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FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2011 • VOLUME 122, ISSUE 39 • CHICAGOMAROON.COM
MEDICAL CENTER
STUDY ABROAD
Nurses vote to strike Action will take effect June 28 if no new contract is signed
Middle East unrest disrupts FLAG grants By Mina Kang News Staff A high volume of travel restrictions issued by the U.S. State Department in the first week of April is causing headaches for some U of C students who received grants to travel in the Middle East this summer. As political unrest continues to ripple across North Africa and other parts of the Arab world, students accepted into the University’s Foreign Language Acquisition Grants (FLAG) program, which provides money for students to study language abroad over the summer, have had to contend with a slew of travel warnings recently issued for the region. Since the beginning of 2011, the State Department has added 20 countries to the Travel Warning list,
many of which are in the Middle East. In the last month, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt have joined the list. The State Department issues warnings when “long-term, protracted conditions...make a country dangerous or unstable,” according to its website. Of the nine students who applied for FLAG grants in the Middle East, six selected countries on the warning list as their first choice. The students either had to turn to their second choice country, or, if their second choice was also on the warning list, had to reapply entirely. Since the announcement, Director of Study Abroad Martha Merritt has met with the applicants individually to discuss travel warnings and how
FLAG continued on page 2
Brigitt Manson of National Nurses United gathers signatures from medical workers on Wednesday to support a strike. JAMIE MANLEY/MAROON
DISCOURSE By William Wilcox News Staff Nurses at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) voted this week in favor of authorizing their union to call for a 24-hour strike once their contract with the hospital expires. National Nurses United (NNU),
which has represented UC MC nurses since June, is concerned that issues with hospital staffing and shift rotations are coming at the expense of patient care. “We’re not going to neglect our patients, but the purpose of this strike is so that we can [provide] daily care for our patients that come in,” Muriel Lee, a UCMC
CAMPUS DINING
STUDENT LIFE
registered nurse who was on N N U’s negotiating team, said. “Patients come first,” she added. Roughly 1,25 0 N N U nurses voted Tuesday and Wednesday in a tent on the Midway. The vote allows N N U to call for a strike only after giving a 10-day advanced notice to the UCMC.
Gaiman talks new projects at reading
NURSES continued on page 2
New start for late First floor café set night dining to replace Ex Libris, student jobs in doubt By Rebecca Guterman News Staff
A trial-version late night dining program in residential dining halls may replace the current bill of fare at Hutch Commons later this quarter. The new initiative follows a year of disappointing numbers for the late night dining menu currently offered at Hutch. According to Campus Dining Advisory Board (CDAB) student head and secondyear Gabe Panek, the pilot would be an attempt to better meet students’ desire for late night campus dining. CDAB is composed of administrators, as well as Student Government (S G) and Interhouse Council representatives. “We’re trying to get a better understanding of what students want and what’s doable,” Director of Communications and Operations for Housing and Dining Richard Mason said. Mason also acknowledged that the offerings in Hutch were not palatable to students hungry for late night food. The dining halls will provide burgers, pizza, and breakfast foods, according to Inter House
DINING continued on page 2
By Crystal Tsoj Senior News Staff More changes are in the books for the Reg, as the University announced that a new café on the first floor of the Regenstein Library will replace Ex Libris by Fall quarter. Graduate and professional students pushed for a new café in a library-sponsored survey last February, which helped prompt planning for the new café, according to an e-mail from Director of Library Access and Facilities Jim Vaughan. Vaughan said the new location in the northeast corner will have windows, couches, and new finishes and furniture. The new café will also be more handicap-accessible than Ex Libris. “The general industry practice would be if you were building a new building, and you want a café, you’d want it on the first floor,” said Director of Operations and Communications for Housing and Dining Services Richard Mason. The renovations will occur over the summer in order to open fall
quarter, according to Director of Student-Run Coffee Shops Stacey Brown. Brown said the café will be located within the ID-required area of the library where currently food is not allowed, but students will be able to eat and drink there. According to second-year and Ex Libris employee Graham Albachten, the student workers at Ex Libris heard of the cafe’s closing along with the University community when the library posted the announcement for the new café on its website. University administrators are still deciding whether or not the new café will be student-run or professionally catered. “Due consideration is being given to maintaining it as a new student-run café,” Mason said. Albachten noted that Brown is pushing for student-run status, but he doubted the new café would fall under student ownership. “There is something sad about a campus with only University-owned cafés. It lacks a certain character,” he said. Administrators are not soliciting student suggestions for the café’s name.
Neil Gaiman reading an excerpt from his book, Neverwhere, at Rockefeller Chapel Wednesday night. MICHELLE YEO/MAROON
By Benjamin Pokross News Staff Acclaimed fantasy and science fiction novelist Neil Gaiman spoke about his writing process at a reading of his books at Rockefeller Chapel on Wednesday night. The author of American Gods and the Sandman series of graphic novels, Gaiman read excerpts from his best-selling book Neverwhere, selected by the Chicago Public Library for its One Book, One Chicago citywide literacy program. Gaiman, who has also written for television and film, explained the differences between the types of media he has worked on. “When you write a novel, you have all these words, and then you put them down,” he said. “What tends to happen [with screenwrit-
ing] is that somebody tells you how much something costs.” Gaiman also spoke about future projects, including possible revivals of some of his most wellknown works. “There is another Neverwhere book in my head called The Seven Sisters,” he said. Gaiman also hinted at writing another Sandman issue for the comic’s 25th anniversary. The audience was full of devoted fans, and several people who waited in line to ask Gaiman questions were not able to do so. Even for those who didn’t get to speak with Gaiman, there was still the thrill of seeing the author. “It’s great to see the author behind the works that I love so much,” first-year Sarah Gregory said. “I’ve never seen him speak, but he speaks just like his books sound.”