ChicagoMaroon011516

JANUARY 15, 2016

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

University Sells 21 Properties for over $70 Million

Undergrad House will move to I-House; replacing graduate Student Housing

BY EILEEN LI ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

BY PEYTON ALIE NEWS STAFF

One of the undergraduate houses whose dorm will be closed next year will move into International House (I-House), College Housing announced Wednesday.

This means that I-House will house no graduate students for the first time in its history.

College Housing previously planned to move all nine house communities from Blackstone, Breckinridge, Broadview, Maclean, and New Grad into the new Campus North Residence Hall, where they would form eight new houses. Per this change, one house will instead move into I-House and retain its name. As a result, none of the nine retiring houses will be merged as initially planned in order to create eight new houses in Campus North.

“I’m very happy that we are no longer forced to make the decision about which houses merge,” said second-year Andrew Yin, a representative on the Special College Housing Advisory Committee (SCHAC). “Every house that is part of SCHAC really has its own unique culture.”

According to Yin, SCHAC was also informed in a Wednesday morning meeting that the house moving into I-House will still have about 100 members, just like the houses moving into Campus North.

In order to accommodate the additional house, graduate students will not be housed in I-House until the next residence hall is constructed in a few years, at which point the University plans to reopen I-House to graduate students.

I-House will continue to offer a variety of internationally-focused programs and events.

A FAQ provided by the University states that the plan is designed “to accommodate an increasing number of College students on campus in fall 2016.”

Houses from each of the closing residence halls are invited to submit a survey ranking their options—Campus North, I-House, or Continued on Page 3

ANGELA LI

According to CPD data, overall crime in Hyde Park rose slightly in 2015 despite steadily declining over the past decade.

Hyde Park Crime Rate Rose Slightly in 2015

BY FENG YE NEWS STAFF

Hyde Park saw a slight increase in the overall crime rate and a larger increase in violent crime in 2015, according to data from the Chicago Police Department (CPD).

The total crime rate remained 32 percent below the average rate of the last 10 years in Hyde Park. However, compared to 2014, total crime rates increased by 6 percent in Hyde Park in 2015. Violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, robbery, assault and battery, were 22 percent below the average of the past decade, but increased by 18 percent from 2014. The rate for property crimes, which are burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson, decreased

by 2 percent.

The University of Chicago Police Depa r tment ( UCPD) sent out 14 security alerts in 2015, four more than in 2014, and six more than the average from 2010 to 2014. Two successive shootings in Hyde Park within ten days in April accounted in part for a slight crime increase in the first four months of 2015. The violent crime rate and crime rate in general continued climbing in the second half of the year. In contrast to the average 108 crimes per month for the first five months, an average of 137 crimes happened per month for the rest of the year. According to CPD data from the past 15 years, rates of crime generally increase in the summer months. There were four se-

Vote Establishes Sexual Assualt Prevention Committee

BY ANJALI DHILLON NEWS STAFF

Near the end of last quarter, Student Government’s College Council (CC) approved the creation of the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Committee in an 8–3 vote. Three members of the council abstained.

Student Government (SG) has set aside $10,000 for projects promoting sexual assault awareness

Page 5 What does it mean to be social justice–oriented or politically active as college students?

The University of Chicago recently made $70.1 million from selling 21 properties in Hyde Park, according to financial documents released on December 23.

The documents revealed the previously unknown sale prices of two vacant lots and 19 residential buildings, which housed graduate students, faculty, and staff.

This past October, the University announced the sale of the properties to the New York-based Pioneer Acquisitions, LLC, an investment company that also owns many buildings in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.

According to the University News Office, “Pioneer has a proven track record in the city, with more than 900 units in its portfolio, including many student-oriented residences…

Pioneer has said it will explore opportunities to open an office in Hyde Park to provide more

immediate and direct service to residents.”

The University previously purchased the buildings to assure a sufficient quantity of stable housing near campus. The News Office stated that the University now believes “the area real estate market is…strong enough to attract a number of potential investors and support a range of residential options.”

After the sale, UChicago will still retain more than half of its graduate student, faculty, and staff apartments in Hyde Park.

All existing lease terms and rates for current residents of the buildings will remain the same.

In the spring of 2015, the University also held town hall meetings with the residents of the 19 buildings to discuss the specific timelines of the transition and management changes.

The University has also placed undergraduate dormitory buildings Broadview, Maclean, and Blackstone on the market.

The locations of the 21 proper ties sold by the University of Chicago in Hyde Park and Kenwood (locations in close proximity are represented by a single dot).

FORREST SILL

Continued on Page 4

and prevention, all of which will be allocated to the new committee.

According to Cosmo Albrecht, a Class of 2018 representative and committee chair, the committee is meant to bring together people from different advocacy groups with a stake in sexual assault awareness and prevention with SG leadership to craft a funding proposal for the $10,000.

Previously, SG has allocated Continued on Page 3

Uncommon Interview: Professor Harold Pollack back of an index card. Pollack spoke with the Maroon about his NEWS STAFF new book.

The Maroon: Could you exProfessor Harold Pollack is plain for a little bit, what in fact a professor at the Harris School a 401(k) is? whose research specializes in the Harold Pollack: So a 401(k) is connection between public policy what’s called a defined contribuand public health. He recently tion pension plan. Most employers wrote a book with Helaine Olen have them. If you work for a non entitled The Index Card which -profit like the University of Chibegins with the premise that evcago, it’s actually called a 403(b). erything we need to know about It’s an account where you put in personal finances can fit onto the

BY ISAAC EASTON

Continued on Page 4

Seven Takes on Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Discussed

Team Looks to Push Winning Streak to Double Digits

Contributing to the Maroon

Page 7

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The men’s basketball team has a winning streak of nine games.

UChicago reviews the latest Star Wars film.

Turning to Service

VOL. 127, ISSUE 20

The Prettiest Star: David Bowie Remembered Page 8 “Had he waited to go until after he had brought one last artwork into the world?”

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All rights reserved. © The Chicago Maroon 2015

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

UChicago’s SG Appoints Second-Year Shae Omonijo as Liaison to the Board of Trustees Academic Blogging Gets a New, Permanent Platform

BY WENDY LEE

SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

BY KAITLYN AKIN NEW S STAFF

During the week of December 28, the University moved its blogging platform from its previous temporary domain to a new, permanent home at voices.uchicago.edu. This blogging interface is a new service that premiered in Fall 2015 and is intended for what the website calls “academic blogging.”

UChicago Voices, which is managed by the Academic and Scholarly Technology Services and powered by Wordpress, was created last quarter and allows anyone with a CNetID to create a personal webpage for “portfolios, learning activities, blogging, clubs, research g roups, courses, and much more,” according to its webpage.

The website’s mission statement characterizes Voices as “a place where we can engage in new forms of scholarship, delight our community, and publish openly.” So far, blogs range from personal and workplace accounts of administrators to photog raphy collections a rranged for classes.

According to the site, UChicago Voices is still in its pilot phase. When the program first opened in the fall quarter under the domain “http:// blogs. acadpilot.uchicago.edu/,” it was available to only faculty and staff of the University for academic purposes, but now it has the potential to reach a wider audience.

The website includes an outline of goals for implementing and optimizing the blogging platform for classroom use. The primary goal was to reach out to faculty and test the effectiveness of academic blogging.

From there, the program hopes to continue growing into a community that explores the potential of blogging in a scholarly context and works together to make the tool effective.

UChicago Voices aims to have 200 people blogging in 15 courses regularly by the end of the 2015-2016 school year.

“We can see a blogging tool as something that is much more than what one might think of as a blog—it becomes a place to share, save, and express yourself digitally,” said Associate Vice President for Information Technology Cole Camplese in a January 6 blog post on his Voices-hosted personal blog.

In December 2015, secondyear Shae Omonijo joined Student Government’s Executive Committee as the newly appointed Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees.

According to Student Government’s site, the Liaison is responsible for representing “the student body to the Board and [working to connect] students with individual Board members through quarterly luncheons.”

The Liaison must attend quarterly meetings with a Board of Trustees subcommittee.

Six other students applied for the position. Omonijo is replacing third-year Andrew Young, who resigned on November 27 to pursue an internship with Morgan Stanley during the academic year.

Omonijo said she is excited about the appointment because it gives her the opportunity to engage with members of the administration. “ I was initially really interested in how this new role would play out because it’s a very vague role. I was also particularly interested [in applying] because you don’t see a lot of African-Americans in Student Government,” Omonijo said. “[I want to] understand what was done in the past and understand what needs to be done for the future. I think this role will give me and other students access to members of the administration in a different way.”

Omonijo is the co-president of African and Caribbean Students Association (ACSA). She

is also a member of this year’s Dean’s Advisory Council and a contributor to The Gate, a political publication on campus. She said her roles in these RSOs have provided her with a unique perspective on campus life.

“I’m involved in…a lot of different cultural and academic aspects of the University, and I think [these roles] will complement [my work in Student Government] quite well. I am aware of a lot of the issues that students talk and hear about— whether they are academic or financial…It’s all about bringing the right people to the table.”

As liaison, Omonijo will organize quarterly luncheons for the Board of Trustees and a select number of students. She said one of her goals as Liaison is to increase the number of luncheons to twice per quarter.

“Luncheons depend on the trustees’ availability, [and I] help organize them with the Graduate Council Liaison to the Board of Trustees. During these luncheons, students get the opportunity to meet with the Board of Trustees, and we generally try to present a diverse scope of student perspectives,” Omonijo said.

Though her role as Liaison began during winter break, Omonijo has not yet worked with any of members of The Board of Trustees. She said she looks forward to connecting the Trustees with students.

“I do know who the Trustees are and what they do off-campus. In knowing their backgrounds, I hope to connect them with the right students. For example, if we have students who

COURTESY OF SHAE OMONIJO

Second-year Shae Omonijo was appointed Undergraduate Liaison to the Board of Trustees in December 2015.

are interested in issues related to the environment, it’s important to know what trustees are in that field and how I can establish that dynamic between the Trustees and students oncampus,” Omonijo said.

T h rough the position , Omonijo said she hopes to gain more insight on how Student Government runs and to redefi ne the role of Liaison to the Board of Trustees within Student Government. She also looks forward to shedding more light on tensions between the administration and the student body. “ M iscommu n ication hap pens when the people who matter aren’t directly speak-

ing with each other: when they are speaking through channels….I’m looking forward to meeting with more people and… creating clear communication.”

Student Government has yet to fi ll the position of Community and Government Liaison, which has been vacant since third-year Alvina “Nina” Katemauswa resigned this summer.

Like the Liaison to the Board of Trustees, the Community and Government Liaison is responsible for working with the Executive Committee and for getting students more involved in Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and the South Side. Katemauswa is currently doing humanitarian work in Africa.

New RSO Will Compete to Answer Ethical Questions

BY EMILY KRAMER NEWS STAFF

At the start of January, Kayla Boling, a first-year in the College, registered the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) as an RSO for the 2016 –2017 school year.

The IEB is a team competition that provides students with the opportunity to discuss and debate relevant societal issues regarding practical and professional ethics in a safe, constructive environment. The competition is organized by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE).

In an Ethics Bowl competition, teams of three to five stu-

dents field ethical problems in areas from politics to dating and personal relationships.

The 2012 Ethics Bowl Championship asked students to consider the ethical implications of aggressive cigarette warnings and of infidelity carried out entirely through characters in online video games.

Judges evaluate the students’ responses, weigh ing their “intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness,” according to APPE’s website.

Boling participated in the National High School Ethics

Bowl during her senior year of high school and is excited to continue on to IEB. She hopes the club will advance ethical and social awareness on the UChicago campus.

“UChicago is an intellectually rich environment,” Boling said. “I thought that a lot of people here would be interested in taking all the ethics and philosophy we so often talk about and applying those concepts to addressing today’s pressing issues in society.”

According to Boling, seven members and a faculty adviser were needed to register, but over 20 students have already expressed interest in the RSO.

Since teams usually range in size from five to six people, Boling is confident that the RSO will have more than enough students to send a team to a regional IEB competition next November. In the Upper Midwest Regional Ethics Bowl, the team would compete against Loyola University Chicago and University of Wisconsin–Madison, among other schools. “ I think that the Ethics Bowl brings a totally unique combination of thoughtful discussion of ethics and social issues with competition. It is my hope that the Ethics Bowl will f lourish here and continue on for years to come,” Boling said.

CORRECTIONS: An article published on January 12 regarding the first campus climate survey forum (“Forum Discusses Upcoming Campus Climate Survey”) incorrectly stated that the first campus climate survey resulted in the the consolidation of two pre-existing policies into one Unlawful Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct Policy, the creation of a student disciplinary committee, and the appointment of a new associate dean of students in the University for disciplinary affairs. These changes all took place in July 2014, nearly a year before the survey was administered.

Several bylines in January 12’s issue were incorrect. The article titled “Marketplace Returns After Spamming with References to Terrorist Attacks” was written by Annie Nazzarro. The article titled “Student Group Protests Aramark’s Role in Prisons” was written by Alex Ward. The article titled “Forum Discusses Upcoming Campus Climate Survey” was written by Min Hahn. The articles titled “IRC Releases Annual Report on UCPD Complaints” and “Talk by Van Jones Celebrates Life of MLK” was written by Katherine Vega. Isaac Troncoso wrote the article titled “University Hires First Director for Student Support Services.”

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

New exhibition Highlights UChicago Scholarship, Texts of South Asia

BY HENRY BACHA NEWS CONTRIBUTOR

The Special Collections Research Center unveiled a new exhibit this week that traces the relationship between University of Chicago scholars and the texts and manuscripts of the Indian subcontinent.

Envisioning South Asia: Texts, Scholarship, and Legacy marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations (SALC) and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS). Ulrike Stark, Ph.D, of the SALC department, Anna Seastrand, Ph.D., of the Department of Art History, and Ian Desai, Ph.D., of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts co-curated the exhibition.

Envisioning South Asia includes artifacts that reflect both the rich manuscript culture indigenous to India and the effect that colonial powers had on shaping such scriptural and literary traditions in the modern era. The exhibit is loosely divided into

sections of sacred manuscripts, European-drawn maps, volumes published by Christian missionaries, administrative documents from the British colonial era, and modern pamphlets, novels, and assorted periodicals.

The exhibit also highlights the history of scholarship of South Asia at the University through the papers and personal effects of Milton Singer, Edward Dimock, and A.K. Ramanujan, scholars of Indian culture and languages who were instrumental in the development of South Asian studies at the University.

Combing through the history of these “Chicago Pioneers,” Desai said, “I knew this was going to be a unique experience, and that’s very befitting (the University of) Chicago and its relationship with South Asia, which is absolutely unique and stellar…it is a testament to the extraordinary capacity of the scholars here over the years.”

Desai continued, “This whole experience has been for me a wonderful, eye-opening affirmation of how outstanding our resources are…since the very

COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

A folio from an illustrated Jain manuscript.

beginning of this university and lated into the Indian vernacular straight through the decades, languages, and published by with this burgeoning moment British missionaries in the early in the ’50s and ’60s that we talk 19th century, are also displayed. about in the exhibit.”

Maps of the subcontinent drawn Highlights of the collec- by European cartographers, intion include two 18th-century cluding James Rennell’s 1794 codices copied on bound palm “New Map of Hindoostan”—often leaves in the pothi style, and a regarded as the fi rst near-accularge Pabuji Ki Phad, a banner rate map of India—further illuspainted with images of Pabuji, a trate the impact of colonialism Rajasthani folk hero, and tradi- on South Asian documentary tionally unfurled during ritual culture. performances.

A placard in the exhibit notes Catechisms and Bibles, trans- that in South Asia, 29 languages

are spoken by at least one million people, and the cultural and linguistic variety of the exhibition reflects that diversity. Envisioning South Asia encompasses texts and documents from numerous linguistic traditions: Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Urdu, Gujarati, Sanskrit, and Marathi, among others.

Envisioning South Asia will be in the Special Collections Research Center, located on the fi rst floor of Regenstein Library, until March 18.

Committee to Allocate $10,000 Previously Dedicated to Sexual Assault Prevention Week Continued from front all of the $10,000 to run an annual Sexual Assault Awareness Week in the spring quarter consisting of various student-organized events, activities, and speakers.

“Some folks expressed concern that having all of the money targeted at one specific event was perhaps not the best use of the funding. This proposal serves to rectify that concern and ensure that the people who are doing advocacy work on this issue are the ones who are directly deciding on where this money is being spent,” Albrecht said.

The committee will evaluate how effective the awareness week was and judge whether or not continuing to fund one advances its mission.

The committee will most likely consist of eight members, including two members of CC, and six members from different advocacy groups. CC has been in touch with student organizations Phoenix Survivors Alliance, the UChicago Clothesline Project, Greek Life Out In Front, and Queers United in Power. One of these advocacy representatives will be a graduate student.

Michael Meng and Calvin Cottrell, Class of 2018 representatives, and Mike Viola, a Class of 2016 representative, all voted against the formation of a committee in the November 17 CC meeting.

Viola and Cottrell cited in their opposition to the proposal the fact that the chair of the committee exclusively appoints committee seats.

Viola said in an e-mail, “I believed that College Council as a whole should have a role in making sure committee members reflect a wide range of involvement in campus life. My vote was on the assumption that an amended ver-

sion would certainly pass and, re- mittee, Albrecht said, “[The comgardless, I saw the approval of the mittee’s] objectives are to support the advocacy and organizing work committee as a net positive.”

“I decided to vote against the that is happening on campus with committee as proposed because I respect to sexual assault… and felt there were problems with its provide the student body with instructure but not its mission. I formation and access to resources wanted to make sure that there to both prevent and report sexual was as much student participation assault. Its objective is to truly as possible,” Cottrell said in an e- raise awareness among multiple constituencies and frame this as an mail.

“Now that the committee has issue that affects multiple groups been created I know the committee of people.”

Editor’s Note: This article origis gonna do really impactful work and I’m looking forward to evalu- inally appeared online on January 12th, 2016. ating whatever it proposes.”

Regarding the work of the com-

Area has seen significant drop in Nine houses will receive $10,000 in “celebration funds” crime over past decade Continued from front curity alerts sent out in September alone. September also had the second highest rates of crime in 2015. The rate of violent crime peaked in June with 18 cases in one month.

Crime rates in Hyde Park remained lower than in Washington Park and Woodlawn, but higher than in Kenwood.

In 2015, Hyde Park had 45 percent fewer crimes than Washington Park, 59 percent fewer than Woodlawn, and 12 percent more than Kenwood. For the past five years, the average crime rate of Hyde Park was 2 percent higher than that of Kenwood. In 2015, compared to the 6 percent increase in total crime rate from 2014 in Hyde Park, those in neighbor ing communities all decreased—by 7 percent in Washington Park, 12 percent in Woodlawn and 10 percent in Kenwood. There was only a 2 percent increase in vi-

olent crime in Woodlawn.

In 2015, UCPD intended to improve transparency by launching a new website that tracks instances of crime. The website includes daily updated detailed information of traffic stops and field contacts. Crime data provided by UCPD, however, is not complete. “UCPD is not the primary law enforcement agency of the extended boundary communities, CPD is. UCPD serves in a supporting role to CPD. So in many instances, a person may call CPD (911) as opposed to UCPD,” University spokesperson Marielle Sainvilus said.

Sainvilus did not directly respond to questions about the increase in crime rates in Hyde Park in 2015. “ UCPD is actively working with community leaders and elected officials on the safety and security of the communities they serve,” Sainvilus said.

year from Booth House in I-House, Continued from front no preference—along with a 250- converting I-House to an entirely word essay, both due January 26, undergraduate residence hall to College Housing & Residential threatens this distinctive history.

“I believe that international Services, who will review the surveys and make recommendations students and grad students are to Dean Boyer, who will then make an essential part of the I-House the final decision regarding which community,” Wiard-Bauer said. house will move to I-House. Stu- “I’m really disappointed that it’s dents from these houses are guar- happening. It’s completely going anteed a spot in Campus North to change the flavor of I-House. Inif they want one, regardless of ternational House is one of several whether their current house moves International Houses across the globe, and that fact that UChicago to Campus North or I-House.

All nine relocating houses will is losing it to undergrads is, frankly, receive “celebration funds” total- rather insulting.”

In “The Kind of University that ing $10,000 in order to honor their current house and establish new We Want to Become,” a paper on traditions. Up to $6,000 can be College Housing written by Boyer used this year, with the remaining in 2008, he suggests undergraduamount set aside for the 2016-2017 ates be removed from I-House after the construction of three new unschool year.

UChicago’s I-House is one dergraduate dorms added enough of several International Houses alternative on-campus housing. across the globe, which were Two dorms, Granville-Grossman opened with funding by John D. Residential Commons and Campus Rockefeller to offer international North, have been added to campus graduate and undergraduate stu- after that paper was written. “We dents at various universities a di- should not to try to turn Internaverse learning environment. For tional House into another ersatz Kirsten Wiard-Bauer, a fourth- College residence hall,” Boyer

wrote. “The latter facility was not designed for the purposes of housing undergraduates, and it would be completely inappropriate for the College’s residential system.”

At an emergency house meeting on Wednesday night at Breckinridge Hall, one of the closing residence halls, residents debated the benefits and drawbacks of moving to I-House instead of Campus North. Students generally favored moving to International House because of its convenient access to public transportation into the city, its range of programming and events, and its perceived stronger house culture, but others argued for Campus North’s proximity to the dining hall and recent construction.

To some students, neither move would preserve Breckinridge’s most distinctive features. For example, both Campus North and I-House have smaller common areas than Breckinridge does, which students say threatens Breckinridge’s strong house culture.

Others, however, insisted that housing is what students make of it.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

Lawyer and Theater Supporter Richard Orlikoff Dies at 92

BY LAILA ABDELMONEM NEWS STAFF

Richard M. Orlikoff (J.D. ’49), a long-time Hyde Park resident and lawyer, defended Chicago’s budding improvisational theater scene and helped establish the University’s legal aid clinic.

Orlikoff died Thursday, December 10, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital due to congestive heart failure at the age of 92.

Orlikoff was born on July 23, 1923 in New Jersey and attended the University of Michigan after high school.

He served as a communications officer on a U.S. destroyer during World War II, which enabled him to pursue higher education under the GI bill. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1949.

While his career included representing clients in corporate mergers and acquisitions, securities class actions, and antitrust cases, Orlikoff spent many years working in the Hyde Park community and with the University of Chicago.

According to Orlikoff’s son Jamie, “he [Richard] was very interested in social justice. As he told it, he was concerned that there weren’t many legal services for people who couldn’t afford it.”

Orlikoff was an early proponent of the idea of a legal aid clinic

that would offer advocacy for lower edy troupes from the University income residents. The Mandel Le- pro-bono. He represented the gal Aid Clinic was officially estab- Playwright’s Theatre Club, later lished in 1951 after Orlikoff had known as The Compass Players.

Some of the members of the Comgraduated from the Law School.

“It’s very interesting because pass Players went on to found the the clinic didn’t exist while he Second City, the enterprising Chiwas a student at the law school,” cago comedy troupe.

“He was very seminal in the according to Jamie Orlikoff. Listing him as a graduate of the pro- formation of comedy clubs,” said gram was a “tribute to his help” in Anita, Orlikoff’s daughter-in-law.

Licensing requirement set the founding the institution.

Orlikoff proposed that the City of Chicago made it difficult clinic function in a two-fold man- to set up theaters outside of the ner, giving back to the Hyde Park Loop. Orlikoff subsequently regcommunity by offering legal aid to istered The Compass Players as disadvantaged groups and serving a private club, so that they could as a learning and teaching oppor- perform in the city. His defense of tunity to students attending the The Compass Players against the city of Chicago “set a precedent, Law School.

Orlikoff ’s sense of “social eventually getting the regulations responsibility toward [Hyde overturned,” Jamie said.

Orlikoff’s pro bono legal work Park]” stemmed from his desire to “counterbalance the more con- for the Playwright’s Theatre Club servative approach the university “opened pathway for all the vibrant was known for,” Jamie said. “He comedy clubs downtown,” Anita thought the University was much Orlikoff said. more conservative than it should Orlikoff’s other accomplishhave been; its focus was too nar- ments include serving as arbitrarow and too business-minded.” tor for the National Association of Jamie Orlikoff said his father’s Securities Dealers and as Chairinvolvement with the clinic lasted man of the Legal Aid Committee for a couple of decades and that he of the Chicago Bar Association. He often went into partnerships with also served on the Board of Edithe law students who worked in tors at the University of Chicago the clinic. He sought out students Law Review and on the Board of who were both intelligent and so- the Legal Assistance Foundation cially responsible. of Chicago.

Orlikoff was a huge supporter of theater, representing com-

University hires Rachel Choto to be first director for Student Support Services

BY ISAAC TRONCOSO NEWS STAFF

Rachel Choto began work this quarter as the University’s first Director for Student Support Services, the head of an office charged with helping undocumented, first-generation, and low-income students.

The position was created last October as part of the launch of the Center for Identity and Inclusion, which also includes the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) and the Office of LGBTQ Student Life.

Choto was born in Athens, OH and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe.

She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Ohio State University and a Bachelor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Before coming to UChicago, Choto worked at DePaul University’s TRIO Student Support Offices, and has experience in the fields of youth development, child welfare, and mental health services prior to entering the field of higher education. In these positions, her work included advising and designing programs that supported the successful intake, retention, and graduation of first-generation and low-income students.

“Choto will focus on supporting undocumented, first-generation, and low-income students in the graduate divisions and professional schools, as well as the College. We are excited about the passion Rachel brings to the vision of our Center and the mission of Student Support Services and are confident she will have an immensely positive impact on our campus community,” said Karlene Burrell-McRae, associate dean of students and director of UChicago’s Office and Multicultural Student Affairs.

Choto will be joining the Center along with four other new staff members this quarter: Kimberly Holliday as Administrative and Facilities Manager, Gaby Ortiz Flores as Program Coordinator in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Tobias Spears as Director of LGBTQ Student Life, and Brett Stachler as Program Coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared online on January 12th, 2016.

“We have to help each other be a bit more disciplined” Continued from front a certain amount per month and there are limits to how much you can put in, but the limits are big.

The [limits are] like $20,000 a year, so for most University of Chicago students, you’re doing pretty well if you’re hitting that limit. And your employer usually matches at least some of what you put in, and then you have a choice in what you invest that money in and usually it’s through a big company like Vanguard or Fidelity, or TIAA CREF if you’re in academia. And they have lots and lots of funds that you can choose...

And you pick the one that has the lowest fees, and that’s pretty much all you have to do.

The Maroon: Many people opt not to put money into their 401(k) account, even though their employers will match the amount they put in. Could you elaborate on that?

HP: So many, many people leave money on the table [with their employers]. Some people leave all the money on the table in their 401(k). And many, many people fail to maximize their 401(k) when they could be getting money from their employer. And, you know, the best way to save is to just make it automatic and something like a 401(k): it’s taken out [of your paycheck] every month, you get the employer match, there are some tax advantages, and you just don’t have to think about that part of your life that this is taken out, and you put it in some vanilla ice cream fund, and you just let it

science is more fun when you have grow.

The Maroon: Why, in your rockets.”

When you start saving, you book, do you suggest that we save can really start thinking “How 10-20 percent of our income?

HP: I should say, you can’t can I invest this money fruitfully achieve those numbers at every for the long term?” It’s easy to get point in your life. My original in- sucked into the culture of condex card said 20 percent, full stop. sumption where you’re spending And I just got a bunch of emails a lot of money with your friends. that said, “Dear Professor Pollack, And we have to help each other be I’m a single mom, you’ve just told a little bit more disciplined: find me to save 20 percent on my in- fun things to do that don’t cost come, blank you.” Or something of us much money. That’s one of the that nature. And I get that, you’re great ways you can save money. paying child care and you have a And to build a habit of saving. I low income, you’re not going to be started when I was 40, and if I able to save 20% of your money. started when I was younger, it And you know, for those people the could have made a huge difference. challenge is, trying to stay out of The Maroon: In the fourth debt; Trying to chip away and save chapter of your book you tell us as much as they can; trying to be “[we] are not Warren Buffet,” and on a long-term financial plan. then you go on to say that it is unIf you look at studies of what wise to invest in individual stocks. people need when they retire so Could you elaborate on that? they can maintain the same lifeHP: [W]e can have a very long, style they had when they were complicated conversation about working, you really do need to be how the research was done that saving about 20 percent of your in- backs this up, but the conclusion is come. So I do think it’s important very simple, which is that ordinary [to save 20 percent of your income], people should not buy or sell indiespecially for people who are able vidual stocks—period. You should to do so. When you have your first not be spending your time wonjob, and you’re not yet married and dering whether or not Chrysler’s your expenses are kind of manage- going to come up with the next inable, that’s when you really need novative generation of minivans to start and save as much of your and bet your financial well-being income as you can, so that it can on your ability to do that. compound over time. And you get First of all, the [profesused to living a little bit below sional investor you’re competing your means. Unless you’re saving, against]... knows more than you you really can’t have a financial do about this subject, has more plan. And unless you’re saving, information. This is their full-time you really can’t have any money to job. All the information we have, invest. It’s like the saying, “rocket all the data we have available to

us says that individual investors section of the paper to understand are just horrible at picking stocks. how some company you might inAnd the great thing about that vest in is doing. It just frees up a is once you realize that everyone’s whole lot of time and brain space going to be terrible at picking to be good at your day job and to stocks, it actually takes a big load be, you know, hugging your kids… off your mind. You never have to you’re not spending trying to out watch any financial TV show, you -invest the pros. don’t have to follow the business

COURTESY OF AMAZON

University of Chicago Professor Harold Pollack’s new book on fi nances, “The Index Card” was released on Jan. 5, 2016.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

VIEWPOINTS

Turning to Service What Does it Mean to Be Social Justice–Oriented or Politically Active as College Students?

Monday marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day off from classes but also a time to reflect on community service and social justice. The University Community Service Center (UCSC) will be hosting a Weekend of Service, an opportunity for students and community members to jointly give back to our community.

On our campus, though, it is worth considering how we can not only think about social justice during a few days a quarter, but as an intrinsic part of our education and the culture on campus.

What does it mean to be so-

cial justice-oriented or politically active as college students? For many students, the question remains if college is the time to start changing the world, or to fi gure out how you want to change the world. There are some students on campus who wholeheartedly pursue changes that they believe will benefit our communities, immediately acting towards the change they wish to see in the world. There are also those students who are not yet so sure of their worldview, or to what issues or movements they should dedicate their time. Both are understandable

places for a college student to be in their intellectual development, and neither group needs to judge or antagonize the other.

These two groups don’t need to be completely separate, either.

Even if you are not sure of what cause to fight for, or how you want to confront injustice, there are still many opportunities to engage and give back to our community. The University has many avenues for encouraging community engagement, ranging from the UCSC’s extensive programming to countless tutoring programs, and many other opportunities. Many students

also engage with social justice in other forms outside of University programming, such as activism and protests and community-orientated research. No matter the major or career path, there are many ways to engage with social justice, some of which only take 15 minutes in a week.

It can be all too easy to look at systemic issues facing the South Side—ranging from an overly punitive criminal justice system to a seriously f lawed public education system—and feel that nothing can be done as a college student, or that action is meaningless if it does

not challenge the core of these issues. That, however, is an overly pessimistic view that ignores what we as individuals can do for other individuals. Whether it be giving a homeless person a sandwich and acknowledging them as another individual, or explaining a math concept to a student whose school has failed them, there are many small things we can that will make a small difference for another person. We are not naive enough to believe these actions will change the world, but they nonetheless contribute to a better world.

Exploring social justice as a college student is about even more than the aid we are able to give others; it is about how we choose to spend our time, what kind of education we provide for ourselves, and the kind of people we want to become. It is about being conscious of how we’re using our time, and to what end. At this school many of us are masters of calculating the opportunity costs of each hour—figuring out how we can most efficiently fit together a puzzle of studying, sleep, social time, and extracurriculars. But we should also consider if the way we are using our time is best equipping us to help others now or in the future. We should work on having empathy for others and a better understanding of situations unlike ours as some of the many skills we strive to develop on this campus.

— The M A RO ON Editorial Board

Alice Xiao

Under Pressure The independent student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892.

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David Bowie’s Fans are Unwilling to Let His Legacy Be Marred

by His Past Actions

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: 5,500. © 2016 THE CHICAGO MAROON Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Brooke White

Mischief Manager Somewhere tucked away in an overcrowded CD cabinet, you’d f ind my parents’ copy of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie fan or not, you’d likely recognize the red and blue lightning bolt streaked across his face. The album tells the story of David Bowie’s alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, a so-called alien messenger to Earth. Because Ziggy is a cultural icon representing

sexual promiscuity and exploration, he was —undoubtedly—Bowie’s most celebrated and identifiable persona at the time (and probably even now).

A nd then along came Major Tom. A nd Ha l loween Jack.

And Elephant Man. These are Bowie’s different characters, personas, and incarnations, all of which tell different stories and contribute to Bowie’s

enduring legacy as a creative artist.

A fter Bowie passed away follow ing an 18 -month-long battle with cancer, f loods of people took to Facebook to honor the cultural icon. The fash ion gen ius. T he so cia l commentator. The leader of a revolution. The rapist.

Legend. Icon. Leader.

But something’s missing… rapist. Rapist. RAPIST. A ll of these words define Dav id B ow ie, and we can’t understand who he was without considering all of them equally.

Continued on Page 6

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

Mourning David Bowie as Both Rock Star Legend and Rapist

Wei Yi Ow

Continued from Page 5

I’ve always had a problem separating an artist from his or her artwork: art is inherent to any artist’s identity.

Woody A llen and Mia Farrow separated after 12 years together because

she found he’d taken naked pictures of her then-19-year-old daughter. When his own daughter was seven years old, he sexually assaulted her. How can we, when we ask, “ Which Woody Allen movie is your favorite? ” separate

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Woody Allen’s work from his personal life? His mov ies are his creations, inf luenced by his own thoughts and ideas, which largely stem from his own experiences, actions, and behaviors. As I read through Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, I couldn’t help but connect Esther Greenwood’s failed suicide attempts to Plath’s eventual real-life suicide.

It’s impossible to look at a piece of art as though it exists in a vacuum, completely separated from the person who created it.

Simply put, an artist’s work is a representation of the artist. When you ask someone, “What’s your favorite Bowie song? ” it’s nearly impossible to knock images of Ziggy out of your head. David Bowie embraced his identity as Ziggy Stardust—we as an audience accepted that fact. But David Bowie was also a rapist, something we are less eager to acknowledge.

W hy are we uncomfortable with that fact? We love his art. We love the artist. We do not love a rapist. But the answer is not to stop listening to his songs or to disregard his lasting inf luence that extends far beyond the realm of music. It’s worth questioning why our idolatry takes precedence over our discomfort. Why are we so willing to overlook this heinous act? And not just him—our tendency to brush these terrible actions under the rug extends to other celebrities as well. Woody Allen’s daughter has been branded as mentally ill and accused of attempting to destroy her father’s well-earned fame. We can come up with logical explanations for a celebrity’s actions and are quick to suppress anyone who might tarnish their reputation. In some ways, we’re being kind—we want to believe the best of people, especially of the artists who inspire us. In the case of David Bowie, some feel that his actions are excusable because he did this a long time ago, and the girl recounts the time with supposed fondness. However, a 15-yearold child does not have the maturity to consent to a sexual experience with an adult man; this is a fact that Bowie

took advantage of.

There’s the argument that bringing up this age-old scandal after Bowie’s death is disrespectful, but who do we really need to worry about disrespecting? What about the survivors of sexual assault who hear Bowie’s fans excusing his actions by saying, “It was only one time!” or “It was only one girl!”? The kindness and compassion we extend to people like Dav id Bowie, Woody Allen, and Michael Jackson should extend just as easily—if not more so—to their victims. Maybe we have to pay the price of feeling a little uncomfortable when watching The Cosby Show or listening to David Bowie’s music, but the victims have paid the higher price.

We owe them the respect of recognizing their existence and their victimization at the hands of the artists we loved best. One assault is more than enough.

We shouldn’t determine the degree to which we chastise or condemn someone—a rapist—based on the number of rapes they’ve committed. Rape is rape.

Even for David Bowie.

Brooke White is a second-year in the College majoring in political science.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

ARTS

Seven Takes On Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Discussed

Lucasfilm

New protagonists, old tricks: Rey and Finn (played by newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega) rush breathlessly into the spotlight.

My dad saw A New Hope in theaters in 1977 and he thought it was “okay.” Thirty-eight years later, it’s no longer possible to have a neutral opinion about a Star Wars episode: our reviewers either thought The Force Awakens wasn’t fit to wipe George Lucas’s bottom or that it was the best thing to happen to the franchise since the blissful lack of Jar-Jar Binks in Revenge of the Sith. It’s easy to see the downsides of The Force Awakens (same plot, bigger Death Star), but even its most stalwart haters saw potential. The Force Awakens clearly updated old Star Wars tropes—heroine Rey had Leia’s spunk but a Luke-like amount of the Force, while Poe Dameron performed Luke’s role in A New Hope with a decidedly Han Solo-esque temperament. As for The Force Awakens, there’s not enough character depth in the new trilogy to spark a raging Han Shot First-style debate nor does this episode contain any lines as immortal as “I am your father”; still, there’s nothing in The Force Awakens as visually egregious as Anakin’s rat tail (excuse me, Padawan braid) circa Attack of the Clones.

The conclusion, accoring to our writers? Well, maybe that— laugh it up, f uzzball—T he Force Awakens was just “okay.”

—Miriam Benjamin, Associate Arts Editor J.J. Abrams does what he does best in this seventh installment of the seemingly un -killable franchise known as Star Wars : make a horribly unoriginal and really, really dumb movie. New characters Finn and Rey alternate between setting off explosions and delivering somewhat pithy one-liners. Harrison Ford’s tired, wrinkled face also makes an appearance in this poorly made knockoff of the first Star Wars film. It might as well be called Star Wars: The Plagiarism Awakens, except that it’s worse than the 1977 classic in

almost every way: worse characterizations, worse villains, poorly established stakes, an incredibly dumb script, and the worst use of the Wilhelm Scream I’ve ever heard. Have I mentioned it’s dumb?

If you do go see it, I’d like you to have a good experience, so you should probably bang your head against the wall as hard as you possibly can to inf lict enough brain damage to keep you from noticing the plot holes. This is by far the worst seventh installment in a franchise to come out this year. Go see Creed instead.

C- —Harry O’Neil ’17 Like many people, I was a Star Wars fanatic as a child, having watched the original tr ilog y relig iously and collected the seemingly endless supply of merchandise. But as I grew older, I became more cynical over the merits of Star Wars, seeing it as the seed for the crass, shallow blockbusters that dominate present-day Hollywood. George Lucas has only continued to exacerbate his creation’s legacy through his widely maligned prequels and director’s cuts of the first three movies.

J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first of Disney’s new trilogy, is intent on washing away Lucas’s muck by returning to the original films’ roots. The reliance on the initial trilogy is clear, featuring many old Star Wars landmarks and characters, and the story is nearly beat by beat the same as the first movie, even including another Death Star clone.

Yet The Force Awakens gleefully embraces such comparisons and by doing so doesn’t get bogged down by simply catering to fans’ desires. Abrams’s direction is bright and buoyant; alongside John Williams’s boisterous score, it feels truer to the spirit of the older films than The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith ever did. The Force Awakens’ exuberance and sheer

energy melted away my pessimism about Star Wars.

Weighed down by an unoriginal plot, The Force Awakens is by no means great, but it is exactly what a new Star Wars movie should be like: vigorous, robust, and most importantly, enjoyable. Despite its f laws, The Force Awakens succeeds at redeeming Star Wars ’ reputation.

B+ —Charles Khosla ’18 Things I want from Episode VIII (sung to the tune of “DoRe-Mi” from The Sound of Music): Poe, and Finn, to be best bros, Rey, to find out who she’s from,* Me, to laugh at, a lot of jokes, Finn, tempted by Sith scum, Solo, to inspire Kylo Ren, Leia, and not just to follow Solo, BB , an d R2 t o be c om e friends, It’s hard to wait for more Star Wars, Star Wars. Star Wars, Wars. (*My money’s on Kenobi.)

A —Abby Kuchnir ’19 Star Wars has grown to such behemothic proportions that it’s become unwieldy. Basically the only phenomenon that can match its weight pound-forpound is the good ol’ Bible. So here I turn to Ecclesiastes 1:8– 9 (King James Version): “All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

Ergo: the last Star Wars movies sucked and blew and ever since then talking about the movies has been mealymouthed and frankly just a chore. Similarly, “that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” and so this new one is like the old: The Force Awakens is fun and shamelessly, even proudly, apes everything about A New Hope.

There’s an argument that Star Wars was always an un-

original pastiche. This is half right, but would go a lot further with me if The Force Awakens was a particularly good rip-off, instead of an unsound scaffolding for a multi-billion-dollar trans-media endeavor that escapes catastrophe only by deploying what it managed to grave-rob. (Though I’ll admit, they found charming young actors who manage to sell character moments that are mostly under-justified nonsense.)

“I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift…nor yet riches to the wise,” indeed.

C+ —Walker King ’16 Star Wars was and always will be a kid’s movie. The default mode of watching the movies should be eyes wide and mouth agape with an interspersed “wow.” Taking in the original trilogy, it’s hard to escape this mode. Viewing the prequels . . . less so.

The Force Awakens does what a good Star Wars movie should and returns us to the shoes of our eight-year-old selves. Rey swinging around a Star Destroyer? Wowed me.

The dogfights? Wowed me. Everything about BB-8? Wowed me. Every scene is another step into the larger world of the galaxy far, far away. Admittedly, it can be hard to see through the cloud of nostalgia, and when one does, some f laws emerge.

Key relationships could have used more development to anchor our emotional investment.

The third act feels cobbled together. There wasn’t a Jar-Jar cameo.

But you know what? Formal critiques like these don’t matter because this is Star Wars, and Star Wars is about fun. And, thanks to J.J., this movie is fun in a way Star Wars hasn’t been for a long time.

A- —Brendan McGuire ’16 I feel The Force Awakens addresses the Russia-Turkey confrontation in a lighthearted and surprisingly refreshing light. I was worried it might be a bit

too preachy; however, the film elegantly summarized the complex geopolitical situation without blanketing over some rather important details. J.J. Abrams is a master storycrafter, and, while not a work of fiction, he manages to create an experience unlike any documentary or film I have seen in recent memory. I will be the first to admit that some of the obvious symbolism of the Force and how it relates to the growing need to combat ISIS was lost on me until a friend brought it up. After a second viewing, it became apparent I was the fool.

It was worth the second viewing. I await the sequel with bated breath.

B- —Angus Blaxall ’15 I really liked T he Force Awakens, but it didn’t feel quite like a Star Wars movie to me. It certainly had enough lightsabers, blasters, a planet-destroy ing sphere, references to the Force, etc. Yet all these elements did not quite mesh together into the Star Wars I’ve always known and loved.

The futuristic style used to explain the 30-year gap since Return of the Jedi felt wrong.

The Stormtrooper rif les and the TIE fighter wings had too much chrome coloring, and the ball-shaped BB-8 looked out of place (despite being adorable); I disliked the silly f loppy-ear panels on the sides of the Imperial officer caps. All of this felt less like Star Wars, which is known for its gritty, unpolished look, and more like the more recent Star Trek films (also J.J. Abrams). What made this even weirder was the contrast with the utter lack of technology in some scenes, such as the basement to Maz’s cantina, where Rey finds Luke’s lightsaber in a room full of Victorian-looking chests.

The choice of planets was also peculiar. W hile paying homage to the original trilogy, Continued on Page 8

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

THE PRETTIEST STAR: DAVID BOWIE REMEMBERED

BY ARIELLA CARMELL ARTS CONTRIBUTOR

It’s as though we hallucinated him. When I think of David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days, it seems unfathomable that this pallid creature could have ever really slunk on stage in kimonos or space suits. But there he was, keening about being an alien, swaying against the microphone, going down on Mick Ronson’s guitar.

My dad raised me on a steady diet of classic rock. While I loved the pulsating anger of The Who, the jauntiness of early Beatles, and the melancholy of Bob Dylan, the mythos of Bowie intrigued me most of all. I could spend hours gazing at his heterochromatic eyes, listening to his tremulous vibrato.

He made me excited at the prospect of being an artist of any kind; he manifested the pure, unbridled euphoria of constant experimentation. When I listened to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust on repeat, I wanted to create.

But Bowie wasn’t just Ziggy— his personae shifted from the pageantry of outlandish costumes to sharp suits and slicked-back hair. Some said that Ziggy was only a ploy for attention, a childish need to be transgressive, but

I see Bowie’s gradual transformation as an embodiment of gender fluidity. When I was in my early teens, unsure of how I felt about my prescribed femininity, I looked to Bowie’s example (along with Judith Butler’s and The Rocky Horror Picture Show) as a way to live without inhibitions. Gender expression should not be so narrowly confined to masculine and feminine, and he taught me to embrace gender as performance. Do not simply ignore the chagrin of the traditionalists, he seemed to say. Revel in it.

There was also Bowie the actor, though one could say he was always an actor. In Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, he actually became the alien figure the media often described him as. He was pure luminescence on screen, though with an energy more subdued than on stage. His appearance in the film reminded me that Bowie was, first and foremost, a performer. He was interested in crafting characters; although their voices most often came to him through music, he also embodied an extraterrestrial, a vampire, a goblin king, and Nikola Tesla on screen. Who else had the mystical quality to portray all these souls and more?

When I saw the news of Bowie’s

death, I couldn’t sift through my thoughts. If I had been 14 or 15 when this happened, I would have sobbed into my pillow and erected an elaborate, personal funeral for the man I swore I would someday meet. But I’m older now and don’t worship celebrities like I used to. It had been a while since I’d listened to my favorite song of his, “Life on Mars,” so I pulled up the music video, and there he was—gleaming as the camera roamed over his rouged, pouting lips. He looked like a ghostly apparition even when he was alive. I remembered what I loved about him: his ethereality, the sense that if you tried to grab him you would find he was impalpable. A specter.

I walked around the whole day in a daze, listening to “Changes” over and over again, wondering why I had never acknowledged what a good song it is. I thought about the album, Blackstar, that he released two days before his death. Had he waited to go until after he had brought one last artwork into the world?

I like to think he did. I like to think that his last act was an artistic flourish, a final brandish of the hand in the grand performance art of his life.

British Lion Films

A 1976 promo shot of Bowie from The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Art Institute Electrifies with New Contemporary

Froehlich Collection, Stuttgart

A panel from Warhol’s series Big Electric Chair, which features a photograph of an empty execution chamber at a New York penitentiary.

BY SHOSHANNA COALSON ARTS CONTRIBUTOR

While going to the Art Institute is always a treat (and free to anyone with a UChicago ID), witnessing the new and now permanent exhibit The

New Contemporary was icing on the cake. Made possible by a recent gift of 44 paintings from Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, The New Contemporary contains works by iconic artists such as Jasper Johns, Gerhard Richter, and Andy Warhol.

As stated on a sign outside of the exhibit, The New Contemporary demonstrates that “Art is not a single, monolithic narrative but rather a series of shifts and conversations.”

This aphorism emphasized my favorite part of modern art: its willingness to step outside of traditional artistic lines. Every artist in the exhibit exemplified this ideal, but I was most struck by the works of Warhol and Currin.

I happened upon the room of Warhol’s works by chance, without any expectations. Though the exhibit contains a large collection of Warhol, his paintings are not differentiated in the exhibition from the rest of the modern art. The painting that instantly caught my eye was “Big Electric Chair,” one painting in a series of silkscreen ink paintings. The only

two colors present in the silkscreen painting are a brilliant yet serene green and a stressful, eye-straining red.

At first glance, it is impossible to discern what the painting represents. Is it a window?

Is it a piano? However, after reading the ominous title “Big Electric Chair ” it’s easy to stand at the painting for a few minutes, staring at it and trying to guess its meaning. I’ve never been as mesmerized as I was when surveying this chilling work.

A similarly striking but ver y d i f ferent work that I found myself spending several minutes contemplating was John Currin’s “Stamford After Brunch,” which featured three convivial women sitting on a couch smoking cigars and sipping martinis.

At first glance, the painting

depicts a fairly ordinary scene; it appears to be three friends enjoying one another’s company. Upon closer inspection, however, it seems that the artist has exaggerated the women’s proportions to be impossibly thin, like a small child’s body. Further, their legs are shown to make a 90-degree angle while in a sitting position.

T he paintings from T he New Contemporary left me lingering when normally I would have moved on to the next piece faster. I look forward to returning to the now-permanent exhibit to parse the works of countless other brilliant artists who continue to create unexpected and thought-provoking art.

“Thirty-eight years later, it’s no longer possible to have a neutral opinon . . .”

“First Order” are too generic Continued from Page 7 The Force Awakens was also for Star Wars. However, the partly filmed in the British dialogue (especially Poe’s), and Isles, which I associate more special effects were executed with fantasy than sci-fi. The very well. Nonetheless, I recomResistance planet where Finn mend watching it if you haven’t reunites with Poe—obviously . . . but please don’t be that guy a nod toward Yavin 4—was off, who hasn’t watched the original as was the final planet shot in a trilogy first.

B- —Ben Williams ’18 stone village off the Irish coast.

Smaller matters felt strange, My Star Wars story is a too. The music was unmemorable for John Williams, and I saga in reverse. Because I apdidn’t like Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, parently lived under a rock for nor the ending helicopter shot. the first 20 years of my life, The The terms “ Resistance” and Force Awakens was the first

Star Wars movie I watched from beginning to end. Needless to say, the film was a total revelation for this bandwagonjumper. I hastened to watch the entire series the week afterward, starting chronologically with The Phantom Menace.

Having taken this unconventional route to Star Wars fandom, my knee-jerk reaction to The Force Awakens is that George Lucas has a point about the film’s nostalgic pandering, though in the crudest terms possible. (“ W hite slavers” ?

Oof.) More integrally, Episode VII carries over two of the three protagonist archetypes of the original trilogy: hotshot Poe Dameron steps in for Han Solo while Rey ratchets up Leia’s feisty-female-protagonist trope.

But for this viewer, the nostalgia never devolved into schtick; rather, the nods to the original felt organic, almost necessary.

Though having Rey as the film’s protagonist is refreshing—a female Jedi in the spotlight, at last!—my biggest hope is for more character nuance in

films to come. If Rey is prickly, why? A nd will J. J. Abrams maintain the balance between Rey’s femininity and grit without condescending to dismal, gold-bikini levels of objectification?

Rey deserves better than to be merely pigeonholed as the hot, kickass, female lead, as do the legions of young Star Wars fangirls who’ll grow up idolizing her. Take it from a girl who missed out.

A- —Hannah Edgar ’18

THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

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The “Most Photogenic War”: The Spanish Civil War and the Aesthetics of Brutality

BY KENNETH TALBOTT LA VEGA ARTS CONTRIBUTOR

Before beginning to read off his prepared lecture notes, Vicente Sánchez-Biosca issued an unconventional warning to his audience. “Because this is translated, I may miss certain nuances in the language, so my English may sound a little radical,” he said. “But I actually do not mind.”

Sánchez is a professor of film studies at the University of Valencia in Valencia, Spain and the author of many books on film theory and history. From 1992 to 2012, he worked as the editor of the film history journal Archivos de la Filmoteca. Last Tuesday, Sánchez visited the Logan Center to deliver a lecture entitled “The Aura of Atrocity: The Spanish Civil War and the Iconography of Affliction.”

Hosted by the Film Studies Center, this lecture was not principally concerned with the political context of the Spanish Civil War. Rather, Sánchez focused on the ability of the image to convey violence and terror. He discussed how the iconosphere of the Spanish Civil War—in striking a balance of content, composition, and delivery—properly communicates the atrocity of this historic event without succumbing to the banality or obscenity that has often plagues war imagery from WWII to today. Sánchez succinctly captioned this collection of visual media, Republic-funded propaganda, and freelance photojournalistic work as “brutal acts in beautiful pictures.”

The lecture began by observing the common pitfalls of violent imagery that make much of this genre feel “suspicious.” The theatrical nature of staging in photography, the scarcity of imagery in relation to the vastness of the atrocity, and the perception of some violent content as obscene or disgusting all contribute to

making a lot of this imagery “too illegitimate to express the magnitude of human pain.” Sánchez’s PowerPoint presentation included plenty of such imagery, ranging from the Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps of WWII to prisons used during the Cambodian Genocide to Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison circa 2003.

As Sánchez fl ipped through these photos, I noticed my feelings of disgust grow not just in the visceral sense, but also in the artistic sense. I was revolted by how, somewhere between the active manifestation of the affliction and the production of its image, the element of humanity is lost: what meets the eye is a clinical, distanced representation of a disheartening reality.

Since the primary objective of art is communication, it was disappointing to find that these images are not successfully communicating the pain of their subjects nor the magnitude of their circumstances.

So what sets the imagery of the Spanish Civil War—the Arte y Vida Chicago “brutal acts in beautiful picHuddled civilians-turned-exiliados during the Spanish Civil War, which raged across Spain in the late 1930s. tures”—apart from the aforementioned examples? Sánchez role in the formation of this ico- side the brutality of violence. likely to prompt our reconsiderenthusiastically attempts to nography. This was a “new kind Throughout his lecture, Sán- ation of violent imagery with a offer insight and provide a comof war”— Sánchez noted the chez continued to use the phrase newfound perspective. While parative iconographic analysis of “transformation of cities into war “magic synthesis” to describe the the juxtaposition of this obscene the photography of violence from fronts.” These circumstances set unique aura attached to this ico- imagery with Sánchez’s didactic the Spanish Civil War, conceding the scene for new kinds of visual nography. The imagery from this delivery of his straight-from-thethat this is “the most photogenic representation. war was so “photogenic” that it page conclusion may not have war” he has ever seen.

The repercussions this war would be repurposed into visual been the best pairing, Sánchez Firstly, he asserts that the had on the civilian population propaganda, such as avant-garde still managed to infuse his inSpanish Civil War was the fi rst fectious passion for iconography provided new subject matter for posters and postcards. war covered by the media in visual media, portraying civilThe nature of these photo- into every statement. His lecture a “modern fashion.” Coverage ians as “protagonists” and intro- graphs also extended into video, provided viewers with a tool for of this war was defi ned by the ducing an innovative element in and Sánchez presented a film understanding violent imagery significant amount of freelance violent imagery: heroism. Ordi- clip from the time that focused both from the past and in today’s journalism as well as the more nary people, families, and mili- on air bombardments. Sánchez world, when our media is inunadvanced technology of cameras, tiamen were rescued from obscu- noted the “almost fictional” na- dated with violent video content allowing journalists to move rity and turned into heroes. ture of the stylistic editing, as (police brutality, mass shootings, more freely at the war front. He Sánchez argued that this well as the orchestral music and and ISIS propaganda), and our considers this instance an “idylheroic representation comple- narrative voice, all of which con- threshold for what is considered lic moment in modern photojourments the violent imagery, and tribute to forming the same pro- “obscene” is constantly shifting. nalism,” as well as a major shift this “magic synthesis” of hero- tective aura. in the “history of representation.” ism and pain constructs a “proTo conclude, Sánchez played The particular nature of the tective aura” that preserves the a clip of Holocaust imagery, most Spanish Civil War also played a humanity in the image along-

the Sketch A RTS , B RIEFLY .

Plan your week. Plan for Arts.

Thursday, check out the Smart’s Join CUSA for dinner in Hutchin- E minor.

Logan Cabaret Series Catch the first cabaret of the son Commons at 6 p.m. before Sunday, January 17, 3 p.m., “DarkRoom” photobooth, illuUT/TAPS & UChicago quarter tonight in Logan, featur- witnessing an undercover cop in- Mandel Hall. Tickets $5 students, minate your way through the Maya present Kaleidoscope ing acts by Benjamin Giber, Am- filtrate a threatening syndicate at $30 general admission. Tickets galleries flashlight in hand, and This weekend, UChicago Maya, brose Lu, Daniele Becker, Ken the 7 p.m. performance in Mandel sold via the Logan Center box dance the dark away while the -5 campus’s Eastern and Western fu- Leng, Ilan Haskel, Roux Nemaei, Hall. office by phone at 773.702.ARTS, degree wind whips outside. Stusion dance group, and University and Ayling Dominguez. Sit back, Saturday, January 16, 6 p.m., online at tickets.uchicago.edu, or dents only!

Thursday, January 21, 8–10 Theater will unite to bring you a relax, and absorb an evening of Hutchinson Commons. Tickets $8 in person. p.m., Smart Museum of Art. Free psychedelic eight-part meditation spoken word poetry, dance, guitar, in advance, $10 at the door. on the theme of kaleidoscopes. and more.

Party at the Smart: Radio- admission.

Friday, January 15, 8 p.m., Through dance, these performers Pacifica Quartet plays active EDM, neon tees, and radiowill explore the ideas of refraction, Logan Center for the Arts. Free Schnittke, Shostakovich, and active cupcakes—not your typrepetition, and endless shifts. The admission.

Mendelssohn performance runs 75 minutes with In their penultimate concert ical Party at the Smart. This UChicago CUSA presents as the University’s Don Michael a 10-minute intermission.

Friday, January 15, 7:30 p.m. International Affairs Randel Ensemble-in-Residence, CORRECTIONS: A play off of the Hong Kong the Pacifica Quartet presents a and Saturday, January 16, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Logan Center for the crime thriller Infernal Affairs program of favorites gleaned from An article published on January 8 (“Live from Mandel Hall, 33 Arts, Theater West. Tickets $6 ad- (later adapted in the U.S. as The the group’s extensive discography.

Years Later”) incorrectly stated that Bethel is 70 miles north vance, $8 at the door. Tickets sold Departed), the Chinese Under- Schnittke’s Quartet No. 3 opens of Woodstock, NY. It is 43 miles southwest of Woodstock. THE via the Logan Center box office by graduate Students Association’s the program, followed by ShostakM AROON regrets this error. phone at 773.702.ARTS, online at (CUSA) 2016 cultural show takes ovich’s Quartet No. 13 in B-flat mitickets.uchicago.edu, or in person. the streets of Kowloon to the stage. nor and Mendelssohn’s Quartet in

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

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Down Across 1 African language group 1 Jobs concern 2 Come to power by force 5 Animated nerd Neutron 3 Attire 10 Short, as a skirt 4 Acted freshly to 14 Aboard 5 Bob Marley’s god 15 Nice finisher?

6 ___ Noyes (UChicago build 16 Wilson who works with Wes ing) Anderson 7 The lowest number in a gp.

17 Pecans, for instance 8 School for bio majors 18 Worn-again item 9 “3:10 to ___” 20 Faith in another (Glenn Ford western) 22 Jungle primate 10 Unlike Bernie or Donald 23 Position of power 11 ___ Jima Memorial 28 Came about 12 Unused 32 Disc jockey’s nightmare 13 Way to end a holiday?

34 Shrinking Asian sea 19 Antipollution org.

35 Admin. of forum 21 Trippy subreddit name 38 Digestion aid 24 Cab’s ancestor 39 Sitcom starring Judd Hirsch 25 Sufjan Stevens’ and Danny DeVito “The Age of ___” 40 Like half of these clues 26 Rhode Island’s vote on 42 Play segments whether to ratify the constitu 44 You, to Shakespeare tion 45 Eloquent one 27 Lit only by candle, for in 49 After school gp. stance 50 Owl’s cry 29 Large 22-across 51 You might spin a dreidel in 30 Kenny G instruments front of it 31 Donovan who played Amber 53 Cinco de Mayo dip on “Clueless” 55 Research paper numbers 59 Glass of “This American Life” 33 Fancy 13-down 35 Class at Oxford 61 Zoltan, Director of “Cry, the 36 Mexican goalkeeper Beloved Country” Guillermo 62 Newbie 37 Act like Pavlov’s dog 69 Ukraine capital 41 One looking in 70 Israeli activist Nathan 43 With “That”, Soulja Boy’s 71 Save for later most famous song.

72 “Why are you looking ___?”

46 B-ball official 73 Alpine lift 47 “It’s ___ from me” 74 Sarcastic, as a comment (Simon Cowell saying) 75 Boss, or the finisher of the 48 As well pattern established by 52 Pipe in some bars 18-across, 23-across, 54 Small 2nd person verb 55-across, and 62-across?

56 Cliché 57 Plant malady 58 Like a born-again Christian 60 Crafts partner 62 Tit for ___ 63 Flow, like the sea 64 Vardalos of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” 65 Shrine owner, typically 66 Part of a geisha’s attire 67 Now 12-down 68 Golfer’s tool

11

THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

Elmhurst Invitational Looms for South Siders WRESTLING

BY ZACHARY PIERCE SPORTS STAFF

A lthough the rest of the school is just getting back into the swing of assignments, the Maroons are in the busiest part of their season. In the fourth weekend of this seven-week grind they are traveling to Elmhurst, IL for the Elmhurst Invitational this Saturday. This seven-week period of meets and duals stretching from January to mid-February culminates in the UAA Championships hosted by the team.

Last weekend, the South Siders were in Plymouth, WI for the Lakeland Duals and went 1–2 fielding a very young lineup.

Their win came easily against the hosts, Lakeland, 40 –13.

Their tightly contested losses were to St. John’s and Dubuque.

The Maroons are positive and are looking to get back on track this weekend in Elmhurst.

At the Lakeland Duals, secondyear Nick Ferraro got a pin in the last second of his match. He said, “Last week at Lakeland was encouraging, Dubuque is a nationally ranked team and we wrestled them without a full starting lineup to a pretty close dual, where the last match could have determined winning or losing. So, as a team, we feel confident heading into the meet of the season.”

Fer ra r o won the i nv it e last year but said this about this year’s tournament: “Last year Paul [ Papoutsis] and I won the tournament, but this year there seems to be some tougher competition, so I’m excited for the opportunity to face off against some ranked opponents.” Papoutsis, a thirdyear, currently leads the team in matches wrestled at 15 – 6, and was named UAA Rookie of the Year as a first-year.

The absence of a full starti ng l i neup has caused the emergence of well-performing younger wrestlers. An example of a first-year who stepped up this past weekend is Luke Iida.

Iida won a technical victory easily at 157 pounds. W hen asked about Lakeland he said, “I think we didn’t wrestle our best as a team at Lakeland going 1–2 for the day, but I believe that overall our team has been going on an upward trend this past month and improving a lot in terms of our conditioning and our technique. I am looking forward to next week.”

W hen asked about Elmhurst this coming weekend, he said, “Despite having a team with a lot of freshmen in the starting lineup, I think we can do well at the invite if we wrestle tough, especially with Paul Papoutsis and Nick Ferraro both coming back to the

University of Chicago Athletics Department

First year Joseph Scheidt pins down a competitor in a recent match for the Maroons.

invite as returning individual champions.”

A nother young wrestler is second-year Devan Richter, who got the South Siders off to a good start at the Lakeland Duals with an early pin in his match at 125 pounds. Richter provided some insight into the

invite when he said, “The Elmhurst tournament is always a good tournament filled with good competition for us. It is a great tournament to go to and gauge how ready we are as a team for the end of the season since the regional tournament is quickly approaching. We may

even see some of our competition for regionals at the Elmhurst invite, which can allow us to change up our technique before regionals if need be.”

The Elmhurst Invitational is on Saturday, February 16 at 9 a.m.

Case, Carnegie Coming up in 2nd UAA Weekend WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

BY ALEX MILLER

play. After an 80–63 loss last abeth Nye is not worried about week to Wash U, Chicago comes any carry over from last weekend.

SPORTS STAFF into this weekend with a record of “The loss to Wash U was tough but 8–4. The team is looking to steal a I think we will bounce back from After a disappointing loss last couple of road games this weekend it for sure. We now know what it’s weekend to Wash U, the Maroons going to take to win in UAA,” Nye to improve their mark. look to get back on track in a slate It is always tough coming out said. Even though the team lost of weekend road games this weekof a big loss like the one the team their last game, Nye shined as she end. Chicago hits the road to play suffered last week to Wash U. scored a season high of 22 points. at Carnegie Mellon on Friday and The Maroons are mentally However, second-year guard Elizwill stop to play at Case Western ready for the weekend, but they will need to make some adjustments in practice and scheme for their results differ from last weekend. After letting up so many points, defense was the focus this week for the Maroons.

“Wash U scored 80 points on us… that should never happen, so we have been working on the parts of our defense that have been struggling,” Nye said. Second-year guard Madison Dunbar also said that this has been an intense week of practice, centered on fixing the problems against Wash U. “This week of practice has been focused on correcting those problems. For example, we are focusing on rebounding every drill to completion this week so that it translates into rebounding for the games,” Dunbar said.

Chicago will try to bring these adjustments into play this weekend against two conference foes.

The South Siders are ready for this new part of their schedule to University of Chicago Athletics Department start up. “Conference games are Second-year guard Elizabeth Nye brings the ball up the court in a game earlier this season.

Reserve on their way back to Chicago on Sunday. These two conference road games will be a tough test for the South Siders as they try to climb the UAA conference standings.

The Maroons are about halfway through their season and have just started the most meaningful part of the year: conference

definitely more exciting. Each one feels like a rivalry because there is just so much history between all the teams,” Nye said. First, the Maroons will play Carnegie in Pittsburg. Coming into the game ranked 21st in the country and with an undefeated record of 12–0, Carnegie will surely be a formidable opponent. After Carnegie, the Maroons travel to Cleveland to play Case Western. Case is coming into the weekend with a record of 5–7.

Besides the two tough opponents the Maroons will face on the court, they will also have to face the trials of their first big road trip on the year. Travel is difficult on any team, but the veteranfilled squad seems to be ready for the challenge. “Travel weekends are always tough because there are still many distractions such as school work and missed class.

However, when it’s time to practice or play a game we always do a good job of blocking out those distractions for the hours we are playing,” Dunbar said.

The South Siders are looking forward to hitting the road this weekend. Chicago tips-off against Carnegie on Friday at 5 p.m. Then on Sunday, the Maroons play Case in Cleveland at 1 p.m. After this weekend, the Maroons come back to Chicago to face off against fourth-ranked NYU next week.

12

THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 15, 2016

SPORTS Team Looks to Push Winning Streak to Double Digits MEN’S BASKETBALL “Being able to get a road win at Wash U is a great way to start off conference play. At the same time we still know we could’ve played a better overall game so there’s still a lot of room for improvements.”

The Maroons will be on the road again this coming weekend as they travel to Pittsburgh and then to Cleveland to face off against Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve. The Carnegie Mellon Tartans are 7–5 overall and 0–1 in UAA University of Chicago Athletics Department play, as they fell by 15 points Teammates (and roommates) Scott Herlihy and Tyler Howard share a laugh on the court this past weekend to Case. in a recent game.

Case, meanwhile is 8–4 onds left to clench the win on overall and 1–0 in conferimpressive nine games.

BY KAT WILLIAMS On Saturday, the Ma- the road. Veteran Smith has ence. As Chicago heads into SPORTS STAFF roons found themselves down played a major role for the the two games, the players The No. 16 Maroons by two to the Bears in the Maroons all season, averag- know that they must put in a very good week of practice kicked off conference play final possession despite hav- ing 12.1 points per game.

Getting a victory in the to be prepared. this past weekend, clinch- ing a whopping 18-point lead “I think we’re very coning a two-point victory over earlier in the second half. Yet, first game of conference play Wash U. With the win in St. fourth-year forward Jordan is crucial for Chicago’s con- fident but we know we still Louis, the South Siders im- Smith was able to take care fidence. Third-year guard have to improve on a lot of proved to 10–2 overall (1–0 of business, draining a three Tyler Howard comments on things in practice this week UAA) and have extended off of a pass by classmate the team’s feelings as they to prepare for Carnegie and their winning streak to an Nate Brooks with 21 sec- come off of the weekend. Case,” Howard said. “They

have some really talented players so we’ll have to do the best we can to prevent them from getting going.”

Second-year forward Ryan Shearmire echoes Howard’s sentiments. He said, “We are ecstatic as a team. One of our biggest goals in our lifetime has been to win a UAA title, something which we have never done. We are in the process of finding out if we are a great team, or simply a team that has won some games. We need to approach this week of practice with conviction.”

The Spartans of Case are averaging an impressive 88 points per game, which may prove difficult for the Chicago defense to stop. “As long as we treat every day as a ‘Big Day’ then we will get big results,” Shearmire said in regard to this week of practice.

Averaging 42.9 rebounds per game, the strength of the Tartans lies in their effort on

the glass. A key component in Chicago’s success against Carnegie will be how well they crash the boards, both offensively and defensively.

Fortunately, the Maroons are not far behind the Tartans in this statistic, as they are averaging 41.7 rebounds per game. Second-year forward Collin Barthel will play a large part in the Maroons’ chances as he has been a spark off the bench, averaging 5.8 rebounds per game.

While Chicago is riding a nine-game winning streak and Case has been victorious in its last two games, Carnegie has fallen in its last two games. After Smith’s game-winning three against the Bears on Sunday, he and his squad have the confidence and the energy it will take to defeat the Tartans and Spartans.

The Maroons will play at Carnegie Mellon on Friday at 7 p.m. and Case Western Reserve on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Maroons Play Host to U–W Mil- Squad Will Kick Off Indoor Seawaukee at Home This Weekend son with Phoenix Invitational SWIM & DIVE

BY DAVID KERR SPORTS STAFF

Both the men’s and women’s swim and dive squads will take on the UW–Milwaukee Panthers this Saturday. The Maroons will have home field advantage in the friendly confines of Myers-McLoraine Pool. This advantage will certainly come in handy as the DI Panthers are 14–0 against Chicago since they started competing in 2009.

The men’s swimming t e a m w i l l c ome i nt o the meet after splitting their matches last weekend with a 162–117 win against Lewis and 149 – 129 loss against Olivet.

The Maroons have had an up-and-down season so far as a team, but have improved as the season went on. The squad is currently ranked 11th in the country by Collegeswimm i ng.com a nd fou r thyear Brian Weisbecker is pleased with their performance as a team so far.

“Our season has been going really well. We have a freshman class of 25 and they have helped us with a lot of depth in our meets and generally with good energy in practice,” said

the veteran of the squad’s pushed them to eighth in the country, according to impressive youth.

The Panthers will pro- CollegeSwimming.com.

The women’s team of vide a unique challenge to the Maroons, as they are U W– Milwaukee is 3 –1 a DI team and the Ma- in the season so far with roons are only DIII. The wins over Grand Valley, Panthers are struggling Wr ight, and W heaton. in their season so far as The women Panthers are they are 1–3, including fresh off the Hawkeye a loss to DIII Wheaton. Invitational in Iowa City The difference in divi- and look to come to the sions does not scare the South Side with plenty of Maroons, as they believe momentum. It seems to thei r ha rd work th is be a match-up between season will allow them an unstoppable force and to compete against a DI an immovable object.

The women, similar team. Weisbecker cites a close loss against the to the men, also look forPanthers two years ago ward to the challenge of as reason to be optimistic taking on a DI team. According to second-year in their meet.

Third-year Kevin Ku Natalie DeMuro, the difhas high expectations for ference in divisions does their meet. “I suspect that not intimidate their team. we will do well at this “The swimmers have been meet. We have a lot of tal- putting in a lot of yards ented swimmers that can this week and the divers do pretty well in season.” have been working on upThe men aren’t the ping our degree of diffionly part of the team tak- culty. They’re a DI team ing on U W–Milwaukee. but we’re conf ident in The women’s swim and what we can accomplish dive faction will also be on Saturday. As teamtaking their shot against mate Melissa Bischoff the Panthers this Sat- would say, ‘We’re a DIII urday. The women have program with DI spirit!’” b e en r ol l i n g t h r oug h T he M a r o on s w i l l thei r schedu le so fa r, take on the Panthers in notching wins in every Myers-McLoraine Pool at one of their matches. The 1 p.m. on Saturday, JanMaroons’ dominance has uary 16.

TRACK & FIELD

BY JENNA HARRIS SPORTS STAFF

The men’s and women’s teams will host the Phoenix Invitational to kick off the indoor season this Saturday.

Looking back, the 2015 season, both indoor and outdoor, was a banner campaign for the University of Chicago squads. Now in the new year, UChicago seeks to bring that spirit back into the fold and will contend to reproduce those achievements.

The women’s team dominated the indoor and outdoor team championships in the University Athletic Association (UAA), and also found success post-season with 13 national qualifiers and five All-Americans.

Claiming its fourth and fifth UAA titles in program history, the Maroons became the first women’s team to sweep the conference since Emory University in 2011. All five of the titles have come under head coach Chris Hall’s tutelage. UChicago has finished in the top half of the UAA for 13 years and coming.

“On paper right now, I believe we will be a better team than we were in 2015. Perhaps our greatest strength is that we have the ability to cover all events.

That team depth is what makes us so competitive in a conference meet setting and we hope to take a step forward on the national level,” Hall said.

On the other side, the fight for the men’s indoor UA A title was particularly compelling last year, as UChicago and Wash U battled constantly. The difference came down to the final relay race of the meet, and the Bears crept past the Maroons at the finish line to win by only a single point, 114–113.

The South Siders have not forgotten, and the men’s team has retribution on their minds this time around.

“Our team competed really well at the UAAs last year and coming up a point shy of a title was very disappointing,” Hall said. “The men want to flip the script and they’re very motivated to do so…if we come into those meets healthy, I would like to believe we will be a contender.”

After last year, there are several athletes to look out for in the 2016 season.

Fourth-year thrower Nkemdilim Nwaokolo played a huge role in the Maroon’s triumph at the UAA last year, receiving the name of Women’s Most Outstanding

Performer in field events thanks to five titles—indoor weight throw, indoor shot put, outdoor shot put, outdoor hammer throw, and outdoor discus. Nwaokolo went on to earn All-American status by placing seventh at the NCAA DIII Championships in the indoor weight throw.

The women’s distance medley relay put up some of the best numbers in the country as well and finished in third place with the All-American team of second-year Megan Verner-Crist, third-year Michelle Dobbs, fourth-year Mikaela Hammel, and fourth-year Brianna Hickey.

In addition, Dobbs gained an All-American title at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 800-meter run. Hickey finished 12th in the outdoor 1,000–meter, and second-year Ade Ayoola came in 20th in the outdoor high jump. Hall is relying on these girls to lead the way once again.

“I feel that the experience they have had at the highest level and the confidence they give the rest of our squad is a key to our success,” he said.

The Phoenix Invitational will start this Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in Henry Crown Field House.