Chicagomaroon022117

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FEBRUARY 21, 2017

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

VOL. 128, ISSUE 29

Obama’s Presidential Center Could Cost as Much as $1.5 Billion BY HILLEL STEINMETZ ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Courtesy of the Oriental Institute Oriental Institute archaeologists pictured working at a site in Iraq, one of the countries covered by the order.

Oriental Institute Future Uncertain Under Trump Administration Restrictions on Immigration May Impact Research in Middle East BY JAMIE EHRLICH DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

The continuation of projects and research at the Oriental Institute has been called into question following President Donald Trump’s January 27 Executive Order banning immigration from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya. In an interview with T HE M A ROON , Gil Stein, the director of the Oriental Institute, argued that the Institute is the pa r t of the Un iversity “most impacted” by the executive order. A lthough Trump’s initial travel ban was halted by federal courts, a second order is expected to be released this week targeting the same seven Muslim-majority nations. Founded in 1919, the Oriental Institute was envisaged as a “research laboratory for the investigation of the early human career that would trace humankind’s progress

from the most ancient days of the Middle East,” according to the Institute’s website. The Oriental Institute is one of the world’s leading centers for the study of ancient Near Eastern civilizations. “ T he fo cus of ou r re search—we’re an interdisciplinary research institute—is on the Middle East, studying the ancient civilizations of the Middle East and how they developed,” Stein said. “ We do that by combining archaeology, the study of ancient textual records and the study of art history.” As a branch of the University, the Or iental Institute carries out research projects across the Middle East. They hold archaeological digs, perform cultural heritage preservation work, and have employees doing work in museums and studying monuments. The Institute also houses a center for the study of the ancient world where students, scholars, and faculty from around

the globe give lectures, attend international conferences, do research, and work with the faculty at the Oriental Institute. “Every single one of those endeavors and groups of people is attacked by this executive order,” Stein said of those involved in both fieldwork and research. In the amicus curiae brief filed last week, the University of Chicago cited the Oriental Institute as an example of the University facing direct negative consequences of the executive order. According to Stein, the Oriental Institute was going to host a Scottish archaeologist to work for a week in the landscape archaeology laboratory. However, because he had travelled to Iraq and Iran within the last five years and wasn’t able to obtain the visa waiver that is traditionally given to researchers, his trip had to be postponed. Continued on page 2

The Storied Past of the Regenstein

Aumur Shughoury

BY FENG YE AND ALEX WARD SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS

Regenstein Library is one of the University of Chicago’s most distinctive buildings, despite being a relatively new addition to the campus. Built over the course of the late 1960s and into the ’70s, the Reg as it stands today was shaped by an environment of significant political and economic turmoil. The Nixon presidency, the Vietnam War, student arrests, labor conflicts, and financial struggles for the University

Handmade Bazaar

Last Chance Meet

Page 6 “I realized I love doing this, and it’s the perfect outlet for me. I try to make delicate designs, and things that I would really like to wear.”

Page 8 “Overall I think swimming on this team was an integral part of my first year at this school, and the support of the teammates and coaches is incredible.”

Corey in the House Page 4 There. I said it, and you saw it coming. Hitler had opinions too. Big ones. Huge.

Speaking at an award ceremony last Wednesday, the architects of the Obama presidential library speculated that the library could require Barack Obama to raise $1.5 billion. The event, hosted at Lincoln Center in New York, presented wife and husband duo Billie Tsien and Tod Williams with the LongHouse Award for their architectural accomplishments, which include designing the Logan Center for Arts at the University of Chicago. The architects said at the ceremony that the hefty price tag for the library is the result of new federal requirements that expect former presidents to establish larger endowments to accommodate the annual expenses of future presidential libraries. A $1.5 billion cost for the library would be three times the $500 million George W. Bush

Chalking It Up to the College Experience Page 7

raised for his presidential library in Dallas. About half of the money raised for Bush’s library went to an endowment to the federal government to manage operating costs. Williams added that the buildings housing the Obama presidential library could cost upwards of $300 million. Williams and Tsien noted that it might be difficult for Obama to raise the money necessary to construct and operate the library since he did not fundraise while in office. Last week saw other developments for the library. On Wednesday, Obama returned to Chicago for the first time since leaving office in order to start planning the construction of the library. At O’Hare International Airport on Thursday, a plane delivered documents and materials from Obama’s presidency that will be archived in the library. The library, which will be built in Jackson Park, is expected to be completed by 2021.

and the country all influenced the building’s planning and construction, and the library represented a major shift in the University’s development toward a policy of major facilities expansion. The Reg was born during years of expansion for the University. The University struggled in the 1950s, after President Robert Maynard Hutchins restructured the University despite its financial insolvency. President Lawrence Kimpton wrote to his father, “Mr. Hutchins Continued on page 3

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Excerpts from articles and comments published in T he Chicago Maroon may be duplicated and redistributed in other media and non-commercial publications without the prior consent of The Chicago Maroon so long as the redistributed article is not altered from the original without the consent of the Editorial Team. Commercial republication of material in The Chicago Maroon is prohibited without the consent of the Editorial Team or, in the case of reader comments, the author. All rights reserved. © The Chicago Maroon 2017


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