Chicago Maroon 120214

TUESDAY • DECEMBER 2, 2014

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

ISSUE 17 • VOLUME 126

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

Fourth-year Ezaldein dies in shooting at Nordstrom Marta Bakula News Staff

The Life of Special Collections Chloe Cipolla applies Cellugel, a formula of hydroxypropyl cellulose and isopropanol, to the spine of a copy of the Old Testament in Special Collections. Cellugel is a preservation agent often used to prevent red rot, a degradation process of vegetable-tanned leather that occurs when the leather is exposed to high humidities and acidities. It is used by Special Collections at the University Library as a part of its preservation of old and rare volumes.

JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON

Nadia Ezaldein, a fourth-year in the College, passed away after being shot in a murder-suicide last Friday night. The incident occurred on Ezaldein’s 22nd birthday.

Ezaldein was a seasonal employee at the Nordstrom on 55 East Grand Avenue in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, where she was working that night during Black Friday. At approximately 8:30 p.m., her ex-boyfriend, Marcus Dee, 31, approached her and shot her in the head before turning the gun on himself.

After being hospitalized for her injuries at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, she was pronounced dead at 3:43 p.m. on Saturday.

The Nordstrom store was closed

on Saturday and reopened Sunday.

“We are actively working with the Chicago Police Department, as this is an open and ongoing investigation. Our prayers are with our employee who was involved and those who witnessed this tragic event,” the company said in a statement.

According to the Chicago SunTimes, Ezaldein graduated from a high school in Fort Lauderdale, FL at the age of 16, and received scholarships for her extensive community service. She was originally from Hialeah, FL. Ezaldein was not enrolled at the University during the fall 2014 quarter, and family members told news organizations that she was working in the seasonal position to support herself and pay for tuition.

On campus, she was involved in SHOOTING continued on page 3

Ohey, Hootie: UChicago UChicago, UHawaii may partner for library Crushes to launch two new apps Ankit Jain News Editor

Katerina Hoskova Maroon Contributor The team behind UChicago Crushes, a Facebook page that posts anonymously-submitted crushes by and about University students, will release two free apps this winter. The first—a discussion forum tentatively called Hootie—began a trial run yesterday.

The app features a discussion forum for a variety of topics. The other app, with a working name of Ohey, will connect people to their crushes and is planned for a late December or early January release.

The editors, who requested anonymity because of the nature of the site, use software they developed to publish roughly 100 posts per day and maintain similar sites worldwide. The UChicago Crushes page was launched in March 2013 under a different editorial team and has grown to more than 4,000 likes on Facebook.

The Hootie app will be a sort of online sounding board. “You talk about your dark secrets, you talk about your complaints, you’re seeking help, you’re asking questions, you’re posting announcements anonymously,” a member of the team behind the software said.

With Ohey, meanwhile, “you can connect with your missed connections, you can draw your friends some compliments, you can tag your friends,” he said.

The team member said that the team felt that the two apps serve different purposes and so need to be separated. “We realized that people just don’t need one thing….

They need two things. There are fancy Italian or French restaurants people can flirt, people can… talk about feelings, people connect. They also need strip clubs or nightclubs to make it rain, or, you know, to pump up the [EDM] music or whatnot,” the team member said.

He described how current technology isn’t fulfilling those two needs. “Yik Yak built this very nice interf ace, very nice French restaurant but they have strippers in it or they have EDM music in the background. People cannot really talk about their feelings nor [can they] actually make it rain, so it’s a very awkward situation.

So what we want to do is we want to separate these two. That’s why we’re making two apps.”

The new apps will be trying out a new form of moderation that CRUSHES continued on page 2

IN VIEWPOINTS

BLACKLIGHTxMAROON: The meaning of Black » Page 4 Student recounts sexual assault » Page 4

As the deadline for submitting a proposal for the Barack Obama presidential library approaches, the University of Chicago is exploring a partnership with the University of Hawaii (UH).

Four universities, including UChicago and UH, were selected as finalists from a group of 13 proposed sites on September 15 by the Barack Obama Presidential Foundation and asked to submit a request for proposal (RFP) to bring the library to their

campus. The RFP is due December 11, and a final decision will be made in early 2015.

UChicago is in talks with the University of Hawaii to give it a virtual connection to a main campus located on the South Side of Chicago, according to Julie Peterson, the University of Chicago’s director of communications.

“Hawaii is imagining a digital connection. So they could envision the main facility being on the south side of Chicago, but then having a digital link to Hawaii, where there would be a presidential center that could be ac-

tive and bring visitors who are there to understand the history of the President’s childhood, and certainly his early life, as well as create school programs and all kinds of things,” Peterson said. “They have been eager to talk to us at every stage. And we’ve been eager to talk to them as well.”

The University declined to elaborate on how exactly this connection would work, with University spokesperson Jeremy Manier only saying that UChicago is exploring a collaboration with the University of Hawaii. Officials from the University LIBRARY continued on page 3

Undergraduate Liasion to the Board of Trustees steps down Sarah Manhardt News Editor Student Government (SG)’s undergraduate liaison to the Board of Trustees, second-year Leeho Lim, is stepping down from his position.

College Council (CC) will vote on his replacement at its weekly meeting Wednesday.

According to SG President Tyler Kissinger, Lim is stepping down for personal reasons. Lim could not be reached for comment.

The undergraduate liaison to the Board of Trustees serves on the Executive Committee of SG along with a graduate liaison. According

to the SG Assembly bylaws, the student liaisons are charged with keeping the student body informed of the Board’s actions, keeping the Board informed of the needs and long-term interests of the student body, and lobbying for a permanent position for one or more students on the Board.

SG will send out a College-wide e-mail on Tuesday to solicit students interested in the position.

Interested candidates should attend the CC meeting on Wednesday, and a majority vote of CC members will decide who will fill the position.

Under Article 5 of the SG by-

laws, the SG Assembly shall fill vacancies within the Executive Committee by a majority vote of its members. SG Assembly is made up of CC and the Graduate Council.

However, since CC is the representative body of the College, which votes on the undergraduate liaison to the Board of Trustees, only CC will vote on Lim’s replacement.

Lim was the sole candidate on the ballot in elections last spring, receiving 673 votes. He was challenged by two write-in candidates: current second-year Alex DiLalla, who received 267 votes, and current fourth-year Clemente Dadoo, who received 120 votes.

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Yik Yak, still so frat » Page 9

Wrestling: New faces dominate for Chicago » Back page

The Sketch » Page 10

More than just a game: the power of sports » Page 11

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | December 2, 2014

science in brief

Donald Steiner, leader in Two expert neuroscientists to join UChicago insulin research, dies at 84

faculty in July from University of Oregon Tamar Honig Maroon Contributor Two key neuroscientists from the University of Oregon (UO) will join the growing neuroscience and cellular science faculty at the University of Chicago. Professors Ed Awh and Ed Vogel, internationally known scholars in the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory, have announced that they will leave UO in July 2015 to continue their work on human memory and attention here at UChicago.

Awh and Vogel have built a highly productive and innovative research collaboration. According to the University of Oregon’s website, Awh’s recent research has found evidence of a significant intersection between the systems behind perceptual selection and the systems that actively maintain information in working memory.

Vogel, specifically, has focused on how visual working memory functions in relation to selective attention processes.

Despite UO’s efforts to keep Awh and Vogel, there was little it could do. “It was just so far out of our range and ballpark. It would be out of the range of most other public universities, too,” Ulrich Mayr, head of the psychology department at UO, told The Register-Guard, the main newspaper for Eugene, OR, where UO is located.

Awh and Vogel both highlighted

the appeal of the strong institutional support offered at UChicago as a major factor in their decision to relocate.

“UChicago has a phenomenal academic tradition. In particular what I think is really exciting about it are the vast resources and the investment in top-notch research and education,” Vogel said.

Awh further emphasized the contrast between the support available at UO and at UChicago.

“UO is a public university with relatively little support from the state so that does put constraints on the ability to support research in the university,” he said. “We’re excited to go to a place where we can really push forward a broad program of neuroscience with the support of a university that has a lot of resources to make things possible.”

Both researchers look forward to building bridges between various disciplines in their work at UChicago. Awh expressed plans to link research in human subjects and in animal laboratories to obtain more detailed models of how cognitive processes work in the brain. Vogel characterizes his work as an intersection of traditional psychology and neurobiology, and sees great potential to enhance the connection between the two departments in the future.

Regarding how the addition of Awh and Vogel may collaborate with the new Institute of Molecu-

lar Engineering, Vogel said, “as we move forward, especially at the cellular and neuroscience level, there are a lot of exciting new possibilities for engineering. My work wouldn’t directly affect the [Institute], but at that level there will be tools that can really give sort of unprecedented access and power to understand basic neural circuits.”

The psychology and neuroscience communities at UChicago are eager to accept Awh and Vogel into their numbers. Amanda Woodward, chair of the psychology department and president of the cognitive development society at UChicago, lauded the professors’ use of innovative behavioral and neuroscientific techniques, as well as groundbreaking approaches to the analysis of measurements from brain imaging. These methods are extending scientific understanding of human memory and attention through discoveries about the cognitive and neural basis of human abilities to concentrate, attend, and remember.

“I am absolutely delighted that Ed Awh and Ed Vogel have decided to join the faculty at Chicago,” Woodward wrote in an e-mail.

“They will bring new ideas and discoveries to campus and greatly enrich our intellectual community and the opportunities that students have to learn from and engage in research.”

Ed Awh and Ed Vogel, two neuroscientists from the University of Oregon, will be joining the UChicago faculty in the summer of 2015.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

New apps to foster romantic connections, advice CRUSHES continued from front

will seek input from both the editors and the app’s user community.

The desire to test this new system is one of the reasons for creating the apps.

“We need a platform where we can better moderate in terms of censoring bullying posts, to categorize what people are interested in and stuff like that,” the tech team member said.

Under this new monitoring system, users will be able to upvote and downvote posts published on the apps. Each upvote will be worth a certain number of Karma points and each downvote

will subtract a certain number of points. Users will be allowed to release posts without any screening by high Karma users or editors once they reach a certain threshold of Karma points. Moderators, either high Karma users or editors, approve the posts of any user who has not reached this threshold.

This system is based on Reddit, which utilizes a system that also uses Karma points, as determined by the overall scores of posts. On Reddit, a score is the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes.

The new apps will be monitored by the current editors of UChicago

Crushes, but the team expects to select new editors once they graduate.

UChicago Crushes announced the release of Hootie on its Facebook page yesterday. “We want to create a local bulletin board and an open course that are FREE of cyberbullies while ensuring the voice of the minority,” a post on the page read. “Our first app is going to be an improved version of Yik Yak that incorporate features from various Facebook Pages and Facebook Group.”

UChicago Crushes also announced it is recruiting beta testers for Hootie.

Dr. Donald F. Steiner (M.S. ‘56, M.D. ‘56), an alum of and former professor at the University of Chicago, passed away on November 11 at the age of 84. Steiner’s research on insulin enabled the production of biosynthetic human insulin, which has had a tremendous impact on diabetes patients worldwide.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO NEWS

Maggie Loughran Maroon Contributor Donald F. Steiner (M.S. ’56, M.D. ’56), a world-renowned scientist who made important discoveries in diabetes research, died on November 11 at the age of 84.

Steiner earned a master’s degree in biochemistry and a medical degree from the University in 1956.

He joined the faculty in 1960 and eventually became the A.N. Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Medicine and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

He was captivated by insulin and devoted his life to studying how it works. Steiner’s discovery of proinsulin led to biosynthetic human insulin production, which has helped manage diabetes and improve the quality of life of diabetes patients all over the world.

“Steiner revolutionized our understanding of the chemistry and biochemistry of polypeptide hormones,” Kenneth Polonsky, dean of both the Pritzker School of Medicine and the Division of the Biological Sciences in the College (BSD), wrote in a statement to the BSD faculty. “His contributions to understanding the biochemical nature of insulin production and the development of C-peptide measurement have had profound scientific and clinical implications.”

Aside from his work, Steiner was known for having a variety of interests, especially in arts and culture.

“He was a Renaissance kind of person” and “knowledgeable in a humble way,” Arthur Rubenstein, former dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, said of his friend

and mentor. He had an apartment full of books on history and the arts, played the piano and the harpsichord, and frequented the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Louis Philipson, director of the University’s Kovler Diabetes Center and longtime friend of Steiner, added that he was passionate about human rights and “had the ability to interact with people from all walks of life,” Philipson said.

Steiner held leadership positions at the University of Chicago Diabetes Research and Training Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Philipson called Steiner a major force in making UChicago the mecca for diabetes research. Rubenstein attributed his popularity and influence to his generosity and willingness to share ideas with others.

Steiner was internationally recognized for his contributions to diabetes research, winning awards from the American Diabetes Association as well as Israel’s Wolf Prize in Medicine and the Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research, the largest financial award for diabetes research.

Despite his global fame, Steiner never strayed from his UChicago roots, according to Rubenstein.

“He was offered jobs everywhere, but was never really interested….

He never looked for fame and money; he was content,” he said.

Just this year, the University honored him with an alumni medal.

“He always had time for his staff and colleagues, would answer questions at length and in depth, and was absolutely devoted to this University,” Polonsky wrote. “We will miss him profoundly.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | December 2, 2014

For sale: Nobel Prize of Watson, key DNA researcher Dave Thomas Maroon Contributor Renowned biologist and Nobel laureate Dr. James Watson will auction off his Nobel Prize in Medicine for an estimated $2.5 to $3.5 million this Thursday. A portion of the proceeds is intended for the University of Chicago.

Dr. Watson, 85, received the prize alongside scientists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962 for groundbreaking research on the molecular structure of nucleic acids.

First published in Nature, their findings described the double helix of DNA and highlighted its significance in transferring genetic information, ultimately pioneering the field of molecular biology.

Melissa Abernathy, a spokesperson for auctioneer Christie’s New York, emphasized the significance of this sale. “Nobel Prizes rarely go on auction, and the subject of the prize is what makes it so valuable,” she said. “The opportunity to own a piece of scientific history makes this prize valuable.”

In addition to the medal, Watson’s handwritten acceptance speech notes and the manuscript for his Nobel Lecture will be auctioned off separately. These pieces are estimated to fetch a combined value between $500,000 to $700,000.

Although this is the first time a living Nobel laureate is selling their prize, this is the second time a 1962 Nobel prize has come to auction. In April of last year, Crick’s prize was sold by his heirs for over $2 million. Some of the proceeds were donated to research insti-

tutions.

According to Christie’s New York, Watson has promised similar donations to research institutions linked to his career, including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Clare College Cambridge, and the University of Chicago.

“I look forward to making further philanthropic gifts...so I can continue to do my part in keeping the academic world an environment where great ideas and decency prevail,” Watson said in a press release from Christie’s.

However, apart from donations, Watson has mentioned that the sale is also to recoup income and to re-enter public life following controversial comments he made in an interview with The Sunday Times. In the 2007 article, Watson mentioned doubts on whether intelligence is equal among all races and was subsequently ostracized by the scientific community.

“I was fired from the boards of companies, so I have no income apart from my academic income...I was set back. It was stupid on my part. All you can do is nothing, but hope that people actually know what you are,” Watson said in interview with Financial Times.

Nevertheless, Christie’s New York does not expect Watson’s controversy and financial motivations to deter buyers. “Dr. Watson’s scientific reputation speaks for itself,” Abernathy said.

Watson, a UChicago alum, graduated from the College in 1947 with a degree in Zoology. He visited campus in October of this year to donate a statue of Charles Darwin to the school.

Ground-breaking of UCMC suburban facility postponed Haojia Li Maroon Contributor A proposed UChicago medical facility in a Chicago suburb will begin construction next spring—not this fall, as the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) originally announced. The UCMC planned to break ground on the almost $67-million facility this fall, but a town official says there is no delay on the plan.

The Village of Orland Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago, signed a Letter of Intent with the UCMC in mid-May to build the hospital’s largest off-site clinic. In late August, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the UCMC’s proposal, which includes a four-story building and a two-story parking garage.

Joe La Margo, the Public Information Officer of the Village of Orland Park, said that there was brief discussion with the University about having the groundbreaking immediately after the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the proposal. Orland Park officials have yet to approve the development agreement, he added.

“It was determined that the Village and [the University] wanted to first finalize the terms of the development agreement prior to any groundbreaking,” La Margo said. “The

process should be completed shortly and approved by the Village Board within the next month or two, [hence] the spring groundbreaking.”

“There has never been a delay,” he insisted.

UCMC spokesperson Lorna Wong told the Chicago Tribune that the UCMC planning team may have been “a little too optimistic” about the timeline of the groundbreaking, but added that Orland Park is setting up meetings with local businesses to develop marketing opportunities.

La Margo said there are no issues between the Village and the UCMC. “The University Hospital has been very cooperative during the entire process,” he said. “The intent was always to have the groundbreaking in spring 2015.”

La Margo estimated that the facility, which will be built at 143rd Street and La Grange Road in Orland Park’s Main Street Triangle area, would take one year to build.

The 120,000-square-foot care facility will offer specialized treatment in radiation oncology, including a variety of diagnostic imaging services and 80 exam rooms for other medical specialties: orthopedics, women’s health, pediatrics, cardiology, and surgical consulting. The plans also include a pharmacy, a 580-space parking structure, and an adjacent restaurant.

3

UChicago spokesperson: there may be a “digital connection” to University of Hawaii LIBRARY continued from front

of Hawaii could not be reached for comment.

UChicago also explored a partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), but those talks have not resulted in a concrete plan. “I think as we move forward, depending on where the library goes, we’re happy to collaborate. I think it’s just not been really identified where that would be,” Mary Case, co-chair of UIC’s bid, said. “I think probably more around the programming that emanates from the museum and connecting with the communities. But that’s really as far as the conversations have gone at this point.”

Peterson declined to comment on specifics but said, “We’re still in conversation with [UIC], and we have been at various stages along the way. I think what we all want is for it to be in Chicago.”

Case said that a joint bid was never seriously considered. “I don’t think either of us really saw advantage in that. We’re offering in some ways very different sites, and it’s really going to be up to the President and the First Family in the end where it goes,” she said.

UIC is proposing sites near its West Loop campus, while the University is committed to bringing the library to the mid-South Side.

Although none of the sites have been publicly disclosed, community groups working with the University have said that the University will submit three sites: Washington Park near East 55th Street and King Drive, Jackson Park near the Hyde Park Academy, and the South Shore

NEWS IN BRIEF Business Career Services, alternative to competitive UCIB, launches

Housing to consider change in roomswap policy

The University introduced a new undergraduate Business Career Services (BCS) program this quarter, running alongside the more competitive UChicago Careers in Business (UCIB) program.

Amanda Thompson, the director of BCS, said that the program is meant for anyone with an interest in business, regardless of their major.

BCS is open to any student of any year; all students are always welcome to use its services. This differs from UCIB, which is a three-year program to which students must apply at the end of their first year. According to BCS’s website, the non-selective format of the program allows students to have more flexibility in their schedules while still giving them access to business career counseling.

The BCS program will offer advising, walk-in consultation hours, workshops, treks, and more, according to an e-mail sent out by Thompson to the student body. Walk-in hours are from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on most Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

As one of its activities, BCS held a lunch workshop on networking on November 24.

Thompson and Jesse Meyer, the manager of UCIB, gave tips on how to dress professionally, how to make contacts, and how to present oneself during career fairs. During this quarter the program hosted trips to Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust and Accenture, and will host a trek to New York City this month.

Inter-House Council (IHC) recently proposed a change to the housing policy which would allow students to switch their room arrangements within their Houses without participating in the wait-list or lottery systems.

Currently, students are only able to change their room types—between singles and doubles—during the year by entering the general wait-list system.

“Students are currently able to switch roommates between doubles (or switch single rooms)…but we hope to expand this option to switching roommates between singles, doubles, and triples,” fourth-year IHC president Natalie David wrote in an e-mail.

The current housing policy states that students may not change their rooms until the beginning of the fourth week of autumn quarter, and they must move into the same type of room as they were originally assigned to. This jeopardizes their placement in the House, as students who want to change room types must be placed on the general wait-list for the entire housing system and may be forced to switch Houses.

The new rule allows students to switch between room types within their Houses more easily but keeps the initial room-change freeze.

The proposal was passed by the IHC two weeks ago and will now be reviewed internally by the College Housing Office. If the change is supported, it could be approved within weeks or by the beginning of the next quarter.

The change was proposed by third-year Joshua Bustetter, the housing and facilities chair of the IHC. “I proposed this change because it was an ongoing problem that I saw within my House and wanted to bring it up within the larger community to see if we could have a solution…where students are satisfied with the room type they are in,” Bustetter said.

“The hope is that this policy will enable houses to have a more cohesive house culture,” he added. “We hope that this will facilitate intra-house relationships.”

—Anne Nazarro CORRECTION

Florida native Nadia Ezaldein, 22, was involved in the 24-Hour Play Festival SHOOTING continued from front

the 24 Hour Play Festival, serving as a stagehand in the fall of 2009 and co-writing a play in the spring of 2010.

Her parents, brother, and sisters, all of whom have asked not to be named, survive

her.

According to an e-mail sent to the student body by Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Karen Warren Coleman, details regarding a memorial plan and the family’s wishes will be shared in the coming week.

Cultural Center on East 71st Street and South Shore Drive. A University official declined to comment on specific sites but confirmed that the University would be proposing three sites.

Louise McCurry, the commissioner of the Jackson Park Advisory Council ( JPAC), said that people associated with the University’s efforts have reached out to her and asked for her advice. Sonya Malunda, the University’s senior associate vice president for community engagement, also recently contacted JPAC and asked to attend its regularly scheduled January meeting.

At the November JPAC meeting, McCurry said that East 63rd Street and South Stony Island Avenue was a site suggested by the University. She said in a later interview that the site would work well logistically.

JPAC’s vice president, Frances Vandervoort, warned that the council would be monitoring the potential environmental consequences of the library very closely. “We will do our best to ensure that we hold the University’s feet to the fire in terms of environmental support,” she said.

According to McCurry, JPAC will not make a decision on whether to support a possible Obama library in Jackson Park until they see more details of the plan. “The thing is, we don’t know yet where they’re going. We’ll look at the proposal carefully and see what’s there. At this point, having the Obama library anywhere close to us in Hyde Park would be wonderful.”

The November 24 article “Student Nominees to UCPD Review Committee Rejected” misstated that Austin Blum, Josh Cannon, and Veronica Portillo Heap were nominated by Student Government to the Independent Review Committee after the initial nominees were rejected. These members were actually nominated by the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Dean of Students for the Humanities, and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, respectively.

—Shelby Lohr

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed DECEMBER 2, 2014

What we’re thankful for The things you might have forgotten before digging into Thanksgiving dinner Now that we’re all back from stuffing ourselves with turkeys (or tofurkeys for the vegetarians among us, or other foodstuffs for those who venture outside of tradition), there are some things which might have slipped your mind on the annual day of thanks. Luckily, the Editorial Board has remembered them for you: 24-Hour CVS: So I can get my Doritos, toilet paper, and hair dye at 5 a.m.

Reading period: When Reg room reservations become as competitive as art course registration.

Deresiewicz and the new mo-

lecular engineering minor: For giving us existential anxiety about our education.

Reg study rooms: And all the tiny penises inscribed on their walls.

Saieh Hall: Home of ambiguous pronunciations—is it the hall of long Sighs, the hall with good Say, or Money Church?

Change Point: The laundry system that was scheduled to change at some point.

Campus North: South Campus.

Symmetry matters.

Overheard at UChicago: For being the University’s most trusted name in news.

Yik Yak: Discourse for dummies.

And racists.

Treasure Island discount: Another reason to have a fake ID. Bathroom graffiti: For making my poops more interesting. I don’t have an iPhone.

Fall sports (football, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, and men’s and women’s cross country): Two UAA Championships, four NCAA tournament appearances, and two All-Americans. The most successful season in recent memory.

Chicago Innovation Exchange (CIE): How does one exchange innovation? Or innovate exchange?

SG stipends: The largest documented on-campus instance of students getting angry about their money not getting spent.

The University doubling the number of Metcalf internships: Paving the way to our future of unemployment and a lifetime of living as sheep.

CLI: If the Cat Loving Institute didn’t want to be abbreviated, it shouldn’t have had such a long name.

Yusho: Congrats on finally opening, but consider making your small plates normal-sized plates.

The weather: DID YOU KNOW THAT IT’S 60 DEGREES

IN PHILADELPHIA RIGHT NOW? D.C., TOO. AND NEW HAVEN. NEW FUCKING HAVEN. The Pub: Thanks.

Fall Formal: My roommate’s friend’s friend went. Apparently it was OK. Uber: A possible replacement for the shuttle system on campus? Since it actually arrives on time? Shout-out to Mustafa.

No Barriers: See “fewer barriers.”

Harvard University: See “Overheard.”

—The Maroon Editorial Board

BLACKLIGHTxMAROON

The meaning of Black Ferguson is the catharsis of a slow-brewing and now wildly raging inherited black rage Nina Katemauswa Maroon Contributor Black is the color of Mike Brown’s 292-pound, 6 foot 4 tall, strong-boned-yet-still-too-fragilefor-the-impact-of-six (or possibly more)-bullets-in-his-now-dead body.

It is the color of my father’s hands, shifty and shaking, reaching for his driver’s license and registration in the glove compartment, as the waiting police officer’s gaze burns shame into the bowed heads of me and my small friend in the backseat of the brand new car like iron-branding marks, reminding us of ancestral betrayals and ancient humiliations. Still too familiar, too close, despite the centuries and the generations that separate

us from their legacy in those tense moments. We sit there huddled and ashamed, frozen, like resigned criminals, with our breaths and hands held tight, as Father goes on to sign his non-American name on the dotted lines of the faded pink speeding ticket we know he does not deserve—as if to underline his disgrace, as if to mark ownership of his shame.

A pitch-dark sludge of tar-like silence drips down on us all the way home, with the loud, proudly African music from the stereo now turned off and Dad refusing to take his eyes away from straight ahead of him at the windshield even once—even as I desperately try to catch his eyes in the rearview mirror to let him know, quietly, that I am old enough to tell what’s hap-

pened, that I am on his side, and that I still respect him—in spite of the way his hands were shaking so awfully, and in spite of the cruel, sharp stench of his fear accumulating all around us as the police officer had interrogated him, making him appear somehow even physically smaller right before our eyes, with each uttering of the word “boy” in reference to him—with each skeptical glance at the car’s fresh paint and brand-name model.

Later on, Black is the color of third-grade theater audition anxiety, when I stand in front of the judges and passionately recite, stanza by stanza, the selected lines for the part of Juliet, my dream role. Finally, a chance to prove them wrong about my status as dumb new foreigner—a chance to

show them just how wrong they’ve been about me this entire time.

Five days afterward, Black follows me home like a greying cloud when the casting results are handed out and there is a small note in my backpack from the drama teacher telling me that they loved the audition but that I just don’t “fit the part,” and would I mind playing the role of the apothecary instead?

Cue warm, fat tears and hours spent tugging at my hair in the mirror, wishing it were straighter—wishing it could belong to someone else.

Black thrust me into a narrative of long suffering—a history of personal struggles.

Black has tucked me in after long days spent overcompensating for who I am, and bathed

my feet after months spent trying to outrun her twisted legacy and the societal perceptions that have limbs far more powerful, more swift, than the legs of my individual achievements alone.

Black caressed me in her churches and her buildings when no one else would take me in.

Black taught me to be careful— to look both ways when crossing the streets of apparent progress— lest someone come and drag you back to the depths of your old ranks in an instant, lest someone run up in front of you to force a mirror toward your face and remind you: Black is still black.

For once you are born black, there is no growing up—only BLACK continued on page 6

Student recounts sexual assault The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 Emma Broder, Editor-in-Chief Joy Crane, Editor-in-Chief Jonah Rabb, Managing Editor The Maroon Editorial Board consists of Eleanor Hyun, Harini Jaganathan, Kristin Lin, Kiran Misra, and Jake Walerius.

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“I hope that by sharing my story, I will make others feel comfortable sharing theirs.”

Julia Reinitz Maroon Contributor Editor’s note: The names that appear in this article have been changed.

On December 19, 2009, I was sexually assaulted. I met Sam, the man who assaulted me, the previous summer at debate camp. We kissed at the end of camp and stayed in touch afterwards.

We did not go to the same high school, and, in fact, did not live in the same city. We only saw each other at certain competitions or tournaments that our respective schools traveled to, in various cities. The competitions lasted all weekend. Students typically stayed in hotels—arranged by the tournament— and Sam and I would kiss in secret in one of our respective hotel rooms after our chaperones had gone to sleep, leaving students to their own devices.

Sam sexually assaulted me in his hotel room while we were at a tournament in Minneapolis. We were kissing and he asked me how far I was comfortable going, and in a haze of exhaustion and naiveté I said “I don’t know.” That

was all he needed to justify pushing me onto the bed, taking my clothes off, and digitally penetrating me until I started shouting “no” and trying to push him off of me. I have never felt more degraded than when I hurriedly put my clothes back on as he watched, both of us silent.

For the first three weeks after it happened, I didn’t tell anyone. I had never told my parents about Sam in the first place, and it seemed too complicated to explain to them that a guy I’d been “hooking up with” had gone too far.

Very few of my friends had known about Sam, and, at first, I was too ashamed to talk about it. When I did finally tell one friend about what had happened, I tried to pretend it wasn’t that big a deal, like, “of course it was bad, but then again sometimes bad things happen.”

The truth is, I both felt completely responsible for the entire episode and thoroughly convinced that what Sam had done was not a “real” crime. To my sixteen-year-old brain, it was only “real” rape if there was penis-in-vagina penetration after you explicitly said no. I felt

it was my fault both because I had gone to Sam’s room in the first place, and because I hadn’t explicitly said no.

I spent a lot of time crying and hiding in my room so that my parents wouldn’t see. I started drinking, both with friends and in secret by myself, pilfering cognac from my parents’ liquor cabinet.

I fought with people I’d been close with for years, accusing them of not caring about me while refusing to tell them that I was still upset about what had happened with Sam. I felt empty, guilty, ashamed, and alone.

Meanwhile, Sam told all of the members of his debate team that he’d had sex with me, and that I’d been willing to do anything he wanted. Unsurprisingly, these rumors quickly spread. I heard about them when another member of my high school’s team asked me whether I’d “hooked up” with Sam, and then told me about the rumors.

I didn’t quit debate immediately after that, but I did quit early in my senior year. I was lucky in that I didn’t have to see Sam every day, and after I quit debate I didn’t have to see him at all. I had FEAR continued on page 8

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | December 2, 2014

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Good humor The best comedians understand that there’s nothing inherently funny about trafficking stereotypes Mickey Desruisseaux Maroon Contributor Let’s talk about comedy, UChicago.

Imagine you’re at a stand-up show where the comedian in question is bombing on stage. There might be the odd chuckle or polite clap, but, for the most part, barely any of their jokes are landing. Imagine that you confront that comedian after their set about some of their more needlessly offensive stabs at humor and try to explain why they weren’t funny, at least to you. Imagine that they respond by either reminding you that they were “just jokes,” or by saying that it was your own sense of humor, or lack thereof, that precluded you from laughing.

That would be obstinate, but that’s exactly what happens when some students defend the more

eyebrow-raising “jokes” made on this campus, either in person or online. Setting aside how students respect or disrespect each other in regards to race, class, religion, gender, or orientation, there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what comedy is, and what it means to try to make people laugh. It’s really quite simple. Unless you’re a naturally witty person, crafting good comedy is about only two things: power and innovation.

Let’s start with power. Tom and Jerry is a comedic legend because 99 times out of a 100, the diminutive mouse Jerry gets the upper hand over the feline Tom. The show simply wouldn’t work the other way around. It’s the subversion of traditional power dynamics, and it is our intrinsic desire to root for underdogs that make these jokes work. It’s why we laugh at Wile E.

Coyote’s pain at the hands of the Road Runner, or Elmer Fudd’s constant humiliation at those of Bugs Bunny. The “death by snu-snu” bit from Futurama’s third season still stands out as one of the show’s funniest moments, but the joke only works because it’s men who are on the receiving end of it. Flip the gender or sexual dynamics at play, and it quickly goes from hilarious to horrifying.

It’s why jokes about men made by women tend to raise fewer eyebrows than the other way around, or why black comedians tend to get more of a pass riffing on race than their white counterparts. Is that a double standard? Perhaps. But comedy does not operate within a vacuum.

The concept of a double standard implies a baseline of fairness, and anyone suggesting that things are fair between various groups in soci-

ety hasn’t been paying attention for the last 200 years. The broader societal context the comedian operates within can’t be divorced from their comedy, and when someone in a more dominant social group starts riffing on someone in a more subordinate one, it’s hard to toe the line between good humor and bullying.

This isn’t to suggest that it can’t be done, or that certain comedians can’t say certain things. Some of my favorite comedians are straight white men, I swear. But these comedians understand that there’s nothing inherently funny about trafficking in stereotypes about disadvantaged groups for an easy yuk, and that they have to go the extra mile to make such jokes really resonate. Whoever said that some jokes never get old simply hasn’t heard those jokes enough times.

Which brings us to innovation,

and the effort needed to truly find it. It’s effort that makes the white Ralphie May or Bill Burr’s jokes about black people work, that allows the male Dylan Moran or Louis C.K. to stick jokes about women, that lets the straight Lewis Black or Patton Oswalt riff on the LGBTQ community. And it was effort that enabled the late master George Carlin to crack on, well, everyone. It’s all done with an awareness of their comparative power over their comedic subjects, with a commitment to their craft to innovate beyond tired clichés, and with the understanding that a truly good joke can make anyone laugh, even the ostensible butt of the joke.

A comedian reserves the right to be offensive, edgy, or risqué. You can be any, all, or none of these things and still be funny. But a good JOKES continued on page 6

Power play Prostitution inevitably perpetuates both exploitation and violence against women Rachel Corriagn Maroon Contributor Note: Sex work in this article refers primarily to prostitution.

The debate about whether sex work is exploitative or empowering has received more attention in recent years, as the commodification of sex has moved from the hidden street corners of red-light districts to the ever-accessible corners of the World Wide Web. The theoretical reasons for advocating the legalization of sex work are good ones—protection for prostitutes, establishment of an employment history for workers, etc.— but they simply don’t work in the real world. Operations within the sex industry are highly nuanced and inevitably perpetuate both exploitation and violence against women overall.

Instead, in order to accurately address the inherent oppression in the

sex industry, laws should focus on decriminalizing the sale of sex, while punishing buyers of it. That is to say, legislation should not make it a criminal offence for prostitutes to sell sex but should make it a criminal offence for potential clients to purchase sex to discourage this kind of exploitation.

A common misperception by proponents of legalizing the sex trade is that many women are in those positions voluntarily. The vast majority of women involved in the sex industry come from underserved backgrounds with a history of poverty, abuse, and poor education. Many of these women are initially turned to sex work as a way to escape hostile situations and to support themselves or their family.

In truth, the industry itself exists because of the (almost exclusively) male demand to purchase women as an objects, or commodities. Johns— the common term for men who buy

prostitutes—seek sexual gratification with women without regard to their enjoyment, identity as people, or other characteristics that define them as human beings. Though many johns do seek prostitutes with whom they can share their thoughts and feelings, they nonetheless largely view the prostitute as a means to an end above all. Rather than embodying a full human being, the prostitute becomes a commodity to be used for his personal satisfaction—whether sexual or emotional in nature. Though such commodification of labor is common in the service industry, this fundamental characteristic of sex work deconstructs the popular argument that sex work can empower women to take charge of their sexuality.

Though the legalization of prostitution may benefit a small minority of women in the sex industry, it is likely to increase trafficking—or

illegal trade—of the most vulnerable populations. This is because of the nature of the demand for prostitutes: the reasons Johns seek prostitutes are far more complex than their desire for sex. Though a substantial portion of men do seek prostitutes for the sole reason of gaining access to sex, others want a woman over whom they can exert their power—physically and psychologically. When they seek a prostitute many men are looking to assert their domination over another human being. This domination, which often entails abuse and exploitation, should be illegal.

As a result, places where prostitution is legalized often see a spike in trafficking. When johns are asked to leave such items as belts and shoelaces at their door, many go elsewhere.

Trafficking flourishes. Additionally, instigators of trafficking—pimps, madams, “managers”—are less likely

to be prosecuted if caught. In order to convict pimps, prosecutors must demonstrate that the women under pimp control are indeed victims of trafficking, and not voluntary prostitutes protected under new laws.

Because of the psychological domination of traffickers over their victims, prostitutes are unlikely to testify.

If prostitution were legalized this would expand the demand, abuse, and trafficking of women around the world. Instead of punishing prostitutes, these laws should focus on targeting traffickers and abusive patrons in order to prevent prostitutes from being further victimized by the criminal justice system while punishing johns for sustaining an industry that exploits women.

Rachel Corrigan is a fourthyear in the College majoring in political science.

Letter: Divestment from fossil fuels a unique campaign South African social activist Desmond Tutu has called climate change “the human rights challenge of our time.”

Within the UChicago Climate Action Network, we agree. We also believe solutions to climate change must be multifaceted—there is no silver bullet.

That’s why, as part of a larger strategy for tackling climate change, we’re pushing for our university to divest from fossil fuels. This would entail selling its investments in the 200 companies that own the largest coal, oil, and gas reserves in the world and have fought relentlessly against mitigation efforts, a list that includes Peabody Energy, ExxonMobil, BP, and many others.

Historically, divestment action taken by other universities in the United States and abroad has contributed to the success of other campaigns such as the South African anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s and the anti-tobacco movement of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

The tactical calculus of divestment is not to bring about change by affecting the market. Rather, research has shown that divestment can be effective by galvanizing public support for legislative action and other reforms.

Last year, we began talks with the administration centered on the merits of fossil fuel divestment. The initial conversation began with a report we published in February, and constructive dialogue with university administrators has continued ever since.

To further buttress our arguments, we’re publishing an addendum to our report tomorrow, December 3. We’ve focused on making a more explicit argument that fossil fuel divestment complies with University policy as outlined in the 1967 Kalven Committee’s Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action.

The oft-cited document—which states that our institution will remain neutral on all social and/or political issues to which it is not a direct party —has historically been applied as the rationale for refraining to divest from entities such as the South African apartheid regime, the tobacco industry, and the genocidal Sudanese government.

The principle of maintaining neutrality while maximizing profits is a very reasonable way to conduct financial business. However, it doesn’t account for harmful externalities that come with cer-

tain investments, ones that may hurt the University itself.

If the University is to dictate a social value as “paramount,” it better be one that can be agreed upon within the University without exception. This claim alone does not constitute our argument: the guise of “protecting human health and well-being” is far too vague to provide justification for divestment in and of itself. After all, most would agree that divesting from destructive forces in South Africa and Sudan (known as “conflict divestments”) as well as companies that sell products like tobacco and guns (known as “substance divestments”) would fall in this category.

The key word here is “most.” It is clear that in electing not to previously divest, the University has decided that both conflict divestments and substance divestments, by and large, address problems that do not merit the University’s jeopardizing its neutral position in order to combat.

It’s understandable why: conflict divestments often involve two or more parties that provide moral justification for their actions, and as a University, acting as an arbiter can be a precariously sub-

jective task—deciding which position is necessarily correct isn’t always straightforward. Furthermore, the localized nature of these conflicts begs the question of how much the health and well-being of the University and humanity as whole is palpably threatened.

What about substance divestments?

Admittedly, this type of divestment is much more similar to fossil fuel divestment in that consumers ultimately purchase a socially harmful product. There are two distinctions here. First, consumers want energy, not necessarily fossil fuels, and would likely elect to consume energy from renewable sources if fossil fuel companies had not fought so vigorously over the past thirty years to prevent this from being an affordable option. The hands of consumers are tied: in order to maintain a decent standard of living, they are forced under the current system to purchase products that jeopardize the planet.

Second, and most importantly, the damages caused by climate change will easily eclipse those caused by the public health crisis of tobacco use. As a whole, civilization will still chug along if people continue to smoke cigarettes. If green-

house gas emissions continue to rise at the rate they have, though, the forecast is much more dire.

In working to engender climate change, fossil fuel companies violate paramount social values and constitute an exceptional circumstance, one more significant than any issue considered by our institution in the past. It is clear that fossil fuel divestment, more than any other form of divestment that has been campaigned for on campus, fully complies with the Kalven Report.

Divestment alone will not solve this problem. If the University is to divest, pairing that action with investment in a greener campus would be applauded by our movement as an essential step. But demonstrating that it’s wrong to profit from climate change—and perpetuating our reliance on fossil fuels—is absolutely and equally necessary.

Editors Note: Sam Zacher is a Sports Editor of The Maroon.

Johnathan Guy is a secondyear in the College majoring in political science and philosophy. Sam Zacher is a third-year majoring in political science and economics.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | December 2, 2014

Fear of rubes in Rubenstein Newly annnounced Rubenstein Forum is an opportunity to create a real student union

Lear Jiang

cLear and Concise The University recently announced the construction of the David M. Rubenstein Forum. The building, to be located between Woodlawn and Kimbark Avenues on 60th Street, and scheduled for completion in 2018, will be an area for hosting “academic conferences, workshops, lectures, meetings, ceremonies and other types of gatherings that entail formal and informal interaction and that benefit from a dynamic, technologically advanced environment.” And, according to the University, it will be “a much needed physical space in which people from all parts of campus, the broader University community, and visitors from around the world may gather, collaborate, and interact.”

The current discussion I hear on campus regarding the already aptly nicknamed Rube focuses on it being an alternative to the Reg as a social space, where students can gather and hang out between classes or at night. Some are even heralding it as a student union on campus. However, I have my reservations. First, if it is indeed intended to be a student

center, its location will not be ideal.

The new Campus North dorm will presumably dominate first-year housing in the future, and it seems unlikely that anyone living north of Max Palevsky (off-campus students included) would be willing to trek the six blocks south on a cold or snowy evening. Second, and most importantly, the University explicitly did not call the new building a student union, but instead a “forum.” From the press release, the University seems very serious about the serious type of serious discourse that will happen at the “forum” and the knowledge we can all learn from the academic conferences that will be hosted, and the “informal interaction” that will occur as well. It seems even future, spontaneous interactions in the new “forum” will be classified as either formal or informal, so I don’t have much hope that it will create the relaxed and leisurely atmosphere a true student union needs.

As a fourth-year who has become well acquainted with the available “social spaces” on campus, from

the pseudo-student union Reynolds Club to the first floor of the Reg, I am calling on the University to get off its high horse and actually construct, or at least renovate, a building to become a true center of student life on campus. Anyone who has ever visited another university with an actual student center will know that the areas on our campus that we pass of fas social spaces are far below par. A true student union would be a venue located in the heart of campus with food, entertainment, study spaces, and social spaces all mixed into one.

A place where students can gather during any time of day to study for tests, or just to hang out—Hutch Commons meets Ida Noyes meets the Reg meets Logan Arts Center meets The Pub. Indeed, the most social and “collegiate” area I have encountered in four years here is The Pub, which is only accessible to a quarter of students, and stuck down in the basement of Ida Noyes Hall. With the University’s recent construction binge, there really is no excuse for the University to not dedicate at least some funds to create a space that would liven up the social atmosphere for its students.

Reynolds Club could be a perfect candidate for this new center, as it

already is a main hub, but its administrative offices need to be relocated, and its upper floors and rooms need to be expanded and filled with vendors students will actually patronize. Imagine if Chipotle weren’t on 53rd, but in Reynolds.

The recent development on and near campus highlights a deeper issue with our University’s identity, one that will perhaps unsuspectingly dampen the aspirations the University currently has at reaching greater heights nationally and internationally. It is clear that the administration wants to break into the top realm of universities worldwide, the Harvards, Oxfords, Cambridges, and Yales of the world. I, for one, believe that we are already there, but so long as we are not at the top, the University will undoubtedly have ambitions to climb to the top. Thus, the administration spends millions in developing the neighborhood and constructing buildings on campus towards a grander, more elite vision of the future. But does the University really need to be so pretentious as to construct a “forum” for ideas and discourse?

The construction of the building seems to be motivated by delusions of grandeur that distract from the real issue of students desperately

needing a separate social space. Socializing does not always need to be serious discussion or intense conversation, but there seem to be no places on campus that don’t serve alcohol to encourage that. A student center would liven up the atmosphere and present a safe location for students to simply kick back during the cold winter months.

Without one, students are dispersed around Hyde Park, in their own circles and rarely ever interact with the entire student diaspora.

Our University occupies a position as perhaps the most academically rigorous in the country, which is fine—although we do seem to fixate on that a bit. But that doesn’t mean we need to take ourselves so seriously that we don’t even entertain the idea of allowing a student center on campus. If we want to be able to compete for the best students coming out of high school, the quality of student life needs to matter, and given the recent discussions about intolerance and bias on campus, we would all benefit from a more sociable atmosphere encouraged by a student center.

Lear Jiang is a fourth-year in the college majoring in political science.

Stereotypical jokes “aren’t unfunny because they’re offensive. It’s because they’re hackneyed, unoriginal, and lazy” JOKES continued on page 5 comedian knows that edginess is not a substitute for true humor, and that all the slurs and swears and stereotypes in the world cannot mask a truly unfunny joke. Dropping an N-bomb, wearing a stereotypical Halloween costume, or resurrecting a stereotype about someone’s culture isn’t unfunny because it’s offensive. It’s unfunny because it’s hackneyed, unoriginal, and lazy.

For all the complexity in its crafting, comedy is ultimately a simple thing. A dramatic or tragic story can cause any number of reactions in its audience, and its reception can live or die by any of those factors. Want to tell if your comedy is any good? It’s simple. Just see if your audience laughs. Or chuckles, or snorts, or makes that odd rasping sound Ernie makes on Sesame Street, or likes it on Facebook. If

you don’t get that, then it’s back to the lab again.

If the intent is truly to make people laugh, then a true comedian takes the negative response and learns from it. But if all you want to do is spout off freely behind the veneer of comedy, then call yourself an agitator or a provocateur or a troll. More accurately, a bully. More bluntly, a dick. Just don’t call yourself funny. On behalf

of people who have a lot riding on their ability to make other people laugh, you’re giving us a bad name.

The mantle of free speech is often invoked on campus to shield students from criticism of their more inflammatory actions, and the justification of “just joking” is often wielded as a weapon to redirect the backlash to the audience’s own comedic sensibilities. That doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. But as

a wise man once said, if you have to explain a joke, there is no joke.

And if the only defense you can offer for a bad joke is that it technically isn’t illegal for you to make it, that’s probably the strongest indictment against you ever trying to make anyone laugh again.

Mickey Desruisseaux is a fourth-year in the College majoring in political science.

Black “like the grief-stricken paths of a thousand frozen black mothers, clutching prayer beads...”

BLACK continued from page 4 growing in. Every year you are encouraged to retreat more and more into yourself and apart from the light of first-classed civilization until you are indeed so dark you are nearly invisible, when at last you are finally sterile and safe for the rest of society. But only after you have thoroughly been muted down, pegged a few notches below the normal assuredness, and dimmed to your least vibrant of settings, transforming into a less threatening shade of yourself in each potentially dangerous situation in exchange for a more pleasant experience of subjugation at best—in exchange for the right to stay living at worst.

Black is a nation 20 years past apartheid yet still decades from equality; it is voting along party lines, not communal benefits; it’s half a lifetime’s worth of jail time for a crime you never committed except through birth; it’s watching your entire village be ravaged in three weeks by a disease whose cure is still so foreign to people like you: black as the night sky in the

loneliest of African deserts—in the prism of day-to-day life with skin the color of “outsider.”

It is startled, fallen, shaking Mike Brown at the edge of death; shot one time too many by the hands of an enemy as old as dirt, as dark as time, more dangerous than even the stark white grip of Darren Wilson’s cold hand on the trigger: Black.

Black is knowing this should not be my story to anguish over, my pain to emphasize, knowing that some forms of grief are collective and raw and persistent, knowing that the alternative to being gunned down isn’t living freely but living quietly, never crossing the wrong stars and finding yourself in the wrong place or the wrong time at one of destiny’s many not-so-color-blind crossroads. Like the griefstricken paths of a thousand frozen black mothers, clutching prayer beads and tissue papers tonight, remembering the small dimple, the crooked smile, the tender brow of a child whose fate was aligned with a million crashing black asteroids of inevitable destruction, of final tor-

ment, from a bullet too strong, too determined, to be deterred by the power of maternal pleading or unwavering belief in the divine alone.

And Black is still black. *** Black is in the silence. It is the distanced, detached responses from all those at this University who have not seen the things so many of us have seen, who refuse to be reminded about how Mississippi is still burning; how we are still fleeing from our civil-war legacies in Brooklyn and in Compton, in Chicago and in Detroit; how South Africa is still aching from the weight of upholding its feigned progress; how neglecting the spread of preventable diseases is still a form of genocide; and how Ferguson, Missouri is just a bursting microcosm of the ailments replicated all over our society—all over our campuses.

Black is the rising smoke from a burning police car during postverdict riots in Ferguson. The rioting is our catharsis. It is the pressure-cooked manifestation of all our slow-brewing but now wildly

seething anger. It is the phenotypic evidence of our inherited black rage, a rage that has been floating in us all along, just beneath our whitewashed smiles to you on the other side of our gentrified streets, building up in us all these times we have had to bristle in silence and cower in small corners when the steep, astronomically taxing cost of injustice strikes us again and forces us once more to remember, to remember the names and faces of all the ones that have come before this: Eric Garner. Trayvon Martin.

Timothy Russell. Tyisha Miller.

Patrick Dorismond. Alonzo Ashley. Wendell Allen. Yvette Smith.

Ronald Madison. Victor Steen.

James Brissette. Tarika Wilson. Aiyana Jones.

Too soon to forget their names.

Too soon to forget the reality of the countless others whose bodies are never recovered, whose memorials are never held, who rot to slow deaths in the cells of a prison-industrial complex as sprawling and glittering with shame as the majestic shadows of

the towering plantations of the Deep South—just a few short centuries, a few long sufferings, from the headlines we mourn today.

And yet.

Black is the sound of my heavy heart, still beating: resilient and marching forward—onwards.

For Malcolm, for Martin, for Michael…

For the millions who have disappeared in our history books, our news coverage, and our memories.

And, lastly, for the precious child I hope will read these words one day and know with certainty that her mother, like the rest of her people, may at times appear battered, fallen, and broken beyond repair— But we shall never be silenced.

Nina Katemauswa is a third-year in the College majoring in philosophy and political science.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | December 2, 2014

Alum: Connect the dots “Individual moments are like the pages of a flipbook; only when seen collectively do they show their true merit” Jerome Goodrich Maroon Contributor I came into the University of Chicago undecided, and would have left undecided if they let me. I started out as an economics major and I honestly can’t remember why. I’m sure it was akin to a cute girl in my math class telling me it was the right way to go, which is exactly how a friend got roped into it. I slogged away for two years, thinking things were supposed to suck as much as they did.

The trials of the Econ sequence were Spartan in nature, meant to weed out the weak and infirm and thrust them off the cliffs into the “lesser” majors. I came to view it like a Chicago winter, a long and wretched rite of passage that built character and bestowed grit, and I didn’t want to be one of the pathetic bastards who couldn’t handle it. Despite that, I didn’t make it.

It’s strange how the most trivial or obvious things can seem so revelatory. Late one night while I was hopelessly hacking away at a problem set, I realized I wasn’t learning anything

I was interested in learning, and couldn’t bring myself to complete the assignment. The epiphany set in with a strange mixture of despondence and relief. The last two years felt meaningless and the future was suddenly caught in a maelstrom, but, at the same time, I was finally able to attribute solid insight to my feelings of discontent. That clarity of mind allowed me to take the—to this day—maligned recourse of immediately severing all ties with the econ program by withdrawing from the three classes I was taking related to the major.

Though impetuous and abrupt in nature, the decision, like many aha moments, had actually been simmering and festering for nearly six excruciating months. Courage to make the decision and confidence to know it was for the right reason were two slow-burning ends of the same rope. When they finally met, all my reservations and worries had disintegrated into ash.

If you figure out what you don’t like, it doesn’t necessarily leave you better off. To stand against some-

thing is not the same as standing for something else. After I dropped economics, I felt like an unladed Atlas, but without a weight to carry, I also felt lost. Without a direction it was difficult to see where I stood in relation to the rest of the world. When you are stuck in the vast ocean of uncertainty, every direction looks the same; there’s no telling whether or not you will find the land you’re looking for until you start moving one way or another. I had always feared passing up opportunities, closing doors to the “adjacent possible” and never being able to open them again.

I feared gaining expertise; I wanted to be well-rounded and adept at most things, so I thrashed about in every possible way letting impulse and instinct guide my decisions, choosing classes, books, and people solely on the principle of them seeming interesting or fun.

During that uncertain time, I also started going on long walks, by myself or with a friend. On these walks, I would often ask my company or myself any number of questions I had rattling around at the time.

These walks were Socratic, a deluge of baffling “whys” that often left me entranced, but gradually revealed a hidden network of meaning behind what I was spending my time on.

Like the tributaries of a great river, the things I enjoyed learning or were excited about slowly started to converge and help point me in a direction. Interestingly, if I looked back even further to the 20 or so years before college there were instances or people who have impacted future decisions, such that a genealogy of my personal interests could start to be constructed. Of course, all this can only be understood in hindsight. Individual moments are like the pages of a flipbook; only when seen collectively do they show their true merit.

As a recent alumnus I am still being tossed about by the unpredictable oscillations of life. In fact, things are far more in flux now than they were in college. The stakes are higher and there are far fewer resources to help make sense of everything. When I dropped economics, it was probably the first time I fully grasped that my life was my own, and

that I could choose what direction to pursue. Years later, I really credit that as being a catalyst to knowing where I stand today, to having a job that allows me to get paid for things I enjoy, and to a balanced life I feel very fortunate to live. Your college experience will no doubt differ from my own; we have different interests, motivations, and there are very real financial and cultural forces that may shape your decisions differently than they shaped mine. Life is much more zigzag than it is a straight line, so feel free to explore. But also take the time to connect the dots. Go on long walks, write, or swim. Take time for yourself to earnestly think about how you are actively shaping your life. And finally, it seems trite, but always remember that it’s what you do next that counts. As long as you have a choice, which—guess what—you always do, there will always be an opportunity to get back on track.

Jerome Goodrich is an alum of the College.

Letter: Umbrella movement more dynamic than represented In his op-ed “Under My Umbrella” (10/24/14) David Grossman arguest that the Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong’s protest for a more democratic election process under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, will end as soon as the CCP says it will. As an international student from Hong Kong, I quibble with such an assertion. It is my belief that the Umbrella Movement is an Apollonian, republican movement that cements Hong Kong’s best characteristics: a British determination to the rule of law and civic participation, and a strong, pragmatic, nonviolent, and homogeneous civic consciousness. The events since 9/28 have revealed: Support from the middle class.

In recent years before the current protests, Hong Kong’s middle class has been largely cynical about progressive political change. On one side it sees the establishment, paid by a grotesque hegemony of Chinese and business interests, and therefore not to be trusted; on the other, it sees callow pan-Democrats, hijacking a moral high ground of political rights to air crass or inconvenient causes, seeming like populist buffoons.

In fear of disorder, Hong Kong’s middle class reluctantly accepted the limited suffrage outlined by the white paper as a possible catalyst of measured change.

Yet this consensus was shattered by the protests on September 28 that started the Umbrella Movement. The protests, led by astounding self-organization through social media feeds and media campaigns, have shattered much of the illusion that the protestors are indolent radicals. In fact, many of the students who participated in the protest are not insurgents, but middle-class students in law, medicine, and business.

Hence, the protests have enjoyed some support from professional communities—from local businesses donating food and other supplies, to lawyers providing free homework help to street protesters. The protest has become a testament to public reason and civic compassion.

The public had long known that, though the robust real estate and banking industries had sustained general welfare for long, rising land prices and private monopolies would make it difficult for most young people to reach

financial independence. With the Umbrella Movement, it became possible to express such discontent beyond a fatalistic que sera sera. When student groups called for the public to wear black to work on September 29 to express solidarity for the protest, many white-collar workers joined. The Movement, from this view, is the birth of a new political consciousness.

Ambivalence from the CCP. It is difficult for an outsider to suss out what exactly the party intends to do: to piece out, from state-run periodicals, public speeches, and loosely connected actions, a true motive. There is rumor that the reforms of Xi Jinping, the newly minted leader of China’s leadership, were opposed by certain members of the Politburo (the Party’s core group of officials), who led the cause to restrain universal suffrage in Hong Kong. In public remarks, Xi scarcely made note of the protests in October, instead calling for respect of “one country, two systems.” A brief hubbub arose on November 10, when an official conversation was held between Xi and Hong Kong Chief Executive C. Y. Leung, Xi did not

officially “affirm” the actions of Leung’s administration, as was customary. Most curiously, in October, a party-run newspaper in Hong Kong announced the winner of a photography contest: an image of Xi holding a black umbrella.

This all sounds like a conspiracy theory, and it may just be so. Those who know more are obviously not writing editorials, and it is silly to believe that Xi is a closet Gorbachev. But this also indicates that Beijing has a cautious relationship with the current Hong Kong administration, and is open to a reorganization, if not relinquishment, of power.

Does this mean that change is imminent? It seems unlikely that Beijing would allow uninhibited universal suffrage. But, for a state that worships stasis, Beijing must be considering a democratic mechanism of public opinion more favorable to its authority than the instability of a long-term protest. I am holding out to the possibility of the electoral committee opening up, perhaps in the 2022 Chief Executive elections, to allow more student voices.

But can such a response be a timely

and adequate valve for public anger?

Can a compromise heal nascent societal rifts? A recent resurgence of protests in late November, spurred by an attempt by the police to clear out protestors from Mong Kok, has seen the rise of more violent protest groups, and more unabashed police brutality. The Western media has long given up— with Obama weakly declaring support for “openness in government”—and it’s not certain what external support would accomplish anyway.

As part of the Hong Kong Students’ Association, I am co-directing a symposium with academics and key local political figures to discuss the Umbrella Movement and its ramifications. But as I, far from home, bury myself in this rapid, unending stream of news and photographs, I feel that a new world— its precepts unpinnable—is unfolding, while I am just at its edge.

Wing Kui Brian Ng is a thirdyear majoring in Economics and English Literature.

We have to make survivors feel comfortable talking FEAR continued from page 4 the privilege of avoiding my assaulter by going about the rest of my life, a privilege that is denied to many survivors of sexual assault, especially those at universities. I still thought about it quite frequently—and I still felt ashamed and guilty—but at least I didn’t have to run into Sam. A year and a half passed after I was sexually assaulted before I even began to believe that what happened was sexual assault. I was spending the afternoon with my then-boyfriend, Mark, when I started crying after seeing Sam’s Facebook profile pop up on my news feed.

After getting me to calm down, Mark convinced me to tell him the whole story. When I finished he looked at me and said, “That’s unforgivable. That’s sexual assault.”

Personally, I never wanted to seek disciplinary action against Sam. I wanted him to apologize for what he did, and really mean it, and I thought several times of contacting him in an effort to extract an apology. I never did.

For the most part I don’t think about Sam anymore. Sometimes, however, I will see or read something that reminds me of what happened, and the memories will come flooding back. I felt that way reading Rolling Stone’s recent article about rape at UVA, and I have felt that way hearing about incidents that have occurred on this campus. As sexual assault increasingly becomes a topic of discussion both nationally and at UChicago, I have increasingly wanted to share my story. My sexual assault did not occur on this campus, but similar incidents did. I know how alone

one can feel and how easy it is to believe that being assaulted is your own fault.

I consider myself a fairly private person, and I find it very difficult to make public details as intimate as these. But I also wanted to share my story so that anyone who has experienced sexual assault on this campus will know that they are not alone, and that it is not their fault. I believe it is important that we create a culture in which survivors of sexual assault feel comfortable talking about what happened to them, and I hope that by sharing my story, I will make others feel comfortable sharing theirs.

Julia Reinitz is a fourthyear in the College majoring in comparative literature and slavic language and literature.

SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers.

Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 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

ARTS

Hip. DECEMBER 02, 2014

Evading P-sets and finger atrophy, USO's Hyun set to play Khachaturian Eleanor Hyun Arts Sibling Interviewer Chicago Maroon: My first question is: what piece will you be playing this Saturday?

George Hyun: I’m playing the first movement of Khatchaturian Violin Concerto.

CM: How would you describe the piece?

GH: I guess the main word that comes to mind is sort of like “epic.”

So it’s this militant opening theme and then the hyperromantic folk song thing—which is sort of, you know, old-school epic. You think The Odyssey and stuff like that. And then it’s got this weird stuff in the middle—like the ironic usage of epic, ah, what am I saying.

CM: Do you want to stop saying things?

GH: Um, yeah, I think I want to stop saying things.

CM: Who besides yourself is your favorite performer of Khatchaturian?

GH: Besides myself ? Well, it was written for Oistrakh so you sort of have to say him. He has an excellent recording which is the one I’ve listened to the most by far.

CM: Who are some of your other musical inspirations?

GH: Hm…I listened to Mutter a lot when I was younger. And these days as well. I think the sound that I make nowadays…

CM: From your violin GH: From my violin...It sort of like came around originally in imi-

tation of her sound because she has like…like, strong is too nondescriptive a word but that’s sort of what I want to use to describe her right now. You know, it’s like a baritone opera singer or something.

CM: You know she’s a woman, right?

GH: Yeah, she’s a woman. Which makes it funny. There’s also like Vadim Gluzman, who I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with growing up, in person.

CM: Were you guys childhood friends in Russia together?

GH: Yup, basically. No, that’s a little bit too casual.

CM: So it was a mentor-pupil relationship GH: It was a mentor-pupil relationship.

CM: How about favorite composers? Or favorite pieces?

GH: Yeah, let’s talk about composers. It changes over time…I always do come back to Brahms.

There’s a sort of sincerity to his composition. It’s really hard to talk about these things; I haven’t taken a Core art class yet, as you can tell.

CM: Do you think not having taken your Core art class is a significant detriment to you as you go into this performance?

GH: Absolutely. Take note, Registrar’s office, I need to.

CM: And you are a fourth-year?

GH: I am a fourth-year.

CM: Do you have any qualms about whether you’ll be able to graduate on time?

GH: Absolutely. It’s because of

Yik Yak, still so frat Sammie Spector Arts Staff “If Yik Yak quality was the sole factor in U.S. News rankings, UChicago would easily be number one” says first-year Carson McKay, on the app that has become a phenomenon on campus. However, McKay did not just drop the comment in jest to his friends—but instead anonymously posted to the UChi Yik Yak community, gaining 101 upvotes of approval. In case you haven’t been swept up by the recent skyrocketing campus trend, Yik Yak is a mobile app functioning as an anonymous, hyper-local Twitter. This means that anyone within a 1.5-mile radius of a specific “community” can post, vote, and comment anonymously to his or her heart’s content and up to 200 characters. Others within this area vote up for comments that they like, and down for those that miss the mark. Net five downvotes and a post is deleted, while upvotes earn the comment’s author a yakarma score.

For McKay, this means sharing clever thoughts that he feels are in line with the rest of UChicago’s community; he seems to appreciate our university’s self-deprecating and dry wit, and can add to that identity through Yik Yak. He produces yaks like, “UChicago needs a landing pad for all these helicopter parents on campus right now,” during Family Weekend, which 196 other people

on campus found funny enough to upvote. But he’s nothing out of the ordinary on campus; everyone is on Yik Yak, commenting and posting, adding to an identity that was already fiercely defined by our selfdeprecating house T-shirts.

Yik Yak began on the Furman University campus, where then–frat brothers Brooks Buffington and Tyler Droll created it as an answer to a very particular social media need. They sought to create a balance between Twitter, which acts as a quick feed for news distribution, and anonymous campus Facebook sites like Overheard and Confessions of... On these somewhat anonymous posting forums, one person has power over an entire student body, which the brothers found unfair. Yik Yak creates an equal playing ground for each user, utilizing its voting system. Ben Popkin, lead community manager, completely supports and adheres to this company mission.

In his position, he has seen some of the most positive feedback that has occurred through the app. “You see some of the most interesting things occur through Yik Yak. Where you might get caught in your friend and follower circles on Facebook and Twitter, Yik Yak allows you to reach beyond that into a pool based on location.” On a grander scale, Yik Yak serves as a social, sometimes political, forum for students. I asked PopYIK YAK continued on page 10

For George Hyun, the hills are alive with the sound of music.

COURTESY OF KEVIN QIAN

the Core art class.

CM: Did you bid for a Core art class next quarter?

GH: I bid almost exclusively on Core art classes, as I did last quarter.

CM: To no success?

GH: To no success. I hope this isn’t going into the interview CM: It probably will. What else do you do then as a fourth-year College student?

GH: I do math.

CM: Are you a math major?

GH: I am a math major. What else do I do…I play a little bit of Smash. Project M. CM: Casually? Competitively?

GH: Casually, I’m not a tourney player.

CM: What character do you play?

GH: Zelda, Ganon, Mario most-

ly.

CM: Between those three, if you had to pick one most similar to your Khatchaturian performance, which would it be?

GH: Uh, well, Ganon for sure.

CM: As a Math major, you’re probably plenty busy. What keeps you doing violin?

GH: I don’t know, I mean, like, GEORGE continued on page 10

Ditch the popcorn, grab the barbecue Hannah Flynn Arts Contributor The Food Film Festival is a weekend-long festival in which one watches multiple short films about artisan food while simultaneously being served the described food. It’s like a movie premiere, but with better smells.

The event has been held at Kendall College, a culinary school close to the Grand Blue Line station, for the past five years. I made my way to the event on the Goose Island campus for the final Saturday, which was to be barbecuethemed. I may be a vegetarian, but I knew from looking at the menu that the getting would be good in the way of drinks, desserts, and guacamole.

I began the night by standing in a quick-moving registration line, eyeing the copious Sugar in the Raw–sponsored swag bags positioned by the elevator, and was then ushered into the screening room. This room is a giant lecture classroom with a test kitchen at the front and tables giving out free wine, beer, and artisan ginger beer flanking the sides. After grabbing a beverage or three, I took my seat.

Scoping out the room, most attendants appeared to be in their late 20s or 30s; one man rocked a tight stars-and-stripes onesie with a deep V-neck and lots of chest hair.

I soon learned that he would actually be the most appropriately dressed person in attendance—the night’s theme was The Food Porn Party, loosely defined as highquality video shots of food “set to music.” This nebulous theme necessarily resulted in a few glorified music videos, though most of the filmmakers seemed to crave a story with their sensual, high-def shots of beef rib.

Judging by the level of applause after each, it seemed that the videos that retained an element of storytelling were the most successful. "Big B.L.A.T. (Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato)", "Gin Tonic Black, Lemon Muffins with a Sweet Surprise", and "1 Minute Meal: Su Propia Liga" all lacked dimension. The titles of the fan favorites—"Food Friends and Family", "Guacamole—A Gambling Recipe", and "Top Pot Doughnut Bread Pudding—For Every Occasion"—suggest something more behind the food, even if the extra substance boils down to the people who love the food (the woman who makes the Top Pot Doughnut Bread Pudding loves it so much that she imagines it becoming a vital part of every holiday tradition, from hiding bread pudding in Easter eggs to stuffing a turkey with it).

Then there was my old buddy Mr. Stars and Stripes, starring

in perhaps the truest example of food porn of the night. The film was called "Balls!", and Mr. Stars and Stripes was revealed to be “the world’s first food porn star,” Larry Cauldwell. In the video, Cauldwell was again sporting his iconic onesie, either for consistency or because it’s the only item of clothing that he owns.

He shared the screen with a similarly clad woman, and together they extolled the virtues of food that comes in ball shape. He also took questions after the video, although he reworded each one to include the phrase “my balls in your mouth.” In his own unique way, Cauldwell created a narrative at Food Film Fest, elevating the event to have a mythos of its own instead of presenting the backstories of others.

After the films came the reception, in which one could taste more samples and drink more booze. Mostly full and somewhat overwhelmed by the crowd, I then played a round of ping-pong at the inconspicuous table nestled in a corner, and left to grab my swag bags and go home. Apparently the event has become well established enough to become taxi bait (I had my pick outside), and I believe the event has enormous potential to continue on for years. One can only hope that next year’s Fest includes more tofu.

10

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | December 2, 2014

theSketch Arts, Briefly.

Uncommon Nights Close fall quarter with a bang on Wednesday night with free Portillo’s, trivia, music, board games, and performances by your favorite RSOs. The house with the highest attendance will win $100 and the runner up will win $50.

December 3, Reynolds Club, 9 p.m. –12 a.m., free Macbeth This quarter’s mix of UT plays concludes with the fiery Shakespearean classic Macbeth during reading period.

Known in the theater community as The Scottish Play due to its cursed nature, Macbeth is a timeless tale of power, paranoia, and the prophecies of witches.

December 4–6, Logan Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $6 in advance or $8 at the door Handel’s Messiah Rockefeller Chapel will be bringing together a host of ensembles this weekend to perform Handel’s Messiah on campus. The Motet Choir, Chicago Men’s A Cappella, and various university choral groups will be singing.

December 5, Rockefeller Chapel, 7:30 p.m. and December 7, 3 p.m., $5 with UCID Vends + Vibes: An Arts Marketplace This Sunday there will be a wintery marketplace of local artists’ and entrepreneurs’ unique creations and treats and even open studios of artists-inresidence with music by local DJs including an artist-in-residence, Ayana Contreras. There will be artist-led craft sessions for kids and an open bar for adults.

December 7, Arts Incubator and Washington Park, 10 a.m., free Oh, So Suite! A Nutcracker-Filled Night of Ballet and Ballads UBallet hosts its very first holiday gala featuring an a cappella performance by Voices in Your Head, narration from comedy group Occam’s Razor, and of course ballet excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite with live chamber music.

Desserts and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

December 4, Ida Noyes Hall and Cloister Club, 7 p.m., $12

in advance or $15 at the door Artsy Study Series Free snacks, coffee, and social study breaks are offered at all the following unique study spaces.

Study at the Rock December 4, Rockefeller Chapel, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. with gentle yoga from 4-5 p.m.

Study at the Smart December 4, Smart Museum of Art, 9 p.m.–12 a.m.

Study at the Logan Center December 5, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 9 p.m. – 12 a.m.

Study at the Arts Incubator December 6, Arts Incubator, 12–4 p.m.

Shuttles will be running between Regenstein Library, South Campus, and the Arts Incubator every 30 minutes.

Study at the Oriental Institute December 7, Oriental Institute, 7 p.m. – 12 a.m.

—Evangeline Reid and Andrew Mcvea

"Because of its anonymity, I would definitely say something that I wouldn't say in person."

YIK YAK continued from page 9

kin about our university in particular and he chuckled, “Well I had to look up a lot of things to understand the jokes.” With yaks like, “My parents say come downtown with us, and I say I Kant,” it’s understandable that only a particular culture might take pride in this. Whether discussing sports or Core readings, students can relate on multiple levels, and are bound easily by geographic limits, making it the perfect target for such a specific service.

Yet with all social media, a certain amount of accountability is needed to mitigate Yik Yak’s reign over campus. Compared to other forms of social media, Yik Yak’s anonymity makes it hard to pinpoint aggressive users who post triggering messages. Psychologist Dr. Keith Ablow wrote on Fox News that Yik Yak is “the most dangerous form of social media” he’s seen, primarily due to its anonymity. He believes this climate leads to the lack of connection between humans, and therefore lack

of empathy, that social media may present. Yik Yak is especially impactful as “untruthful, mean, character-assassinating short messages are immediately seen by all users in a specific geographic area.” Chicago, Connecticut, and California schools have all reported problems due to Yik Yak’s presence on student phones, ranging from classic cyber bullying, name-calling and accusations about students and faculty all the way to shooting threats, which have been cited at least twice, leading to criminal investigations. Recently the app began to utilize a 24-hour moderation team for reports and algorithms to automatically delete offensive buzzwords more efficiently and frequently. They then limited app access, making it unavailable to locations that fell within the limits of elementary through high schools.

College campuses seemed the perfect, if not only, demographic for a service like this. Popkin states this is due to a level of maturity needed to act in public responsibly. Loose

precautions are in place to limit offenses, including rules banning individual targeting, cyber bullying , and offensive slurs through algorithmic moderation and reporting abuse.

But the appropriateness, and impact, of the content is truly left up to the community itself.

For the University of Chicago, Yik Yak has been part of a larger campus discourse on racial and sexist commentary, discrimination, and engagement. After a student’s Facebook profile was allegedly hacked to proliferate racial slurs, backlash and commentary appeared instantaneously on Yik Yak, personally attacking those involved.

Popkin feels the best way to deal with negative commentary on Yik Yak is to downvote it. Carson, from the standpoint of a user who has faced no issue, agrees: “I don’t think Yik Yak is to blame for negative people; they have strong ideas and will express them no matter what, Yik Yak has just become the avenue for it. Because of its ano-

nymity, I would definitely say something that I wouldn’t say in person.”

However, he admits it can become a two-way street. Although he himself has never faced problems, nor seen any, arise due to Yik Yak, he believes shutting down the site is not a solution, but rather sees what good can come of it. “It’s unfortunate that these events happen, but one thing Yik Yak can do is give light to what’s happening on campus. It might not be good to have these debates over social media, but it does bring a certain raw awareness to what’s happening, to other people’s perspectives. It’s all about the people using it; the thing itself is just a mechanism.” When asked on his own guidelines for posting, he speaks of good consciousness reminiscent of the golden rule: don’t write what you’d be ashamed to have your name attached to. But making fun of his own university, or perhaps Stanford, definitely passes as appropriate. “‘Today I saw a math equation with no numbers and cried

because my childhood is over’— Stanford Yik Yak. That’s cute.” 173 upvotes later, and Carson chuckles, “This is true, it was their Top Yak. But seriously, I really haven’t seen a number all year.” It might not be indicative of the entire community, but what Carson sees on Yik Yak reminds him that if for nothing else, he chose the right school based on his own witty, smart humor.

What Carson saw in the app was stress relief, a medium for procrastination, and some of his own humor.

He says he plays fun, but always lightheartedly. Whatever he’s doing works, as, “Fijis charge for every party because they have to make up the losses from giving their bank account info to a Nigerian prince” won him 111 upvotes. While it’s the perfect medium for a few jabs at frats, he realizes that it’s not the place for debate. There are far better media for discussing social issues, on a site that isn’t anonymous, or perhaps doesn’t limit your word count to 200 characters.

"I don't know it's not so much that there's something keeping me playing as much as it's an actual part of what I do, how I spend time."

GEORGE continued from page 9

I’ve been playing violin a long time, since probably before I’ve had conscious thought. So like, if I don’t play violin for like a week or so, I actually get this physical sense in my hand that my fingers are atrophying or something. So, I don’t know. It’s not so much that there’s something keeping me playing as much as it’s an actual part of what I do, how I spend time.

CM: How long have you been playing? Why did you first become

interested in violin?

GH: I started playing, I guess, when I was four, according to my parents.

CM: Do you have no memory of starting to play?

GH: I have very little memory.

I don’t know, I have some like scattered memories…but, no concrete memory of a moment where I said, “I’m going to play the violin,” picked up the instrument for the first time, and couldn’t play "Twinkle."

CM: Does that give you existen-

tial angst, that you started playing violin before you had a firm consistent conception of self ?

GH: …What the heck?

CM: Let’s just keep moving. During your years at this University, have you found any insightful relationship between music and math?

GH: Let’s see…The real answer is no, not particularly, but I feel like I have to make something up.

CM: No, I think that’s fine. So, since we’re talking about Khachaturian, who’s, I believe, a Slavic com-

poser …who do you think would win in a fight, Dvorak or Khachaturian?

GH: Dvorak spent a lot of time in America, which means he’s probably, like, big. I actually don’t know about either of their physiques.

CM: Like, big physically? Because he was an American…like, fat?

GH: You know, like hamburger culture.

CM: Does that mean he’s more or less likely to win?

GH: I think that means he’s more likely to win

CM: Really?

GH: Yeah…yeah. You know, good nutrition and stuff like that CM: I’m pretty sure hamburger culture is the definition of bad nutrition.

GH: It’s better than, like…this is going to come across…

CM: Let’s just stop. How about Khachaturian versus Prokofiev?

GH: Uh, Prokofiev wears glasses, right? Which makes him a big nerd.

I don’t think Khachaturian wore glasses.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | December 2, 2014

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More than just a game: the power of sports Sarah Langs Senior Sports Editor According to Horace Mann, education unites us. “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” In high school, we learned that Mann meant democracy needs an education system in order to survive. If all citizens are educated, everyone is capable of actively participating in such a political structure.

But I’m not here to talk politics, education policy, or the roots of democracy in this country.

No, I’m here to talk about something nearer and dearer to my heart: sports. I’d like to offer them up as yet another great equalizer.

Sports provide a window into far more than just who scored more touchdowns, who threw more strikeouts, or who scored more baskets.

Sports can reflect human tendencies and help us learn about ourselves and those around us.

I have a lot of personal theories about the value of sports, the merits of following a team or a league and finding oneself wrapped up in

these outcomes far beyond one’s own control. I think sports fans and followers get a lot out of the commitment they put in. But that’s not why I’m writing about this.

I’m writing because I see further implications for those who might not be following a sport yet at all. Beyond the philosophical and psychological effects, sports accomplish a few simpler things as well.

So here’s why your winter break homework should be to watch an NCAA football bowl game, get emotionally invested in the college football playoffs, or watch three basketball games on Christmas Day. Sports give people something to talk about.

Sure, any topic can prompt conversation, but sports are maddeningly close to universal, as most people are familiar with top stories in the sports world. Water cooler talk on a Monday morning? The NFL, fantasy sports teams, and that Johnny Manziel fumble.

It’s a great way to connect with someone about his or her hometown, too. Someone from Columbus, Ohio will probably wax poetic about the Ohio State football team, while some-

Chicago aims to carry momentum into December with battle against Wheaton on Wednesday MEN’S BASKETBALL continued from back

everyone, but it also makes us better every day in practice going up against some great guys.”

Looking forward, Brooks said, “I think we really need to be better at keeping the momentum of the game in our favor. If we can find ways to extend our runs for longer stretches, we’ll be a much better team.”

The men hope to get another victory at home on Wednesday against Wheaton College (IL) at 8:00 p.m. On Saturday, they’ll hit the road to faceoff against Illinois Wesleyan. The Maroons will also take on Kalamazoo and North Park on December 13 and 17, respectively, before taking a break until the new year.

body from Buffalo can tell you about the trials and tribulations of being a Bills fan these days (until this year, at least). It’s personal, but also opinion-oriented, a way to see how this person approaches her life, through the allegiances she’s chosen or inherited.

In middle school, we learned the reasons to stay abreast of current events, and I’m here to argue that sporting events should be a part of that category.

I’ve broken the ice with new professors and countless acquaintances by asking for a hometown, then probing as to whether the sports allegiance was there, as well. You get fun facts, too, like my friend who is from Ohio but is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan…but also a Baltimore Orioles fan.

My evidence here is anecdotal at best, but my point, I hope, is clear. Following sports gives you a whole new avenue of human interaction.

It gives you the personal satisfaction of having something to check online, to rely on, to hope for, but to be disappointed by, too.

Sports can be aggravating, because sports are outside our control. But that makes them inter-

esting, too. TV shows are outside of our control, but there’s someone, a producer, a writer, somebody, who ultimately makes the decisions.

Someone knows how the show will end long before the public does.

But with sports, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Outcomes depend on many moving parts, and though one big moment can be the determining factor—a walk-off home run, a no-hit performance—nobody knows how it’s going to end until it does. This can lead to aggravation but also makes everything that happens even more genuine, more real, and easier to celebrate or mourn.

Maybe this is just why I love sports. It’s hard to sum up, and it’s a love that’s always changing based on the moment. Maybe this isn’t a level of caring that you ever want to attain, but humor me and watch a game—some game—over break, and watch the benefits you’ll reap at holiday parties, the first day of classes in January, and onward. Everybody should be a sports fan, and I’m here campaigning for this to start with the conversion of our entire campus into sports fans.

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SPORTS

IN QUOTES “It sucked. I ran into some guy’s butt.”

–Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez reminisces about Thanksgiving 2012, when he was busy giving thanks for being enshrined as SportsCenter’s Worst of the Worst from his infamous fumble play

New faces dominate for Chicago Wrestling Russell Mendelson Senior Sports Staff

Third-year forward Nate Brooks makes a move in a game against NYU last season.

COURTESY OF FRANK WANG | THE CHICAGO MAROON

After three meets and one month of competition, the Chicago wrestling squad will travel to Wheaton tomorrow evening to compete in its last meet of the quarter.

The Maroons made some noise at their last tournament in Concordia on November 22. There, three South Siders finished in the top eight of their respective weight classes, and a total of seven Maroons recorded at least two victories on the day. This was even more impressive considering that the field was sprinkled with Division I and II athletes as well.

“Concordia was my first college tournament and it really showed me what college wrestling is all about,” said second-year Michael Sepke.

Sepke missed his entire first-year season because of an injury.

“In college, unlike high school, every match is a grind and you have to be ready for anything the moment the starting whistle blows,” Sepke said. “Wednesday I have to be ready to push the pace right from the get-go.”

Despite being a year and a half

removed from the mat, Sepke came out strong in his first collegiate tournament, going 5–2 in the 157-pound weight class to earn fifth place and co-wrestler of the week honors in the UAA. “Wrestling at the collegiate level has definitely been a learning curve, and above all I learned that I won’t get away with the mistakes I could make in high school,” first-year Nick Ferraro said.

Ferraro went 4–2 at Concordia and, like Sepke, acknowledged that the athletes at this level of play are consistently stronger and quicker than at earlier stages in his career.

“I have to tighten up my wrestling and prevent my mistakes from costing me more matches,” Ferraro said.

Sepke believes that in order for the team to be successful this week against Wheaton, each competitor needs to focus on getting ahead in his respective match.

“Against Wheaton we are each going to have to stay in good position and create offense out of our ties,” Sepke said. “In the past we’ve let too many scoring opportunities get away in key matches. If we all do our job in each match the team

score is going to take care of itself.”

Ferraro made similar observations, emphasizing the importance of he him and his teammates avoiding crucial mistakes and capitalizing on opportunities.

“As a team we have to each focus on our individual matches and do whatever it takes in our match to either get bonus points or not give them up,” Ferraro said.

Individually, the newer members of the team are working on perfecting their craft.

“Transitioning from high school to collegiate wrestling has changed my preparation from learning new things to perfecting old ones. I grew up learning a lot of different moves and when to use them, and now it’s time to perfect those moves so I can use them to win,” Ferraro said.

Sepke took a step further back when analyzing his adjustment period, emphasizing hard work and perseverance.

“For me the key is just being focused on getting better every day,” Sepke said. “When you aren’t where you want to be you just have to work at it until you are.”

The Maroons will face Wheaton on the road tomorrow at 7 p.m.

No. 23 Maroons take home opener in convincing fashion Tough loss leaves South Siders looking for

answers as they take on No. 15 Wheaton

Men’s Basketball Katie Anderson Maroon Contributor The Maroons picked up two wins this weekend in the UChicago tournament, as they improved to 5–1 on the season.

The No. 23 South Siders beat Beloit College 82–63 on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, the Maroons defeated Bethany College 78–52 at home to bring their overall record to an impressive 5–1.

In their home opener, the Maroons used their home-court advantage to take an early lead against Beloit. In just the 11th minute of the game, they led the Buccaneers 20–4 and went into the half with a 42–25 lead. After that, Chicago’s lead never fell into single digits, maintaining a comfortable cushion for the rest of the game.

Second-year forward Waller Perez led the Maroons with 25 points, while second-year forward Blaine Crawford netted 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Second-year guard Tyler Howard dished out seven assists to go along with his 13 points.

“Our game plan going into the Beloit game was to not give their players easy driving lanes to the basket, and we did a really great job [with] that,” said third-year forward Nate Brooks.

In the final game of the tournament against Bethany, the Maroons struggled to knock any shots down in the opening min-

utes. However, in the last seven minutes of the first half they went on a 21–3 run to enter the break with a 32–24 lead. The squad carried its impressive performance into the second half, extending its advantage to as much as 30 points at one point.

“The game plan this weekend was pretty simple: Focus on what we have to do for an entire game and we would come out with two wins. Being at home was also huge for us, and the home crowd really helped us with momentum throughout both games,” said first-year forward Collin Barthel.

“When we played Bethany, we knew they would really pressure us and our main focus was to stay calm and beat their press. We got off to a slow start, but we were able to really separate ourselves from them towards the end of the first half,” Brooks said.

The Maroons saw significant contributions from several players, which attests to their status as a deep team that shows promise moving forward. In the Bethany game, 13 different Maroons scored, with the reserves contributing 35 of the Maroons’ 78 points. Barthel scored 11 points and dished out four assists as he came off of the bench.

“I think it is amazing how deep the team is this year, and it’s a luxury that everyone on the team can compete for playing time,” Brooks said. “It obviously makes us dangerous in that we can play MEN’S BBALL continued on page 11

Women’s Basketball Ahmad Allaw Sports Staff Entering their campaign with high expectations, the Maroons have been left frustrated by their early-season woes. A year prior, Chicago began the season with a 3–1 mark. This time around, the South Siders have begun with the opposite record: After a tough loss to Carthage on Sunday, Chicago fell to 1–3.

The game against the Lady Reds was similar to the first two losses.

Chicago found itself behind early and, despite coming back and closing the gap on multiple occasions, couldn’t do enough to pull out the victory.

“The difference between us and Carthage this weekend came down to rebounding and secondchance opportunities. They outrebounded us by 20 and had 15 points on second-chance opportunities,” said first-year point guard Elizabeth Nye. “This is something we will definitely have to improve on for our next game.”

On Sunday, Carthage began the game with a 7–0 run. A trio of threes and two layups later, the Maroons had taken a 13–10 lead.

That was the first and last time Chicago would be out front. By the end of the half, Carthage held a 17-point advantage.

The second half featured much of the same. Just as they had against its previous opponents,

Chicago led a valiant charge; with 12 and a half minutes remaining, the Lady Reds were up by just three points. But that is as close the Maroons came to taking the lead. The rest of the game saw Carthage slowly pull away, winning 67–55 and improving its record to 3–2.

The Maroons were again plagued by rebounding troubles: They allowed Carthage to pull down a staggering 21 offensive rebounds, only seven fewer than Chicago’s total rebound count.

Giving away so many secondchance opportunities makes any victory nearly impossible, and such was the case on Sunday.

A year ago, when the Maroons started the season 3–1, Chicago won the rebounding category in each of its first four competitions.

To turn things around, the South Siders will need to draw from last year’s successes.

Looking ahead, the Maroons’ schedule doesn’t get any easier.

“Our goals going into Wheaton are to do all of the ‘little things’ that have turned into big things,” said second-year forward Britta Nordstrom.

Their next opponent will be unbeaten No. 15 Wheaton (5–0), who recently downed No. 6 Hope (3–1). No opponent has come within seven points of claiming victory against the Thunder.

Wheaton’s schedule, moreover, boasts a pair of blowouts: one

78–41 win and another 83–25 triumph. The Maroons, who also fell to the Thunder a year ago, will have to be at their best to steal a victory.

Thereafter, the Maroons have a date with Wesleyan College, whose record stands at 2–3. Despite an unflattering record, the Cardinals’ strengths match up almost perfectly against the Maroons’ weaknesses. Wesleyan’s lowest rebounding total thus far has been 43. An inspired performance, then, will be required for the Maroons to win the matchup down low.

“We’re not thinking about winning or losing, we’re just thinking about playing our brand of basketball and actually doing all the things that we’ve talked about doing the past seven weeks,” Nordstrom said. “We’re excited that we have the opportunity to play so quickly after last game.”

Despite the tough start, the Maroons don’t expect things to continue as they began. Through the first four games, the South Siders shot uncharacteristically badly. The 25-percent three-point shooting mark is not indicative of the team’s plethora of sharp shooters; the high turnover numbers not emblematic of the players’ savvy experience.

Turning its attention to the first home appearance, Chicago will step onto the court tomorrow evening against Wheaton at 6 p.m.