Chicago-Maroon-11-03-04

CHICAGO CHICAG

MAROON The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2011 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 33 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM

STUDENT LIFE

Image controversy forces Vita publishing delay

Last chance to dance

Last-chance meets give Maroons one more opportunity at NCAA berths

Sports, back page

DISCOURSE

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Zimmer talks India, Rahm Uncommon Fund University looking for sites for Center in New Delhi

board defends neutrality

By Julia Greenberg News Staff

By Christina Pillsbury Associate News Editor

Questions regarding the legality of images in the winter issue of Vita Excolatur, the quarterly on-campus erotic art and sex magazine, prompted ORCSA to delay printing of the magazine, which was scheduled to be released ninth week.

Assistant Vice President for Student Life Elly Daugherty and former Assistant Vice President for Student Life Bill Michel, who is now the executive director of the Logan Center for Creative and Performing Arts, are currently reviewing the proof of the magazine to determine whether publishing it is legal, according to Vita staff.

The senior staff of Vita met with ORCSA advisor Ravi Randhava yesterday regarding two controversial images– one a close-up of male-female penetration, and another involving penetration using a vegetable. The photographs fit into Vita’s winter quarter theme, ‘Play.’

Although ORCSA did not cite a particular law, Illinois’s 1961 Obscenity Law deems material obscene “if the average person, applying the contemporary adult community standards, would find that, taken as a whole, it appeals to the prurient [sexual] interest.”

Members of Vita argue that they are responding to their U of C audience.

with mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel.

“We’re in the state now of looking for sites in India,” Zimmer told the 25 students in the audience.

An ad hoc faculty committee on India submitted a proposal for the Center last February, detailing the need for such a Center and the goals it would have.

Ties between Uncommon Fund board members and groups applying for funding have led some to question the board’s ability to impartially judge proposals. While acknowledging that some board members have personal investments in projects being evaluated, the board maintains that last week’s vote to determine finalists, as well as the upcoming final decisions, are not swayed by outside involvements.

Two memb ers of the b oard admitted to being involved in projects enough to abstain from voting on those projects. First-years Angela Wang and Forrest Scofield abstained from projects they felt invested in: Wang does marketing for the Road to Innovative Social Entrepreneurial-Pakistan (RISEPakistan) project, and Scofield has worked with the Sustainable Water for UChicago project.

Board members were expressly told not to apply for funding or be “involved in projects” applying for funding, according to thirdy e a r U n c o m m o n Fu n d B o a r d chair David Chen, who also serves as the vice president of Student

FORUM continued on page 2

UNCOMMON continued on page 2

VITA continued on page 2

Zimmer and Vice-President of Student Life Kim Goff-Crews addressed student concerns at a forum held Tuesday.

MATT BOGEN/MAROON

By Adam Janofsky MAROON Staff President Robert Zimmer discussed the University’s local and global expansions with students at an open “Coffee & Donuts” forum Tuesday in the McCormick Tribune Lounge.

Zimmer began by announcing

ADMINISTRATION

plans for a Center in New Delhi, similar to the University’s Centers in Paris and Beijing, and elaborated on the University’s commercial developments around East 53rd Street and South Harper Avenue.

He also fi elded student questions on the University’s political stances, the University’s response to the blizzard, and plans for working

ARCHITECTURE

Professors late to turn in book lists Math-Stat renovations resume after fire Some course book lists are still not available on time schedule website, despite federal mandate

By Ben Pokross News Staff A University policy requiring that faculty post their reading materials in advance of course registration is falling short of its legal mandate, according to the registrar’s office.

Book lists for many courses continue to go unpublished during quarterly registration periods as professors fail to adjust to a new system implemented at the end of last spring to comply with the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA). The policy requires that professors post links to their reading materials alongside every course listing on the time schedules.

The HEOA, signed into law in 2008, gave colleges and universities until July 1, 2010, to meet its requirements that students have full access to the costs of their courses, including book costs.

“This textbook requirement is just one of the provisions in HEOA that aim to make the true cost of higher education visible to students and their families,” said Associate Registrar Jacqualyn Casazza in an e-mail.

But many teachers, who often don’t give students syllabi until the first day of class and may change their reading list as the quarter progresses, are either not posting syllabi at all or are not posting syllabi in time for either preregistration or regular registration.

When preregistration for spring quarter ended a week ago, a number of courses did not have their lists posted online.

“The timing to complete [the book lists] is remarkably earlier than the teachers have historically done,” University Registrar Gabriel Olszewski said.

In order to encourage faculty to comply with the law, the Registrar’s Office sends out an e-mail to any professors leading a class in an upcoming quarter encouraging them to submit their book lists by fifth or sixth week.

In addition to the memo, the Office of the Provost advertised the new law in a letter sent last spring to all professors and department heads.

The number of classes that provide book listings has increased steadily since the introduction of the new

BOOK LISTS continued on page 2

By Jonathan Lai Senior News Staff Four months after a fire tore through the statistics and mathematics building, renovation of the building has resumed.

The “adaptive reuse” of the building is continuing as planned, according to architect Michael Rosen, whose firm is designing the project.

Efforts to renovate the building, located at 5727 South University Ave, for its future role as the Stevanovich Center for Financial Mathematics have been ongoing since last summer, but were set back by the extra-alarm fire, which broke out October 26, 2010.

The fire shut down construction of the building for “assessment of the damage and the development of a fire remediation plan and construction restart schedule,” according to Facilities Services’s web page for the project.

At the time of the fire, the building was unoccupied, and the flames destroyed the roof and various interior features. A firefi ghter received treatment at the University of Chicago Medical

Center after sustaining injuries from falling debris. No other injuries were reported.

The Chicago Police Department’s (C P D) Bomb and Arson Unit investigated the fire and found it to be non-criminal, according to CPD spokesman Daniel O’Brien.

“The project is going to b e completed as planned, but it was

a major setback obviously because of the fire,” Rosen said. Still, he is optimistic about the construction.

“There was a lot of destruction of the historic features, but the plan is to rebuild them,” he said.

A new timeline for the project completion will be announced soon, according to University spokesman Steve Kloehn.

The Math-Stat building, which caught fire on October 26, 2010, is being restored. Damage assessment delayed renovations by four months.

CAMILLE VAN HORNE/MAROON

2

CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | March 4, 2011

University to conduct formal review of blizzard response

Vita staff argue magazine is art, not pornography

FORUM continued from front page

VITA continued from front page

“A University of Chicago presence in India might contribute to the intellectual, political, and cultural life of India,” the report reads.

“The process may open our campus and our faculty to new voices and insights from India.”

Zimmer added that the success of other University Centers, which include the Booth School’s presence in Singapore and London, makes administrators optimistic about a similarly sized Center in India.

He touched upon the University’s development along East 53rd Street, including a Hyatt Place hotel in Harper Court, slated to open in 2013. Other development initiatives have included a Five Guys restaurant, a fivescreen movie theater that was announced last Thursday, and other commercial stores that will be announced in the coming months.

“We’re hoping to see a mixed use environment in the effort of creating a more active street in Hyde Park,” Zimmer said. “It’s a work in progress.”

Zimmer commented on the University’s emergency reaction to the February blizzard, saying that a formal review is underway. He added that the lateness of the 3 a.m. e-mail

notification sent out to the student body could have been improved.

On Emanuel, Zimmer was optimistic that the University will maintain its good relationship with the city, mentioning that he spoke with Emanuel that morning. “We have talked to him about more ways of being involved with the community...our relationship with the city will continue to evolve and get better,” he said.

Graduate student liaison to the Board of Trustees Jordan Phillips (A.B. ’10) questioned Zimmer ab out the Kalven Report, a faculty-written document that affirms the University’s neutrality on larger political issues. Phillips is a first-year in the Committee on International Relations program.

Zimmer has cited the report in the past when asked to comment on issues like the University’s stance on undocumented student immigrants.

But he added that there are gray areas in determining where to apply the report, citing the University’s decision to openly support financial aid as an example of “supporting our University’s direct academic mission” through specific political stances.

Scofield says advocacy for proposal is helpful, not a conflict of interest UNCOMMON continued from front page Government (SG). “We didn’t want a conflict of interest. They can be part of an RSO that starts a project, but they can’t be the leader of the project,” Chen said.

According to Uncommon Fund board members—two SG members and six non-SG members—last week’s February 23 vote operated on the honor system with regard to potential conflicts of interest. If a member had a personal investment, he or she abstained from voting on the project. But if there wasn’t an initial unanimous decision, the members engaged in discussion prior to the second vote, which determined whether the group made it to the next round.

“I’m working very closely with the Bottled Water [Sustainable Water for UChicago] group, I can talk on their behalf, but I can’t vote,” said Scofield, a first-year College Council (CC) representative and Uncommon Fund board member. “We leave it up to the board members. If they feel like they can’t be unbiased with a project, then they don’t vote.”

One student who is involved with SG and applying for Uncommon Fund money said he saw potential for bias in the Fund’s evaluation of proposals. The student, who preferred to remain anonymous due to a potential conflict of interest with his role in SG, said he wanted to join the board, but was advised not to because he is part of a team applying for the fund. He was then surprised to learn that Scofield was on the board.

Board members were chosen by Chen and Stacey Ergang, assistant director of ORCSA for student development and the board’s advisor. The two looked for applicants from diverse backgrounds including artists, students involved in Greek life, athletes, entrepreneurs, and one member of the circus.

The student said that the rules about board members’ role on Joinstart, the Fund’s online application platform, are unclear and present a conflict of interest. The social

media website uses a Facebook-style platform in which users can “follow” or “join” various projects. Board members are allowed to follow projects but not to join them.

“Part of the problem is that members are allowed to follow teams, and it’s really hard to understand on what level are they remaining partial,” he said. “There are [board members] affi liated with teams before Joinstart started, so the fact that board members can’t join projects is completely irrelevant.”

The student also said that the voting process could lead to biases. “I think that’s problematic: Even if you’re not going to vote on a project you’re involved with, you’re still involved in allocating money to each project,” he said. “So even if I don’t get a vote on my project, I could give less to other projects.”

Earlier this quarter, Scofield served as the liaison between Students Against Bottled Water (SABW), a subset of the Green Campus Initiative RSO, and wrote a resolution that aligned SG with SABW’s mission.

He said that as the SABW’s liaison, he was able to act as an advocate during the voting process.

“I have information about the project that other members don’t,” Scofield said. “So I think it will help them make an informed decision.”

But Chen said Scofi eld’s involvement is no different than any other opinion. “He has an opinion that he doesn’t want bottled water on campus, I have the opinion that we should have oscillation [another project] on campus,” Chen said. “But that’s different than actually being part of the project.”

While the bottled water project went through to the next round, Wang’s project, RISE-Pakistan, did not.

Chen said in the end, he hadn’t seen any partiality during the voting process. “As the chair, I think I have done my job to keep the board impartial,” he said. “In Forrest’s specific case, I didn’t notice that Forrest was being partial. The procedure itself is impartial.”

CORRECTIONS » The March 1 article "Inspired By Brown, Activists Push For HEI Non-Investment" misstated the name of University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer.

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

“People who bought the magazine wanted to see penetration,” Vita’s head designer and third-year Anne Quaranto said. “They wanted to see the magazine go further. It’s too coy, it’s too cute, they said. Push some boundaries. That’s the student body the University claims to represent.”

Quaranto said it was unclear to Vita whether or not there was a precedent for penetration images being deemed unlawful, but that Randhava had said they were. “According to Ravi, it’s a pornographic shot no matter what caption we put with it or what disclaimer we add, and because it’s pornographic, it’s illegal to print. I really haven’t the slightest clue where he’s getting this argument from; no one has cited any actual laws to us,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Quaranto questioned whether modern interpretations of the obscenity law prohibited penetration images. “It still has not been explained to me what this obscenity law is that allows about 500 different porn mags to be sold at any sex store in Boystown, but doesn’t allow a beautiful piece of art to be published at the U of C,” she wrote.

ORCSA leaders are saying that it is more of an internal issue, and that they’re looking out for the RSO. ORCSA director Sharlene Holly wrote in an e-mail that the founders of Vita adopted in their guidelines the decision to have their content reviewed by their advisor before going to print.

“The Winter 2011 issue was submitted for review late last week,” Holly wrote. “The organization’s advisor has asked the magazine’s student leaders for sufficient time to ensure that the publication meets all of its own guidelines, and that discussion continues.”

According to Vita members, ORCSA’s worries reached beyond the legal ramifications. Vita members said ORCSA expressed concerns that students may be unaware of certain health concerns of the photo shoots and the potential impact of the published photographs on their future. “They feel that

perhaps they need to step in and remind us of the gravity of printing these images,” Vita’s executive director and third-year Kelsey Gee said.

Vita editors ensure that precautions are taken to legally protect the publication and all contributors.

Each model is required to sign a consent form clearly stating that they are over 18 and that they allow the image of their body to be printed only after seeing the layout of the proof. Additionally, Vita is sold only to U of C students presenting valid ID proving that they are over 17, and a disclaimer on the cover states “Meant for mature audiences.”

Randhava would not comment on specifics, saying “Vita is in the regular review process, and we generally wouldn’t share inner workings of any RSO.” The images are under review, and a decision is to be made by this weekend. “We were supposed to print this quarter,” explained Alex DeTogne, Vita’s text editor. Instead the magazine will print in the beginning of spring quarter and be sold in Cobb or the Reynolds Club. “The fact that the images are in there has delayed it.”

Vita states their aim is to educate, express beauty, and challenge people’s notions of sexuality. Vita Excolatur, loosely translated as “the life well lived,” was first published in October 2004. It includes black and white and color photographs, student-life features, fictional and non-fictional stories, paintings, poetry, and other forms of art erotica, including themes related to all varieties of sexual activity.

“The goal is to present all forms of sexual activity as art,” Quaranto said.

Quaranto said she thought the idea that the photographs in the publication could be viewed as pornography was off-base. “You can’t get off on it, you wouldn’t get very far,” Quaranto argues against claims that the magazine is pornography. “There’s a certain shallowness in pornography; it’s utilitarian.

We want Vita to be on everyone’s coffee tables.”

Registrar says "100 percent compliance" with law is not possible BOOK LISTS continued from front page policy. For autumn quarter of this year, book orders were posted for 1756 out of a total of 2671 sections, according to Casazza. Before winter quarter began, 1090 out of the 1624 classes that were scheduled had book lists available online.

After teachers submit reading lists, they are posted alongside the time schedules through links to either Barnes & Noble or the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, where teachers typically place orders for their reading lists by the beginning of first week.

But more students are buying their books online, often taking advantage of Amazon’s free two-day shipping to students as well as various vendors offering discounted new books and used books. Olszewski said the Internet was changing the way students bought books, saying the dorms had seen a sharp increase in recieving packages.

Although the law was designed to add trans-

parency to the cost of higher education, some U of C students said the biggest advantage of the law, especially at a school where textbook fees are only a fraction of overall tuition, is getting a preview of the reading list when choosing courses.

When “choosing between H U M and SOSC classes, [knowing the reading list] might have made a difference,” first-year Alexi Williams said.

Ultimately, however, the chances are slim that every class at the University will have its book lists published on time.

According to Olszewski, it is not uncommon for professors to change their readings as the quarter progresses, and some teachers may require books that are not from the bookstore.

“We will never have 100 percent compliance,” she said.

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CHICAGO MAROON

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VIEWPOINTS | March 4, 2011

VIEWPOINTS

EDITORIAL & OP-ED MARCH 4, 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.

Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words.

Op-ed submissions, 800 words.

CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Voices: Voices@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: jdimassimo@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy Editing: Copy@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com

Uncommon bias

Uncommon Fund board members should not have connections to proposals This year’s applicants to the Uncommon Fund and the board that decides which of them get a piece of the $40,000 pie might have more in common with each other than you think.

According to a report in today’s Maroon (“Uncommon Fund board defends neutrality,” p. 1), a member of the Uncommon Fund board who has collaborated with Students Against Bottled Water (SABW) was present when the board considered and chose SABW’s proposal as one of 35 finalists to receive Uncommon Fund money.

Though the board member in question abstained from voting on the proposal, which is entitled “Sustainable Water for UChicago,” he told the Maroon that he spoke on behalf of the proposal while the board debated it.

Representatives of the 146 projects initially considered for funding were not invited to speak before the board.

Members of the board evaluated the proposals and chose finalists based solely on their applications.

The potential for board members affiliated with projects to bias the board’s decisions hardly requires elaboration. Although ideally none of the board members would have connections to any of the proposals, that might be impractical on a campus as small and tightly woven as ours. But as long as there is some overlap between the Fund’s board and its applicants, those board members with conflicts of interest should not be present while proposals connected to them are considered.

Prohibiting them only from voting in such situations, as the board does currently, is not enough: Even participating in debate on their own proposals provides an unfair advantage over others, and their mere presence at the vote could bias the outcome.

Conflicts of interest would be worrisome in any Student Government (SG) body that controls funding, but they are particularly troubling on the Uncommon Fund board. The Uncommon Fund, after all, is intended

to increase the accessibility of funding.

Any group or person, whether associated with an RSO or not, is eligible to apply, and there are practically no limits on what kinds of projects can receive money. The Uncommon Fund is unique in openness to new ideas and initiatives, and even the appearance of conflicts of interest compromises that openness.

Going forward, the Uncommon Fund should make public the criteria used to select board members, as well as the rules governing debates and votes on proposals. Additionally, board members should declare their affiliations to any proposals or groups submitting proposals, and the board should be chosen so that such affiliations are minimized, if not avoided altogether. Members should not be present at all during debate on their personal projects, nor during consideration of similar projects that might seem to be in direct competition with their own. And the Fund could make the minutes of its deliberations available on the SG website, much like the SG

Funding Committee does, in order to ensure complete transparency.

It’s heartening to know that while one proposal connected to a board member was chosen as a finalist, others with connections to the board were shot down. A pitch for a RISEPakistan initiative failed to progress to the second round of deliberations, even though one member of the board works on marketing for that group.

And it’s worth remembering that as of now, there is no proof of wrongdoing; SABW’s proposal might have passed entirely on its own merits. But it would require only small changes to the Uncommon Fund to remove all hint of impropriety, and thereby safeguard the Fund’s reputation as an opportunity for all students, regardless of their connections.

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

STATE & MADISON

ON THE OTHER HAND

Bi-winner

Posture, not policy

Seeing college life through Charlie Sheen's eyes

GOP actions emphasize symbolism over solutions

By Jake Grubman MAROON Staff

My roommate has recently been saying that I’ve lost my mind.

What can I say? I am, after all, the average U of C fourth-year.

Maybe it’s the four years in Hyde Park, or the still-non-existent B.A. paper, or the classwork that somehow still isn’t finished, or the excessive drug use.

Yeah, I am on a drug. It’s called Jake Grubman. It’s not available; if you try it once, you will either die, in which case your children will weep over your exploded body (and your roommates will wonder why you already have children at such a young age), or you will grow a fakelooking afro which you will have to repeatedly insist is real.

Let’s be honest. My brain fires in a way that’s maybe not from this particular terrestrial realm or is at least mildly impressive to the general population, even if the rest of my Chinese 402 class is less than enthusiastic. You borrow my brain for five seconds and are like, “Dude, I can’t handle it, unplug this bastard” or “Why do you only think about beagles and bad movie quotes?”

Most of my classmates can’t comprehend the very few comments I do make in discussion, probably because they don’t have tiger blood

and Adonis DNA. I mean, my DNA is pretty much the same as most people’s, other than the unique traits that I have on account of my parents (who also have unique DNA), but I really did inject myself with the blood of a tiger once. I later consulted my doctor, since my blood developed a stony consistency.

Perhaps on account of my brain functioning extraterrestrially, my B.A. paper is still in its formative stages. But I’m not interested in people saying that I “won’t graduate” if I “don’t turn in my paper.” I’m interested in the truth, which is that I will finish it eventually, either by closing my eyes and making it so with the power of my mind, or by keeping my eyes open long enough to read a sufficient number of journal articles to formulate a coherent argument on tax increment financing.

I applied for a job a couple of weeks ago, and it didn’t work out.

I’m not sure why, having approached the interview with a combination of zeal, focus, and violent hatred. I met the other applicants for the job in the lobby before my interview, and I’m confident that I made them look like droopy-eyed armless children with my epic résumé. Well, at least droopy-eyed. Some of them did seem fairly young, but they all had both arms.

Somehow I wound up not getting the job, even despite the fact that I’m bi-winning. That phrase, of course, fails to encompass all of my life’s victories because, in addition to winning here and winning there, I also win in other places. Fortunately, though, in the face of this setback, I’ve gotten very prepared and

SHEEN continued on page 4

By Ajay Ravichandran Viewpoints Columnist

In the aftermath of the 2008 elections, many political observers attributed the rout of Republicans to a troubling cause: the party’s agenda was centered primarily around fairly abstract ideological goals and opposition to Democratic proposals, and contained relatively few constructive proposals for addressing the country’s problems. The GOP’s massive victory last year has been widely taken as a sign that this problem has been addressed, since its candidates were able to inspire more public enthusiasm than their Democratic counterparts. However, a close look at three major stories from the past few weeks suggests that the forces within the GOP that wield the most power are primarily interested in posturing rather than governing.

First, consider Fox News’s recent decision to suspend two of its hosts, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum; the network did so because both have expressed interest in forming exploratory committees for possible presidential runs. The mere fact that the Republican primary race might begin with formal announcements from two talk show hosts suggests that much of the party is relatively uninterested in finding conservative solutions to the challenges we face.

Instead, they are looking for the candidate who is best at expressing right-wing bromides and putting down the other side. Furthermore, both men are notable for the degree to which they have focused on producing spectacles that boost their prominence at the expense of fostering debate on important questions; Mr. Gingrich played a major role in creating last year’s controversy over the so-called “Ground Zero mosque,” while Mr. Santorum spent the final year or so of his Senate term fretting about the serious threat that an emerging Iran-Venezuela alliance posed to American security.

Th e o n g o i n g b u d g e t s h o w down in Washington also provides evidence that much of the party is not very serious about fiscal responsibility. Republicans in the House are refusing to vote for a bill that funds the federal government through the end of this fiscal year unless Senate Democrats agree to a set of spending cuts. If the two sides cannot agree, the government could run out of money within a few weeks. The most important feature of this debate is that the cuts the Republicans are aiming for will have virtually no effect on the size of the national debt, since the categories of spending that they target make up less than a fifth of the federal budget. It is true, of course, that even small spending reductions have value as symbols of a commitment to fiscal responsibility. However, only a party whose interest in policy goals was primarily symbolic would be willing to risk the damage that a government shutdown would inflict on ordinary

GOP continued on page 4

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CHICAGO MAROON

| VIEWPOINTS | March 4, 2011

Fourth-year fills his days with wins, A-minuses, and a few Bs SHEEN continued from page 3 focused and driven and hungry and in shape and lower expectations for employment after college and a new tattoo.

It’s funny how sleep rhymes with sheep, you know?

Other than my ongoing war with potential employers, life is perfect. It’s awesome. Every day is just filled with wins. All I do is put wins in the record book. Wins and A-minuses. And some B-pluses and a few Bs. Those, and wins.

I would be winning so radically in my underwear before my first cup of coffee if I drank coffee in the morning. Instead, I’m winning

in a similarly abstract fashion later in the day, frequently still in my underwear.

After three-plus years of dominating at the University of Chicago, I’ve come to realize that I am, in fact, a bitchin’ rockstar from the suburbs of Chicago. People say it’s lonely at the top, but I sure like the view. Or, I like what I imagine the view to be based on the upward angular shift from my current view from the middle.

Jake Grubman is a fourth-year in the College majoring in Law, Letters, and Society.

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Attack on public unions not about balancing the budget GOP continued from page 3 Americans who depend on government services, as well as the still-fragile economy, for very few concrete benefits.

The final story that reflects this trend is the way that the right has rallied behind Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s effort to weaken the ability of most public-employee unions in his state to engage in collective bargaining. Walker has persisted in his effort even though its stated rationale (reducing the size of state employees’ health-care and pension benefits in order to deal with Wisconsin’s budget problems) is no longer relevant–his union adversaries have agreed to accept the cuts as long as their bargaining power is preserved. Indeed, he is actually making it harder to resolve the state’s fiscal difficulties by responding to their compromise proposal with continued confrontation. Furthermore, the governor has exempted the public employees who tend to favor Republicans (firefighters and police officers) from his push, which suggests even more strongly that he is more interested in political posturing than in governing. The conservative movement’s

eagerness to take up his cause in spite of his proposal’s counterproductive and crassly political character indicates that it, too, is focused more on targeting the right’s enemies than on solving problems.

How does the behavior described above differ from the posturing that politicians across the world practice regularly? While the typical elected official is often willing to turn to spectacle in order to cover up a failure or to avoid confronting a difficult problem, the above cases all involve GOP leaders who regard the production of spectacle as their primary activity. Even when they risk doing serious harm to the things they claim to regard as most important, such as fiscal discipline, prosperity, and even the party’s long-term political prospects, they are willing to do so for the sake of considerations that relate entirely to image and symbolism.

These concerns certainly have their place, but a party has a serious problem when it is willing to make them primary.

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Ajay Ravichandran is a third-year in the College majoring in philosophy.

2011 Student Leader Awards Help the University recognize the amazing contributions made by students on our campus this year.

Nominate students for Student Leader Awards.

Howell Murray Alumni Association Award Campus Life and Leadership Award Jane Morton and Henry C. Murphy Award Maroon Key Society College Outstanding New Leader Award President’s Volunteer Service Award Perry Herst Prize Humanitarian Award Bridge Builder Award Unsung Hero Award

To find more information about award qualifications and to nominate students visit

https://studentleaderawards.uchicago.edu Nominations are due by Wednesday, March 9th at 5:00 pm

VOICES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MARCH 4, 2011

UT's Great Dane

THEATER

Lifeline fails to resurrect Collins's classic mystery

By Ana Klimchynskaya CSI: Voices

H

amlet (fourth-year Ethan Dubin, back left) takes revenge on Claudius (first-year Justin Krivda, front left), while the rest of the court looks on in UT's production of the Shakespeare play, which will run through Saturday at University Church.

DARREN LEOW/MAROON

FASHION

With redone show, MODA's moving on up

By Madalyn Frigo Voices Covergirl Th e s t u d e n t b o d y o f t h e University of Chicago isn’t exactly known for its impeccable style, but there is a group on campus that’s been trying to change that.

S i n c e 2 0 0 3 , M O DA h a s b e e n working to promote fashion throughout the University’s student body.

One of MODA’s main events is its fashion show, where it showcases the designs of students, local boutiques, and larger designers. Past shows have taken place exclusively on campus, but this year is different, as it will be held downtown at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Fourth-year and executive director Sarah Jahnke said, “Our shows have become really popular and successful, so instead of bringing downtown to campus, we wanted to bring campus to downtown.”

MODA wants this year’s show to be an evening-long experience, complete with dinner and drinks afterwards. In addition to hosting the show downtown, two new features are pre-show dinner promotions and an after-party.

“We really want this to be an outing, as opposed to just going downtown for the fashion show,” said Ariya Sasaki, fourth-year and artistic director.

For dinner before the show, MODA has secured promotional offers for two different restaurants downtown, Lockwood Restaurant and Hub 51. Lockwood is a Top 10 ranked restaurant in Chicago, where fashion show attendees will receive 15 percent off. Hub 51 will also be offering a deal of a 10 per-

cent discount.

“This will be a chance for students to experience upper-class dining at a lesser price,” Jahnke said.

The after-party will take place at The Underground, a nightclub in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Show attendees who are 21 and older will receive complimentary access to the club. For students who are unable to attend the after-party, MODA will be providing two buses for students to travel to the fashion show and back to Hyde Park afterwards.

MODA'S SPRING 2011 FASHION SHOW Chicago Cultural Center Friday, March 4

“We want people to get out of Hyde Park and go downtown.

We’re so close, but I feel people don’t really take advantage of the city,” Sasaki said.

M O DA is expecting at least 300 students to attend the show this year, and about 200 other guests, many of whom are part of the Chicago fashion industry.

The show will include looks from top fashion designers such as Ann Taylor, AKI RA, and Imaginary People, but it will also feature five student designers from MODA’S Designer Bootcamp.

Bootcamp is a yearlong extracurricular for students at the University of Chicago to learn about fashion and the fashion industry. The program is expanding, with the number of applications for five spots reaching upwards of 26 this year.

“It’s bigger than ever. The applicant pool has gotten a lot bigger,” said Allison Wu, fourth-year and director of Designer Bootcamp, who will also be closing MODA’S fashion show on Friday with her designs.

In addition to revamping the fashion show, MODA has expanded its board and made changes to its magazine. The board expanded from about seven people to over 2 0. In previous years, M O DA has published only one magazine every year, showcasing spring styles. However, this proved to be a problem for the models and photographers who were trying to shoot spring looks with snow on the ground.

“This year we tried to embrace the winter season and accommodate winter in the winter/ spring lookb ook,” s aid Emilia Mickevicius, fourth-year and coeditor-in-chief for the magazine.

Instead of publishing one large magazine, MODA will be publishing two lookbooks—one showcasing winter/spring styles and another showcasing spring/ summer styles.

The launch party for the new winter/spring lookbook is the fashion show this Friday, while the spring/summer lookbook will be released in May. The lookbooks will also feature articles dealing with the more intellectual side of fashion and smaller photoshoots in addition to larger photoshoot spreads. Instead of standard magazine size, the lookbooks will be six-by-nine inches.

“Basically, they are more intimate in scale this year, better in quality, and more artistic in nature,” Mickevicius said.

Wilkie Collins’s 186 8 novel The Moonstone is considered to be the world’s first detective novel.

It set up genre conventions that are commonplace (and in some ways even clichéd) today, like red herrings and the detective solving the mystery by reconstructing the crime. It is also written as a series of narratives, which allow for ample commentary on Victorian society. This complicated structure, social commentary, and tired conventions make it particularly difficult to adapt for a modern audience in a different medium. Lifeline Theatre’s production doesn’t quite manage to overcome these difficulties, although their acting and staging are, as usual, quite good.

Th e M o o n s t o n e i s a b o u t t h e theft of the Moonstone diamond during noblewoman Rachel Verinder’s 18th birthday party.

The narrative of Collins’ story is written as a number of vignettes by extremely well-drawn and distinctive characters who not only tell the story, but offer their perspectives and criticism of Victorian society. This makes the tale much more than a detective story. It becomes a document of the time in which it was written.

This sort of thing doesn’t really transfer to the stage, for a play is focused on the action, while the novel is much more rooted in customs, propriety, and convention.

Yet one must tell the story somehow, and the adaptors of Lifeline Theatre’s version keeps very closely to the narrative. The result is not quite as exciting as it could’ve been. In fact, it’s structured very much like a written work, as the characters explain what will happen before it does.

For example, the butler describes the boredom of a dinner party before the actors act out a dinner party. Several characters read extremely long letters at different

points during the play. In the end, there’s just way too much talk, and it gets boring. The climax— which I will leave as a mystery —is an exception, as well it should be.

The mystery itself is also a little dull. It’s just too commonplace, considering we live in the days of CSI and bookstores filled with thrillers. There’s just no way to capture the excitement that the original readers of the world’s first locked-room mystery felt.

Also, Collins’s distinctive characters are not always captured by the cast. The actors are quite good, but they’re just playing the wrong parts. Gabriel Betteridge, the butler, is a grumbly old man with a disdain for the weaker sex and a weak spot for the family he’s served for many years. He’s certainly not simply the loyal m a n s e r v a n t w i t h a Ro b i n s o n Crusoe obsession that Sean Sintski performs. Rachel Verinder (Anne Sonneville) is a young

THE MOONSTONE Lifeline Theatre Through March 27

woman with a fiery temper and a willful character, yet Sonneville’s portrayal does not capture any of that fierce passion on stage. She is soft-spoken, and even in her scenes of anger, there are undercurrents of gentleness in her voice. Dave Skvarla’s Sergeant Cuff (a precursor of Sherlock Holmes) is supposed to be an almost omniscient detective with a weakness for roses, not a funny old man who doesn’t take himself seriously enough for the audience to appreciate his complexity.

Lifeline’s staging, however, is rather good. Using the cast to serve as props is particularly entertaining. For example, when a character throws herself into quicksand, a group of actors below, reaching their hands to

MOONSTONE continued on page 7

Godfrey Ablewhite (C. Sean Piereman) is assaulted by three Indian jugglers (Sean Sinitski, left; Peter Greenberg, top center; and Cody Proctor, right) for not wearing enough color.

COURTESY OF LIFELINE THEATRE

6

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | March 4, 2011

The Fun Corner.

"What's The Story?"

Solution to today's puzzle

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

45. Rt. 1 town 46. Wishbone sings Brecht for bones 53. What O-town wants 54. Wishbone exits, pursued by bear 55. Carman’s name for a chosen person 56. Mr. Miyagi, e.g.

57. Ms. in Madrid 58. There’s an ___ for that 59.Actress Messing 60. Blueprints for life

Across 1. Ambulance drivers, for short 5. Clear the cribbage board 10. 110 and 140, say 13. Delhi dress 14. Hardy’s partner 16. Mo. for Judgment Day in Terminator 2 17. Wishbone’s Greek gender bender 19. School that releases its admissions decisions on 3.14 20. Et tu, Wishbone?

22. [I have no idea what to say] 23. Bela ___

24. Pink flowered plant 28. Double or halve the frequency of a written note 30. Two-run homer situation 31. Handgun for a homme 32. Flightless birds 35. Wishbone sails the Congo 38. Condé ___ 39. Return of the Jedi turncoat Madine 40. Mystiques 41. An IT company and a cowboy 43. Toll bypasser 44. ___ Picchu

Down 1. Letters before 1892 at UChicago 2. With Bryn, school for sexually frustrated women 3. Early Palm smartphone 4. Hay house 5. Bless Me, ___ (1972 novel) 6. Book after Micah 7. It’s what ales ya 8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Carle 9. Scold 10. Play on which “Cabaret” is based 11. Tie-Dye, for Tie-Dye Kid 12. Pepper’s rank

15. Planet Express employee 18. As good as native 21. Quiet classroom game with thumbs 24. Roy of Angels in America 25. ____ Day vitamins 26. Faceless fish 27. Tenon receiver 28. ___ Pictis (first children’s book) 29. Kodak surveillance film 31. Tamed with a pick 33. Uses in Uruguay 34. What Parseltongue sounds like 36. Like France in 1942 37. Underused instrument 42. George Bernard and Artie 43. City near Cleveland 44. Six figure supercomputing unit 45. Johnny Rotten facial expression 47. Feminine suffix 48. Crash-probing agcy.

49. 21st cent. shell shock 50. Bring home the bacon 51. Hayworth of film 52. Opening of Yorick’s eulogy 53. Steely Dan album adored by crossword constructors

The University of Chicago Department of Music presents

First Prize $1500 Second prize $500 Love potions & magic spells conjure up a fanciful tale in. . .

Gilbert & Sullivan’s

performed by the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company and the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra

Friday, March 11 at 8 pm Saturday, March 12 at 8 pm Sunday, March 13 at 2 pm Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th Street, Hyde Park Director: Thrisa Hodits • Conductor: Tim Semanik Producers: Calvert Audrain, Trip Driscoll, Nancy Levner

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

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Submission deadline: April 4, 2011

Ticket Hotline: 773.702.9075 In Person: Goodspeed Hall, 4th Floor Hours: 12-4 pm, Monday-Friday $5 Student | $20 General | $50 Patron Proceeds benefit the Department of Music Performance Program.

2011 production.

7

CHICAGO MAROON | VOICES | March 4, 2011

Style

Chicago Manual of

by Jessen O’Brien

The Oscars were last weekend, which is always exciting for fashion fanatics.

Co-hostess Anne Hathaway wore not one, not two, but eight gorgeous outfits, and other Oscar attendees tried to look just as stunning in an array of elaborate designer g o w n s . B u t N a t a l i e Po r t m a n ’ s p u r p l e Rodarte gown, although neither the most inventive nor the most beautiful, was the most intriguing look of the night. Portman holds a contract with Dior as the face of their Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, yet she unexpectedly wore another designer to the event instead.

What’s shocking is not the choice itself, but rather the probable reasons behind it.

On February 25, Dior announced that they had suspended head designer John Galliano.

The day before, he was arrested for a series

Collins's dynamic characters and narrative structure get lost in translation MOONSTONE continued from page 5 her, acts as the quicksand. The novel also takes place in a large number of different locales, and to accommodate this, the stage is partitioned into two levels, sidestepping the need to constantly rearrange the stage. This stage design is also used to great effect for difficult scenes such as ones on cliffs or underwater.

However, creative staging doesn’t make up for a sheer inability to adapt the source material to the stage. In the end, Lifeline’s Moonstone is dissatisfying both in terms of creating an interesting story and adapting its source.

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

Classifieds are not accepted over the phone, and they must be paid in advance. Submit all ads in person, by e-mail, or by mail to the CHICAGO MAROON, Ida Noyes Hall, Lower Level Rm 026, 1212 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637 attn: Classified Ads. Deadlines: Wednesdays and Fridays, 12 P.M., prior to publication. The CHICAGO MAROON accepts Mastercard & Visa.

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of anti-Semitic remarks he made at a bar in Paris. Three people are pressing charges against the British designer, whose drunken abuse broke French law. Galliano released a statement both apologizing for and denying his actions on Wednesday and has apparently entered rehab. But it looks like it was too little too late—in addition to being fired, he must also prepare for a trial later this spring where he could face up to six months in jail as well as $31,000 in fines.

It’s possible that Portman’s decision to wear Rodarte did not stem from Galliano’s anti-Semitism. However, she released an official statement on the scandal, and she did not sound pleased. “In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way,” she said. So it’s prob-

Galliano scandal turns fashion towards politics

ably safe to say that her decision to wear Rodarte wasn’t simply coincidental.

The whole incident begs the question: What do personal views have to do with fashion? Clearly, Dior, Portman, and even Galliano himself desperately want to avoid the epithets of anti-Semite, racist, or any other variation. I can’t say whether or not Galliano’s personal viewpoints affect his design aesthetic or make the work he has done for Dior any less beautiful, and he has, undeniably, done some beautiful work. Dior will undoubtedly find it difficult to replace him.

However, fashion does not exist in isolation. Much of fashion is built on associations; like modern art, most of it is a commentary upon itself or other aspects of popular culture. Take a look at the mens-

wear implications of the Lanvin Tuxedo Hathaway wore during the Oscars. In addition to looking great, the look played with gender.

Dior fired Galliano partly because of bad press and partly because fashion and the press go hand in hand. This might not have been true before the rise of celebrity-designer relationships like Audrey Hepburn and Givenchy, but it certainly is now. Designers are selling a specific image, an image they hire celebrities to shape. Galliano’s remarks have moved him from designer to celebrity in the most infamous of ways, establishing negative connotations Dior and Portman wish to detach from as quickly as possible.

When you’re selling an image, you can’t allow it to be corrupted, even if it requires considerable change.

IN QUOTES

SPORTS

“Everyone makes mistakes in their life. We are reaching out and trying to help him get through this.”

— BYU basketball player Charles Abouo talking about teammate Brandon Davies, who was suspended from the team after having premarital sex, a breach of the school’s honor code.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN’S TENNIS

The

Undefeated Maroons take on top D-III teams at ITAs

MARCH

Chicago to face Hanover in first round of playoffs

By Matt Luchins Sports Staff Already UAA champions, the sixthranked Maroons begin their national title quest tonight at 4 p.m., opening the NCAA tournament against Hanover in Grand Rapids, MI. Though their record is impressive, Hanover (25—1) comes into the tournament ranked only 25th, a result of their weak schedule. The Panthers did not play a ranked team, while the Maroons (22—3, 14—0 UAA) took down 11th -ranked Wash U and 12th-ranked Rochester both home and away. Still, Hanover boasts three players averaging above 10 points per game.

In addition, the battle between third-year forward Taylor Simpson and forward Molly Martin will match the UAA’s player of the year against the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference’s most valuable player.

“Hanover’s a great team as evidenced by their record; they beat us up pretty good during my first year and they have been a very strong team the last few years,” said head coach Aaron Roussell, who was named the UAA coach of the year, said. “They are loaded with experience, and from what we watched on Monday they have a ton of talent. They put a lot of points on the board, which is obviously scary. However, we have a lot of tape

coming on them and we will be more than prepared.”

Should the Maroons pull out their 19th straight victory tonight, they would play their second round game tomorrow, likely against 18th-ranked Calvin.

While the competition should get progressively stronger, the Maroons are guaranteed to play teams ranked at least 10 spots lower than themselves until the Elite Eight, when they could possibly face off against first-ranked Thomas Moore.

“I wouldn’t say we are happy with our draw because no matter where you are placed in the brackets, you always have a tough team to face,” said third-year guard Meghan Herrick, who made the All-UAA first team along with Simpson. “Now we are only playing the best of the best in the nation.”

However, the women narrowly avoided a much worse draw. While the Maroons might face the nation’s top team in the Elite Eight, Thomas Moore will play its Sweet Sixteen against whoever emerges among second-ranked Hope, ninth-ranked Denison, 10th-ranked Depauw and 11th-ranked Wash U. Considering what could have been, third-year guard Bryanne Halfhill disagreed with Herrick’s assessment.

“I feel like we got the best scenario we could have hoped for,” said Halfhill,

Chicago vs.

Hanover

By Pete Visser Sports Staff

starts here

Fri. 3/4, 4 p.m.

Chicago and Hanover are coming into the tournament riding winning streaks of 18 and 13 games, respectively. Hanover has one of the best scoring frontcourt tandems that the Maroons have seen all year in 6-foot-1 center Molly Martin and 5-foot-10 forward Torin Franz. The duo averages nearly half of Hanover’s points.

Calvin vs.

La Roche Fri. 3/4, 6:30 p.m.

Chicago vs.

Calvin Sat. 3/5, 6:00 p.m.

Calvin features one of the premier post players in the country in Carissa Verkaik. Verkaik averages 19.8 points and 9.2 rebounds a game and repeated as MIAA player of the year. Morgan Herrick and Taylor Simpson will have to force Verkaik to work hard on defense in order to limit her offensive explosiveness.

Next Weekend Sweet 16

Favored team in bold

an all-UAA second-team selection along with third-year forward Morgan Herrick. “As soon as we saw Hope and Depauw in the same bracket, we were really hoping to avoid that one, and we did.”

But Halfhill also acknowledged that the draw matters only so much.

“I truly believe that the only team that is going to beat us is ourselves,” she said. “As long as we keep outworking other teams and wanting it more we’ll be just fine. That hard work starts in practice. The way we practice is the way we play. We have some pretty

tough practices where we get super competitive with each other. However, the best thing about our team is that after scraping on the court, we can come into the locker room and call each other out and joke about it.”

“I honestly love this group of girls, and we have created something really special,” she added. “If we were to lose today, this would still have been the best season of my life and one of the best teams I have ever been a part of, but I don’t think anyone on our team will be happy with playing any day short of March 19.”

TRACK AND FIELD

South Siders fight for NCAA berths

By Noah Weiland Sports Staff After top-three finishes by men’s and women’s track and field last weekend at the UAA Championship, this Friday’s North Central Last Chance Meet remains the final opportunity for those seeking a spot in the D-III National Championship March 11 and 12.

“The meet on Friday is for anyone who wants to qualify for nationals, and we already have some kids who made nationals, so they will use this meet as preparation,” second-year sprinter Demetrios Brizzolara said. “It’s voluntary, so you only have to run it if you want to prove you can compete at nationals or want to get experience.”

“We can tailor this meet to individuals,” fourth-year sprinter Patrick Kacsur added. “The races we would run to do well as a team during the conference meet wouldn’t necessarily be the ones that are good for this meet.”

The same approach prevails on the women’s side.

“There’s an experimental type of mood in preparing for this meet. People are trying some events that they may

not have tried before,” fourth-year long jumper Dipti Karmarkar said. “People are just trying to compete in whatever event they can. We’re just trying to get as many people to qualify as we can.”

Despite this method, there is still serious competition in the last indoor event of the year.

“These meets are where most of the individual performances are the best,” fourth-year sprints runner Stephanie Omueti added. “People fly from all over the country for these last chance meets.”

“In the past, the conference meet was the last week of the indoor season,” fourth-year hurdler Brian Andreycak said. “With the last chance meet this season, a number of us are going to be trying to maintain our peak performance for another week or two.”

And on the men’s side, there could be more on the line than just a high finish. The 4x400 relay team consisting of first-year Jackson Jenkins, Brizzolara, and fourth-years Andrew Wells-Qu and Tobias Blattler is in position to set a school record.

“The record would be amazing for our school,” Brizzolara continued.

“Individual performances reflect on

Third-year Rachel Ohman (left) and second-year Julia Sizek (right) compete at a meet earlier this year. Sizek will anchor the distance medley relay tonight.

DARREN LEOW/MAROON

the team, and if we end up setting the record, it gives our group a lot of recognition.”

Yet even with the potential for accolades, both teams are going into the meet in a relaxed state of mind.

“The team as a whole doesn’t really have expectations. Only the individuals have marks they want to hit,” Karmarkar continued. “We’re just hoping to improve on our performances

and qualify for the national meet the following weekend.”

As Omueti put it, “There just isn’t any pressure on the team to win the meet.

We all just need to give it our last shot as individuals during the indoor season.

We’re in our best shape, and there’s nothing that should hold back a great year. We’re all set and ready to go.”

The meet takes place this Friday at noon in Naperville, IL.

Before heading southeast to begin the outdoor season in the sun, the fourth-ranked South Siders have a few items of business to address.

This weekend, the Maroons take their second trip in as many years to the ITA Indoor Team Championships, hosted at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter’s, MN. The tournament invites eight of the top 15 NCAA D-III women’s tennis teams each year.

Chicago (4—0) enters the tournament confident that they can compete among the nation’s best.

Assistant coach Tarakaa Bertrand is anxious to see how the team will handle the high level of competition. “The outcome will reflect how well our team plays under pressure. Our goals this weekend are to compete hard and play aggressively,” Bertrand said.

This past weekend provided a boost in morale when the Maroons thumped Kalamazoo 9—0.

“It was a good win, espe cially going into this weekend with some of the nation’s top contenders...I think I could say for everyone on the team that we are really pleased with the way we have started this season,” said third-year Kendra Higgins, who was named this week’s UAA Athlete of the Week. Higgins has won the award five times already this year, and 12 times in her career.

Last year the Maroons advanced all the way to the final before losing to Emory. They hope to improve on their first trip to the tournament this year.

“We have been extremely close, as in one set away (from winning) at times, the past two years in having the opportunity to be in the final championship match, losing to the eventual champions,” said Higgins.

The doubles team of Higgins and fourth-year, team captain Chrissy Hu (12—0) will be instrumental in Chicago’s run at the championship. “We are fortunate to have games that compliment each other”, Higgins said. “I always look forward to stepping onto the court with her.”

Chicago is seeded second going into the weekend’s competition. Friday morning, the team faces seventh-seeded Chapman (ranked 13th-nationally) in the first round of play.

Before heading to the Southeast for their spring trip, the Maroons have a dual meet against Ferris State March 9.

They will compete in Minnesota this weekend, March 4, 5, and 6.