Chicago Maroon PDF 051515

FRIDAY • MAY 15, 2015

CHICAGOMAROON.COM

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

ISSUE 47 • VOLUME 126

Obama Foundation officially announces South Side library Maggie Loughran Associate News Editor The Barack Obama Foundation announced on Tuesday that the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be located on the South Side of Chicago. In the coming months, the Foundation will choose either Jackson or Washington Park as the site of the Center, which will include a library, museum, office, and activity space. Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the board of the Foundation, expects the doors to open sometime in 2020 or 2021.

“This day has been a long time coming and over the past few days, it has become the worst-kept secret in the City of Chicago,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a press conference at the Gary Comer Youth Center on the South Side. “But today we can finally say the words that all of Chicago has been waiting to hear: The Obama presidential Prior to its conversion into a dining hall, Bartlett featured a colorful display of Ivanhoe stained glass windows, which was placed into storage in 2001.

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CHRONICLE

Bartlett stained glass still in storage after 15 years Maggie Loughran Associate News Editor The conversion of Bartlett from a gymnasium into a dining hall in 2001 resulted in the removal of a historically and artistically significant stainedglass window from the east side of the building. Nearly 15 years have passed and the glass remains crated in storage, de-

spite the University’s promises to restore and reinstall it. The administration’s lack of initiative has alumni and professionals concerned that architectural apathy is a growing trend on campus.

Edward Peck Sperry completed the window in 1904— the same year Frederic Clay Bartlett finished his mural, “Athletic Games in the Middle

Ages,” which still sits opposite the staircase in Bartlett’s atrium. Both works were meant to inspire student-athletes and complement the building’s neo-Gothic architecture. Sperry’s window depicts a mythical medieval scene: the crowning of Ivanhoe by Rowena. Sperry was most likely a professional acquaintance of Frederic, the GLASS continued on page 3

Trauma center protesters march from proposed Obama library site Adam Thorp Senior News Writer This Tuesday, approximately 65 people marched from one of the proposed Barack Obama presidential library sites in Washington Park to the house of University of Chicago President Robert

Zimmer, protesting for a Level I trauma center at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC). The announcement made earlier that day that the library would be built on the South Side attracted press attention to the University and the area surrounding it; the event’s organizers hoped to

use this attention to publicize their cause.

There was substantial media presence at the event, including members of the local and national press.

At a press conference before the march set out, Veronica Morris-Moore, a member of TRAUMA continued on page 3

library is coming home to the City of Chicago.”

The South Side personally and politically influenced President Obama, who began his career in Hyde Park as a community organizer. “All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago,” Obama said in a video announcement on the Foundation’s website.

“That’s where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in communities in public service. That’s where I met my wife. That’s where my children were born.”

In the same video, Mrs. Obama called herself a “South Sider.”

Overwhelming community support helped the University of Chicago win the bid over Columbia University, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. “The reason the library is coming to the city of Chicago is because

we came together, not as different communities, but as one city with a common purpose,” Emanuel said.

The University drafted the proposal for the South Side, but will neither oversee nor fund the project. The Obama Foundation will independently raise money for the Center and eventually turn the operation of the library and museum over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

“The idea of a presidential library as a great urban institution is new, and the realization of the Obama Presidential Center will bring this idea to life,” said University President Robert Zimmer at the press conference. “We are honored that the University of Chicago will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Obama Presidential Center.”

Shortly after the announcement was made, Zimmer wrote in an e-mail to faculty, students, LIBRARY continued on page 2

New SG budget increases graduate student funding Raymond Fang Associate News Editor On Monday night, Student Government Assembly approved its $2.18 million budget for the 2015–2016 school year.

The largest change from the 2014–2015 budget was a huge increase in funding for graduate students, who received a total budget increase of $72,500.

The increase in funding for graduate students re-

flects a broader effort by Student Government (SG) to direct more funding and attention to graduate students on campus, who make up 62 percent of the University student populaSG continued on page 2

Scav wedding: You may now kiss the Scavvenbride Tamar Honig News Staff “Dress code is Scav Tie, by which we mean wear whatever the f*** you want but probably your team t-shirt tbh [to be honest],” read the wedding invitation that kicked off the 2015 Scavenger Hunt List.

For four frenzied days of each spring, the world’s largest scavenger hunt captivates students and alumni across the University of Chicago campus and around the

world. A venerated tradition since 1987, Scav perplexes, challenges, and inspires participants with its lengthy list of items to find, build, perform, write, program, draw, eat, design, paint, and win. For some, the results of the hunt manifest themselves well beyond the announcement of its winners, and participation continues long after graduation. UChicago alumni Emily Pelka and Christian Kammerer tied the knot while honoring their ties to Scav at their wedding

Friday night in Rockefeller Chapel. Eleven of the list’s 343 items were linked to the matrimonial affair.

“I remember the moment during Captain’s breakfast where the judges announced something to the effect of ‘oh, and by the way, if it wasn’t clear, this is a real wedding. Like people are actually getting married.’

That’s when I had a mini ‘excuse me, what did you just say?’ moment,” said Sam Levine, a captain of the Max SCAV continued on page 3

IN VIEWPOINTS

IN ARTS

IN SPORTS

Editorial: A slice of the pie » Page 4

Violinist from renowned Emerson String Quartet reflects on journeys old and new » Page 7

This week in sports: NHL playoff predictions » Backpage

Breaking the silence » Page 4

Senior spotlight: Jennifer Hill » Page 11

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 15, 2015

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“Graduate students and College students together need to petition the administration to increase overall Student Government budget” Community Service Fund / $ 2,500 Program Co-ordinating Council* / $ 5,000 Student Leadership Stipend Program / $ 10,000

Sports Club Fund / $ 15,000

Student Government Fincance Committee / Annual Allocations / $ 28,000 Funds RSOs

* The Program Coordinating Council funds COUP, Doc Films, Fire Escape Films, MAB, UT, and WHPK.

Excl. Grad. Student Funding Increase $ 72,500

6.6% in 14/’15’budget increases to 9.7% in ‘15/’16

Graduate Mixers / $ 7,500

Graduate Council Travel Fund / $ 10,000

Graduate Council / $ 55,000 Funds graduate student travel, research, events, and RSOs

INCREASE IN BUDGET Coalition of Academic Teams \ $ 20,000 Funds College Bowl, Debate, Mock Trial, Model UN, and Chess

Uncommon Fund \ $ 30,000

DECREASE IN BUDGET

SG continued from front

tion but only 6.7 percent of Student Government’s 2014-2015 budget is targeted toward graduate students, not counting the Student Government Financing Committee (SGFC) budget that funds Registered Student Organizations (RSOs).

SGFC is not, however, a major funding source for graduate students because tend to participate less in RSOs. They will receive 9.7 percent of the 2015–2016 budget, again excluding the SGFC budget.

David Shapiro, Class of 2018 representative in College Council, proposed some of the budget amendments that made the shift towards increased graduate funding, which was approved 24–4–1. He indicated that Student Government would continue to frame increasing SG funding as an issue between students and administration, rather than between undergraduates and graduates. He also said that SG would continue to make increasing total funding a priority in the future.

“Graduate students and College students together need to petition the administration to increase the overall Student Government budget. It’s $2.18 million, and pumping up Graduate Council specific funding by at least another $200,000, to get it equitable to at least 50 percent of what we give College students, is definitely something I think the slate next year will be pushing,” Shapiro said. “Rather than fight amongst ourselves over the money we have, we agree we did what we could with the money we have... you have to fight the bigger battle, which is we need more money, period,” Shapiro concluded.

The three main funding bodies for graduate students are Graduate Council, the Graduate Council Travel Fund, and Graduate Mixers. Graduate Council, which funds graduate student travel, research, events, and RSOs, received a funding increase of $55,000 for a total of $115,000.

The Graduate Council Travel Fund, which funds travel to conferences and meetings for graduate students, received a funding increase of $10,000 for a total of $40,000.

Graduate Mixers, which funds mixer events for graduate students, received a funding increase of $7,500 for a total of $57,500.

The $55,000 of funding for the Graduate Council was made available by cutting $35,000 from the Uncommon Fund, which will now receive only $15,000, and cutting $20,000 from the Coalition of Academic Teams, which includes College Bowl, Debate Society, Mock Trial, Model UN, and the Chess Team, which will now receive $200,000.

Shapiro noted that the combination of the Student Government elections’ focus on graduate student funding and the increasing disparity between graduate and undergraduate funding led this year’s big push.

“When graduate students, the ones that do care, continue to see us pump money year after year after year into these solely undergraduate focused entities, money that greatly outdoes anything we’re giving them, they get infuriated,” said Shapiro.

“After a certain point, they were fed up enough, and with the [2015 Student Government] election cycle really emphasizing that anxiety, it brought the graduate students out. They had great attendance and managed to get done what they needed to get done.”

GRAPHICS BY ADAM THORP

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

CEP teach-in discusses equitable policing beyond increased transparency Anne Nazarro Associate News Editor On Monday, May 11, the Campaign for Equitable Policing (CEP) held a teach-in called “Beyond Transparency: Realizing Equitable Policing,” in McCormick Tribune Lounge.

The teach-in focused on how to make law enforcement fairer beyond increasing accountability and transparency. The conversation turned largely toward the panelists’ long-term goals of abolishing the police force, why they wanted it to be abolished, and how that could be achieved.

The event comes after the Illinois General Assembly passed H.B. 3932, which requires private police forces like the UCPD to comply with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, like public police forces are already obligated to do.

Guests on the event’s discussion panel included Ruby Pinto from DecarcerateChi, Janae Bonsu, a current UChicago student and member of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP 100), Page May, an organizer for We Charge Genocide, and Mikyael Muhammad, a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). Two students from the CEP asked questions that the panelists then discussed.

Speakers presented the current strategies and goals of their organizations toward building a more just police force. For instance, May stated that We Charge Genocide will be running “copwatch” workshops and focusing on better regulating stop-and-frisk policies. The goal of the DecarcerateChi campaign, according to Pinto,

is to eliminate bail for non-violent charges.

The panelists also highlighted the racism they claim to be inherent in the police’s actions and policies, and how they would act to make the police force “anti-racist.” They shared personal accounts or the stories of friends in which the police had unfairly and harmfully targeted them. Their stories included accounts of physical violence on the part of the police.

“It’s as much about addressing how violent the police are as it is about blackness being synonymous with criminality, or something to be controlled,” May said.

However, while these short-term goals focus on building a more equitable police force, the speakers agreed that their long-term goals include complete abolition of the police in general. “I am not interested in better police. I’m not interested in fixing the police. I’m interested in a world where we don’t need police,” Bonsu said.

One of the moderators asked the panel if they believe that anything would be lost if the police force were abolished and if there are certain types of crime that the police are essential in addressing. In general, the panelists’ response was that there were not. “The percentage of time that police spend on violent crime is absurdly low,” May said. “A big part of abolition is about building communities that make police obsolete.”

In the meantime, these organizations will continue to take action for equitable policing, especially in the UCPD. For instance, BYP 100 currently is running a petition for the UCPD to fire Dante Servin, the police officer that killed Rekia Boyd in 2012. This petition was passed around at the end of the teach-in.

SG’s It’s On Uof C campaign collects anti—sexual assault pledges Natalie Friedberg News Editor Over the past week, Student Government has initiated It’s On UChicago, a campaign to encourage students to sign anti–sexual assault pledges in Hutch Courtyard and the Reynolds Club marketplace. The campaign is a prelude to Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which starts officially on Sunday, May 17.

The UChicago campaign is based on It’s On Us, a national initiative to end sexual assault on college campuses launched by President Obama, who has encouraged universities to adopt their own versions of the pledge campaign. The UChicago pledge requires participants to always ask for consent before sexual activity, to prevent others from committing sexual acts without asking for consent, and to believe and support survivors of sexual assault. The pledge also includes an added clause inspired by It’s On Us UCLA, pledging to support calls for the University to install educational programs to teach students

about their Title IX rights and resources.

“We didn’t like that it [the national It’s On Us pledge] only focused on bystander intervention so we wanted to make it a little better,” Veronica Portillo-Heap, coordinator of the event, said.

Signed pledges are then posted on a board outside C-Shop. More than 70 have been signed over the past week. “[The University doesn’t] have any accessible resources for people to know if they report what happens, what can they expect, when can they have an advocate, how many people are they going to have to tell their story to, et cetera, et cetera,” Portillo-Heap said.

Student Government has also been encouraging students to take pictures holding a whiteboard with a personalized message beginning with, “It’s on UofC to...” regarding sexual assault at UChicago. These photographs have been compiled in an album on SG’s Facebook page.

“It’s on UofC to discourage environments that normalize sexual assault,” one participant wrote.

“All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago” LIBRARY continued from front

and staff: “The University will support efforts in community engagement, including planning, economic development, and individual and institutional collaborations.”

Not everyone in the community is happy about the decision. The nonprofit organization Friends of the Park (FOTP) released a statement following the announcement expressing disappointment that the Center will be built in an existing park.

Lauren Moltz, acting executive director of FOTP, is concerned that the undertaking will negatively alter the parkland that makes the South Side of Chicago unique. She was quoted in the press re-

lease: “‘We would like to ensure that any impact on historic Jackson/ Washington Park will be minimal and will fit within the vision of Frederick Law Olmsted’s design.’”

Carol Adams, community member and former president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History, closed the press conference by emphasizing the transformative power the presidential library will bring to Chicago. She called the South Side “a community overflowing with assets and yet in need of the catalytic engine the Obama Presidential Center surely will be….

We eagerly await the economic, cultural, and educational development that is sure to follow.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 15, 2015

“There is a lot of artwork to it and it is the only one out there.... Ivanhoe is truly unique” GLASS continued from front

brother of Frank Dickinson Bartlett. After Frank, a Chicago native, died an untimely death in 1902, his family donated $125,000 to UChicago in his honor.

Rolf Achilles, art historian and curator of the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at the Navy Pier, has a special appreciation for the Ivanhoe window. He recalls walking by Bartlett and admiring the display as a student of medieval history at the University in 1976 and 1977. “What a wonderful symbol of justice versus injustice,” he said of the Ivanhoe window.

Ivanhoe is one of the largest plated opalescent windows in the country, and as such generates variegated colors resulting from internally refracted light.

The effect is milky colored streaks. Neal Vogel, principal of Restoric, LLC, in Evanston, is quite familiar with the window. “There was never a time when the light coming through was glaring or harsh,” Vogel said. He distinguished the Ivanhoe glass from the glass in Bond and Rockefeller by its depth and content. “There is a lot of artwork to it and it is the only one out there. Tiffany glass is not one of a kind like most people think…. But Ivanhoe is truly unique.”

Karl Rahder (M.A. ’89) wishes that current students could appreciate the window like he did when he attended the College. “As any good piece of art does, it transports you. To have this so easily accessible—to be transported into this other world—is a transformative experience,” he said.

The University commissioned Brunner/Cott Associates, Inc., a Boston-based architectural firm, to renovate Bartlett. The firm assembled a team of sub-consultants that included East Coast art glass conservator Julie L. Sloan, LLC, whom Neal Vogel says is not known for a conservative approach. According to Senior Vice President for Facilities and University Architect Steve Wiesenthal, the need for extensive conservation work was

identified during the renovation.

Vogel believes the window might never have been removed if the University had sought a second opinion.

“There is more than enough talent in the Chicago region to conserve and/or restore the Ivanhoe window to museum quality standards,” he wrote in an e-mail.

The University of Chicago Magazine from October of 2001 featured a photograph of workers removing the glass with a caption reading, “The window, which depicts the tale of Ivanhoe, will be placed in storage until funds are raised to clean and restore it.”

Rahder felt that the University had had enough time to raise the necessary funds when he inquired about the fate of the glass last January. Wiesenthal responded in an e-mail to Rahder: “In our annual budget process we will be updating the estimates for glass restoration so that a decision can be made about reinstallation. Given many competing priorities for finite funds, I cannot yet confirm if and when the windows will be reinstalled, but please know that this is a question we hope to answer soon.”

The question remains unanswered a year and a half later.

Wiesenthal estimates that the cost of restoration and reinstallation will be at least several hundred thousand dollars.

“We will do a thorough estimate and bid the work once the funding is available.”

Vogel foresees the project costing a maximum of around $600,000, a number that could be significantly smaller depending on the state of the window. In 2008 he wrote Paul Schwab, then– University architect, asking for an opportunity to examine the window and consult on the project.

This was his second attempt— the first was in 2003—to engage the University. Both times, the University showed no interest.

Vogel and Achilles agree that insufficient funding is no reason to keep Ivanhoe in crates.

Unlike a painting, the glass can be showcased almost anywhere

there is light. Vogel wrote in an e-mail: “If the funds are not available for a proper conservation/restoration effort, perhaps it could simply be cleaned and displayed in front of light boxes in one of the many interior spaces at the U of C.” Rahder thinks the cost is irrelevant. “If the University had the funds to remove the glass in 2001, it shouldn’t take them 14 years to find the money to replace it. And preserving the U of C’s irreplaceable architectural heritage shouldn’t be a priority that is driven by dollars to begin with,” Rahder wrote in an e-mail. “What troubles me as much as the absence of the glass is what looks like a University-wide attitude of simply not caring about the architectural heritage of this University,” he said in an earlier interview.

Wiesenthal defended the University’s handling of its architectural heritage, which has been criticized most recently with the announcement of satellite dorm closures. He wrote: “While we manage a portfolio of work that includes everything from multi-million dollar new construction (such as Campus North Residence Hall & Dining Commons) to repairs and renovations of existing facilities, large and small, we take great pride in our careful and deliberate approach to caring for our heritage buildings.”

Achilles believes the University’s inaction regarding the Ivanhoe window is part of long-running anti-art sentiment. He cited the neardivestment from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in the 1970s and the conversion of the Chicago Theological Seminary into the Saieh Hall for Economics at the expense of Hilton Chapel.

Rahder thinks that Hilton Chapel could have been saved if people had known about its uniqueness and beauty. “But now it’s too late—it’s just a classroom. But Bartlett? It’s there. It’s just an empty space with some Plexiglas and it can be restored. This is something we can do something about.

That’s why I’m hopeful.”

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“You’d better build a trauma center now” TRAUMA continued from front

Fearless Leading by the Youth and an organizer with the Trauma Center Coalition, said that, in the view of herself and the coalition, the newly announced library was “great” and will add “great prestige to the University of Chicago and the city.” But she went on to say that “people whose lives are being lost on the South Side due to gun trauma, due to economic violence, due to police violence, will not be able to find much life-saving value in the presidential library.”

“Rob Zimmer and Mayor Rahm Emanuel moved mountains to have this Obama presidential library be secured for Chicago. We are saying that Rob Zimmer and Mayor Rahm Emanuel need to move mountains to place a trauma center on the South Side, so that lives—so that black lives—can and will be saved,” Morris-Moore said.

Page May, an organizer with We Charge Genocide, an anti– police brutality organization, also spoke before the march set off. “If you are an institution that wants to be responsible for your community—if you want to be a part of making black lives matter—you’d better get rid of the UCPD off of my

block and you’d better build a trauma center now,” May said.

The march featured many of the same chants—“U of C is wack; bring the trauma center back” and, “What do we want: trauma center; when do we want it: now”—that have marked the almost half-decade of protests objecting to the absence of a medical center on the South Side. The route of the march went through parts of the UCMC and the University.

There was a noticeable police presence throughout the march. Two Chicago Police Department SUVs crawled between the stream of marchers and the UCMC as it moved down Cottage Grove Avenue; two more police vehicles parked outside of President Zimmer’s house. Police officers asked Morris-Moore to move the protesters off of the street both as they traveled down Payne Drive in Washington Park and at the march’s destination at University and 59th where traffic, including a Central shuttle and two buses, were backed up for a block. MorrisMoore encouraged participants in the march to avoid interactions with the police, but to record them if they occurred. The protesters moved

onto the sidewalk for parts of the march and eventually at their end destination.

The march dispersed after about an hour and a half with a chant asking Zimmer to “come outside.” Earlier that day, a handful of people affiliated with the coalition had protested outside of the presidential library announcement at a youth center in the Grand Crossing neighborhood after being denied entry to the event.

The day before the march, Students for Health Equity, a University of Chicago student group, also tried to link its advocacy for the trauma center with the announcement of the presidential library through an hour-long Twitter campaign that paired pro–trauma center messages with the hashtag #DearMrPresident.

A statement by the University of Chicago News Office said that there has been “far-reaching enthusiasm” for the library. Regarding the trauma center, a March statement from the News Office said, “Building an adult level 1 trauma center on the South Side is not something the University of Chicago Medical Center can undertake alone….

A universal solution has yet to be found.”

Protestors marched from East 55th Street and King Drive to the University last Tuesday to express their concerns about the lack of a trauma center on the South Side, especially after the announcement of the new Obama Presidential Center to be built in Chicago.

MARTA BAKULA | THE CHICAGO MAROON

“This is a real wedding. Like, people are actually getting married” SCAV continued from front

Palevsky team.

Kammerer, the “Scavvengroom,” has participated in sixteen consecutive Scav Hunts, and Pelka, the “Scavvenbride,” was an active dorm team member for her four years at UChicago, with some additional emerita contributions.

“The Scavenger Hunt represents the best the University of Chicago has to offer: getting groups of incredibly smart, hard-working people together to have fun creating and exploring, if only

for four days a year,” Kammerer said. “The friendships forged through this event far outlast Scav itself.”

In their wedding announcement video, Kammerer and Pelka reflect on their longstanding involvement with Scav, and how the event helped bring them together. The video concludes with a request that they be joined “as they try to complete their greatest item yet…” The couple delivers the announcement in rap form, and reiterates that “this is not a joke.”

The wedding-related Scav Hunt items included cake baking, hymn singing, and pig-shaped-cufflink making.

“Construct a small Velociraptor made of tin cans, to pursue the ‘Just Married’mobile,” instructed another item.

Teams were awarded points for dressing as torchbearing Vikings to lead the couple to their chariot, showering the couple with diced vegetables as they exited the chapel, and reciting passages about love from a fantasy or science fiction

novel or film.

“Of course,” read the last of the eleven items, “no wedding would be complete without the traditional crowdsurf down the aisle.”

“The wedding was amazing,” Scav judge Emily Tixier said. “At times hilarious, due to Scav weirdness, but also really touching because it was a legitimate wedding between two people for whom Scav is so important…. It was all amazing to watch, and I definitely saw a lot of tears from the judges’ section of Rockefeller.”

“It was incredible that they felt so strongly about Scav to incorporate it into their wedding day,” said Medha Biswas (A.B. ‘16), another team captain. “Lots of jokes and fun and they were probably the only couple to leave Rockefeller Chapel by crowd-surfing down the aisle.”

Regarding this unique mode of departure atop the hands of cheering Scavvenwedding attendees, Kammerer commented, “I thank each and every person there that neither my wife nor I

was dropped for even a moment. It was both exhilarating and terrifying.”

As for the groom’s personal highlight: “I believe I am required by marital law to state that it is when I kissed my bride,” Kammerer said.

“However, I will also say that some of the readings and performances were unexpectedly touching, considering their origins in sometimes disreputable genre fare.”

“I can’t imagine the happiest day of my life not having been during Scav Hunt,” he concluded.

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial & Op-Ed MAY 15, 2015

A slice of the pie Graduate students should get the best possible value out of their large Student Life Fee This week, Student Government (SG) announced a $72,500 funding increase for programs benefiting graduate students in its 2015–16 budget. The SG budget is funded by the Student Life Fees (SLF) paid by graduate and undergraduate students. Graduate students make up 62 percent of the University’s student population, but last year only 6.7 percent of the SG budget was allocated to programs specifically benefiting them. This great disparity in funding is fundamentally unfair, and this year’s budget begins to reduce it, devoting 9.7 percent to graduate students. SG should continue to move in this direction. Furthermore, the University has an obligation to increase the transparency of the graduate SLF. The Graduate Council (GC) Travel Fund will receive an additional $10,000, and graduate mixers will receive an additional $7,500. These funding increases will have real benefits for graduate students, who often must travel to conferences to network and present their research—both of which are important for finding jobs after graduation. More graduate student mixers will aid GC’s mission of breaking down barriers between graduate students in different programs and divisions.

Most significantly, the overall budget for GC will approximately double. This will allow the elected members of GC the flexibility to address graduate students’ needs through new and improved programming in the years to come.

Addressing this disparity is particularly important given that the SLF for graduate students has

keted in the past decade. skyrocketed Most graduate and professional studentss pay a quarterly fee of $363, only $26 less than students in the College. Since the 2004–05 ic year, the graduate academic SLF hass increased by 87.5 percent,, for reasons the sity has not exUniversity plained.. It is highly unlikely that the University would abolish the graduate SLF, as aduate Students United the Graduate ation has called for. organization But as long as the fee remains in place, it should cated in the way be allocated est enriches that best graduatee student ince a life. Since n of portion the fee goes directlyy into G budthe SG G has a get, SG duty too provide support strong for programming aimed specifically at graduatee students. This week’s SG budget changes will nott reduce the graduate only the University can SLF—only hat decision—but they do make that ensure that graduate students will benefit more from the very high fee they are already required to pay.

The University also has a role to play in ensuring graduate students get the best deal by making the SLF more transparent. If the University continues to charge graduate students this fee, these students should know where the money goes and why the fee is constantly increasing. Currently,

ALICE XIAO

the administration provides only a vague general description of where this money goes; no itemized breakdown of precisely where each graduate student’s $363 goes each quarter exists. This information would allow students to begin an informed conversation with administrators about wheth-

er the fee is too high and how it can best be allocated.

While the 2015–16 SG budget gives graduate students a major boost, they will still only receive 9.7 percent of SG’s total funding.

Encouragingly, SG Executive Slate and College Council members are exploring a long-term strategy

|

THE CHICAGO MAROON

to increase funding for graduate student life even further. Graduate students make up nearly two thirds of the University’s student body, and next year’s SG budget represents only a first step toward recognizing this.

—The Maroon Editorial Board

Breaking the silence The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892.

Eleanor Hyun, Editor-in-Chief Sarah Manhardt, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Stephen Moreland, Managing Editor The Maroon Editorial Board consists of Alan Hassler, Eleanor Hyun, and Lear Jiang.

News Natalie Friedberg, editor Alec Goodwin, editor Marta Bakula, deputy editor Isaac Easton, associate editor Raymond Fang, associate editor Shelby Lohr, associate editor Maggie Loughran, associate editor Annie Nazzaro, associate editor Isaac Stein, senior writer Viewpoints Sarah Zimmerman, editor Nina Katemauswa, associate editor Patricia Nyawga, associate editor Kayleigh Voss, associate editor Arts Andrew McVea, editor Evangeline Reid, editor Ellen Rodnianski, editor Hannah Edgar, associate editor Grace Hauck, associate editor James Mackenzie, senior editor Sports Helen Petersen, editor Zachary Themer, editor Ahmad Allaw, associate editor Katie Anderson, associate editor Tatiana Fields, senior editor Sarah Langs, senior editor Grey City Sindhu Gnanasambandan, Editor-in-Chief Kristin Lin, Editor-in-Chief Design Annie Cantara, head designer Copy Sophie Downes, head editor Alan Hassler, head editor Sherry He, head editor Morganne Ramsey, head editor

Multimedia Forrest Sill, editor Photo Marta Bakula, editor Yeo Bi Choi, associate editor Liana Sonenclar, associate editor Video Amber Love, editor Social Media Emily Harwell, editor Online Ryan McDowell, web developer Business Nicolas Lukac, chief financial officer Ananya Pillutla, vice chief financial officer Andrew Ahn, co-director of marketing Eitan Rude, co-director of marketing Ben Veres, director of operations Patrick Quinn, director of strategy Lenise Lee, business manager Harry Backlund, distributor Kay Li, director of data analysis This issue: Copy: Rebecca Kuang, Lauren Scott, Julia Xu, Michelle Zhao, Sam Zoeller Design: Emily Harwell, Julia Xu Editor-in-Chief E-mail: Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com Newsroom Phone: (773) 702-1403 Business Phone: (773) 702-9555 Fax: (773) 702-3032 For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com or (773) 702-9555 Circulation: 6,800. © 2015 The Chicago Maroon Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Addressing depression means sharing our struggles, not just our accomplishments Nina Katemauswa Maroon Viewpoints Associate Editor It was late fall quarter of my second year in the College. I was walking home to my nearby dorm when two masked figures approached me from behind and dragged me into a side alley to do things to me that I have trouble recounting to this day.

What happened became a sort of negative catalyst that allowed everything else in my life to fall neatly apart shortly afterwards.

News of the incident spread, and as I let the walls guarding my privacy deteriorate in exchange for momentary influxes of sympathy from people on the outside, the weather grew colder and my nights became inexplicably longer and distinctly unbearable. During this time, I had a hard time determining which of my emotions were actually “valid”—figuring out how many of them stem from a desire just to feel acknowledged or loved. Often I found that I was only capable of discussing these emotions in the most abstract or indirect ways. I

could handle talking about “depression,” but only if I could wrap it in a metaphor or deconstruct it in analytical ways for a literary assignment. But to confront it—boldly, plainly, unforgivingly—asked too much from me, like handing me a mirror in the middle of a public outburst, asking me to stare at a reflection that is absolutely mine and yet one that I somehow still cannot recognize.

In the mornings after the incident I began a biweekly ritual of waking up to the first of an extended series of alarms between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m., hauling myself out of bed at last on the fifth or sixth of these reminders, and getting into one of the communal showers on my dorm floor. All that in exchange for the privilege of being able to openly sob for about 20 minutes straight, since this is the time I knew everyone else in my house was usually asleep and I was least likely to be heard.

Once during my time in Catholic school, a priest told me “crying is the body’s way of releasing the poi-

son,” and I thought of those words each morning as I did this, during my shower and again afterwards. I felt alert even in exhaustion, staring up at the ceiling of my room, thinking of ways to avoid confronting the rest of the day’s responsibilities—ways that I could keep eking away at my depleted reserves of energy more and more efficiently, saving all my vital stores of it for the major tasks in my life, like attending lecture on the day of a quiz or the weekly phone call to my mother each Sunday night, where I proceeded to exhaust seemingly enormous amounts of it in convincing her that I’m doing all right and that no, I promise, I don’t need to go “talk to someone” or to leave school and come home early.

On less forgiving days, I would cancel appointments with no explanation because I knew that even if I did show up, I’d effectively be a shell of myself—devoid both of my usual characteristics and of the desire to project them even out of habit. Instead I stayed in bed and DEPRESSION continued on page 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 15, 2015

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Stronger together SG balances the budget to reflect the entire University—not just the College Tyler Kissinger Maroon Contributor Earlier this week, the Student Government Assembly (made up of the College and Graduate Councils) passed its budget for the 2015– 2016 academic year. While in many ways its prioritization of the graduate students who constitute twothirds of our campus represents a step forward, it’s useful for us to contextualize this change within the broader institutional patterns of the last decade.

Student Government has a $2.2 million budget, funded by a “Student Activities Fee” (SAF), which is embedded within the Student Life Fee (SLF) paid by each enrolled student—graduate and undergrad-

uate—at UChicago. For graduate students, this student activities fee represents about 20 percent of each student’s individual SLF—however, since half of this gets sent directly to each student’s school or division, this leaves 10 percent of the SLF for the SAF central fund. In comparison, for undergrads, about 24 percent of each individual SLF gets directed to this central fund.

However, since graduate students vastly outnumber undergraduate students, they end up contributing about half of the total SAF budget.

SG is ultimately responsible for allocating approximately 90 percent of this central fund.

As they have historically stood, from funding RSOs to supporting academic teams, the Major Ac-

tivities Board, and club sports, the financial obligations of Student Government skew heavily toward supporting students in the College.

In all, only about 12 percent of our budget goes to graduate students.

This means that graduate students essentially subsidize undergraduate student life, and this is by no means an accident. University administration has long pressured SG to meet needs on the undergraduate side without providing them with the resources necessary to fairly and equally support graduate students.

Years of ineffective leadership on the side of SG paired with weak engagement with graduate students (even those serving on the Graduate Council) did nothing to call attention to this problem.

Now, things are different. There is a near consensus within SG on the seriousness of the structural imbalance that exists between graduate and undergraduate student support.

Years of work by the outgoing chair (Anthony Martinez) have built the Graduate Council up into a strong and effective advocate for students at UChicago. Renewed interest in how we spend our money has generated the energy for reforms and budgetary audits.

At the end of the day, no matter how well we spend the money we currently have, the only way we can seriously begin to move the needle on graduate student support is through a larger budget. The University should not expect graduate students to support undergraduate

student life. The vast majority of the Student Life Fee goes toward funding health and wellness services that ought to be provided for through tuition, which would free up funds to increase support for groups like academic teams and reduce the need for small and mid-sized RSOs to fundraise for each event they host.

This isn’t an undergraduate versus graduate issue. We’re stronger together, and that’s precisely how we should push to have more resources directed to support all students, graduate and undergraduate.

Tyler Kissinger is a thirdyear in the College majoring in public policy and is the president of Student Government.

“We need people who can understand. People who can empathize.”

DEPRESSION continued from page 4

binge-watched entire television seasons at a time, wasting money I still felt unaccustomed to having on take-out or delivery for the small reprieve of avoiding the pressures of the dining hall. I spent nights staring at problem sets and BuzzFeed articles, wondering how I could have made it this far when my emotions oscillated reliably between a self-righteous kind of indifference for things outside of my head and sudden periods of full-blown panic about everything all at once.

Somehow I managed to remain “stable” enough to turn in most assignments and receive grades that seemed to satisfy the people around me enough. I finished second year in dreadfully low spirits and with an overwhelming sense that the “life of the mind” was really just a test of endurance that I was now unsure I would be able to actually complete. * * * * Flash-forward to today, over a year since the events of that quarter and the onslaught of the emotions and experiences that followed, which I can now fully acknowledge as symptoms of my depression.

I can’t tell you exactly when things began to get better, but I do recall how, almost imperceptibly, the days began to merge into one another and the regular routine of everyday living picked up its pace again, demanding that I adapt. Pretty soon I was able to go from a few days to a few weeks without waking up to cry or forcing myself to eat and go out. Pretty soon I was planning ahead again and taking stock of the inventories I’d been neglecting for a whole year: which friendships I could still count on and what goals I hoped to accomplish in various areas of my life again.

Being depressed at an elite university is much like being poor at an elite university: There are always more people like you around than you’d think. Of course, as I was disposed to grossly personalizing every experience—to interpreting each passing event through the confined lens of my suffering, my pain—I hardly took notice of all the distress signals my closest friends and circle of acquaintances (mostly low-income or first-generation students as

well) were all beginning to display to varying degrees. Some friends had taken abrupt leaves of absence (something that only a few of us had even heard about), and others had taken to new habits (drugs, alcohol, prescription medications, spiritual awakenings) or new houses, leaving the rest of us behind and finding their own ways to cope with the same feelings, the same fears.

Even when I had friends who had the courage to explicitly confess to me the extent of their own experiences, as I would console someone as they cried on my shoulder—it all felt so remote; I felt like, “yes, this must be awful for you and I understand that you’re in pain, but you don’t really know what it’s like to feel bad—not the same way I do.”

For me, depression manifested through uncontrollable thoughts like those, and hours of guilt spent contemplating the ways in which my anxieties had turned me into exactly the type of person I always feared I would become when taken from the structured lifestyle of my upbringing—self-centered, uninspired, and unreliable. While the sense of loneliness I felt was “real,” the experience of it was caused in some ways by my inability to notice the opportunities for genuine understanding around me—my inability to place into perspective the things outside of my own head.

Yet regardless of my quality of life during that time, coming to college had objectively improved my standard of living by far. Through the generosity of scholarships, I felt more financially secure and materially stable than I had throughout the majority of my upbringing. For the first time since being a small child, I felt less restricted by my external environment than ever before.

When it came to “fun,” I ostensibly had plenty of it—in bolder, richer, more expensive ways—yet I never would have called myself a “happy” person then. The brief thrills I experienced did nothing to assuage the sense that I was observing myself do things more than I was actually enjoying them. Eventually, those times became a shoddy but salvageable foundation for my remaining relationships, and anticipating their arrival became the fuel I burned in the final hours before a

GRACE HAUCK

big paper was due or after a particularly rough morning.

So, all that time I lied to myself that I couldn’t be depressed—not with the scholarship, not with the circle of friends, not with the “freedom.” These were things my unstable but not unhappy childhood had not always been able to afford me. On top of that, the University of Chicago had been the school of my “dreams”—or rather, my emotionally-invested fantasies about doing well in The Future turned obsessive—and so even if deep down I knew it was time to finally wake up from some of the more fanciful aspects of these (This is the place I’m going to find my soul mate! I’m going to find my life’s passion here!

College is the most formative time of my life!), I wasn’t ready to let go of the suspicion that it was I—not the school—who was fundamentally messed up. I lied to myself by believing that even if I didn’t feel content at all, I couldn’t actually be unhappy, that even though I was struggling or wading my way through all my courses, I was still embodying the “life of the mind,” and that the feeling of “depression” was for people with less active social lives or fewer available resources than mine.

Last week, after the results of the Student Government elections came out, a first-year student came

up to congratulate me on securing the Community & Government Liaison position and to say that she really “admired” me. After thanking her for the comment and making a joke about how it really wasn’t that big of a deal since I was the only candidate on the ballot, she got very serious and said that it wasn’t that I’d got the position, but that I’d “put myself out there” in the first place that had inspired her.

The problem is most of us don’t really need more people who can “inspire” us. We need people who can understand. People who can empathize. People who will interpret, not just listen. People who aren’t just always around, but always there. Most people who are struggling here—academically or emotionally—don’t need another role model; they need someone who’s consistent, someone who will know the difference between an actual cry for help and a cue to bring some drinks and snacks over.

They need a university that doesn’t make them feel designated into one of two classes: achievers or screwups, with accolades for the former and apathy for the latter. They need a supportive group of people they can actually trust, not a governing body of other students or a committee that “represents” them.

Yes, things get better.

Yes, they are usually not as bad as you think they are.

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

But without examples of people around you to actually show you that, it’s hard to feel like everyone else isn’t actually doing as badly as they say they are, and easy to feel like you’re actually on your own.

And if we only use our platforms to discuss our successes, it’s hard to remember that that’s all they are: platforms. The foundation— the core—of us as individuals is complex and in constant flux; no one’s always on a winning streak; no one’s always on their “A” game, in spite of what their Facebook or Linkedin profiles might suggest.

This University asks us to be “uncommon,” yet predictable; “quirky,” but neurotypical. As students, it’s in our hands to create a more supportive culture among ourselves: one where we agree to not shame each other for being fallible or to make mockeries of our shared afflictions, but where we are kinder toward each other out of compassion and not complacency, where we are there for each other in times of public campaigning and times of depression, where politics and individualism come secondary to our commitment toward fostering a less oppressive and more inspiring environment for everyone.

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

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 15, 2015

A seat at the table University-led programming dealing with sexual assault silences the voices of actual campus survivors

WEI YI OW

Veronica Portillo-Heap & Olivia Ortiz Maroon Contributors In spring 2013, the Student Government (SG) Annual Allocations Committee denied the UChicago Clothesline Project funding for the 2013 – 14 school year. The community response to this denial was powerful; an online petition drew nearly 1,000 signatures and funding was granted by the SG Finance Committee that summer.

In spring 2014, SG established a $10,000 Sexual Assault Awareness fund for the 2014 – 15 school year, which we are finally seeing in action; most of the funds have been used for Sexual Assault Awareness Week, set for eighth week, May 17–22. This week has been sponsored in part by generous grants from the Campus Dialogue Fund, the Office of LGBTQ Student Life, and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA).

The programming includes workshops by RSOs and the third annual spring installment of the UChicago Clothesline Project in Hutch Courtyard. It boasts events featuring prominent anti–sexual violence activists, including Dana Bolger, a founding co-director of Know Your IX; Wagatwe Wanjuki, coiner of the nationally trending #SurvivorPrivilege hashtag ; and John Kelly, the first person to testify before the Senate about queer dating violence. This student-led, survivor-driven programming amplifies sexual assault survivors’ voices in an institutional environment that silences them.

Student Government has certainly come a long way since 2013, but this progress stands in stark contrast to the University-led events this year. A concerning pattern regarding this issue has arisen: Students have submitted event proposals featuring student and survivor activists to the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS) and the Institute of Politics since fall 2014, but none of these requests has been granted.

Instead, programming like the CSGS Sexual Violence on Campus series this school year has primarily featured academic speakers: The first event in the series, in October 2014, featured Harvard Law professor Janet Halley. The panel after the The Hunting Ground screening this April was the first time a student activist or survivor was included in this series, and the film itself portrayed a narrow narrative of campus sexual violence. In March, the IOP held the student-proposed panel Strengthening Title IX. Only at the last minute did it agree to add a UChicago student survivor to the program and remove UChicago Title IX Coordinator for Students Belinda Cortez Vazquez from the panel; the only UChicago voice that the IOP initially deemed acceptable to comment on the ongoing federal Title IX investigation was that of an administrator. This was an event that was meant to focus on local and national student activists, yet we struggled to get even one student on the panel. University programming fails to reflect student, survivor, and activist proposals and does

not treat student survivors as key stakeholders in issues that intimately affect them.

What is more concerning than the lack of inclusion from departmental event leaders and coordinators is the lack of inclusion from administrators on policies that directly affect survivors. A Provost-appointed committee met in winter 2014 to review changes to the Policy on Unlawful Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct, but student survivors and our organizations—like the Phoenix Survivors Alliance and the UChicago Clothesline Project—were excluded from these meetings. While some student survivors have been appointed to the Resources for Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Student Emergency Response Systems advisory council, this council’s power has yet to be proven—Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen has stated to council members that we do not actually advise Campus and Student Life but rather provide feedback to the small RSVP office. Instead of inclusion in powerful entities like the Provost’s committee, survivors are delegated to powerless councils.

Administrators not only fail to include survivors in key decision-making sessions, but they also outright refuse to cooperate with us.

Other powerful administrators, such as Karen Warren Coleman, vice president for campus life and student services, and John Boyer, dean of the College, have never so much as replied to one e-mail requesting a meeting to discuss these key topics of campus safety.

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

As survivors of sexual violence, our existences should not be treated as liabilities that could harm the University’s brand. Our painful lived experiences should not disqualify our opinions but instead make them all

the more valuable.

There is a myth that the University as an institution is “trying hard” to do better by survivors and that it “means well.” In an e-mail, CSGS director Linda Zerilli has stated that “many of these administrators are actually trying to help. They are in a crisis right now and scrambling around trying to make sense of what to do next.” What Zerilli seems to not understand is that those who are truly “in crisis” are the sexual assault survivors at this University, not the incompetent administrators. While we support the campus climate survey, the claim via e-mail from Karen Warren Coleman to students about the survey, that it will be used to “inform [University] efforts to improve sexual misconduct prevention, education and awareness programs, as well as [their] commitment to provide the best resources to survivors,” implies that the University is ignorant concerning these issues. The existence of the UChicago Clothesline Project since fall 2012 and our public statements and installations with more than 175 stories of violence from students, not to men-

tion the ongoing federal investigation into Title IX violations, are sufficient evidence that the University of Chicago knows it has a rape problem. Even with this evidence, though, the University remains apathetic, and at times antagonistic, to survivor concerns.

If the University cared about making meaningful change, then it would allocate its plentiful resources to properly train University employees, enforce nocontact orders to protect traumatized students, and actually support survivors.

Instead, as seen with the planned programming of Sexual Assault Awareness Week and refusal of administrative cooperation, students will have to bear that responsibility themselves.

Veronica Portillo Heap is a fourth-year in the College majoring in history and gender and sexuality studies.

Olivia Ortiz is a linguistics major in the College

GRADUATE STUDENTAT-LARGE INFORMATION SESSIONS Join us to learn how you

UPCOMING DATES

can take one or more undergraduate or graduate courses across campus as a GSAL student to bridge your undergraduate experience to a graduate or professional degree program.

MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 12–1 PM; HM 151 TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2015 4–5 PM; CL 111 MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015 12–1 PM; HM 151 TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015 4–5 PM; CL 111 TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 4–5 PM; CL 111

RSVP to gsalinfo@uchicago.edu Please indicate which session you would like to attend. Pizza and soft drinks will be served.

ARTS

What is art?

MAY 15, 2015

Master’s candidates showcase thesis work in offbeat exhibition

Go Away, Ghost Ship! features the work of Master's of Fine Arts student Zachary Harvey, Autumn Elizabeth Clark, Sara Rouse, and Alex Calhoun.

GRACE HAUCK

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

Grace Hauck Associate Arts Editor “Phallic symbols on the wall that are flaccid and portraits of old guys with a bear—it’s weird right?” Camille Morgan, Curatorial Coordinator of Logan Center Exhibitions, said with a laugh in response to the art of MFA student Zachary Harvey.

Go Away, Ghost Ship!, the Logan Center’s most recent exhibit (closing today), was, indeed, a bit strange. This first of two student-curated MFA Thesis Exhibitions of 2015 opened at the end of April as a collaboration between Logan Center Exhibitions and the Department of Visual Arts.

It showcased the works of four graduating artists: Zachary Harvey, Autumn Elizabeth

Clark, Sara Rouse, and Alex Calhoun.

The title of the exhibit, taken from the name of a 1969 Scooby Doo episode, reflected the unifying theme of the artistic motivations of the exhibiting students: to translate the invisible into something creative yet inherently personal. For many visitors, however, Harvey’s take on the invisible was easily the most noticeable installation in the gallery. It had shock value.

“My work probes and celebrates the nature of desire, as it relates to masculinity within our culture. I approach art making as time for serious play, reflection, and experimentation. I embrace libidinal impulses, find pleasure in color and texture, and question the framing of a work within the

larger field,” Harvey said in the artist statement accompanying his works.

Harvey’s installation—an unruly collage of bright paint, clothing, sculpture, scraps, and furniture—occupied an entire corner and featured two live components: a television screen showing a white male slowly and deliberately accumulating objects in his white underwear and a nude, middle-aged man lounging on a fluff y white bed (the live feed of whom was constantly on display in the middle of the Logan Café). Harvey’s unusual contrast between the frank exposure—perhaps even glorification—of a stereotypically undesirable and hidden male form against a childishly sucrose stage was bizarre and humorous, yet ultimately un-

settling. It was like a clubhouse for toddlers… for a middleaged man.

“In championing what may seem commonplace or undesirable, I hope to confuse and subvert normal expectations of beauty, fashion, and taste, and push my subjectivity onto the viewer,” Harvey said in an e-mail.

Morgan expressed a similar view: “I think when you do see a male figure of that age in modern culture, it’s not with a playful approach; it’s more serious. But these are old guys just being themselves, literally a stripping down of honesty.”

While this piece may have struck a lighthearted cord with some, this peculiar—verging on twisted—experiment made me distinctly uncomfortable.

The works of Clark also flirted with the theme of invisible repressions masked by the lighthearted, and she furthered this idea with a visual contemplation on memory. Her works included an array of drawings, photography books, and wallpaper—a collection she titled Underneath. She sees her wallpaper strips as concealing skins that obscure the true wall “The wallpaper draws on the first line of Mary Howitt’s poem ‘The Spider and the Fly’—the colors and patterns seemingly innocent until one comes closer and looks at what makes up the patterns. The appearance of something good until it’s further investigated to truly be seen for what it really is, violence in a domestic space,” Clark said in an email.

Trapped in a web of unassuming sculpture and domestic furniture that resembled a funky, spread-out living room, I was surprised to recognize the menacing undertones spread throughout the entire exhibit.

“If the walls could bleed then everyone would know what had happened, and the more one sweeps the dirt under the carpet the bigger the mountain grows,” Clark said in her artist statement.

The peaceful, organic works of Rouse, however, granted me solace amidst an increasingly spine-chilling exposé. Rouse chose to explore the invisible through the creation of otherworldly landscapes. Her elegant arrangements of natural elements—such as wood, rock, MFA continued on page 9

Violinist from renowned Emerson String Quartet reflects on journeys old and new Hannah Edgar Associate Arts Editor Counting nine Grammys, three Gramophone Awards, and an Avery Fisher prize among its achievements, the Emerson String Quartet is widely regarded as a giant among American string quartets. For the bulk of its illustrious career, the Quartet’s personnel remained remarkably unchanged, consisting of Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer (violins), Lawrence Dutton (viola), and David Finckel

(cello). However, their most recent album, Journeys, marked Finckel’s departure from the quartet after a distinguished 34-year career, being succeeded in 2013 by cellist Paul Watkins.

In anticipation of the Quartet’s upcoming performance at Chicago’s Harris Theater on May 20, the maroon spoke with violinist and founding member Eugene Drucker about the group’s beginnings, collaborations old and new, and what the future holds for the Quartet.

Q: When did you begin calling yourself the Emerson Quartet? And why?

A: In the ’76-’77 season, we decided to become a professional quartet—to really make a go of it. I think it was sometime earlier in 1976 that we decided to take the name “Emerson” because we wanted to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial year with an American name that had cultural overtones.

Q: Your most recent album, Journeys, was an album of sextets released in 2013.

That was the year, of course, that the quartet embarked on a new journey itself with the official addition of Paul Watkins on cello. How long have you known Mr. Watkins?

A: Well, Lawrence Dutton played some chamber music in an ad hoc ensemble with him in 2009. I didn’t know [Paul] at that point, but Larry came back from that experience and said to Phil and me, “If, for some reason, David ever decides to leave the quartet,

we’ve got to try to get this guy as a replacement because he’s amazing.” I’d never heard Larry talk like that about another cellist, because we’d always thought that our current lineup at that point was going to be the final lineup of the quartet. Then in the summer of 2011, Phil Setzer played with Paul Watkins at David Finckel’s festival Music@Menlo, and he had a wonderful experience doing that. It was only a couple weeks after Phil played with Paul that David informed

us that he would like to quit the quartet after another two seasons. We took a couple of weeks to decide what we wanted to do, and we decided yes, we did want to continue with the Emerson Quartet—regenerate ourselves, so to speak— and within a couple of months after that, we approached Paul Watkins.

Q: Your management released a beautiful mini-documentary, “Transition,” on YouTube that chronicles DaSTRINGS continued on page 9

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 15, 2015

“...every time you play with someone else...you learn something new” STRINGS continued from page 7

Top: Eugene Drucker, a founding member of Emerson String Quartet, is one of two violinists in the group today.

Bottom: Emerson String Quartet, a nine-time Grammy award winning ensemble.

COURTESY OF EMERSON QUARTET

vid Finckel’s last performance with the Quartet. In it, you said that “every time you play with someone else, whether it’s a temporary collaboration or a permanent collaboration, you learn something new.”

What have you learned from Paul Watkins, having played with him for almost two years now?

A: He’s a very beautiful player who has brought a different sound to the Quartet. You know, the cello provides foundation for the sound of the whole quartet. Probably the Quartet’s sound itself has—I hope without losing excitement—taken on a slightly mellower hue than what we had before. It’s not that he has taught us anything in a pedagogical or didactic way, but I can tell you this: He is an extremely busy person. He still has solo commitments from his previous career—he goes to England often to record—and he’s also a conductor and [pianist]. So I’d say what I’ve learned from him, or at least can aspire to, is a way to be as busy as he is and yet not seem driven—on a personal level, and to some extent on a musical level.

Q: Speaking of colleagues: Tell us a little bit about Colin Carr (cello) and Paul Neubauer (viola), with whom you collaborated for Journeys, and with whom you’ll be performing at the Harris Theater on the 20th.

A: We collaborated with Paul Neubauer on the Dvorak String Quintet No. 3 in E flat major (Op. 97), which is included in the last album we made for Deutsche Grammophon, Old World–New World (2010). They’ve both played Brahms sextets with us, as well. So we’ve had a collegial rela-

tionship with both of them over the years in different configurations, and it’s a pleasure to play with them.

Q: Attendees of that program will have the exciting opportunity to hear a new piece—only premiered a few months ago—that was commissioned specifically for the Quartet: Lowell Liebermann’s String Quartet No. 5. How would you characterize the piece?

A: It’s a very accessible piece. It’s scored big-time, I would say, with audiences at most of the concerts where we’ve performed it; people speak to us quite frequently about the Liebermann afterwards. It has long, sweeping romantic lines, a compelling narrative arc, and a lot of exciting, fast material. But mostly I would say there’s a sense of inner cohesion about it. The slower sections have not only that sort of romantic, lyrical strain I’m talking about, but at the beginning and end of the piece there’s also this very mysterious sort of atmosphere.

Q: We have a robust chamber music scene at the University of Chicago, with both a departmentled program and a student-run program. As a longtime chamber musician, is there something about playing or rehearsing with a quartet that you know now that you wish you knew when you were younger?

A: That’s a good question…. I think maybe I just understand certain things more deeply than I understood them decades ago, that playing together in a quartet involves negotiating the differences between the four personalities. You don’t always want to avoid confrontation, but you have to be diplomatic. Everybody should try to respect everybody else, includ-

ing the differences in playing styles and in the way people’s personalities are expressed. And you know, you have to find the right way of asking for what you want—that much I have discovered. Probably it’s important not to take on a certain role, like the guardian of intonation or the guardian of rhythm, or something like that.

Everyone should share those responsibilities.

Q: Journeys was the Emerson Quartet’s final album with David Finckel. Any upcoming recording projects with Mr. Watkins that we can look forward to?

A: Yes: A recording of Berg’s Lyric Suite and five songs by Egon Wellesz.

[Wellesz] was a contemporary of Berg, and [the songs’ texts] are five sonnets of Elizabeth Barrett Browning that were translated into German.

The reason that’s on the recording is that Renée Fleming joined us for the final movement of the Lyric Suite with [Berg’s] hidden voice part. It was a great honor for us to collaborate with Ms. Fleming, and we wanted to have another piece on that recording that would feature her. The five sonnets are very intriguing, kind of impressionistic writing for both the voice and the quartet, and that will come out in September. We’ve also got another recording in the can, but I don’t know when that’s going to come out. That’s music by Britten and Purcell: the second and third Britten quartets, Britten’s edition of Purcell’s Chacony, and four Purcell fantasias.

They’ll come out sooner or later!

The Emerson String Quartet performs with Colin Carr and Paul Neubauer at the Harris Theater (205 East Randolph Drive), Wednesday May 20, 7:30 PM. Tickets $10–50.

Shadows of Shyamalan can be found in Fox’s new Wayward Pines

Looks like these pines are a bit wayward.... They're covering up the glamorous cast of Fox's new show from celebrity film director M. Night Shyamalan.

COURTESY OF FOX

James Mackenzie Senior Arts Editor The last we saw of M. Night Shyamalan, he was at the helm of Will Smith ego project-turned-box office disaster After Earth, the latest in a long series of critical and commercial flops produced by the once lauded director. Most of Shyamalan’s projects in recent years have carried the same question: “Is this the comeback? Is this where he’ll recapture the magic of The Sixth Sense? Is this where he finally fulfills the promise he showed all those years ago?”

These attempts have thus far all been failures, each more spectacular than the last. His name is so tainted that studios have largely ceased promoting him when marketing his cre-

ations. You’ll only find small allusions to his involvement in the new Fox series Wayward Pines, which premiered last night.

The show, based on a book series of the same name by Blake Crouch, follows Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) as he is sent to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents in rural Idaho. After a car accident kills his partner and knocks him unconscious, he wakes up in a hospital in a town called Wayward Pines. As one might expect, all is not as it seems in Wayward Pines. Contact with the outside world is impossible, surveillance devices are everywhere, and the entire town is surrounded by a giant electric fence preventing escape. On top of all that is the despotic sheriff (Terrence

Howard, coming off his recent leading role in Fox’s Empire) who has a penchant for public executions. The leaders of this town have some nefarious plot in the works, which is without a doubt leading up to the trademark Shyamalan twist.

The extent to which Shyamalan is directly involved in this show is hard to discern. The typical approach for famous film directors creating TV shows is to form the concept, direct one episode, and then let handpicked producers take over the show completely (Take J.J. Abrams and Lost as an example).

True to this form, of the episodes available, Shyamalan only directed the pilot (Disclaimer: Fox provided the first five episodes on DVD for the purpose of this review) but his stylistic fingerprints

are all over the following entries.

From the steady tilt up on the face of a confused character to the steady wide shot of a menacing one, all of Shyamalan’s cinematographic tricks are in play even when he’s not behind the camera. So too are the hokey dialogue and hokier acting that has characterized most of his films. However, both of these elements actually work in the show’s favor, since the premise essentially calls for the residents of the town to act strangely and awkwardly under the stress of being constantly watched.

The alien-like performances work infinitely better here than in something like The Happening, which was allegedly centered on a group of normal people in the face of the apocalypse.

It’s currently unclear whether Way-

ward Pines is intended to be a one-off mini-series or the beginning of a longrunning show. The early ratings will go a long way in determining its future, but it’s hard to envision a show that seems built around an inevitable twist being able to hold up longer than one full season. It’s easy to hazard a few solid guesses about this town’s “secret,” but the mystery is genuinely intriguing without overwhelming the actual experience of watching the show. Like Fox’s Empire, Wayward Pines moves at a very fast clip, leaving little time to consider the ridiculous events being put on screen. All in all, it makes for a highly enjoyable show, even if the future is murky. This may not be a return to Sixth Sense form for Shyamalan, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.

THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 15, 2015

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“I’m interested in abstraction as a way to synthesize material”

Zachary Harvey's colorful work was the most eye-catching in the exhibit which is coming to a close today.

GRACE HAUCK

| THE CHICAGO MAROON

MFA continued from page 7

muslin, dye, salt, plaster, and cement—harken back to lunar terrain and the depths of the sea.

Soft blue drapes hover above and along the landscapes, lending fluidity to their grainy bases.

One notices her reverence for the power of nature in her artist statement: “I find a tension between the feelings of ecstatic hubris and crippling humility. In many ways I orient myself as a user in a world of materials, technology and applications but then I see a forming storm, or lose electricity, or can’t seem to rationalize the scale of geologic time, climate change or a black hole, and I am small again, not a user but just another

form.”

Morgan was sure to highlight the work of Calhoun as well: “I feel like what might get lost in the noise is Alex’s work, just because the scale of her work is so small. There is a nautical feel to them for me. She used a lot of wood, found objects, some netting. Hers is probably the most enigmatic for me.”

Spread throughout the gallery yet still hidden, Calhoun’s pieces were simple and delicate—I had to take care not to step on her various sculptures laid on the ground. Her naturalistic materials and streamlined designs masterfully bridged the alien terrains of Rouse and the manufactured

furniture of Harvey. In her artist statement, Alex said, “I’m interested in abstraction as a way to synthesize material and form into something that pushes on the edges of our expectations surrounding form and use as it relates to our world.”

This MFA Thesis Exhibition marked the culmination of years of artistic inquiry for these four maturing students. In an email, Clark said, “A faculty member I admire calls our MFA exhibition our “debutant ball,” and in many ways I would agree that this is what Go Away, Ghost Ship! has meant to me in relation to my artistic career. Having gone through the rigors of academic classes and intense critiques to now be

equipped and ready to continue my academic and artistic practice in the world.”

For a debutante ball, it was a pretty unsettling affair, yet the artists managed to transform the invisible—however, weird, foreign, or ambiguous—into the tangible, the real, and the beautiful (with phallic symbols aplenty).

If you missed Go Away, Ghost Ship!, stay tuned for Trapped in Acapulco, Logan’s second MFA Thesis Exhibition of 2015 running May 22 through June 14. This show will feature the works of David Lloyd, Richard Williamson, Tori Whitehead, Carris Adams and will kick off with a reception on Friday, May 22 from 6–8 p.m.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISEMENTS | May 15, 2015

Shulamit Ran, artistic director

50TH SEASON 2015

CONTEMPO: TOMORROW’S MUSIC TODAY II

05.15.15 FRI | 7:30 PM GANZ HALL, ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY 430 S. Michigan Avenue Featuring performances by Cliff Colnot, conductor eighth blackbird Pacifica Quartet

Nina Dante, soprano Amanda DeBoer, soprano Elisa Sutherland, mezzo-soprano

In the second program of Contempo’s annual showcase of UChicago doctoral candidates in composition, Cliff Colnot, eighth blackbird, and Pacifica Quartet again join forces. Hear bold new works by Katherine Pukinskis, Phil Taylor, and Iddo Aharony, and you will discover important new voices.

FREE admission, no reservations required. Includes a post-concert reception with the artists. Note downtown location.

CONTEMPO. 50 YEARS, AND COUNTING.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 15, 2015

Chicago to play defending National Champions

Fourth-year Deepak Sabada prepares to serve a ball at a practice game last season.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

Maroon Staff While most of the student body at UChicago was in the throes of midterms and sixth week, the hard-hitting Maroons were in Whitewater, Wisconsin, making history by advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III National Championships. It is the first time that the Maroons have ever made it to the quarterfinal round. Having come off a 5–2 drubbing of Gustavus Adolphus to make it to the Elite Eight, the Maroons hope they can ride

their established momentum into the next round.

The South Siders will take on No. 2 Amherst on Monday. While one would assume that it would be intimidating to take on the No. 2 team in the nation, anyone that has been following Chicago this season knows this team is familiar with top ranked teams.

In fact, of the seven teams left in the tournament (outside themselves), the Maroons have taken on two of them, which certainly puts them far ahead of their opponent in terms of high–level experience.

When asked how this experience against

top team helps the South Siders, firstyear Peter Leung said, “It has given us the knowledge that we can take on any team in the whole nation. We can contend and beat every team in the top five, and there isn’t much that can stop us.”

Fourth-year Deepak Sabada echoed this sentiment and said “We’ve learned multiple times this year that we can beat anyone in the country and we are excited to show that against Amherst.”

However, the Lord Jeffs of Amherst have Chicago beat in that category, as they have played three of the seven opponents left in the tournament. Something that Amherst doesn’t have on the Maroons? Youth. Amherst has a team full of upperclassmen, and while one would think that this give the Lord Jeffs an edge, the South Siders wholeheartedly disagree.

“Every one of the freshman has competed at the highest national level with the biggest stakes for many years so we know how to play big matches,” first-year Nicholas Chua said. “If anything, I think we bring a large amount of experience to the table.”

Leung said, “I don’t really know anything about Amherst’s team, but I know that incoming freshmen tend to revitalize any team,” which displays the confidence that the Maroons rightly deserve.

As mentioned previously, the team as a whole lacks experience in this round of the tournament: it is the first time Chicago has made it to the Elite Eight. Instead of letting this rattle them, the Maroons are using it to fuel their competitive drive.

“It feels good to be a part of this especially since this is the first time the team has made the tournament in my four years here,” said Sabada. “Obviously, we have never been to the Elite Eight before while Amherst is the defending national champ, but we have played top competition throughout the year and we feel confident in our abilities to knock them off.”

Chua said, “I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that for us freshmen it could very well be the 10th or 15th time in the quarterfinals and it wouldn’t make a difference because this is our first year on the team and anything is a new situation.”

The team has already made history, but there’s no way that this Chicago squad is in any way satisfied. Regardless of ranking, previous opponents, or overall team experience, Chicago and Amherst will play at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 18 in Mason, Ohio.

That matchup will ultimately determine who gets the chance to play in the semifinals against either Middlebury or Trinity on Tuesday.

North Central to host Last Chance Meet Track and Field Max Hawkins Maroon Staff The Maroons are competing today in the North Central College Last Chance Meet in Naperville, IL, which started yesterday.

This meet serves as the last opportunity for the South Siders to qualify for the NCAA DIII National Championship, which will take place in two weeks.

“The field is very competitive, with a number of other runners looking to qualify,” said second-year Gareth Jones. There are a few different anticipated races, such as the one between fourth-year Ben Buchheim-Jurrison and third-year Yorkbell Jaramillo in the 300-meter steeple, as both look to continue their successful seasons thus far.

On the women’s side, the Maroons look for more individual success as third-year

This Week in Sports: NHL Playoff Predictions with Ruslan Shchetinin

Men’s Tennis

Britta Nordtsrom

11

All-American and All-UAA Brianna Hickey looks to qualify in the 1,500-meter race and retain her qualifying spot. Second-year Michelle Dobbs, another All-American who is currently ranked fifth in the country, looks for another win in the 800-meter race. Third-year Nkemdilim Nwaokolo, an All-American in the indoor weight throw, also looks to qualify for the outdoor weight throw on Thursday.

Having earned both the indoor and outdoor UAA titles, the women look to cap off their regular season on a high note.

“The fact that the women were able to take both the indoor and outdoor championship titles was huge. This is even considering all of the injuries that have nagged the team throughout the season,” Jones said.

The men’s team has also found success this year, finishing second in the indoor UAA championships and third in the out-

door UAA championship a few weeks ago.

First-year Obinnaya Wamuo, third-year Ben Clark, third-year Jacob Romeo, and first-year Nathan Downey look to secure a spot together at Nationals in the 4x100meter race.

Jones, coming off an All-UAA selection in both the outdoor and indoor 5,000-meter race this year looks to qualify for the 10,000-meter race. “I think my odds are good, but in a race as long as the 10K, a lot can happen,” Jones said .

Regardless of the outcome, Chicago looks to finish the season strong, send its seniors off the right way, and retool for the upcoming season.

The Last Chance Meet began yesterday at 12:15 p.m. and will continue through today at North Central College.

Western Conference Final: Anaheim Ducks vs. Chicago Blackhawks How Anaheim got here: Nine games. Nine games are all it took for the California-based team to make it to the Western Conference Finals. A sweep against Winnipeg in the first round followed by a 4–1 series win against Calgary in the second. Star forward Corey Perry leads the postseason with 15 points, and his linemate, center Ryan Getzlaf (12), isn’t too far behind. Getzlaf and Perry were offensive juggernauts against Calgary, combining for 16 points over the five games.

How Chicago got here: Chicago had a sweep of its own—beating the Minnesota Wild 4–0—and, for the fifth time in seven seasons, the Chicago Blackhawks are back in the Western Conference finals. The Blackhawks have been absolutely dominant since 2008-2009, setting up what I would be so bold as to call a modern day dynasty. Statisticians back me up—since 2009, the Blackhawks have posted up the most points (700) in the NHL regular season, as well as the most goals per game (3.09). Whether it’s on general manager Stan Bowman, coach Joel Quenneville, or the elite duo of Kane and Toews, the Blackhawks find themselves in a familiar spot: The Western Conference Finals.

How they match up: In the regular season, the Blackhawks won two out of their three games against the Ducks. The Ducks, who more or less breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs, now find themselves facing an elite opponent.

Will Getzlaf and Perry be able to outshine Toews and Kane? Fan predictions say no, with 67 percent of fans predicting that Blackhawks will take this one.

Eastern Conference Final: New York Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning How New York got here: Henrik Lundqvist.

Which is synonymous with becoming the first ever NHL team to come back from 3–1 series deficits in back-to-back years. Henrik Lundqvist means you’re grinding out wins in big games since 2012, evidenced by the fact that the Rangers have been 14–3 in games where they face elimination over the past three seasons. New York could not have done any of this without Lundqvist, who’s earned his nickname of “The King.” Appropriately, Lundqvist set an NHL record with a sixth straight Game 7 win against the Capitals, a stretch in which the star goalie has put up a .973 save percentage alongside a 0.81 goals against average (GAA). The Rangers are playing close games, setting a record for 14 straight one-goal playoff games.

How Tampa Bay got here: The scary, all-sophomore line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov has scored 17 of the 34 Lightning goals. More so, Tyler Johnson leads the playoffs with eight goals. Nikita Kucherov, only 21-yearsyoung, scored six goals in the second round against the Montreal Canadiens. Now, let’s not forget about Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos, who is finally heating up and coming back to form with seven points in his last five games, after mightily struggling in the first round. Tampa goalie Ben Bishop, in his first postseason run, has done his part with a .931 save percentage and 1.81 GAA. How they match up: After a captain-swapping mega trade last season, New York rightwing (RW) Martin St. Louis and Tampa Bay RW Ryan Callahan have set the stage for an emotional, dramatic series. Add the fact that former Rangers Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle have chosen to sign with Tampa this past summer, throw in that current Ranger defenseman Dan Boyle won a cup with Tampa in 2004, and we have ourselves a recipe for a thrilling series. Tampa Bay beat the Rangers 3–0 in the regular season, but all three games were played in a 15-day span early in the season.

A Tampa Bay team with seemingly endless offensive weapons versus a well balanced, but fast, New York Rangers team that has as solid a back-stopper as you can have in the playoffs in Lundqvist. Either team can take it, but fan predictions are 69 percent in favor of the Rangers.

SPORTS

IN QUOTES “Our latest observations show no Penguin activity currently on ice in Pittsburgh. Where did they go?”

– The @Discover Twitter handle calls out the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL franchise on their elimination from the playoffs

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT

JENNIFER HILL

SWIM & DIVE: HILL’S CAREER FILLED WITH THRILLS

Fourth-year Jennifer Hill swims across the pool at a meet last season.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

Ahmad Allaw Associate Sports Editor On the outside, it’s loud. Coaches line the edges, shouting to inspire. Officials pace the sides, looking for possible infractions. Over 200 athletes fill the space, some preparing for the next event, others relaxing with idle chat. It’s a disordered frenzy.

But in the pool, things are different.

The sound is turned to mute and the hec-

tic scene reduced to a steady rhythm: One arm extends forward as the other pulls back.

Occasionally, the head turns and a breath is drawn. And with full lungs, the sequence repeats.

The swimmer, now, can see the finish.

To her right and left, however, she can also sense her competition. For the last few strokes, she pushes hard and extends her arms. Her fingers reach the pad. Chicago fourth-year Jennifer Hill finishes first.

Hill has had no shortage of athletic success during her four years at Chicago. In the 2013–14 season, she set the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.23), the 200-yard IM (2:05.76), the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:35.10), the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:27.17), the 200-yard medley relay (1:44.71) and the 400-yard medley relay (3:48.73). That year, she also qualified in the 200-yard IM, 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay.

She has had similar success this season, receiving Honorable Mention All-American honors in the 200-yard IM, 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay, and All-American in the 400-yard medley relay (8th, 3:51.10).

Certainly, with such success, Hill must have started swimming from a young age.

The opposite, however, is true. As she recalls, “I started swimming on a summer league team at age nine. Joining the team that summer was kind of a fluke–the summer camp counselors had to encourage me to give it a try.”

But once she started, she couldn’t stop. In swimming, she found a beautiful blend of sport, friendship, and opportunity. “Fourteen years of competitive swimming later, I’m so thankful that those counselors pointed me in the right direction. I fell in love with the sport, especially since I quickly realized that swim meets were a prime opportunity to socialize with my friends.”

That never stopped when she came to the South Side. If anything, in fact, the sport she loved kept on giving. “Eventually, swimming brought me to UChicago, where it has proved to be a fundamental part of

my college experience. Athletics at UChicago helped me become a more determined, passionate, and selfless person,” Hill said.

“When it comes down to it, college swimming is about cultivating relationships with your teammates while working to improve yourself as a person. It has been a wonderful experience that I will always be thankful for.”

Yet Hill’s impact on the team has been just as strong as swimming’s impact has been on her. Over the past two years, as the team’s co-captain, she has inspired the swimmers, encouraged the younger athletes, and led the team veterans. Hill, though, only thanks her teammates. Even though she will be leaving Chicago at the end of this quarter, memories of her team and friends will never go.

As she says, “Most of all, I’m going to treasure the memories I made with the people I met on the team, in the housing system, in the classroom, and in the community. My favorite memories include the times when my roommates came to cheer for me at swim meets and when my swim teammates came to watch me perform in the orchestra. I will remember all the support I received from my friends and how they helped me grow.”

In the near future, Hill, who has also been an outstanding student, will be working for AmeriCorps as a health educator for the Chicago Health Corps branch. In the meantime, she will be applying to medical school, looking to continue with her spirit of providing and care.

She leaves her peers with a few words of wisdom: “Always keep the bigger picture in mind, and never give up, even when the odds are not in your favor.”

Maroons finish third in UAA, end season at regionals Women’s Tennis

Harry Brownfield Maroon Staff The Maroons fell just short of reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III National Championship this past Sunday in the third round. Although the Maroons were defeated by No. 5 Carnegie Mellon in a match that would have sent them to the Elite Eight, they were able to go home proud of what they accomplished this year.

The South Siders faced a difficult schedule this year. The team played against nationally ranked opponents 12 times this spring. This includes eight games in which they faced teams ranked in the top 15. Additionally, the South Siders needed to travel to nearly all of their games, only playing three matches at home all year. That said, Chicago finished the season with a winning record (13–12).

In the postseason, the Maroons kicked things off with the UAA Championship, which they entered as the fourth seed. The South Siders won their first match and then lost to defending National Champion Emory and heated rival Wash U. All in all, the Maroons were able to take home third at the UAA Championships. However, the main reason for that loss against Wash U may have been first-year Ariana Iranpour’s injury.

Iranpour was injured in her doubles match, forcing her to retire. She did not return for

the rest of the season, a devastating blow to a team that had relied so heavily on the young star.

After the match, coach Jay Tee said, “We’ve come a long way since the season started, and we hope to get a chance to prove ourselves in the NCAA Tournament.”

Two weeks later, Chicago reached the regional level of the National Championship for the seventh year in a row. The No. 15 Maroons hosted the regional round and received a first-round bye. The South Siders opened up play by soundly defeating Augustana 5–0.

While the Maroons fought valiantly, they fell for the second year in a row to Carnegie Mellon in the third round, ending their championship run. Part of this was due to injuries, as Iranpour and her fellow first-year, Courtney Warren, were unable to play.

With the season now finished, Chicago will graduate three seniors: Megan Tang, Kelsey McGillis, and Maggie Schumann. All three of these women have earned All-American honors in their time with the Maroons and have been a big part of the team’s success over the past four years. It will be difficult for the South Siders to fill these gaps next year, but the team is confident that the unity of its players will see it through the transition.

First-year Jasmine Lee said, “We got very close as a team this year. It was noticeable how much better we played when the team held

First-year Jasmine Lee prepares to return a ball during a practice game this season.

COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

together, even when we had tough days. I’m really proud to be a member of this team.”

With a strong team atmosphere and obvious young talent, the Maroons should have

no trouble carrying on their history of success next year. As a group of women best characterized by their hard work, the team will certainly enter the next year fit and eager.