on-stage nudity in a college theater would have been too uncomfortable. “Some of the actors’ friends are going to be in the audience, and it will be awkward to see them naked,” he said.

However, the sex scenes are still there, and the actors should be admired for their daring. Also, Cutler is brilliant as Davis. He rattles off Davis’s long lines fluidly and

with a caustic undertone that lets Davis’s egotistic personality shine through. We see Matt’s shyness around people through his stiff gait and stumbling stammer that is acted out by Stein. Brooks manages to pull off a convincing Parisian accent and even sings on stage.

What is most surprising about this play is that it’s built on archetypes and familiar plot lines. Matt is the stereotypical bookish nerd, and Davis is the popular jerk (think Tony and Sid from Skins). Christina acts the role of the femme fatale— beautiful, seductive, and, as if taking the phrase literally, French. The storyline itself is just as conventional.

There are few plot-inducing surprises, and the ending is something we might have expected of a romantic tragedy.

That is not to say the play is any less of a masterpiece. In fact, what makes it brilliant is its familiarity and simplicity. With well-crafted dialogue, Rapp manages to paint an underlying tone of realism beneath the stereotypical, and the truth has never been made more glaring.

Looking past Matt’s awkwardness, we can relate and sympathize with his situation and dilemma.

In a school reputed for its anti-social tendencies, Red Light Winter reminds us of what those LikeALittle postings and constant Facebook stalking stand for. In the end, we are left with a familiar image of a one-sided love, the excitement and expectations, and the bittersweet knowledge of what could have been.

tive, it’s impossible not to be moved by Harvey’s mournful wailing.

“The Colour of the Earth” ends the album with no real resolution. Instead, the album fades to a close, leaving the listener grasping for a conclusion. The

beauty of Let England Shake is that there is no simple answer. The album tackles the brutality of war and paints a sonic landscape of scarcity. It is unsettling, and the lyrics are profound in their vivid portrayals.

Imagine you’re in a tiny gray room with one window, moldy walls, and dingy furniture. It’s winter, and the room is cold. You have been trying, and failing, to sleep for the past week, and the insomnia is making you suicidal. You are plagued by claustrophobia, loneliness, sexual frustration, writer’s block, and your egotistic roommate is driving you insane —the very roommate, who, right at this desperate moment, comes into the room with the girl you’re in love with.

RED LIGHT WINTER Third Floor Theater Through Saturday, February 26

Red Light Winter is a story about unrequited love and intimacy and the loneliness and expectations that nurture love. It is, in director and third-year Will Bishop’s words, “about how a one-sided relationship can last, more or less.” The two-act play, written by the Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Adam Rapp, showcases the tangled relationships between two friends and a prostitute they meet in Amsterdam.

Both acts of Red Light Winter are set in a small room in the middle of winter. Matt (second-year Alex Stein) is a suicidal and socially awkward playwright who lives in New York. He travels to Amsterdam with his womanizing and self-confident friend, Davis (third-year Andrew

Matt (left, second-year Alex Stein) walks in to find Davis (middle, third-year Andrew Cutler) macking on Christina (fourth-year Meg Brooks).

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

Cutler). Despite their apparent friendship, Davis often picks on Matt and makes caustic remarks about his work.

His blithe attitude aside, Davis does try to do his friend a favor by engaging a beautiful Parisian prostitute, Christina (played by fourthyear Meg Brooks) to sleep with Matt for the night. Matt falls for Christina almost immediately, and after that night can hardly forget her. When she reappears the next winter at his apartment in New York, Matt is both

surprised and joyful. He hopes that his unrequited love can finally be reciprocated.

When Red Light Winter first premiered in Chicago’s Steppenwolf Garage Theatre in 2005, its violent and explicit sexual depictions set reviewers’ tongues wagging. For one controversial sex-scene, the actors were shown in the nude, and the act itself was barely hidden underneath a few blankets. This openness lent the original play a discomforting chord of realism amid the dramatics.

MUSIC

PJ Harvey redefines the art of war

By Lyndsey McKenna Voices Ferdinand Almost a century later, World War I still resonates among artists. PJ Harvey is said to have been inspired by the historic war for her eighth studio album, Let England Shake. Harvey muses on combat, desolation, and despair as she sings over a sonic framework that at times mirrors the grizzly battlefields of war and during others creates a captivating, up-tempo juxtaposition to the somber lyrics. Let England Shake is a highly conceptual, extraordinarily vivid, tragic, and traumatic work that will remain with the listener long after its 40 minutes are through.

The album opens with “Let England Shake,” a striking, almost jangling piece that is immediately captivating. The twinkling taps of the xylophone are jarring and somewhat surreal, making it a standout song. This is followed by “The Last Living Rose,” a track in which the use of brass instruments hearkens back to a period long gone.

One interesting aspect of Let England Shake is the extensive use of the Autoharp. In using this haunting and ethereal instrument, Harvey is able to construct an eerie environ-

ment—perfect for an album concerned with massive death and destruction.

Its strange, airy sound draws the listener in immediately. This is particularly effective on “All and Everyone,” where Harvey sings, “Death was everywhere,” and the combination of the brassiness of the saxophone and the trombone clashes with the Autoharp. When the tempo slows, the effect is disturbing.

LET ENGLAND SHAKE PJ Harvey Vagrant Records

On “The Glorious Land,” Harvey’s voice is equally captivating and dissonant as she sings, “Our lands are plowed by tanks and feet / feet marching.” A trumpet sounds throughout the piece—a jarring addition that makes it impossible to let the music be the background to the vocals. It’s alarming, but it is evident that this sense of disquietude was completely intentional. The distance of Harvey’s voice and the distance of the trumpet sound make the piece feel as expansive as the empty fields described.

The lyrics on Let England Shake convey horrific scenes of war in a blunt, almost disturbing manner. In “The Words That Maketh Murder,” Harvey proclaims, “I’ve seen and done things that I want to forget / I’ve seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat.”

“Hanging in the Wire” presents a grim scene as the stark “smashed up waste ground” is revealed after “the mist rises over no man’s land.” The scenes that Harvey’s lyrics paint are remarkably vivid, and their solitude is mimicked sonically by the simplicity of the music itself. The accompaniment is simple and at times almost upbeat.

A cautionary note: This album isn’t for the faint of heart, lyrically or sonically. Harvey’s voice is absolutely dramatic and powerful in its expression. It is ghostly and gorgeous, haunting and horrifying—sometimes all within the same song.

In “On Battleship Hill,” the high register of Harvey’s voice clashes with the strong, sharp, even caustic strumming of the zither. The song rises to a chorus made by a combination of multiple voices, and Harvey strains to proclaim, “Cruel nature has won again.” Another song, “England,” is a short, reflective piece in which the vocals are so emo-

COURTESY OF VAGRANT RECORDS

6

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | February 25, 2011

Style

Chicago Manual of

Keep the real world in mind when buying online

by Jessen O’Brien

Online shopping certainly has its benefits. You can buy anything in the comfort and warmth of your own home, find that one item you need without being distracted by others, and compare prices from many stores without running back and forth among them. But online shopping also has some serious downfalls, and it helps to keep a few things in mind so as to avoid them.

The truth of online shopping is that what you see is not always what you get. Although the photo might look straightforward, keep in mind that there may be a battalion of clips positioning the dress on the model, just hidden from sight.

Furthermore, there’s lighting, angling, and the fact that you are seeing the clothing on someone other than yourself. The colors and fit are probably not quite what they appear to be, and it’s impossible to have certain knowledge of how comfortable the item is.

So how do you look past these tricks? First, it’s better to shop brands you know. For one, it gives boundaries to the inexhaustible world of online shopping. It’s so easy to keep looking for another, better bargain online that sometimes it’s hard to stop. If you only look at brands you know, you’ll find it easier to make a purchase. Plus, shopping at familiar stores means you’re more likely to end up with an item that fits correctly. Especially given the oddities of women’s sizes—a 0 is far more ambiguous than 25”—it’s better to buy from a company you know so that you can be certain

you need a 4 and not a 6. This will help ensure that when whatever you buy arrives, it fits.

Second, take a good look at the written description. That top might look black in a photograph, but a quick glance at its description might reveal that it’s actually dark purple. You also want to check and see if there’s a size chart or a description of the material, the style—anything that provides an alternative to the photograph. A photograph seems like more concrete evidence than the written word, but a comparison of the two will provide the best understanding of what you’re purchasing.

Third, take a good look at the photograph.

Examine multiple views and use the close-up feature if it’s available. If all the photos consist of the model holding the garment or posing peculiarly, it’s not a good sign. It might fit oddly or only work on a specific body type. Keep an eye out for the tell-tale sign of strange modeling, read the reviews, and, most importantly, know what works on you.

If a scoop-neck isn’t your best neckline, don’t get persuaded into buying one because it looks so great online. It may very well look fantastic on you, but since you can’t try it on, you’re better off buying something you know looks great.

All of these tips follow the same basic principle: Cut down on the number of unknown variables.

You’re infinitely more likely to end up with a garment you love than one to add to your outgoing mail pile or the back of your closet.

Street Style by Christina Pillsbury Vivien Chung, MAPSS student, Anthropology concentration Fashion Philosophy: “I try not to put too many things together, just one point to the whole look.”

This Outfit: “Today I'm really showing my Korean patriotism; everything I'm wearing is from Korea.”

Vivien coupled a basic black peacoat with a ruffled black shawl to produce a simple but elegant effect. The tan purse only adds to the classic neutral-toned winter outfit. Not even a blizzard could stop her commitment to looking classy.

The Fun Corner.

"Acceptance"

Solution to today's puzzle

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

54. USN rank 57. Letters after “Yeaaaaaaaah!”

58. One of Lear’s daughters 59. Kind of wonder 61. Memo words 62. PS3 maker on the NYSE 63. Poet Pablo 64. Half of oct65. Caddy’s peg 66. See 53-down 67. Old English letters 68. Dadaist Jean

Across 1. Nikon D90, e.g. (abbr.)

4. Give off 8. See 1-down 14. It might be skinny 15. Dalai ___ 16. Konami classic 17. Actress Thurman 18. Part of IMO 19. Like four of the five films referenced in this puzzle 20. City of central California 22. Yet 23. Small, medium, or large (abbr.)

24. Natalie Portman’s 27. Mark who was Luke 28. We hold this truth to be self-evident 32. Artist who released /\/\ /\ Y /\ in 2009 35. “___ Dogs Go To Heaven” 36. League for Satchel Paige 37. David Fincher’s 42. British breakfast bite 43. Taiwanese name 44. Tater ___ (lunchroom nugget) 45. [Meh] 46. Joni Mitchell’s “A ___ You” 49. Christian Bale’s

Down 1. With 8-across, James Franco’s 2. Wheels of fortune?

3. “___ to Start” (Arcade Fire song played at the Grammys) 4. Actress Cuthbert 5. Zone alternative 6. Frozen, perhaps 7. Zonday who penned “Chocolate Rain” 8. Man who can’t get no love from TLC 9. Where the dream of the ’90s is alive 10. Bambi’s aunt 11. Contralto James 12. Rep in the ’hood 13. It ends in Mecca 21. Command level (abbr.)

22. “Just a sec” online 25. Whence Kenan and Kel 26. Phys. activity 29. Andrew W.K.’s masterpiece “___ Wet” 30. Ish 31. Not quite 35-across 32. Air ball, e.g.

33. Mark of a ruler?

34. Liquid suffix 38. “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is ___” 39. Macbeth’s crime 40. Given, as a post 41. 0˚, on a compass 46. ___-Town 47. One side of a current NFL debate 48. Friend partner 50. “Raw” Dutch fashion label 51. B. & O. stop 52. 1982 Barry Levinson film 53. With 66-across, Christopher Nolan’s 54. Mass. neighbor 55. Tire in Toulouse 56. Rahm just got one 60. Ethernet device 61. Meteor’s end?

7

CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | February 25, 2011

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Up-and-down season to end in St. Louis

W. BASKETBALL continued from back page

By Mat Luchins Sports Staff After a thrilling victory over NYU last weekend that included 39 points from third-year Matt Johnson, men’s basketball will round up their inconsistent and injury-marred season tomorrow at 3 p.m. against Wash U tomorrow.

Though Rochester has already claimed the UAA title, a victory for the Maroons (9–15, 6–7 UAA) would see them tied for third in the conference, even with Wash U (13–11, 7–6).

“It’s a rivalry game. No matter what titles the teams are playing for or where they’re placed, it’s always competitive,” head coach Mike McGrath said. “We want to end on a high note and a victory at their place would definitely do that.”

A key to getting that victory will be limiting Wash U forward Spencer Gay, the UAA’s leading rebounder and fifth most prolific scorer. Gay put up 21 points and 11 rebounds at Ratner the last time the two teams met in early January. In spite of Gay’s day, the Maroons pulled off a dramatic 79–77 victory.

“He’s very talented and hard to guard,” McGrath said. “He’s more of a post player, but also athletic enough to put the ball on the floor and drive at you.

Our team defense will be just as important to stopping him as the one-on-one match up.”

The Maroons, however possess the UAA’s hottest scorer, third-year point guard Matt Johnson.

Last Sunday versus NYU, Johnson scored 39 points—including the game winning three-pointer— en route to an 82–80 victory. That spectacular effort set three Ratner Center records (points, threepointers, and field goals scored) and garnered the UAA’s second-leading scorer his third Athlete of the Week award.

Johnson’s scoring will not only be crucial tomorrow, but also next year. The Maroons’ entire lineup will return. Four current starters will return

Win at Wash U could mean home court advantage in NCAA

night that we have for our big games, we should be in good shape.”

McGrath seemed optimistic about next year’s incoming players.

“We follow the normal admissions process, so we will find out who we get over the next couple months,” he said. “But we feel really good about our pool of potential players.”

Tomorrow it comes down to the current crop of players to end the conference season as they started it: with a win over Wash U.

“I don’t think it matters if we won the conference or not,” third-year forward Morgan Herrick added. “Wash U is our biggest rival. Regardless of our ranking, we always get hyped up for Wash Week. There’s just excitement in the air. It’s a tradition of UChicago basketball.”

The Saturday match is the only contest of the weekend for Chicago, which is unusual for a team that regularly plays on both Fridays and Sundays.

For the one game to be against another traditional UAA power is even more beneficial.

“It’s a huge advantage to just play one team over the weekend,” Herrick continued.

“Being able to focus on just one team and their personnel and playing style is great. We can just focus on the plays of one team, and that makes it easier to concentrate in practice.”

“We have a perennial kind of point to make by beating Wash U. We have always split with them, so our girls have a lot of pride on the line,” Sain added. “They want to win, and close it out, and be undefeated. We want to be unquestionably the best team in the UAA.” And as Kaplan pointed out, winning the league title isn’t going to mean much to the opponent.

“It’s going to be a dog fight. They’re very wellcoached since they were the national champions last year,” she noted. “For them, we’re just another good team to beat. Our run doesn’t make much of a difference.”

Even with an NCAA Tournament berth clinched, the team needs to finish strong to potentially host a first-round game.

“We’re on a long win streak, and we always prepare to win,” Herrick concluded. “If we lose, it’s just that much more motivation to get prepared for the first game of the tournament. But winning at Wash U would top off a great UAA season. We can’t slack off. We have to keep going at this pace and keep our run going into the tournament.”

Hallman sets three Chicago records en route to all-conference honors

UAA is among DIII’s strongest conferences

SWIMMING continued from back page

TRACK AND FIELD continued from back page

ifying for NCAAs in the two butterfly events.

Hallman broke school records in the three events he swam and won all-conference honors in these events. Fourth-year James Schlabach, third-year Nick Santora, and third-year Marius Aleska joined Hallman in an all-UAA third-place performance in the 400-yard relay in the meet’s final event.

Chicago hosts the Midwest Invitational this Friday and Saturday at the MyersMcLoraine Pool before heading to Knoxville, TN, for NCAAs March 23-26. The meet this weekend is a chance for team members to qualify for nationals in a familiar setting.

Fourth-year Ed Wagner is hopeful that this will be another good weekend for the swim team. “We have several swimmers on the brink of qualifying for nationals. If it goes as well as conference, I have no doubt we will send a bigger team than ever to NCAAs.”

tain number of athlete are allowed to be on the official UAA roster. For Constantine, she is still confident in her team’s ability to perform even with having to compete in multiple events.

The UAA meet typically is one of the strongest in the country, so the pressure will be on this weekend for Chicago athletes. Almost every event features national-caliber competition. UAA meets aren’t often held in Henry Crown—the last time around was in 2007.

The rookie of the year that year was alumnus Nicole Murphy, who just graduated last year with several All-American titles to her name.

Constantine is now continuing the legacy of Chicago dominance in the throws, and she’s confident that the rest of her teammates will follow her example.

“When the final rosters are scored up in preparation for the meet, I believe that we’ll have the highest anticipated point total,” she said.

Matt Johnson shoots a three against NYU last Sunday. Johnson had a historic 39-point performance in the gut-wrenching victory over the Violets, breaking three Ratner scoring records.

DARREN LEOW/MAROON

as fourth-years, and third-year forward Steve Stefanou—last year’s leading scorer—should be fully recovered from an injury that kept him out half the year.

“We are very excited for next year,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve shown at times that we can be a great team, with wins over several top-25 teams including second-ranked Illinois Wesleyan and the only win in the UAA against champion Rochester.

But we need to be much more consistent. If we can learn to bring the same focus and energy every

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SPORTS

IN QUOTES “I love the choir and all that stuff was great, but you at least gotta jump over the car though, right? I’m 41 years old and right now I could jump over two smart cars.”

—Former SuperSonics great Shawn Kemp, criticizing Blake Griffin’s winning dunk in last weekend’s NBA dunk contest.

TRACK AND FIELD

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

UAA COMES TO CROWN

Conference meet brings in national caliber talent

By Liane Rousseau Sports Staff It’s championship weekend for track and field. Chicago is hosting the UAA Championships this Saturday at Henry Crown Field House. This meet determines the conference champion and is also a great opportunity for individual competitors to post results that will qualify them for nationals.

“Track is unique in that teams don’t qualify for nationals, but individuals qualify on behalf of a team,” explained fourth-year Kristin Constantine, one of the captains of the women’s team. “Last year when we got the fourth-place trophy, it was earned by a team of five women. Liz [Lawton] and I are the only women that are going [to nationals] for certain so far, so this meet gives people a really great opportunity to get great times in order to go.”

The women hope to excel again on the national stage this year, and the first step is finishing well this weekend.

“Right now, we’re in a position to win the UAA,” said Constantine.

“We aim our training cycle to peak for this week. Plus, we have the advantage of being at home, which is really exciting.”

Similarly, the men’s team is also looking forward to competing well this weekend. However, they’ll have

to take out the favorite, Wash U, to come out on top.

“Going into the meet, our men are solidly in second place in the conference,” said fourth-year Brian Andreycak, one of the captains of the men’s team. “Wash U is the favorite, with Emory behind us.”

The men’s team is still looking strong despite going into this meet as underdogs. Like the women’s team, their training schedule has been tailored to allow enough recovery time for this meet from previous competitions in order to gear the team towards a peak performance.

“We’re a little bit banged up and sore,” said Andreycak, “but we should be able to pull ourselves together and have some great performances this weekend.”

Like the women’s team, only individual performances count in qualifying for nationals. Although the men’s team is ranked on a national level, they do not qualify as a whole.

“We would obviously like to have people put forth performances which would get them into the national meet, but we will likely be asking our guys to do more events, possibly taking away from their potential to hit their best possible times,” explains Andreycak.

Because it is a UAA meet, both teams will have to shuffle their competitors around because only a cer-

TRACK AND FIELD continued on page 7

Maroons duel top-ten Wash U in conference finale

By Noah Weiland Sports Staff

Fourth-year John Sabacinski throws at a meet earlier this year.

The men’s team is one of the favorites heading into the UAA meet.

DARREN LEOW/MAROON

Women’s basketball has won 17 in a row, yet none of them may be as important as this weekend’s game against ninth-ranked Wash U (20–4, 11–2 UAA). Eighth-ranked Chicago (21–3, 13–0) won its second conference title in four years last Sunday, extending its current win streak and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“Going down there and getting a win would be a big deal,” assistant coach Carissa Sain said. “We’ve been playing with a lot of momentum for seventeen games. Winning is contagious, and when you win a lot in a row, it starts to feel like something you expect. But this team doesn’t rest on its laurels.”

Despite already taking the UAA title, the players are confident they won’t slack off leading up to the game.

“It’s one of the games we look forward to the most,” fourth-year guard Dana Kaplan said. “It’s always tense.

It’s kind of an unspoken rivalry. They still haven’t given us credit or respect us as UAA champions, and we just want to beat them again to prove we’re the best.”

“We call it ‘Wash Week,’ and we’ve been practicing really hard,” third-year guard Joann Torres said. “The preparation is certainly different. The focus is very intense compared to other weeks.”

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SWIMMING AND DIVING

Chicago teams finish top-three at UAAs

By Peter Visser Sports Staff This weekend was indeed a splashing success for men’s and women’s swimming. Stellar performances by Chicago last weekend at the UAA Championships saw numerous records shattered and qualified six Maroons for the national NCAA meet in March.

Repeating last year’s performance at conference, the women and men finished second and third, respectively, in a meet that posted significantly faster times than in previous years. Emory won its 13th consecutive men’s and women’s titles, and Carnegie Mellon finished second in the men’s competition.

The Maroons took fewer swimmers and divers to the meet than is allowed by UAA regulations.

Yet despite incomplete rosters, Chicago managed to match the teams’ top conference finish. “I was very pleased with our performance this year. The women had some amazing performances and the guys fought back from being sixth day one to almost getting second on the last day,” head coach Jason Weber said.

“This meet was much faster than

Fourth-year Dan Nichols swims butterfly at a meet earlier this year. Nichols was a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay that finished sixth at UAAs. CAMILLE VAN HORNE/MAROON

ever before, especially on the women’s side, and the team standing for places second through fi fth were much closer than in recent years.”

A key component of the teams’ success again this year is the consistent high placing by the divers.

Second-year Becky Schmidt gar-

nered UAA Athlete of the Week honors after winning both diving competitions for the second straight year. “I am really impressed by the increased quality of competition across the conference. On the diving side, many more divers earned national-qualifying scores

than ever before,” Schmidt said.

“I feel very confident that I will be returning to Nationals this year.”

This confidence is well-earned by the diver, as well as her teamm a t e s . S ch m i d t ’ s t h r e e - m e t e r score exceeded last year’s national qualifying level by 8 0 points.

Second-year diver Bobby Morales, competing with a torn tricep, received all-conference honors by finishing third with a new school record and national qualifying score of 463.05 points in the threemeter finals.

The divers will be joined at the national meet by up to six other swimmers. Third-year Tara Levens qualified in the 100-yard backstroke and is “on the bubble” in the 200-yard backstroke. Second-years Tatum Stewart and Kate Taylor also posted qualifying times in second-place fi nishes in the 200yard butterfl y and the 1650-yard freestyle, respectively. Levens, who placed in the top eight in all three of the events she entered, is looking forward to competing at the national level. “We swam very well overall. We kept good momentum going throughout the meet and only got stronger as the sessions went on,” Levens said.

“It looks like we should have a good group for NCAAs, so it’ll be exciting to see what happens there.”

First-year Eric Hallman finished in the top three in all of his events, and is also “on the bubble” for qual-

SWIMMING continued on page 7