FRIDAY • MAY 22, 2015
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 49 • VOLUME 126
Early spring sunrise over 57th and Woodlawn illuminates the Hyde Park skyline. STEPHEN MORELAND | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Ex-UCPD officer sues Univ. over Sexual Assault Awareness Week: firing after 2013 trauma protests A discussion on Title IX rights Isaac Stein Senior News Writer Tuesday, Milton Owens, a former University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officer, filed a civil lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County against the University of Chicago, University President Robert J. Zimmer, UCPD Chief Marlon C. Lynch, Assistant Chief Gloria Graham, and Deputy Chief Kevin Booker. The suit alleges that Owens was improperly fired, deprived of wages, and defamed following an incident in February 2013 when the UCPD authorized three plainclothes UCPD detectives to monitor an on-campus protest. On February 23, 2013, the activist groups Students for Health Equity (SHE) and Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) organized an on-campus protest to demand that the University build an adult Level I trauma center at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC). On March 1, The maroon reported that then–UCPD detective Janelle
Marcellis had participated in the protest and marched with the protesters in plain clothes, and, according to several of the protesters, did not identify herself as a police officer. The maroon also obtained a photo that showed Marcellis sending a text message to Owens, who was her immediate superior and supervisor during the protest. At the time, Owens was the deputy chief of the Investigative Services Bureau of the UCPD. On March 3, Zimmer sent an e-mail to all students and faculty titled “Values and Protest,” in which he condemned “[Marcellis’s] posing as a protester… [to be] totally antithetical to our values, and such activity, which is deeply problematic for discourse and mutual respect on campus, cannot be tolerated.” Following Zimmer’s statement, the University hired Schiff Hardin, a Chicagobased law firm, to conduct an independent investigation of UCPD conduct. On May 9, Schiff Hardin released its report, which concluded that neither the UCPD nor Marcellis
nor Owens had committed any illegality. However, the report stated that Owens alone was responsible for misinterpreting the term plainclothes, which, while agreed upon by UCPD staff as part of its orders to Marcellis, did not imply participating in the protest. The report continued to cite an order from Owens to Marcellis to “blend in and get intel” as evidence that Owens alone had come up with the idea and given the order for Marcellis to pose as a protester. “[Owens], who gave the instruction to ‘blend in and get intel’ was a party to at least two of the planning meetings wherein the details of the UCPD’s response to the protest were discussed. He was, therefore, aware of and responsible for knowing the true intent of the plan…. It was, therefore, unreasonable for the commanding officer to issue a counter-order to [Marcellis] to ‘blend in and get intel,’” the report wrote in part. After the report was issued, the UCPD fired Owens; the lawsuit claims that this occurred on May 20. According UCPD continued on page 2
Cairo Lewis News Staff In Stuart Hall on Tuesday, the University of Chicago’s Know Your IX organization presented an in-depth discussion about the law to prevent sex-based discrimination as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week. Dana Bolger, the
founding co-director of Know Your IX, and Olivia Ortiz, a UChicago student, Title IX complainant against the University, and campaign coordinator at Know Your IX, led the discussion. Know Your IX, the organization associated with both speakers, is a national student campaign founded in 2013.
The organization, which is led by victims of sexual assault, seeks to educate students about sexual violence and harassment and to comfort those who have been affected. Know your IX also encourages legislative enforcement on the national level in order to establish equality and safety for students SAAW continued on page 2
UChicago Chess Club teaches local kids how to checkmate Isaac Easton Associate News Editor Members of the UChicago Chess Club are making moves to help local kids learn the art of the game. Since January, they have been spending their Friday afternoons at Andrew Carnegie Elementary School (ACES) at East 61st Street and South Dorchester Avenue, supplementing an already existing chess curriculum by training students for tournaments.
Sharan Subramanian, firstyear in the College and Chess Club member, has been the impetus behind this program. The University students who run the after-school program at ACES train younger students to play competitively. The goal of the program is to provide instruction beyond the standard chess curriculum initiated by organizations like First Move. Subramanian’s curriculum deals heavily with what are known as chess fundamentals.
These are the ideas and concepts that students of the game need to understand before they can compete in tournaments. “We started from the very fundamentals—you know, how the pieces move, what they’re worth…now we’ve scaled up to what is called chess notation, because our goal is to prep these kids to go to their first tournament,” he said. This instruction is delivered to second-, third-, and fourthCHESS continued on page 2
UChicago alum’s start-up Reliefwatch Study shows bilingual children are wins $50,000 in international competition better communicators Wendy Lee News Staff Former UChicago undergraduate Daniel Yu, Class of 2015, has won $50,000 for his start-up Reliefwatch at the 1776 Challenge Cup Festival, an international start-up competition. The Chicago-based company beat out more than
25 teams, and was selected as one of three Challenge Cup Global Winners from a pool of nine finalists. Reliefwatch is an inventory management platform that helps multinational nongovernmental organizations operate health clinics in developing countries. By using basic mobile phone technol-
ogy, Reliefwatch assists clinics in tracking supplies and managing inventory records, essentially enabling real-time communication between clinics and medical suppliers without the need for Internet access. The company has been gaining significant global attention for its activity in clinRELIEF continued on page 2
Tamar Honig News Staff A new study from the University of Chicago Department of Psychology has found that children exposed to multiple languages at home become better communicators, due to an enhanced ability to take other perspectives and interpret a
speaker’s intended meaning. “There are many cognitive and social advantages to being bilingual,” said Boaz Keysar, professor of psychology, expert on communication and cognition, and co-author of the study. “But our study shows a great advantage to just being exposed to another language.” The study involved 72 chil-
dren between the ages of four and six divided into three groups, each based on a particular language background: monolinguals, those who heard and spoke only English; exposures, those who primarily heard and spoke English, but had some regular exposure to another language; and bilinBILINGUAL continued on page 2
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Editorial: UChicagoGRAD program provides necessary resources » Page 3
University Theater brings comedy center stage » Page 5
Men’s tennis takes fourth place in NCAA tournament » Backpage
CC rep responds to allegations of unfair budget cuts » Page 3
Look out for Organization of Black Students’ Blackout » Page 5
Senior Spotlight: Kyle Engel’s impact extends beyond the diamond » Page 7
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 22, 2015
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“Even though we have rights, it’s hard to get our rights enforced in a timely manner” SAAW continued from front
across all college campuses. Bolger and Ortiz first led a lecture-based discussion of Title IX rights. Title IX, passed in 1972, ensures equity in all aspects of education and protects sexual assault victims of all and no genders while at the same time respecting their right to an education. According to the law, any sexual assault case should be resolved within 60 days of the report being filed, but Bolger claimed that this is often not the case at universities, including the University of Chicago. Then they focused the talk on the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigation of the University for Title IX violations. They discussed whether or not there have been changes in the University’s current policy and what effect these changes will have on students, faculty, and staff. The University of Chicago was first investigated in June 2013, and then placed under a compliance review for violating Title IX rights in January 2014. If the University is found in violation, federal funding could be rescinded. So far the OCR, which enforces Title IX, is reviewing policies, staff, and individual cases. Ortiz spoke about the lack of efficiency and specificity of sexual assault investigations at
the University. “The complaint process has traditionally been focused on the institution as a whole, not individual survivors, and that really hurts survivors,” she said. Provost Eric Isaacs has since convened committees to draft new policies this academic year. Jeremy Inabinet, who was recently named associate dean of students in the University for disciplinary affairs, investigates complaints that students have made to members of the Administration. University spokesperson Marielle Sainvilus said that the University has also changed its sexual assault policies to increase efficiency and prevention when handling cases. “As part of an ongoing commitment to address issues of sexual misconduct, last July the University made significant changes to policy and approach on these important issues. These changes included merging and revising two existing policies addressing sexual misconduct and unlawful discrimination and joining them into a single Unlawful Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct Policy,” Sainvilus wrote in an e-mail. The speakers stressed survivors’ rights under the Title IX statute to reasonable accommodations and services, which include counseling, tutoring, housing and course accommodations, and health services.
They also noted that survivors have the right to access these services for free. She also said that the OCR should be more timely and transparent with its approach to sexual assault cases. “Even though we have rights, it’s hard to get our rights enforced in a timely manner,” Ortiz said. In terms of transparency, she said that the University should work toward publicizing the availability of court-restrained orders and ensuring that survivors are allowed to discuss the outcomes of their complaints. Before beginning the discussion, Student Government’s current Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees (and Vice President–elect) Alex Jung announced that the Student Government Finance Committee allocated $10,000 to Know Your IX this year, and will allocate the same amount of money next year. In addition to this meeting, SG is hosting a resource and volunteer opportunity fair in Hutchinson Courtyard, which is next to the UChicago Clothesline’s installation with Rape Victim Advocates, YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, and UChicago organizations including Phoenix Survivors Alliance, Resources for Sexual Violence Prevention, and Student Counseling, along with other events this week.
Owens was fired for instructing UCPD officers to ‘blend in and get intel’ UCPD continued from front
to Alexander Vroustouris, his attorney, Owens is currently employed in security at the City Colleges of Chicago. Marcellis is still employed by the UCPD as a sergeant. Vroustouris, an attorney with the Chicago-based firm Kelly & King who is representing Owens, recounts a different version of events than the Schiff Hardin report. He said that the University and the UCPD made Owens a “scapegoat” only when their plans to monitor the protest with an officer in plain clothes were exposed. He characterized Owens as an innocent officer who was compelled to go along with the UCPD plan to police the February 23 protest, which the lawsuit alleges was actually engineered by Deputy Chief Booker. “They basically scapegoated my client and threw him under the bus. It is outrageous, especially because he is the least responsible person [in these events],” Vroustouris said. According to sections 72 through 107 of the lawsuit, Lynch, Graham, Booker, and Owens were present for a UCPD staff meeting on February 18, when Booker made a PowerPoint presentation that outlined the UCPD plan for handling the February 23 protest. Allegedly, the plan called
for the deployment of three plainclothes detectives. According to the suit, the other detectives were Carlton Hughes and a second officer with the last name of James. Hughes is still employed by the UCPD as a detective and The maroon was not able to determine the employment status of James. Section 86 of the lawsuit states that at the meeting, Owens argued against sending the detectives in plain clothes in the first place. “During this power point presentation by Booker, Owens stated that he thought the detectives under his command, Marcellis, Hughes, and James, should be in uniform and they should only act in a processing capacity,” the suit stated. Vroustouris added his belief that the entirety of the UCPD was aware of what Marcellis and Owens were instructed to do. “[UCPD Chief ] Lynch and [Deputy Chief ] Graham said that Owens was in charge of operations on the street, while Booker was in charge of the plan. [Owens] was told to follow the plan that was authored by Booker and authorized by the Chief. Also, [Zimmer] ought to have known about the UCPD plan,” Vroustouris said. He also objected to the fact that Schiff Hardin conducted the external investigation of the
UCPD conduct after the protest, which he said is not permissible under UCPD bylaws. “Although [Schiff Hardin] was hired by the University, there is nothing in the general orders of the UCPD that allows them to outsource investigations of individual members of the UCPD to another agency,” Vroustouris said. In response to a query as to why Owens filed a lawsuit this week as opposed to immediately after his firing in 2013, Vroustouris said that Owens has had difficulty securing employment and suffered emotional distress after his firing. He also responded to a claim in an article that appeared in the Chicago SunTimes on Thursday that stated that Owens was seeking more than $250,000 in damages. “It is not greater than $250,000; we are not asking for a specific amount at this time, although it is greater than $50,000. We want to assess [the impact of ] my client’s lost wages, lost ability to find gainful employment, lost ability to find employment in the law enforcement field, and emotional distress.” The University of Chicago declined to comment for this story. UCPD spokesperson Robert Mason, UCPD Chief Marlon C. Lynch, and Schiff Hardin LLP could not be reached for comment.
“I really enjoy imparting the thinking skills that I’ve gained...that have really helped me in life” CHESS continued from front
graders in a way that combines lecture and interactive game play. This format encourages kids to appreciate the theory behind chess while learning how to play the game. “[The students] will have partners, they’ll set up their chess board, but we actually have a large demo board at the front. And the demo board is actually how we teach what we want, and we do our best to involve them…. If we’ve taught them a particular move sequence, we say, ‘Why don’t you guys try that on your own,’ or if we’ve taught them chess notation, we’ll say, ‘Why don’t you play them while notating….’ Or we’ll teach them some first few moves so that they’ll start their games out in the right way.” This all started in the summer of 2014, when Subramanian founded Invest in Chess, a chess advocacy network geared toward popularizing the game among children and teenagers. When he came to college, Subramanian decided he wanted to
Members of UChicago’s Chess Club teach students at Andrew Carnegie Elementary School (ACES) the art of the game and critical thinking skills training them to play competitively. COURTESY OF SHARAN SUBRAMANIAN
help a local school and went to the Neighborhood Schools Program (NSP) to ask about what he could do. It was the NSP that directed him to ACES. The critical thinking skills that he has gained are a driving force behind his desire to impart knowledge of the game to others. He values the role that chess has played in his own education and wants to share its benefits
with others. “I really enjoy imparting the thinking skills that I’ve gained since I picked up the game in middle school…that have really helped me in my life,” he said. The principal students involved in this project are firstyears Subramanian, Darcy Linde, Joe Fennessey, and Yuta Kakutani, and fourth-year Ryan Murphy.
“[It’s] about being raised in an environment where multiple languages are spoken” BILINGUAL continued from front
guals, those who were exposed to two languages and could speak and understand both. Participating children sat on one side of a table across from an adult to play a communication game that required moving objects in a grid. The child could see all of the objects, but the adult could not. The children first played the game from the adult’s side to ensure they understood the adult’s partially obstructed vision. During the test, the adult would ask the child to move an object in the grid. If the child were asked to move the small car, for instance, the child would have to take into account that while he or she could see three cars of small, medium, and large sizes, the adult could only see two: the medium and the large ones. To correctly interpret the adult’s intended meaning, the child would have to move the medium car. “In our game we created a situation in which the literal
content of someone’s communication differed from that person’s intended meaning,” said Katherine Kinzler, associate professor of psychology, expert on language and social development, and another co-author of the study. “If the child were just listening to the literal content, he or she would pick the smallest car without thinking about what the other person sees and knows.” The monolingual children moved the correct object about 50 percent of the time, whereas children in the exposure group chose correctly 76 percent of the time, and in the bilingual group, 77 percent of the time. “I think the most exciting finding is that kids with exposure to more than one language—even if they are not bilinguals themselves—show the same benefits as the bilingual kids,” said Kinzler. “This seems to be a phenomenon that is not about being bilingual per se, but rather about being raised in an environment where multiple languages are spoken.”
Keysar used the example of his wife, who speaks only English but grew up surrounded by Korean, to illustrate the study’s results. “Though she didn’t learn the language, she got intensive training in perspective taking,” he explained. “She constantly had to keep track of who knows what language and who can understand whom, even though she could not understand what they were saying. We discovered that this kind of exposure provides the child with an essential communication tool—children that had such exposure were much better at taking the perspective of another person in our study than children without such multi-language exposure.” Co-author of the study Zoe Liberman, a doctoral student in psychology, is in the process of spearheading an effort to test this study’s hypothesis with infants, to determine whether the advantages of multilingual exposure emerge even earlier in life.
Reliefwatch manages inventory for multinational health-care NGOs RELIEF continued from front
ics in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Liberia. Twenty-one-year-old Yu spent two years at the University majoring in Near Eastern languages and civilizations before leaving in 2013 to focus on the company full-time. Yu created the company in 2012 after spending a summer studying abroad in rural Egypt. While he does not see
himself returning to the University in the near future, Yu has said that his company will always have its roots in Chicago. Yu has received numerous accolades for his company. In 2013, Reliefwatch took second place at the Social New Venture Challenge. The organization was named a “Chicago Inno Startup to Watch” last December. In February,
Yu won the prestigious Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneurs Prize in London, beating out over 800 entrepreneurs from 88 countries. Reliefwatch plans to expand service to 10 new organizations this year. Following the Nepal earthquake, Reliefwatch partnered with the relief organization Samaritan’s Purse to distribute 60 tons of aid to 15,000 families.
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed MAY 22, 2015
It’s hard out here for an academic UChicagoGRAD program provides students with practical resources that they can use to find jobs in a competitive market This Wednesday, the University announced UChicagoGRAD, a new program to make career-related resources more available and streamlined for graduate students. In addition to honing academic writing and teaching skills, the program will also concentrate on helping graduate students develop professional skills for careers outside of academia. Given the competitive job market in academia, this is a welcome development for graduate students who will be exposed to more options for their post-graduation plans. Graduate students now face extreme difficulties in finding jobs in academia. This problem is particularly acute in the humanities. In 2013, just 54 percent of humanities Ph.D. students nationwide had found academic jobs or postdoctoral fellowships by graduation. In many fields, the number of open faculty
positions has plummeted. For example, in 2001, more than 1,800 jobs were open for new English Ph.D. graduates; in 2013, there were only 1,000. Furthermore, now 76 percent of academic jobs are part-time or adjunct. This reflects a broader problem in academia, stemming from a mismatch in the supply of and demand for tenure-track positions. The number of Ph.D.s accepted each year is far higher than the number of tenure-track job openings. What results is the ability of universities to hire postgraduate students on the cheap as research or lab assistants, with little possibility of advancement. In such a difficult job market, it is crucial that the University provide graduate students with the best possible resources as they begin their job search. The new UChicagoGRAD program will help do this. It is also noteworthy that the program will
aid graduate students looking for non-academic jobs in nonprofits, the government, and the corporate world. This broad focus will ensure that all graduate students are able to find support, regardless of their career goals and aspirations, and will complement the efforts of individual departments to do more to aid these students. In addition, the resources offered through UChicagoGRAD will benefit undergraduates as well as graduate students. UChicagoGRAD will expand the pedagogical support offered to graduate students through the Chicago Center for Teaching (CCT). The CCT provides training, consultations, and feedback to graduate students teaching courses for the first time. Many grad students must fulfill a teaching requirement, and most students in the College will have a graduate student as
No justifiCATion SG decreased CAT funding based on estimations and impressions—not facts
Maya Handa
Too much in the sun Student Government recently passed its budget for next year, approving increases for the Graduate Student Council and club sports teams at the expense of (primarily) the Uncommon Fund and the Coalition of Academic Teams (CAT). Given that the budget increased by $80,000 since last year, and that the cuts from the CAT have been strongly criticized by its representatives, it is important to examine the
system under which these decisions were made. How were these cuts and increases justified? A review of the minutes from the May 11 Student Government assembly meeting shows that the $20,000 cut from the CAT (a group of five academic teams including Model UN and Mock Trial that compete across the U.S.) was debated in terms of precedent and fairness, rather than necessity
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of the items within the CAT’s budget. In fact, the rhetoric of the decision seemed to focus on impressions and estimations, rather than actual numbers. One representative, for example, claimed that because the CAT is already one of the largest line items in Student Government’s budget, its funding shouldn’t be increased. Another representative disagreed, saying that Student Government should increase the CAT’s budget because of a precedent that supports budget increases. One student worried that it might seem “vindictive” to cut too much from the CAT. Only one representative brought up the CAT’s approximate fundraising revenue. It’s unsurprising, then, that the seemingly arbitrary decision has met with backlash from CAT representatives, who claim that the cut will prevent them from being able to fund all travel expenses and thus fulfill their no-barriers pledge, which allows low-income students (and, in fact, all students) to participate in competitions without cost. At no point during the Student Government assembly’s discussion did anyone bring up the CAT’s no-barriers policy, or consider how the cuts might affect those organizations’ accessibility to low-income students. But why? It’s possible that the assembly didn’t know about CAT’s policy—or any specifics about CAT’s budget breakdown. Sports clubs collect dues to cover some costs, so it’s likely that a similar compromise could have been made with CAT members had information about no-barriers been available at the meeting. But it wasn’t. And every year that Student Government doesn’t implement an internal auditing system with respect to line items in its budget like the CAT, sports clubs, the community service fund, and the Program Coordinating Council (which funds Summer Breeze and other major events) is anBUDGET continued on page 4
ALICE XIAO
an instructor at least once—often in Hum and Sosc courses. Making more teaching support available to graduate students can only improve undergraduates’ experiences in these courses. When conditions are so difficult
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THE CHICAGO MAROON
for graduate students trying to begin their careers, the University has a duty to increase its support. UChicagoGRAD provides more resources for the students who need them most. —The Maroon Editorial Board
Letter: College Council rep responds to CAT In a Viewpoints article published in last Tuesday’s issue of The Maroon, “CAT’s Out of the Bag” (5/19/15), Cortney McInerney addressed the Student Government Assembly’s decision to decrease the budget for the Coalition of Academic Teams (CAT) by $20,000 next year. While debate over the budget decisions is always welcome, the facts and positions presented in McInerney’s piece were at best misinformed and at worst dishonest; I wish to present some clarifications and objections. As a fourth-year College Council representative, I am proud to say that Student Government will be supporting the Coalition of Academic Teams to the tune of $200,000 for the 2015– 16 academic year. This line item represents approximately 9.2 percent of the overall Student Government budget next year; to put this amount into perspective, the five members of CAT will split an amount equivalent to approximately 27 percent of the combined budgets for the Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC) and Annual Allocations (AnnAl) which serve the vast majority of the more than 300 other RSOs on campus. Over the past five years, the budget of CAT has ballooned from $157,000 for the 2010–11 academic year to $220,000 for the 2014–15 academic year. The CAT budgets for the past five years are as follows: $157,000 for 2010–11, $171,000 for 2011–12, $180,000 for 2012–13, $190,000 for 2013–14, and $220,000 for 2014–15. The 2014–15 budget came after an unprecedented increase of $30,000 from the 2013–14 budget of $190,000. The recent changes made to CAT’s budget for next year, then, are not really cuts so much as a return to a previous quota. In the article, McInerney cites an estimated figure of $75,000 as evidence for significant fundraising efforts on the part of CAT teams. However, this figure is both unsubstantiated and potentially highly inflated. As I noted last
Wednesday in the College Council meeting, a large portion of the fundraising figures comes from $62,000 from registration fees for Model UN’s college conference. This number is actually misleading as it only represents revenue and does not include costs. According to a Model UN representative at the meeting, after costs the conference generated just $3,200 in profit. Hence, the true amount of fundraising is but a fraction of what was reported. Additionally, McInerney attributes the Assembly’s decision over CAT’s budget partly to a political calculus that weighed the potential backlash from various campus groups on the one hand and the necessity for cuts on the other. This is a fairly dishonest portrayal of the Assembly’s deliberative process. We encountered no lobbying threats from the Program Coordinating Council (PCC) or any other organizations on campus, and the decision to cut the Uncommon Fund was simply because that money was not being used. In reality, the Assembly debated— for more than an hour in a public meeting—the costs and benefits from increases or decreases to the various line items in the proposed budget. This included a vigorous debate over the usage of funds allocated toward the New York Times readership program, the SG administrative budget, Student Organization Support, and the PCC. The Assembly ultimately decided that we could stand to bring CAT’s budget back from the unprecedented $30,000 increase it enjoyed last year in order to move the needle toward more equitable funding for graduate students. McInerney also claims that lowincome students must necessarily bear the brunt of the budget decreases, but this portrayal raises the question of what factors are forcing CAT leaders to shift this burden primarily onto its lower-income members. Is it unreasonable to ask CAT members to cut CAT continued on page 4
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 22, 2015
“...every year that Student Government doesn’t implement an internal auditing system... is another year in which the budgets for these organizations will be set seemingly arbitrarily, with little regard to how and who they affect.” BUDGET continued from page 3
other year in which the budgets for these organizations will be set seemingly arbitrarily, with little regard to how and who they affect. However, an internal auditing system would require Student Government to do huge amounts of research and coordination. It would be difficult, especially because SG executive slates are usually only in office for one year, and therefore have no reason to even think about setting up a system that will only help their successors. (To his credit, SG President Tyler Kissinger did bring up the possibility of organizational audits during the budget meeting). However, there is another option: zero-based budgeting, which would require each organization or department to justify its proposed budget every year. If Stu-
dent Government had required CAT representatives to make a case for the budget increase, it could have prioritized funds for the no-barriers policy and kept the most important parts of their budget safe. Zero-based budgeting makes it easy to find line items to trim, by ensuring that money is only allocated to organizations or movements that have passionate leaders who can justify their funding with plans for the future and clear ideas about what to prioritize. Student Government allocates more than $2 million of student funds each year to different student organizations. It’s time students were given the responsibility of justifying the allocation of those funds. Maya Handa is a third-year in the College majoring in public policy.
“The recent changes made to CAT’s budget [are] a return to a previous quota.” CAT continued from page 3
down on expenses or to ask its hundreds of student members to spend an hour or two selling doughnuts or networking with alumni in order to make participation more accessible to more people? Furthermore, it begs the question of what has happened over the past two years that a $10,000 increase from the 2013–14 budget would represent such an existential threat. Most importantly, while McInerney’s piece implies that the decision over CAT’s budget was made without consideration of low-income students, precisely the opposite is true. Not all students in this University are able to enjoy the same privileges that members of CAT have. For example, unlike CAT members whose travel is almost entirely free, graduate students are only allowed subsidized travel from SG once every six years for conducting or presenting research, and other RSOs are only allowed to receive at most $200 or half of their travel budget, depending on which of the two is less—the rest of the costs must be entirely fundraised by the RSO mem-
bers themselves. The funds being subtracted from the CAT and Uncommon Fund budgets for the next academic year will then actually go toward helping lower-income students as these funds will be moved toward SGFC, AnnAl, the Graduate Council, and the Graduate Student Travel Fund. Whether we should privilege competitive academic teams in our funding decisions and whether students should have broader access to these teams in particular are both debates that I am excited to be taking part in. This past Wednesday, College Council passed a resolution stating our commitment to discussing CAT’s budget and possibly reversing the decision that was made; I am more than willing to change my vote if good and honest reasons can be provided during the course of a spirited debate. However, such a debate can only occur when the parties engage each other with openness and honesty, and without misinformation. —Kay Li, Class of 2015
We have a football team? Revisiting a long forgotten athletic past of UChicago
Ryan Manzuk
Rocks for jocks Every spring, UChicago’s male varsity athletes come together for the Order of the C awards banquet, one of my favorite events of the year. We celebrate the year’s athletic achievements, recognize departing seniors, and welcome first-time letter winners into the oldest body of varsity lettermen in collegiate sports, a group that dates back to 1904. However, our long-standing athletic tradition has been turned into a paradigm of our school’s removal of the “unnecessary” in favor of more academic pursuits. Most of us have heard about how UChicago was one of the founding members of the Big 10 Conference and home of Jay Berwanger, the first-ever Heisman Trophy winner. Our shortlived era of athletic triumph was ended by University President Robert Maynard Hutchins, who abolished the entire athletic department because “football, fraternities, and fun are designed to make a college education more palatable for those who shouldn’t be there.” This reprioritization of the school was symbolized in the subsequent demolition of the original Stagg Field and the erection of Regenstein Library. This is the story of UChicago athletics that has been broadly popularized: one in which the pursuit of genuine intellect has replaced the superfluous distraction offered by athletics, resulting in, “We have a football team?” being the most common question heard during Homecoming weekend. It looks like our storied athletic heritage was torn down back in 1939—but our campus is still filled with reminders of the sporting culture that once epitomized UChicago. A typical walk past Cobb Hall usually includes sales pitches from fundraising RSOs and the occasional lungful of secondhand smoke. Hidden behind all the bustle of our campus agora sits the C-Bench, rarely even given a second glance. Back
Left: Henry Crown Field House in 1932; Right: Bartlett Gymnasium in 1904 COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY
in the heyday of UChicago athletics, the crowd was very different, and the C-Bench was a place of prominence. This was where UChicago athletes used to hang out. In fact, the C-Bench “was for the exclusive use of athletic lettermen (and the girls that they were kissing).” A space that is so frequently passed by without notice today was once the meeting place for some of the best and brightest athletes in the world. Similarly, the Reynolds Club seal had a slightly different tradition than the one known today. Instead of a fake curse that prevents graduating in four years, a step on the seal was given a very real and immediate punishment. If you were caught in such an act by an upperclassman athlete, you could expect to be promptly carried over to Botany Pond and thrown in—the seal was fairly free of footprints during that time. It probably comes as no surprise that Bartlett
was once a gymnasium, but if you look back in our University’s photo archives, the place it once was is really brought back to life. This was a multi-functional athletic facility for everything from baseball to gymnastics. The Kosher station was once a batting cage, and the salad bar was a pommel horse. Henry Crown Field House didn’t always look the way it does now, either. It was actually built because the then–baseball coach wanted an indoor facility to practice where fly balls couldn’t hit the ceiling. So, instead of a two-story, somewhat partitioned building, Crown was built, a single open space with a dirt infield and a dirt track surrounding it. This was the site of baseball and football practice, along with major competitions like the Big 10 Indoor Track and Field Championships. A wooden floor was placed on top of the dirt for basketball games and practices. Given all these relics of UChicago’s once-thriv-
ing athletic culture, it’s really a wonder our sporting history is so easily forgotten. Current campus culture’s disregard for our present-day athletic teams is certainly disappointing, but it’s not a major problem; we compete because we love our sports and teams, not for campus notoriety. What’s more disappointing is the failure to recognize our rich athletic heritage, especially given all of the elements of this athletic history that are left on campus. In the decades following our University’s founding, athletics pervaded campus life. And so, the deep impact that sports made on UChicago during its infancy shouldn’t be forgotten just because the football stadium was replaced by a library. The stories of the spectacular athletes that helped our University make a name for itself shouldn’t be lost in the rubble of the original Stagg Field. Ryan Manzuk is a third-year in the College majoring in geophysical sciences.
ARTS
What is art? MAY 22, 2015
Organization of Black UT brings comedy center stage Students presents: Blackout Grace Hauck Associate Arts Editor
Shoshanna Coalson Arts Contributor This coming Saturday, the Organization of Black Students (OBS) will present Blackout, its most ambitious cultural show to date. The night will include food provided by The Banana Leaf, a restaurant that specializes in Caribbean food. The show itself will include a variety of black performers in a celebration of black students on campus and their talent. Kendall Elue, the cultural-show chair of OBS, emphasized that the entertainment offerings at the show will be diverse in nature. “The cultural show will have anything that pertains to black culture or black talent. That can be as simple as a black student who wants to sing a song of their own…or it could be something that’s more traditionally associated with black culture: things like rap, slam poetry, or stepping.” The cultural show will
also feature some already well-recognized talent, such as Kid Wicked (aka Ben Glover), a first-year in the College and wellknown rapper in Hyde Park. His act will include two surprise performers who are also established in their artistic fields. “These two surprise guests should be well known to students,” said Igolo Obi, second-year in the College and OBS social chair. “We won’t reveal who these surprise performers are…. Maybe they rap; maybe they dance; maybe they sing…and they’re pretty famous.” It seems that the only way to find out who these surprise guests are is to show up to the performance. “It’s going to be a great show,” Obi insisted. “You shouldn’t be anywhere else but the cultural show.” OBS offers black students a place to showcase their talents through the cultural show, but its broader goal is to give them an understanding and wel-
coming community of student peers with events like the Heritage Ball and weekly Sunday dinners. “It’s nice to know that there’s somewhere I can go once a week and talk to people who might share my viewpoints or sympathize with my experiences,” Obi said. With a low number of black students at UChicago, it is not surprising that some of these students would seek a community with people who have gone through similar experiences as they have. “It’s important that black students know that there is a collection of black people that they know that they can look up to and ask for help,” Elue said, emphasizing the important community that OBS has nurtured on this campus. Blackout is Saturday, June 23, Logan Center for the Arts. Dinner at 6 p.m. with show at 7 p.m. Tickets available for sale in Reynolds with UCID for $5, online for $6.27, or at the door for $7.
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For the first time in six years, main stage comedy has come to University Theater (UT) with Neil Simon’s Rumors, premiering this weekend. While other performance outlets on campus like Theater[24], Off-Off Campus, Commedia, and New Work Week specialize in comedy, UChicago’s most prominent theater group has traditionally played it serious. “We’re breaking ground on this,” Hearn said. “And I hope it shows that comedies can be done and are something that we ought to do.” Unlike most of the American playwright’s semi-autobiographical, neurotic comedies, Rumors—a product of the ’80s—is Simon’s first farce. The premise: Four couples arrive at the 10thanniversary dinner party for the deputy mayor of New York only to find his wife missing, dinner uncooked, and the deputy himself shot through the ear. Involvement in an attempted suicide would destroy the reputations of hosts and guests alike, so they resort to lies, rumors, and outrageously ridiculous coverup stories. “Instead of the characters really coming into conflict with one another and figuring out something about themselves, the characters more or less find themselves pushed forward by a situation that they have no control in, except to make it worse,” said director Alex Hearn, a second-year in the College. The entire show is an increasingly precarious fabrication. Slowly and painfully, uppercrust socialites enter the scene— women who distinguish their
dresses based on the charity benefit that they wore them to and men who identify themselves based on country-club membership. Deals are struck as the couples recruit their friends in a desperate bid to fool everyone present. The audience freezes in anticipation of hearing what seemingly impromptu explanation will slip out of the characters’ mouths next. “Especially for Neil Simon, his dialogue, even though it’s written in American English—it’s almost like a dialect unto itself,” Hearn said. “The sarcasm that’s written into it—it’s very punchy, very specific. It plays on a lot of archetypes. Trying to find those archetypes without pressing them onto the actors has been an interesting, interesting challenge.” While the man who knows the truth of these mysterious circumstances lies bleeding and unattended in an upstairs bedroom, the guests preoccupy themselves with their own developing ailments—whiplash, back injuries, burnt hands, cigarette addictions, and marital disputes. The entire motley crew readily hits the floor to search for a pair of lost earrings, yet it doesn’t make any attempt to check on the deputy. Although the large, two-floor set—unusual for UT, which typically features abstract and minimalist arrangements—is beautifully crafted, it is astoundingly unremarkable: It’s just a slightly warped version of your everyday living room, and thus a perfect manifestation of the absurd. “One of my favorite aspects about the set is that the walls are sort of skewed outwards,” Hearn said. “So it’s performative—subtly performative—because I
think that farces are just a skewing of our usual life. We’re sort of stretched by our conditions in a way that we don’t really notice but just gets at us over time.” Each and every wood grain on the set’s floor was handpainted over several weeks by dedicated set designer Gabi Mulder, also a second-year in the College. Her detailing is precise and easy to overlook. Those photographs hanging in the living room? They were taken in Stephens Landing, NY, where Rumors is set. Be sure to also watch out for the neat car-headlights effect through the first floor window and the delicate array of domestic props. (During Monday night’s rehearsal, the cast actually broke more props than during all of production combined—all of which had to be replaced. But Hearn was pleased: It meant the actors were highly energized.) “I think it’s really important that this is the first comedy that UT has done in a really long time—to remind people that they should be able to go to the theater and laugh and have fun,” said production manager and second-year Savannah Smith. This incredibly self-aware Gatsby-meets-“Who’s on First?” circus of a production is a farce well executed and well worth the time. By the end of the second act, the guests forsake all control of their situation, which culminates in a jaw-dropping monologue and surprise ending. Attend this weekend and laugh as UT ushers in a new era of comedy on its main stage. May 22 at 7:30 p.m., May 23 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Logan Center Theater East, tickets $6 in advance or $8 at the door.
Raise a glass (of Coke) to Mad Men
UPCOMING DATES
can take one or more undergraduate or grad-
MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 12–1 PM; HM 151
uate courses across campus as a GSAL student to bridge your undergraduate experience to a graduate or professional degree program.
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
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) finds his inner peace—or something like it. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMC
Adam Thorp Senior News Writer
RSVP to gsalinfo@uchicago.edu Please indicate which session you would like to attend. Pizza and soft drinks will be served.
Don Draper, the enigmatic ad man at the center of the AMC television show Mad Men, seems to have somehow resolved his seven-season crisis as the show reaches its final episode at the dawn of the ’70s. His shirt is crisp and white. Waves break
behind him. He sits in lotus position, om-ing along in a guided meditation at a Californian retreat. His face is serene, and the camera gets closer and closer. And cut. To an advertisement, for Coca-Cola. A careful collection of ethnicities in national costume sings a paean to world peace and a much-recycled selection of countercultural values.
“I’d like to teach the world to sing…. I’d like to buy the world a Coke,” and so on. Rebellion has been tamed, marketed, and sold. The transition rings false, intentionally. This is a parody of enlightenment and the show’s final indictment of its protagonist. Don Draper’s peace is an ad he pitches to himself, and then MAD MEN continued on page 6
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 22, 2015
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“Don Draper’s peace is an ad he pitches to himself . . .” MAD MEN continued from page 5
to the rest of the world. The first episode of the show opened with Don Draper as the perfect avatar of the postwar consensus. He was suave, self-confident, and successful. He had a nuclear family in the suburbs and, eventually, half a dozen mistresses in the city; he smoked and drank without guilt or anxiety. Much—maybe too much—of the initial appeal of the show was a misplaced affection for this version of Draper. He was, in short, what he chose to be. Draper was the core of the show’s pitch: an ad man with an invented identity. His secret past has become peripheral to the plot of the show in its later seasons; crises over fear of exposure no longer drive events. But thematically it is still central. When he abandoned his past, Don Draper had a chance to remake himself in whatever image he pleased. He could sell the popular values of the 1950s and early ’60s masterfully. Take the series’s most affecting pitch, the highlight of the first season: He sells a campaign for a slide projector by flipping through happy, idealized pictures of his family. The machine, he says, “lets us travel the way a child travels—around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.” He is selling family, community, and obligations.
In the dark conference room, over the click and shudder of the projector, he is selling himself. But as the 1960s progress and America begins to question this view of itself, its avatar is left in the lurch. To summarize in-story years of complications and incidents, his family slips away; he marries and divorces again. He agonizes, drinks, and philanders. His is the terror of a perfectly branded man who finds his market share suddenly declining. The ads he produced in this crisis were still meant to be compelling, but they sold nothing—or, rather, they sold absence, anxiety, and desire. “At last,” the firm’s campaign for Jaguar reads. “Something beautiful you can truly own.” The ads parallel Draper’s psychological arc—something is missing, and satisfying stability is impossible. The series’s final episode opens with Draper on his way west, to California, where the show has sent him for his periodic encounters with the future. On his way to the Pacific Ocean, the show has suggested opportunities for him to settle back into the past: to go and be with his children, whose mother is dying; to settle in a small Oklahoma town he is briefly stranded in. By the time he comes to the hippieish retreat along the California coast, he is approaching the peak of his crisis. He initially reacts to the retreat with the contempt
and cynicism that have been Draper’s typical response to the counterculture. In Draper’s second-to-last scene, a miserable man at a group therapy session describes his life, which could have been Draper’s a few years ago: a wife, children, and office work. The man has dreams where he imagines that he is sitting on a refrigerator shelf. The door is opened, but the person on the other side looks him over and leaves him behind. Don Draper embraces him, crying; the man is a perfect example of his anxiety. Back in New York, the stories of the show’s other main characters are happily truncated (it is remarkable how satisfyingly this is done). These conclusions are rooted in their authentic selves: They are competent, loving, or ambitious, and so they end thus. Draper reaches a different settlement; authenticity is unlikely. He makes himself again in a more marketable image, as a sensitive man, a spiritual man, a California Man. “A new day brings new hope. The lives we’ve led; the lives we’ve yet to lead. A new day; new ideas; a new you,” the guru in charge of the meditation intones. The cut to the ad for Coca-Cola completes the message, and eliminates the possibility that the change is genuinely felt. The terror can end, because he’s found a way to sell this brave new world.
Joanna Gruesome’s short and sweet Peanut Butter sticks Miriam Benjamin Arts Staff
Having a punny band name is a tricky business—it’s roughly equivalent to running around in a library screaming, “Look at me!” This can get toiling indie bands the attention they want fairly quickly, but that’s a doubleedged sword: If all bands’ debuts were hyped enough to warrant intense criticism, we’d be short quite a few bands. Joanna Gruesome, by cheekily naming itself after acclaimed singer and harpist Joanna Newsom, provoked an immediate reaction (either laughing or cringing) that was bound to get attention. Luckily, the Welsh five-piece was musically mature enough to weather the media onslaught—its 2013 debut on Slumberland/Fortuna Pop! Records, Weird Sister, won the 2014 Welsh Music Prize, beating off Welsh music scene stalwarts Gruff Rhys and Manic Street Preachers in the process. Peanut Butter, the band’s sophomore effort, is even better than Weird Sister. It keeps the same elements of its debut: major, twee-style guitar chords with a few dissonant ones thrown in every once in a while to keep the listener off guard; liberal application of feedback; punk tempos; and a high-pitched lead vocal that alternates between sweet crooning and screaming. More importantly, Peanut Butter is only 21
minutes long—other bands have L.P.s longer than that—and it’s hyper-focused. The art of the short song is underappreciated: Frontwoman and lyricist Alanna McArdle is able to say everything she wants to say (not that it’s super distinguishable) in songs that are mostly around the two-minute mark. And Joanna Gruesome isn’t distracted by the dangling fruits of cool studio effects—distortion and feedback take it as far as it wants to go. The songs on Peanut Butter are slim, catchy, and focused. In fact, the record as a whole is exciting. It’s impossible to predict when guitarists Owen Williams and George Nicholls will decide to throw down a weird chord or when McArdle will start yelling. For example, the lead track, “Last Year,” starts off with a twinge of feedback and rolls into a classic hardcore drum pattern before McArdle hurdles into the fray with Meredith Graves– esque vocals (Graves’s band, Perfect Pussy, and Joanna Gruesome did a split 7” single in 2014, so the comparison isn’t too far-fetched). All of a sudden, the chorus hits, and everything smooths out— McArdle starts singing in a high, delicate voice, and it’s hard to remember that she was hollering passionately into the mic just a few seconds before. The closer “Hey! I Wanna Be Yr Best Friend” is a far cry from “Last
Year,” featuring an insistent but gentle bassline, no drums, and ending with a lone guitar going up a scale. “Separate Bedrooms,” a cover of an underground DIY band from Bristol called Black Terror, sits perfectly on Peanut Butter—sweetly aggressive with poignant lyrics. (“I know that life would be alright if I hadn’t met you./ We could spend every single night in separate bedrooms.”) Joanna Gruesome’s ’80s influences are clear: It’s got a hardcore punk style to which the members contrarily add melody (a happy mash-up of Beat Happening and Black Flag), and a DIY ethic that would make The Minutemen smile (they self-released their first E.P. and covered a DIY band on Peanut Butter, which by virtue of its running time is an homage to jamming econo). But Joanna Gruesome is still a modern band, with song titles so out of context they’re funny (“There Is No Function Stacy,” “Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers”), and a female vocalist who does music journalism in her free time (McArdle’s writing has been featured in The Talkhouse and Noisey). And so, two albums in, it’s hard to imagine a band embodying its name so perfectly: Joanna Gruesome takes Joanna Newsom’s intellectual indie pop plus a twist, making music that’s, as Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn once put it, “Y’know, heavy.”
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 22, 2015
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SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
KYLE ENGEL
BASEBALL: THIRD BASEMAN’S IMPACT EXTENDS BEYOND THE DIAMOND Ahmad Allaw Associate Sports Editor
First-year infielder Kyle Engel prepares to make a pass at a game against IIT earlier this month. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
A couple of weeks ago, fourth-year Kyle Engel walked off the diamond in what was his last game as a Chicago Maroon. There is always a sense of bittersweet reminiscence in the final jog off the field— joyful memories mixed with a recognition that those times, at least for an instant, have come to an end. Although Engel’s time with the squad has come to a close, he will always be a part of Maroon baseball. In fact, his name will remain in the record books, a stamp of his diligence and success, his dedication and passion, and above all his indelible presence. Engel will be leaving the Maroons with no shortage of personal achievements. This year alone, in just 38 games, Engel batted a blistering .486 from the plate, drove in 43 runs, scored 36 runs, stole six bases, and crushed four balls out of the park. In the process, he set the school’s record in single-season hits (68) and doubles (25). This year, he was named UAA Athlete of the Week twice and earned a spot in the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week (5/5). He also earned First Team All-UAA Honors and was named to the D3Baseball.com and ABCA All-Regional First Team. After four outstanding years, he sits atop the school record books in doubles (50) and places second in hits (195), fourth in overall batting average (.388), and eighth in RBIs (113) and home runs (10). None of this success could have been possible without Engel’s uncanny love for the game. His passion now runs deep, even if that wasn’t necessarily the case early on. As he explains, “I’ve been playing baseball
for almost my whole life. I actually wasn’t very interested when I was young, and only became interested when I realized that all of my friends were playing T-ball. Ever since I’ve started, though, there hasn’t been a year where I haven’t been playing baseball. I’ve always loved playing baseball, so when I wasn’t in an organized season, I would be playing wiffle ball or stick ball with my brother and neighborhood friends.” And it is that camaraderie—the chatter in the dugout, the talk on the field, and the moments with friends—that he will forever cherish about baseball. “After I graduate, I probably won’t remember the scores of specific games or how well or poorly I played. What I will remember is the friendships that I made with guys on the team and the fun that I had with the team on and off the field. Some of my best memories aren’t from specific games, but rather from the long bus rides where everyone was laughing and playing Hearts.” Engel’s success on the field is equally matched by his success off the diamond. During his time at UChicago, the statistics and chemistry double major discovered another passion, one that he hopes will guide him throughout his future. As he explains, “Other than playing baseball, I’ve been involved with research in the human genetics department. Working there, I gained a lot of experience in analyzing vast amounts of genetic data, and the work helped me realize my passion for statistics and data analysis. So, after graduation I’m planning on staying here in Chicago working as a data analyst. Eventually, I would love to get a higher degree in statistics or a related field.” With that in mind, Engel ends one incredible chapter of his life ready to start the next.
Trio of Maroons embarks to New York for national championship Track and Field Russell Mendelson Maroon Staff Yesterday, the NCAA DIII National Outdoor Track and Field Championships kicked off in Canton, NY. The meet marks the final event of the 2015 collegiate season. The Maroons sent three of their own to the competition, all from a women’s squad that came out on top in both the indoor and outdoor conference championships earlier this season. Two of these athletes, second-year Michelle Dobbs and third-year Brianna Hickey, have competed on this stage before. On the other hand, for first-year Ade Ayoola, who will be vying for a win in the high jump, this will be a new experience. “I think I’m just really glad to be here that
sometimes I forget that I need to be competing as well,” Ayoola said. “I add stress to the situation when I start thinking too much about what it actually means to be here at nationals.” A key that all of the athletes emphasized was the importance of not attaching any additional pressure to the weekend despite its obvious implications. “I have learned that this experience is only as fun as you make it, and when you put too much pressure or undue tension on the competition, it can make it really hard to race,” explained Hickey, who will be running in the 1,500-meter, the exact same race she ran at last year’s outdoor championships in Delaware, OH. “So, going into the competition, I am now more aware about not getting caught up in think-
ing only about the race, and [I] try to spend time having fun with my teammates here with me.” There will be an adjustment for Hickey compared to how she usually races, as this is the only 1,500-meter where she will have to make it through a preliminary stage before being allowed to compete in the finals for the coveted championship. Hickey is currently seeded ninth in the field of 22 while her teammate Dobbs, who will also need to survive a preliminary round of competition, sits at sixth overall in the country for the 800-meter event. “I think if I can race the prelim with a very relaxed and confident mindset, I should be able to get through to the final. The 800 I ran at North Central a couple of weeks ago should be very good preparation for that,” noted Dobbs of the
time she P.R.ed at the Dr. Keeler Invite just a couple of weeks ago, which qualified her for these championships. “The race should be very exciting, and I think if I stay focused during the event on reacting to my competitors in the right ways, then I should be able to stick with wherever the lead pack takes me.” All of the competitors agree that it is imperative to stay focused in order to be successful in spite of the myriad distractions that can present themselves at an event such as this. At the same time, though, these three South Siders value this opportunity and will spend time enjoying it with their fellow teammates. Competition continues at 11 a.m. this morning and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
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SPORTS
IN QUOTES “Even though it’s May 19th, the Knicks are still losing” – Resident funnyman Frank Caliendo comments on the Knicks tumbling through the NBA Draft Lottery
Season for the record books ends as South Siders take fourth at NCAA’s Men’s Tennis Katie Anderson & Ahmad Allaw
Associate Sports Editors After beating the defending champion Amherst College, the Maroons fell in two consecutive matches to bring their historic season to an end. In the NCAA DIII National Championship semifinals, the No. 8 South Siders lost to No. 6 Middlebury College 5–1. Chicago came into the match at a disadvantage after its previous match against Amherst continued past midnight due to rain delays and complications with lighting on the court. Just 14 hours after the exciting victory over the Lord Jeffs, it was time for the Maroons to face off against a talented Middlebury squad. Despite their fatigue, the South Siders put up a good fight. Fourthyears Deepak Sabada and Ankur Bhargava picked up the Maroons’ first point at No. 1 doubles with an 8–5 win. Unfortunately, the Panthers dominated from then on, winning five of the first six matches. “Mental and physical fatigue from the Amherst match definitely hurt us a bit against Middlebury,” Sabada said. “Middlebury played a great match and deserved to win, but we definitely felt we could have competed better if we were fresher.” Well rested, Chicago put up a better performance against UAA rivals Wash U the following night. The two teams had met previously in the year, with Wash U winning a narrow 5–4 match. Unfortunately, the Maroons were fated for a similar outcome on Wednesday. Wash U went ahead early. At No. 3 doubles, Chicago first-years Nicolas Chua and David Liu were quickly defeated 8–3. However, the other two doubles matches were tight. At No. 1 doubles, Bhargava and Sabada
Fourth-year Ankur Bhargava reaches to return the ball at a match against Gustavus Adolphus second week of this month. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
edged their opponents 8–6 to tie the overall match at 1–1. In the crucial No. 2 doubles match, Wash U and Chicago went back and forth before falling just short of victory, 9–7. To win, Chicago had to take four of the six singles matches. Things looked grim early on. Although firstyear Peter Leung won 6–0, 6–4 at No. 4 singles, first-year Luke Tsai and Liu both lost in straight sets. Chicago needed to run the table to advance to the next round. For a
moment, it looked like the Maroons would be able to continue their incredible year. At No. 1 Singles, Chua forced a third set and, coming from behind, won 6–3, 3–6, 7–5. Second-year Sven Kranz, meanwhile, had forced a third set. However, with the Maroons closing in, Sabada, in a very close match, lost at No. 3 singles. The match was clinched. Chicago’s wonderful season had come to an end. Despite the loss, the Maroons
have much to be proud of after their historic season. “It felt good for sure,” Sabada said. “We hadn’t made the NCAA tournament as a team in my three previous years here, so to make it and go as far as we did this year definitely was a thrill.” “I thought the team’s ability to handle adversity really made this season successful. We had a bunch of 5–4 losses early in the season that we could have let bother us, but we just
kept working hard and we used those experiences to pull out a 5-4 victory against Amherst,” Sabada continued. However, regardless of the finish, the Maroons were vibrantly proud of their accomplishments in a season that will go down as one of the greatest in Chicago history. “I think a successful season is more than just the last tournament. We’ve come so far that regardless of our results I would have said we succeeded,” Chua said.
This Week in Sports: NHL Playoff Predictions with Ruslan Shchetinin
We’re several games into the NHL Conference Finals, and the Stanley Cup Final stage is still open to all. It’s the playoffs, the series is close, and anything can happen.
Chicago Blackhawks Will Win If… 1. The defense, lacking depth, doesn’t wear out. Thirtyone-year-old Duncan Keith played a career high 49 minutes and 51 seconds in Game Two, a feat typically reserved for freaks of nature. The Blackhawks’ four top defensemen played roughly 85 percent of Tuesday’s triple-overtime thriller. Specifically, that is 85 percent of a 116-minute, 12-second-long game, the longest in Blackhawks playoff history. With Michal Rozsival injured, the Blackhawks are forced to keep the pressure on these top four defensemen, three of whom are above 30. Will they keep it up long enough to win another seven games to capture the Windy City its third Stanley Cup in six years? If you look back at Chicago’s two Cup runs (2010 and 2013), Keith, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson were playing a combined 73.5 minutes a game. This year, we’re talking 84.5. 2. Experience pays off. Chicago, of course, won the cup twice in recent years. “Experience definitely helps,” netminder Corey Crawford told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve gone through it before. Maybe less nerves. But for sure it definitely helps when we’ve been through a bunch of these situations.”
Anaheim Ducks Will Win If… 1. The Ducks continue to get the same kind of depth scoring as they’ve been getting so far this postseason. The top line with Maroon-Getzlaf-Perry gets a significant chunk of defensive attention, so it’s crucial that the second and third lines put something on the board. Ryan Kesler could step up and be huge for Anaheim; he’s one of the best two-way centers in the game, and if he plays like it, the Ducks’ odds of victory go through the roof. 2. They keep playing physical and tire out their opposition. The Ducks have thrown 115 hits at the Blackhawks over two games—71 of them on Tuesday alone. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, threw 78 combined. These hits could start wearing down the Hawks, who’ve pretty much played two games in one on Tuesday, dishing out heavy minutes to their top players.
New York Rangers Will Win If… 1. Henrik Lundqvist and the New York defense find their game. In their last two games, they’ve let in 12 goals, compared to only nine goals over their last six games combined prior. If the Rangers figure out how to stop scrambling all over the place and helplessly watching the Tampa Bay Lightning own their net, they’ll get back in the series and maybe even move on. Six times Lundqvist has allowed six or more goals in a game this year; four of them have been
to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lundqvist just needs to figure out Tampa Bay, and New York might have themselves quite a run here. 2. Rick Nash gets hot. The man just can’t seem to perform in the postseason. The Rangers’ leading scorer in the regular season has only two goals this far in the postseason. It won’t hurt if Martin St. Louis (0 goals) started putting some in the net as well.
Tampa Bay Lightning Will Win If… 1. It keeps scoring. The Lightning is to a goaltender what thunder is to a little child—a crawl-under-your-bed nightmare. Just ask two of the NHL’s best, Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist. We already talked about Lundqvist’s struggles, but Price also found the Bolts troublesome on his way to a 0–4–1 record against them in the regular season. In the playoffs, the Lightning scored 16 more on Price in a six-game series. Add in what it’s doing to Lundqvist, and it seems like Tampa Bay just has no care for elite goaltenders; it’ll ruthlessly find the back of the net regardless. 2. Ben Bishop doesn’t expose himself. Though his team won on Wednesday, he let in five goals on only 28 shots. If the Rangers manage to tighten up defensively, or if the Lightning gets past these series and finds itself up against an opponent that finally stumps its offense, it might have trouble relying on Bishop to carry it the rest of the way.