FEBRUARY 24, 2017
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
VOL. 128, ISSUE 30
Zimmer Tells WSJ It Would Be “Fine” for Richard Spencer to Speak If Invited BY OLIVIA ROSENZWEIG ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
President Robert Zimmer said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal yesterday that all speakers invited to college campuses should be able to speak, including white nationalists like alum Richard Spencer. Zimmer was asked by Chicago-based higher education reporter Douglas Belkin, “If Richard Spencer—who attended the University of Chicago and has become a leading white nationalist—was invited to speak at the University, would you have a problem with that?” He responded: “Faculty and students invite all sorts of people, and we don’t restrict who they invite. I don’t invite people. We offer no restrictions to student groups and faculty. What they want to do is hear, discuss, and potentially argue with the people they invite.” Pressed on whether he would allow Spencer to speak if invited, Zimmer said, “It would be fine if he came to speak, just like if anyone else came to speak.” Zimmer also dismissed criticisms regarding the letter released to the Class of 2020 this summer that addressed trigger warnings and safe spaces.
“You were criticized as sending out that letter [which was written by Dean of Students Jay Ellison] as a way to appease your alumni donor base. Were alumni voices taken into account when the letter was mailed?” Belkin asked. “The only voice that was taken into account was the common understanding of the value of the University of Chicago and its culture,” Zimmer said. “I am not the first president to speak out in this way. I view myself as simply continuing to reassert what has been a longstanding value of the University of Chicago that has defined the way we have behaved.” Zimmer also discussed his views on the role of universities in providing a space for discourse. “The purpose [of universities] is to be a place that gives the most empowering education to students and creates an environment for the most imaginative and challenging work of faculty. Confrontation of multiple ideas and ideas that are different from one’s own is critical to this,” Zimmer said. He argued that there is less expectation from students to confront different ideas than in the Continued on page 2
Students line up to try the new restaurants at Hutchinson Commons.
Camelia Malkami
New Eats Come to Hutch Commons BY DEEPTI SAILAPPAN STAFF REPORTER
T h ree new rest au ra nt s opened in Hutchinson Commons on Monday. Flat Iron Grill and Pizza Pazza were replaced by Bronzeville Dog, BBQ Slow Roasted, and The Sweet Spot. All three restaurants are run by staff already working at Hutchinson Commons. BBQ Slow Roasted is operated by Bon Appétit, the University’s dining vendor, and features sandwiches, chicken tenders, and assorted side dishes. Bronzeville Dog, owned by an outside vendor, serves sau-
sages and chili. Both BBQ Slow Roasted and Bronzeville Dog will offer meal exchanges. The Sweet Spot, which sells coffee as well as cheesecakes, pies, and other desserts, is part of an initiative among Bon Appétit, the Office of Business Diversity, and the Office of Civic Engagement to partner with local businesses owned by women and minorities. The Sweet Shop features desserts from three bakeries: Laine’s Bake Shop, in the South Side’s Morgan Park neighborhood; Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique, located downtown and owned by a University of Chicago alum; and Justice of the Pies, which has several locations
across Chicago. Justice of the Pies will soon sell items in Hallowed Grounds and Ex Libris Cafés in addition to Hutchinson Commons. According to a Hutchinson Commons supervisor, employees were notified by e-mail about a possible change in vendors around one month ago. The staff were not aware of the specific restaurants opening in Hutchinson Commons, however, until the change took place over the weekend. UChicago Dining did not respond to requests for comment. Noodles, Saffron, and Taqueria remain in Hutchinson Commons.
Professor’s Comments on Yiannopoulos Spur Controversy BY MICHAEL LYNCH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
On Tuesday, history professor Rachel Fulton Brown wrote a blog post entitled “Bully Culture,” in which she lauded Milo Yiannopoulos for his political views and defended him against critics. These comments came just days after Yiannopoulos was accused of condoning pedophilia. Her blog posts, including many she previously wrote in praise of Yiannopoulos, were circulated within the campus community on the popular Facebook group Overheard at UChicago, and were also picked up by several news outlets.
Yiannopoulos, a journalist and former editor for Breitbart, has been invited by student groups to college campuses across the United States on what he calls his “Dangerous Faggot Tour,” advocating against “political correctness” and expounding his views that “Gender roles work. Feminism is cancer. Abortion is murder.” “Everybody hates a bully, or so we say,” she wrote in the post. “Yesterday, the national media bullied into silence a young man who had risen to fame speaking to audiences of young women and men about the lies that the grown-ups had told them for decades.” Brown has been a vocal fan of
Yiannopoulos since last fall, when Dean of Students John “Jay” Ellison released a letter expressing a lack of support for any “trigger warnings” and “intellectual safe spaces.” “In many ways, Milo’s story is the University of Chicago story; it is what we are in right now. President Zimmer put out a statement the other day reaffirming that we are going to do these conversations,” she said in an interview with The Chicago Maroon. This Monday, the Conservative Political Action Committee disinvited Yiannopoulos from their conference after a video was released showing him appearing to condone
pedophilia. Yiannopoulos apologized for the comments on Tuesday, blaming his “British sarcasm” and “gallows humor” for making it appear as if he were advocating on behalf of pedophilia when drawing from his own experience as a victim of child abuse. On the subject of the tape released on Monday, Brown agreed with Yiannopoulos, saying his words had been taken out of context and calling his critics “spineless cunts” on her blog. “You kind of opened up to someone you have been talking to for a couple of hours, you say things you definitely wouldn’t say on Facebook, or in a studio audience, so
yes they were taken horribly out of context.” As some of the more recent posts on Brown’s blog, Fencing Bear at Prayer, gained attention both before and after the release of the tape, students reacted on social media. One recent alum who took a class with Brown, Sara Wolovick (A.B. ’14) said in a message, “I was disappointed and deeply troubled by what I saw in her blog. Some students have been framing the reaction to [Brown]’s blogs as students being angry that their professor is conservative. I think that stance is unfair to conservatives. My re-
Robert Grosvenor’s Untitled Evades Concrete Answers
Championship Meet for Chicago
Contributing to THE MAROON
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“Every meet different people have Nameless, without a signature ges- been stepping up, making us a betture or branding, Untitled identifies ter team each week we compete.” with the anonymous laborer.
To Professor Brown, With Love Page 3 “His success is not based simply on our outrage but also on the support of thousands... who want him to affirm their prejudices.”
From the Quad to the Runway: MODA 2017 Page 5
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