Chicago Maroon PDF 040715

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TUESDAY • APRIL 7, 2015

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 35 • VOLUME 126

Anonymity not guaranteed on UChicago Crushes and Secrets Ankit Jain Senior News Writer A recent change to the AnonyMonkey submissions platform for the popular UChicago Crushes and Secrets pages has left students concerned that their IP addresses and Facebook user IDs are being tracked. The changes came after a spam attack on the Crushes and Secrets

A new urban project hopes to make major improvements to the 57th street corridor in order to improve business in the area. MARTA BAKULA | THE CHICAGO MAROON

New urban renewal project seeks to revamp 57th Street Isaac Easton Associate News Editor Recently, progress has been made in the ongoing effort to create a “Cultural Commerce Connection” on East 57th Street. The aim of this project would be to make the street’s stores and museums more accessible to visitors and Hyde Park locals. Leslie Hairston, the alder-

man of Chicago’s Fifth Ward, describes one of the goals of the project as improving to the street’s landscape. “[W]e are looking to put up sustainable planters... so that 57th Street can have identity of its own.” An online survey recently released by the South East Chicago Commission polled Hyde Park residents on the changes they would like to see on 57th and

what “identity” they wish to cultivate. The survey shows pictures of possible options for painted sidewalks, new lighting similar to that on the Midway Plaisance, and, as Hairston said, “sustainable planters.” One of the most significant improvements will leave the street running both ways from Stony Island Ave to Lake Park. 57th continued on page 2

Annie Nazzarro Associate News Ediotr On Tuesday, March 31, the Council of the University Senate discussed divestment from fossil fuels, an initiative that the UChicago Climate Action Network (UCAN) is pushing the University to adopt.

Illinois House gets input from University on bill concerning UCPD

American journalist and author David Satter spoke Monday night in the I-House Assembly Hall about Russia’s role in the Ukrainian conflict. The event was sponsored by the International House Global Voices Lecture Series; the Center for International Studies; the UIUC Russian, East European and Eurasian Center; the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore; and the Center for East European and Russian/ Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago. Before the lecture, Satter sat down with The Chicago Maroon to discuss the course of his career and journalistic lessons he has learned along the way. Now one of the world’s leading commentators on Russian affairs, Satter’s roots in journalism lie here at the University of Chicago, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Maroon as a third-year undergraduate.

tween the city police force and a private university. He said, “[the conversation] is just a matter of deciding where the line is, insofar as [the UCPD] is acting as a public institution.” In explaining why the co-sponsors sought the University’s input, O’Leary said: “there are some things that a public police force would be forced to disclose that, because [UChicago] is a private university, it wouldn’t make sense for them to make public [such as] high- level communications.” O’Leary said the earliest the bill could pass would be next week, but he does not expect it to pass so soon.

—Lorentz Hansen

CRUSHES continued on page 2

UCAN hopes that this will motivate the Board of Trustees to discuss divestment as well. Bruce Lincoln, professor of the history of religions and member of the Council of the University Senate, originally encouraged the Council to discuss divestment. He found that the attitude toward divestment

was generally positive. “There wasn’t a lot of controversy; I think the Council was very responsive to the notion that climate change was a big issue and we’ve not addressed it adequately… I think there was very little disagreement,” he said. However, Lincoln noted UCAN continued on page 2

Journalist banned from Russia discusses career at I-House event Tamar Honig News Staff

mation about its practices. H.B. 3932 aims to hold the UCPD accountable to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The bill, drafted largely in response to requests for UCPD policing data, has gained broad support from community and University members; however, its details are still awaiting discussion in the Illinois House of Representatives. Barbara Flynn Currie (D25), Christian Mitchell (D-26), David McSweeney (R-52), and Monique D. Davis (D-27) of the Illinois House of Representatives have co-sponsored the amendment. Ryan O’Leary, Currie’s chief of staff, said the current conversation with the University is intended to clarify the distinction be-

submit posts without logging into anything. This change was quickly posted on the popular Facebook group Overheard at UChicago. The post claimed that UChicago Crushes and Secrets were now not fully anonymous, as AnonyMonkey could be storing Facebook user IDs, access tokens, or IP addresses. IP addresses are

Council of the University Senate discusses divestment from fossil fuels

NEWS IN BRIEF Sponsors of House Bill (H.B.) 3932, seeking to increase the transparency of university police forces in Illinois to their surrounding communities, have asked for input from the University regarding disclosing information about responses to student protests, police routes, protection at speaker events, and other issues related to campus policing. The sponsors are consulting the University on what information they think is appropriate to require the UCPD to disclose, according to standards of what other private police forces usually make available. The bill was introduced to the Illinois House of Representatives on February 27 in response to repeated requests for UCPD to release infor-

pages paralyzed them both. About a month ago, AnonyMonkey started requiring all submitters to log into the AnonyMonkey app with their Facebook profiles to submit posts on the pages using its app, which include UChicago Crushes and Secrets. AnonyMonkey is a submissions portal that is used to moderate posts on Facebook pages. Previously, users could

Satter first gained national attention with an article he wrote as a college journalist about slum conditions on the West Side of Chicago. The piece was published in the Maroon magazine and appeared in a revised version in The New Republic. Satter credits the article with earning him a Rhodes Scholarship that allowed him to attend Oxford University, where he studied political philosophy. Satter explained that while the article was an important stepping stone in his career, its content was not indicative of his future trajectory. “That was never really where my chief concern was–it was just something I had lived through and experienced. I was always interested in the broader world,” he said. This interest evolved into a particular focus on Russian affairs. Satter has written three books to date on Russia and the Soviet Union and has more in the works. A recent development in

Satter’s relationship with Russia is that he has been banned from entering the country. His ban from Russia is the first expulsion of a U.S. journalist since the Cold War. “The difficulty is that many journalists, in order to protect their visas and their access to Russia, censor themselves without making it clear that that’s what they’re doing,” Satter said. “That’s what the Soviet authorities tried to get people to do–they wanted people to be afraid and to look over their shoulder every time they were writing–and I always refused to do that.” Despite his expulsion, Satter remains undeterred from his work of trying to bring a truthful understanding of this nation to the outside world. “Nothing has changed in that regard as a result of my expulsion,” Satter maintains. “I cannot go back to Russia, at least for the time being. But I’ve been persona non grata before.… I believe I will go back.”

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Give the people what they want: Ego and online activism » Page 3

Ebert’s legacy still felt At the Movies» Page 5

Best high school players in the country descend on Ratner» Back page

“Die With You” receives a Beyminus » Page 5


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