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FEBRUARY 27, 2018

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

VOL. 129, ISSUE 32

Faculty Forward Union Garners Student Support

BY LEE HARRIS AND SPENCER DEMBNER DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR AND NEWS REPORTER

Students Organizing United With Labor (SOUL), an undergraduate student labor activism group on campus, published a petition on Tuesday in support of the University’s SEIU Faculty Forward union, a bargaining unit for non-tenuretrack (NTT) faculty.

Faculty Forward, which won its unionization vote in 2015, represents both full-time lecturers, who are hired off the tenure track as instructors, and part-time adjunct instructors, who generally lack long-term contracts and are paid per course.

SOUL proposed the petition to Faculty Forward as part of a larger campaign expressing community support for the union, which included a teach-in with NTT faculty panelists and a recent letter in The Maroon by SOUL leadership.

The petition calls on the University to negotiate an appropriate contract by March 2018, saying that the University has dragged out the process. Negotiations began in early 2016.

It restates Faculty Forward’s three basic requests: a living wage, benefits including parental leave and tuition reimbursement, and improved working conditions including predictable contract lengths, a path to promotion, and the possibility for green card sponsorship.

The petition also states that a job action could be on the table, as a last resort, if a contract with the University has not been reached by the end of March.

The union has expanded its outreach, reactivating its Twitter and collaborating with SOUL, to raise awareness. Both Graduate Students United (GSU) and the UChicago chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) expressed solidarity with the union.

“We need students to know that 40 percent of the instructors on this campus aren’t getting equal benefits,” said Darcy Lear, a part-time Romance languages lecturer and member of the bargaining committee. “We want them to understand what our circumstances are, where we’re coming from, and what we’re fighting for.”

Petition Commentaries SOUL co-president and second-year undergraduate Grace Croley told The M aroon that the petition aims to bring the effort to the attention of the University community.

“The University isn’t going to concede anything if there isn’t anyone forcing them to do so,” Croley said. “So we wanted to build awareness among undergraduates about what’s going on, and show the University that we’re aware of the situation, and support our teachers.”

Bargaining team member Dmitry Kondrashov, an applied matheContinued on page 3

Ally Nisenoff

The annual winter MODA fashion show at The Geraghty on Friday showcased student designers and models. For more photos, see page 6.

Divinity School Hosts Philosopher Cornel West

BY BRAD SUBRAMANIAM NEWS REPORTER

Prominent philosopher and social critic Cornel West discussed systemic racism and oppression at a discussion panel hosted by the Divinity School on Saturday.

Mo der at e d by D iv i n it y School professor Richard Miller, the discussion was organized by UChicago’s Ethics Club and was open to the public.

Dur ing his open ing address, West argued that rac-

ism is deeply rooted in social issues stemming from capitalism and imperialism. “ One of the things that brings tears to my eyes these days is that people are becoming a superficial spectacle—so market-driven, so obsessed with image and status and money, and [are] engaging in a joyless quest for insatiable pleasure,” he said.

West argued that this desire for pleasure leads to the desensitization of surrounding social issues.

“One of the problems with

America is we deny the catastrophic, but we’re obsessed with the problematic,” he said.

He argued that issues which are deemed insurmountable are trivialized from catastrophes to mere problems. “If you don’t come to terms with your racism, militantism, materialism, issues of poverty and imperial policies, you’re gonna slide down [toward] machismo rule, hubris, and neo-fascist regimes.”

The discussion panel also featured Divinity School Ph.D. Continued on page 2

Admissions Silent on Suspensions

BY PETE GRIEVE NEWS EDITOR

The University released a statement on social media Saturday night reaffirming its free speech principles and expressing support for high school students who are demonstrating for change to gun laws in response to the Parkland shooting.

Unlike many other universities that have released statements since the shooting, the University’s statement does not spell out that the admissions office will ignore suspensions on applicants’ records that are associated with participa-

Graduate Students United, But Not Organized

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Page 7 Graduate Students United’s lack of transparency and forethought threatens its admirable goals.

Podcast: Campaign Trails

tion in walkouts or protests.

When asked if the admissions office will ignore suspensions, a spokesperson for the University wrote in an e-mail, “I don’t have anything to add beyond the statement supporting students’ exercise of free expression on this issue.”

The statement reads: “As many high school students express their heartfelt opposition to violence, we reaffirm the University of Chicago’s longstanding principles of free expression, and support students making their voices heard on this and other issues of national importance.”

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Women’s Basketball Keeps Winning Streak Alive

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Page 8 The team will participate in the upcoming NCAA DIII tournament.

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 2018

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

Events

Groups Advocate Reparations and Discuss University History at Teach-In

2/27–2/29

BY CAROLINE KUBZANSKY

Today

NEWS REPORTER

Prayer Vigil Against Displacement McCormick Place, 2301 South Martin Luther King Drive, 3–4:30 p.m.

Activists worried about the impact of the Obama presidential library gather to advocate for a community benefits agreement.

Obama Presidential Center Public Meeting McCormick Place, 2301 South Martin Luther King Drive, 5–9 p.m.

Leadership at the Obama Library host a public meeting on the developing plans for their Jackson Park location.

Tomorrow #WeDemand Cultural Centers Reynolds Club, 11 a.m. (Also Thursday, March 1 at 11 a.m.)

Representatives of several multicultural student organization gather as part of a campaign to establish identity-group defined cultural centers at the University of Chicago.

Thursday

2018 Illinois Democratic Gubernatorial Forum Logan Center for the Arts (live broadcast), 6–7:30 p.m.

WBEZ Chicago, POLITICO and the University of Chicago’s non-partisan Institute of Politics will host a live public forum featuring the six 2018 Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidates discussing their respective visions for the future of Illinois. This event is sold out, but tune in to the live broadcast on Illinois Public Radio, wbez.org, politico. com/live and politics.uchicago.edu

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Reparations at UChicago (RAUC) partnered with UChicago Socialists and UofC Resists to hold a teach-in on Monday evening about the University’s contested relationship with slavery and the best way going forward for the University to confront this alleged past.

The RAUC draws a connection between the first University of Chicago, which slave owner and Congressman Stephen Douglas helped bankroll in 1856, and the current University. It is on these grounds that they argue the University should give reparations to descendants of Douglas’s slaves and the predominantly black South Side.

The teach-in featured speakers from organizations including Graduate Students United (GSU), Black Lives Matter, the Obama Library South Side Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Coalition, and the Association of Black Psychologists. The meeting focused on clarifying the line of reasoning in the RAUC’s argument as to why the current University is morally and legally responsible for compensating damages from slavery.

RAUC speakers also advocated for the University to agree to negotiations for a CBA as a way of making indirect reparations to the South Side community.

Obari Cartman, president of Chicago’s chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists, highlighted how the damage

done both to direct descendants of slaves in Chicago and to the greater community of African descent is not repairable through monetary compensation alone. He cited the loss of culture after generations of slavery and assimilation and the cultural memory of trauma in black communities, which he does not believe white-dominated psychological theory is well equipped to deal with.

“If we’re serious about doing anything to restitute, we have to be thinking about this on a much deeper level than we’re comfortable with,” he said.

Kofi Ademola of Black Lives Matter added that reparations are not just a reaction to a historical bygone, but a way to handle current problems on the South Side. He referenced the tense relationship between community members and the University of Chicago Police Department, increasing development in Woodlawn, and rising housing prices in lower-income areas.

“There are real things to be redressed right now. This is something that is really impacting people,” he said.

A representative from the CBA Coalition reaffirmed that an agreement which included South Side residents in development decisions could function as an indirect form of reparations.

“If you’re taking tax dollars, you have to ensure benefits for the people you’re taking tax dollars from,” he said.

Some attendees of the teach-in did not agree with the RAUC’s claims about slav-

ery and the University.

“I don’t find that your statements in the paper are documented. I am absolutely for getting after the University of Chicago for its crimes of great magnitude over many years,” one attendee said, “but taking it back to 1856 is absolutely a non-starter.

The money of the original University of Chicago was owing to slavery, but they went broke. They went bankrupt. If you don’t use historical evidence, the rest of your statements, which are true, will be laughed at.”

RAUC member and postdoctoral student Guy Emerson told the attendee that his claim was false, eliciting an agitated response from the attendee. After other attendees protested that the attendee should listen to Emerson, he stormed out of the meeting, shouting, “This is bullshit!”

Another attendee, adult education teacher Adam Rose, continued the debate by emphasizing the importance of maintaining historical accuracy and not shutting down dissenters.

Retired history teacher and attendee Owen Lawson disagreed with Rose. He argued that much of what the questioner referred to as documented history is mythology, referencing what he said as widespread historical whitewashing.

“I had to go my entire education without talking about African history. If we’re flying the flag of historical accuracy, let’s be consistent,” he said.

West Discusses Clash with Ta-Nehisi Coates Continued from front

students Foster Pinkney and Russell Johnson, as well as Jeremy Rutledge of the Circular Congregational Church in Charleston, South Carolina. They delivered prepared speeches regarding the implications and application of West’s 1993 book Race Matters before the floor was opened to questioning.

In his speech, Pinkney addressed how progress against oppression could be achieved. He referenced Eric Garner, who died of asphyxiation after being placed into a chokehold by New York police officers in 2014. Pinkney argued that Garner’s death serves as a prophetic symbol. “ The cry of ‘I can’t breathe’ is a spark that ignites the humanity within the oppressed,” he said.

Johnson discussed increasing political categorization and division within society, noting that West has often refused to subsume his political ideologies into particular categories. In Race Matters, West takes stances which draw from beliefs across the political spectrum.

“The liberal-conservative dichotomy makes it difficult to accept new changes and ideas,” Johnson said. “American critics have to push not only against injustice, but also against what their readers are likely to believe.”

Rutledge’s speech argued that injustice and oppression ought to be fought with compassion, suggesting that “justice is simply a public form of love.”

He stated that, in response to tragic events, individuals must do more than condemn the act: “Prophetic critique must call out suffering as well as the indifference to those who are suffering.”

West also elaborated on his clash with activist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Coates deleted his Twitter account last December after an online feud with West, in which West alleged that Coates

Courtesy of Gage Skidmore

West is known for his radical leftist politics and his criticism of Obama. failed to address former president Barack Obama’s use of drone strikes and connections to Wall Street in his 2017 book on Obama’s presidency, We Were Eight Years in Power.

“When [Coates] talks about white

supremacy, he hardly talks about empires,” West said, referring to the connection he sees between racism and imperialist and capitalist systems. “ You have to have moral consistency.”

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

More Faculty Forward Bargaining Regarding Pay and Job Requirements to Come Continued from front

matician and senior lecturer in the Biological Sciences Division, told The Maroon that the SOUL petition fits into Faculty Forward’s larger push to bring public attention to the negotiations.

“If the University treated all faculty with some sort of baseline consideration as valued professionals, which a lot of the members don’t feel is the case, then I think it wouldn’t matter so much for the students to know the exact status, title, or position of the professors. I don’t think it should be necessary, yet I think it is, because ultimately it does impact the students,” he said.

Discussing the delays in negotiations, Kondrashov said that although the University has been bargaining in good faith, “they haven’t demonstrated a lot of urgency.”

“We are not accusing the administration of not trying to reach an agreement, but it often seems, for example, that they’re not in a hurry, when we give them a proposal, to give us a counter-proposal back,” he said.

Demands and Other Issues Beyond concrete considerations like pay raises, SOUL’s petition calls on the University to treat faculty with respect.

“The University refuses to call NTT faculty ‘faculty,’ instead opting for ‘other academic appointees,’” it reads. “This language points to larger issues of lack of respect on the University’s behalf, which has led many NTT faculty to feel ‘invisible’ and ‘disposable.’”

Another key disagreement between Faculty Forward and the University is how many courses full-time faculty should be expected to teach.

Faculty Forward claims that six courses per year has been the norm at the University, while the administration claims that three per quarter, and eight or nine per year, is more in line with peer institutions.

In particular, Faculty Forward argues that the University doesn’t recognize important work that their members engage in outside the classroom, which would be squeezed by increasing the required course load.

Until the most recent bargaining session on February 19, the University had not proposed specific compensation numbers in response to Faculty Forward’s position. According to Faculty Forward, the numbers that did arrive weren’t good enough.

“Many full-timers, including some who’ve been here more than a decade, make less than $50,000, which is below the median income for [the Chicago area],” Lear said. “The raises in the University’s proposal are between 0 percent and 2 percent a year, which doesn’t even match cost of living [increases].

Our union dues are going to be 2 percent, so to break even on having a union we need to get more than a 2 percent raise.”

Faculty Forward says that lecturers provide important support, mentoring students by involving them in the campus community.

“The University is basically saying we don’t want to pay you for [work outside the classroom anymore] —that’s what became clear at the February 19 meeting,” Lear said.

“We thought we were making a good case for ‘here are all the extra duties we’re doing,’ and instead it seems like the University saw those extra duties and said, ‘We don’t want you to do that when we could force you to teach more instead.’”

In addition, disagreements remain over benefits. Faculty Forward says that its members deserve parity in benefits with tenure-track faculty, including tuition support and health care. Negotiations on the issue are ongoing.

Both sides have largely agreed on a new path to promotion for full-time faculty, which would create three tiers of increasing pay, benefits, and job security. In previous years, lecturers had the possibility of promotion to senior lecturer, a position with higher pay and more security—but that avenue has

Courtesy of Faculty Forward

Members of the Faculty Forward bargaining team, pictured in September 2017 largely been closed off.

“Full-time faculty were told that if you do XYZ, you’ll become a senior lecturer,” Lear said. “Then that possibility of promotion just went away.”

Future Steps There are four more bargaining sessions scheduled this quarter, on March 7, 8, 14, and 15.

If negotiations fail, Faculty Forward has raised the possibility of a strike, most likely during spring quarter. The first step is to hold a strike authorization vote, which doesn’t begin the strike but does lay the groundwork for one.

“Someday, and it might have to be before March 15, you have a strike authorization vote,” Lear said. “That says, ‘As a member, I’m authorizing my bargaining team to take an action that will disrupt business as usual on this campus, if they decide they need to.’”

If a strike does happen, it wouldn’t necessarily involve canceling class. Faculty Forward representatives say classes might be hosted off campus, to send a message without overly disrupting learning.

“If it’s a small class, you agree to meet in a café or restaurant,” Lear said. “If you have a unit member who lives close by, you have your class meet you there.”

It wasn’t clear which issues could trigger a strike, but Faculty Forward suggested that agreement seems hard to reach on many key questions.

“If a student’s professor is having to worry about where to get another part-time job to pay the rent—which, I should point out, is not the case for me or for all of our members, but is the case for some—I think that’s not right, and it does bleed over into the students’ education,” he said.

Both sides are aiming to agree to a contract by the end of the quarter, though disagreements about pay and job requirements have threatened that timeline.

In a statement to The M aroon, Jason Merchant, a linguistics professor and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, said that the University considers keeping up with their fields a part of lecturers’ responsibilities as UChicago instructors.

“All lecturers are expected to maintain current subject-matter expertise in their respective instruction areas and in best practices, and we have proposed that that every full-time lecturer be compensated for time spent doing that,” Merchant said.

“Some members of the bargaining group also participate in a range of activities [beyond teaching], including supervising student papers, advising student organizations, designing new courses, mentoring, providing career counseling, serving on committees, and many others,” Merchant said. “These are important duties that are essential to providing a high-quality education for our students.”

Because Faculty Forward represents lecturers with divergent responsibilities across many departments, negotiating a contract that covers all of them could prove difficult.

“Even within programs, there are many different ways that this University operates,” Lear said. “How do you piece together

a single contract that covers everyone?... We need to be able to go to our members and say, ‘Your job will look like this.’ We can’t leave it vague.”

The University, however, argues that its pay proposals match payments for full-time lecturers at similar institutions.

“The University’s initial compensation offer for full-time lecturers, which was only introduced at the beginning of this week, includes initial salary levels that are on a par or better than our peers,” Merchant said.

“This represents a substantial increase over current starting salary levels, including salary increases as high as $15,000 or more.”

“I don’t know what the University will give us, but they have to make a case for nontenure-track families literally having less value than tenure-track families,” Lear said.

Merchant’s statement highlighted a series of proposed improvements for lecturers, including a cap on the size of language classes, more notice for reappointments, and immigration support such as sponsorship for green cards.

“[The University] is insisting in fixing what isn’t broken, and pushing us toward engaging in actions that will disrupt business as usual on campus,” Lear said.

Merchant does not agree that the University has dragged out negotiations.

“By mutual agreement, the two sides committed at the outset to saving some issues until the end of negotiations, including compensation, workload, and benefits. As a result, these issues have not been the subject of bargaining until very recently,” Merchant said. “Although reaching a first contract has taken considerable time, neither the University nor the SEIU has purposely slowed down the process, and it is our mutual interest to reach agreement as soon as possible.”

Merchant also said that SEIU replaced its chief negotiator and another bargaining team staff member in the middle of negotiations, producing “unexpected delays.”

“We are very optimistic that we can reach agreement soon on the remaining topics,” he said.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

VIEWPOINTS University Should Voluntarily Recognize Graduate Union Shortly before the graduate student unionization vote last October, we wrote that it would not be in the University’s best interest for it to try to appeal a pro-unionization vote. In the face of an unambiguous result, it would leave graduate students justifiably skeptical that their contributions to campus were being given the weight they deserve.

The result of the election, in the end, could hardly have been more clear, and yet the University still opted for a legal challenge.

In the face of sustained legal opposition from the University, and a newly-Republican controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Graduate Students United (GSU) chose this month to withdraw its bid for NLRB-mandated recognition by the University. It took a decade to overturn the last piece of anti-graduate student unionization precedent before the NLRB; GSU’s decision to withdraw, alongside other graduate stu-

dent unions engaged in similar cases, may preclude a repeat of that long delay. In the interim, they will campaign for voluntary recognition as representatives of the University’s graduate students. In this effort, we can only hope GSU will enjoy the sympathetic support of people across campus who respect the strong desire for representation displayed by October’s vote. It will certainly enjoy ours.

There is precedent for direct recognition even in the limited universe of private university graduate student unionization. Cornell conducted a unionization election outside of the NLRB process and would have directly recognized its graduate student union if it had won (the result of the election was ultimately inconclusive). Four of the nine schools whose graduate students voted in support of unionization since the NLRB reopened the possibility in 2016 decided they would be bet-

ter off acknowledging the results and moving forward. These schools are joining many long-unionized public colleges and universities, including the Universities of Wisconsin, California, and Illinois.

In the wake of GSU’s decision, Provost Daniel Diermeier announced the launch of a consultative process to improve conditions for graduate students. While such a process isn’t unreasonable, it still wouldn’t replace the leverage that collective bargaining could have offered to graduate students—which was, of course, what graduate students voted for.

There is a concession in a long-standing argument embedded in the message. In the past, there has been some dispute between unionization proponents and opponents about whether various improvements in the conditions were brought about by pressure from the union. Here, in Diermeier’s message, the

connection between the efforts of the union and the launch of this process are clear: “The union election outcome last October indicated that a large number of graduate students believe that the University should do more to support them. I unequivocally agree.”

The apparent attitude of the administration means the route to recognition is formidable at least for now. In the long term, we still believe the result is inevitable. Graduate students organized on this campus in a hostile legal environment for a decade. They will continue to do so. If all else fails, they will still be here when partisan control of the NLRB reverts, again giving graduate students access to the protections of federal labor law. Voluntary recognition is a sustainable, productive alternative to this predictable spiral; the University’s leaders need only seize it.

– The Maroon Editorial Board

Graduate Students United, But Not Organized Graduate Students United’s Lack of Transparency and Forethought Threatens Its Admirable Goals

BY DANIEL MOLINE VIEWPOINTS CONTRIBUTOR

For those who may not read these pages regularly, UChicago Graduate Students United (GSU) decided on February 12 to withdraw its NLRB credentials. This marks an end, at least in the short-term, of efforts to form a federally recognized bargaining unit, efforts that began in 2016 with the NLRB’s Columbia decision that graduate students at private universities qualify as employees. In a recent blog post, GSU explained its reasons for withdrawing NLRB credentials. According to GSU, the current presidential administration is vehemently anti-union and the NLRB, the body responsible for adjudicating these disputes between workers and employers, is now stacked with Republican appointees.

The greatest fear expressed in this blog post and by the GSU officer I spoke with was that a loss in court could set a new legal precedent under which graduate students were no longer considered employees. The University of Chicago administration had recently filed for a review of the 2016 precedent, coinciding with the appointment of a new NLRB board member by the Trump administration. Altogether, these factors convinced GSU leadership that a court defense was naturally doomed and would jeopardize unionization efforts nationwide. Although one could reasonably argue that simply waiting for a Democratic-led NLRB that is more amenable to

workers’ rights is not the best course of action, my misgivings with GSU’s decision are not necessarily with the reasoning behind it.

Instead, I am more concerned with the decision-making process and the precedent it sets for GSU’s future efforts.

GSU first decided to rescind the union’s recently attained NLRB credentials during a meeting on February 12. There was no notification or clear communication to members of the bargaining unit that such a serious vote was going to take place at this meeting.

Subsequently, only a miniscule fraction of the 4,000-person bargaining unit and not even all of GSU’s officers attended the meeting. Less than 30 people were able to essentially reverse an election polling almost 2,000 people.

That is surprisingly undemocratic for a union that has publicly and rightfully disparaged the undemocratic actions of the University administration at every possible turn. Although GSU had to quickly deal with a hostile national political environment in some way, its lack of consideration of the views of the entire bargaining unit is unacceptable.

Those who disapproved of unionization for fear of such disorganized and vacillating leadership are both vindicated and deeply troubled by these developments. Intentionally or otherwise, GSU leadership has set a troubling precedent where momentous changes are made so rapidly that even union officers can be left out of the final vote. The status of graduate students under the NLRB has changed

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numerous times throughout its history, and recently has wavered with the election of new presidential administrations depending upon party alignment. Donald Trump had been in office for nine months before the October 2017 union election had taken place. His largely anti-union stance was public knowledge, as was the fact that seats on the NLRB board were going to change during his tenure. GSU leadership was responsible for preparing the members of the bargaining unit for this inevitable outcome, and they outright failed.

This decision to rescind NLRB credentials is one of many cases in which GSU has, either intentionally or unintentionally, obfuscated important considerations about the process of unionization. For example, GSU leadership refused to attend a Graduate Council town hall about unionization that would have allowed GSU members and University representatives to discuss their grievances. Lack of transparency was also a major sticking point for my colleagues in the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) who considered themselves anti-union. Many BSD students were deeply concerned with the consequences of unionization, and were overwhelmingly disappointed with the early efforts by GSU to assuage

these concerns.

GSU has yet to face any consequences for its continued lack of organization and transparency. The overwhelming support for pay increases and more robust benefits precipitated an emphatic victory for the unionization effort; this was a victory to which I and many other students were proud to contribute. That said, GSU leadership must undergo a significant transformation if it is to effectively advocate for the interests of the graduate student body going forward. It needs to provide a clear plan for unionization to members of the bargaining unit, including a detailed outline of how it will pursue bargaining with the University without NLRB credentials. More importantly, votes of great significance like the one held on February 12 must be left up to a unit-wide referendum similar to the one used to ratify the current GSU constitution.

Four months after its momentous victory, GSU leadership must prove to the student body that it has made this transformation or it risks losing our trust entirely.

Daniel Moline is a second-year graduate student in the Biological Sciences Division.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

ARTS Eurydice Plays Viewers’ Heartstrings

BY JAD DAHSHAN ARTS STAFF

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is among the most persisting legacies of Greek antiquity. It has been told and retold by Virgil, Ovid, and even Plato. This time, it finds itself reincarnated in Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 Eurydice, which supplants the myth’s conventional protagonist with his eponymous paramour. The play revels in the power of language to transform people and puncture the thin gossamer veil between life and death. Running from Thursday, February 22 to Saturday, February 24, the University Theater (UT) production of Eurydice was directed by Megan Philippi and played at viewers’ heartstrings with a melody at once delightful and devastating.

The traditional narrative centers around Orpheus: how he loved Eurydice, how he lost her to a viper, how he braved the gates of Hades to retrieve her, and how he fatally turned to look at her as they were leaving towards the living world, breaching the one condition of her liberation and dooming her forever. In Ruhl’s play, Eurydice is granted far more agency and is developed as a real,

three-dimensional character as opposed to one of her husband’s instruments. In the final few scenes, it is she who calls out Orpheus’s name, causing him to turn. Additionally, countering Orpheus’s perhaps unhealthy musical obsessions is Eurydice’s own passion: reading. Books and letters are used as plot devices through which Ruhl explores the relationship between language and memory. After dying, Eurydice’s memory is wiped when she is dipped in the River Lethe; her father restores her recollections, in a sense resurrecting her by teaching her how to read and write.

The play is humorous in two senses of the term: With oddball lines and quirky settings, it encourages viewers to laugh at their tragedies, and Ruhl’s presentation of emotion is a medieval, pre-Freudian one of the five humors. Caught in a fervor, it is not always clear why the characters do the things they do–why Eurydice calls Orpheus’s name or why the father consummately wades through the river. That said, Eurydice is not concerned with locating the motivations behind certain actions as much as engaging viewers in a poignant emotional dialogue.

Playing the titular character and her fa-

ther were second-years Faith Shepherd and Leonardo Ferreira Guilhoto, respectively.

Shepherd’s performance is nymph-like: She played Eurydice with a vivacious passion and a zeal for words and stories. However, just as the tide of her zest captivated viewers, so too did its ebb, revealing her deep vulnerability and even naiveté. Ruhl’s Eurydice breaks the ancient mold with her clumsiness and disharmonious singing, and Shepherd does the role justice, acting out the part more endearingly than boisterously. Guilhoto portrays the father as a tragically hopeful man who cherishes reading and writing as his only lifeline to his memories, but ultimately realizes the profound pain of nostalgia. In a particularly moving scene, he begins to slowly and mournfully disassemble the room of string he had built for his daughter; winding the thread around his forearm, he watches as his gentle tugs erase the feeble structure, leaving an emptiness both onstage and in his eyes.

Opening with a scene on the beach, water dominates the play in many respects, flowing through metaphors. Under third-year scenic designer Sydney Purdue and fourth-year props master Charlotte Rieder, Ruhl’s rain-

ing elevator, dripping sounds, water pump, and River of Forgetfulness are augmented with ripples painted on the floor, bubbles that rain upon the actors, and a real-life pool acting as the river. First-year costume designer Ashby deButts reincarnated the chorus of Stones as algae-adorned formations with crowns of coral woken from their slumber on the seabed; they are a cranky, blue-faced lot that serve as a modernized Greek chorus.

Transitions between water and land, between life and death, are completed by lighting designer Eric Karsten. The set is plunged underwater by a melancholy blue light and resurfaces with much warmer yellow lighting. These changes underscore the vast distance between the underworld and the world above—between Eurydice and Orpheus.

Ruhl’s original script allows adaptors of the play a considerable amount of creative leeway. UT’s production handles that freedom effectively: Their stylistic choices and additions are emphatic and significant rather than cosmetic. Whether it is the costume designers or the actors, the whole production’s efforts show through in conveying the tearful tale of Eurydice and her husband Orpheus.

FOTA’s “Sight x Sound” Is a Sight to Be Heard

BY ZOE BEAN ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR

Festival of the Arts (FOTA) aims to “show how art can be multifaceted,” and that “it doesn’t have to look a specific type of way,” first-year member Simren Kshetrapal said. In the fall, interactive and collaborative art stations were set up around campus, such as a typewriter in Hallowed Grounds and scratch art in Harper. This past Saturday, FOTA put on their “Sight x Sound” show in the Logan Center for the Arts. The show paired visual artists with musicians to create multimedia performances exploring the possibilities for interconnection between the two artistic mediums.

“We wanted to see how [the artists] would make multiple different forms of art come together to form a cohesive whole,” explained Kshetrapal, one of the show’s two emcees. She explained how the RSO “selected people we thought either had interesting sound or would work well in tandem with the other artist.” Some artists applied for the show together, some applied separately, but all were selected for their potential cohesion as a pair.

One highlight was a performance titled “Elapse,” which featured a live digital illustration by second-year Amelia Frank and live electronic house music by second-year Conor Krane. Frank’s illustration began as a simple circle formed by thick, semi-transparent gray strokes, which she quickly morphed into the face of a young girl. As Krane’s music picked up tempo and increased in intensity, Frank’s continuous additions of detail revealed the aging process of the girl. She added contour to the face and detail to the eyes, nose, and mouth—the young girl slowly aged, morphing into an old woman. The choice to use translucent, thick, digital brushstrokes resulted in a drawing that felt both shadowy and very detailed. Krane’s thumping, electronic house music, which incorporated sounds that mimicked the sound of pencil on paper, paired smoothly with the live drawing. Both the drawing and the music were electronic, exploring relationship between the digital and the organic.

A surprisingly joyful piece, especially in contrast to the more serious tones of some of the other performances, was fourth-years

Sarah Larson and Tamar Honig’s “Spice Girl,” a video featuring improvised salsa dancing and general romping by Honig, and videography by Larson. The piece was described as an ode to life, and appeared to be part music video B-roll footage and part celebration of self-love and unapologetic femininity. Set to salsa-house anthem “Bailar” by Deorro and Elvis Crespo, the video was upbeat and enjoyable. Honig danced salsa on a white canvas with red paint on her feet, creating a Rorschach-esque red stain, frolicked out of focus, entangled in string lights, and joyfully spun in knee-deep snow on the midway, prompting a similar jubilance from the audience.

First-years Neha Kavi and Nick Ornstein’s piece, “Midway, In a Sense,” was a series of paintings and accompanying improvised jazz keyboard solo. The paintings were beautiful and Ornstein displayed his impressive improvisational abilities. The collaboration between first-year Mairead King and second-year Trish Zuluet was a portrait and musical performance inspired by the timelessness aspect of love, and Alvin Shi and Jonathan Gardner’s, similar to Frank and Krane’s

performance, was a live drawing and improvised bass solo.

The final performance of the night was the debut piece by musical group Kink Moscato, a “glorious, hot mess.” The group, made up of third-years Juhi Gupta and Zach Sherman and fourth-years Louis Clark and Ava Kaplan, performed an original song in tandem with a vintage, Planet Earth-esque black and white nature video about sea animals. “Welcome to the Olympics. This event is swimming,” Clark announced half-jokingly at the outset. The song was quite beautiful, featuring falsetto vocals by Kaplan reminiscent of Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker on the band’s song “After Hours.” Gupta’s echoing bassline lent an underwater tone to the song, and Clark’s repeating guitar riff was definitely stuck in the heads of many audience members by the end of the show. The accompanying video, although not created by the group, was nonetheless an interesting background for the song.

On the whole the show was a wonderful diversion from everyday UChicago life, which seems to lack in artistic improvisation and

Olivia Long Second-year Trish Zulueta performs under the stage name Ines.

spontaneity. It was extremely refreshing to see students not only create art, but explore what performance art can become, and, technical difficulties aside, there were certainly some wonderful contributions to this winter’s FOTA show.

FRESHER

FASTER IT’S JUST THE WAY I ROLL

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

Exhibit [A]rts Wednesday [2/28] Fiction & Forms: Reading by Samantha Hunt Logan Center, Room 801, 6 p.m., free.

Novelist Samantha Hunt will give a reading hosted by the Committee on Creative Writing. Hunt’s work has won the Bard Fiction Prize and has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other publications.

Thursday [3/1] Painter, Hero, Star Logan Center, 6 p.m., free.

Artists Oscar Murillo and Mike Cloud (whose exhibit Mike Cloud: The Myth of Education is currently on display in Lo-

gan Center) discuss the role of artists in society and the phenomena of “art star” versus “art hero.”

Underground Collective: Midnight Oil McCormick Lounge, 7–9 p.m., free.

Featuring poetry, dance, comedy, spoken word performances, and more from nearly a dozen students, Underground Collective’s winter showcase examines the things that keep them going through the night.

with their yearly dessert auction featuring performances by Off-Off, Voices in Your Head, and PhiNix. University Chorus and Women’s Ensemble Logan Center, 7:30 p.m., free.

The University Chorus and Women’s Ensemble consider the theme of “transformation” through a diverse range of music, spanning from Renaissance polyphony to American song.

Friday [3/2] Men in Drag: Pie 2k18 Bond Chapel, 7–10 p.m.

A cappella group Men in Drag bring sweet treats for the eyes, ears, and stomachs

Saturday [3/3] University Symphony Orchestra Mandel Hall, Reynolds Club, 8–9:30 p.m., free.

The orchestra will play a selection of

pieces by Igor Stravinsky and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. Additionally, acclaimed violin soloist Mo Yang joins the orchestra for a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium.”

Sunday [3/4] KSO Culture Show Logan Center, 6–9 p.m., $10 advance, $12 at door.

This year’s Korean Student Organization (KSO) culture show is inspired by popular Korean talent competitions and will include 13 acts including PhiNix, Hyde Park Taekwondo Dojo, and various KSO dance groups. Dinner, included with ticket purchase, begins at 6 p.m.

MODA Fashion Show

Students and spectators gathered at The Geraghty in the West Loop for the annual MODA fashion show to support dozens of student designers and models.

The runway show was preceeded by a

cocktail hour and an electrifying performance by fusion dance RSO Maya. The event was followed by an after-party at PRYSM. See video of the show at chicagomaroon.com

All photos by Ally Nisenoff

You Got Older Gets What It’s Like to Be Young

BY ROSEMARIE HO ARTS STAFF

For many, a sense of helplesness pervades our generation: We are no closer to accessing what supposedly makes us happy—a meaningful job we like, a stable and emotionally fulfilling romantic relationship, family fondly celebrating our achievements. Clare Barron’s play, You Got Older, capitalizes on this moment now endemic to many adults’ lives but instead of showing how we fall apart,

Barron deftly stages how we attempt to get our lives back together in the wake of tragedy, both banal and traumatic.

The play, produced by Steppenwolf Theatre and staged by Jonathan Berry, begins with small talk. Mae (played by the wildly entertaining Caroline Neff ) attempts an awkward conversation with her father (Francis Guinan), discussing toothbrushes and her father’s new vegetable garden to avoid the elephant in the Northwest Pacific backyard. Mae has been laid off from her law firm in

Minneapolis, her boyfriend dumped her, and her kindly father has been diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer.

Mae’s seemingly petty grievances surface in the course of the play: She hasn’t had sex in 41 days, she has a weird rash on her back, and a potential hook-up (Glenn Davis) mistakes her for her sister Hannah (Audrey Francis).

But it becomes clearer and clearer that her fixation on her lack of a sexual life is tied to her fears about her father dying,

and how she can’t do anything to help him. It makes sense, then, that Mae tries to find solace in a prolonged sexual daydream involving a stern, dominant cowboy (Gabriel Ruiz) who threatens to “obliterate her by fucking”: re-enacting moments of helplessness about her disintegrating life turns her on. A particular poignant moment ends with Mae attempting to orgasm in the dark, and instead finds herself weeping.

This play brilliantly brings forth the Continued on page 7

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

“This play...defuses moments that might be overly melodramatic with raunchy humor.”

Continued from page 6 subtext found in conversations with close family members, and defuses moments that might be overly melodramatic with raunchy humor. In one perfectly written scene, which takes place when the siblings reunite at the hospital where Mae’s father is unconscious after surgery, the dialogue is full of witty banter about sex and body odor that balances the pathos in the room. (Hannah, in particular, makes the wise observation: “avocados and penises —you never know what

you’re gonna get.”) The relationship between Mae and her dad is depicted with nuance and warmth, as both characters attempt to feel out new ways of interacting as adults on equal footing.

Despite the excellent performances of every Steppenwolf ensemble member in the show, nothing can really save drawn-out scenes. Most scenes took far too long for the pace to pick up, and even though the point of You Got Older is arguably that Mae finds her way back to some semblance of control in

fits and starts and general petulance, the prolonged cowboy quasi-sex scenes often come off as self-indulgent. The play’s ending (involving a rendition of Kesha’s hit song “Timber”) is also a little odd given the turn toward even more pathos near the end, and it is unclear why Berry thought it necessary to add an intermission three-quarters through the play.

You Got Older movingly asks: How do you exercise control over facets of your life that refuse it? Mae’s confused

but well-meaning disengagement speaks volumes about what answers there could be to this question under duress, and makes the play well worth seeing.

You Got Older is showing at Steppenwolf Theatre Company until March 11. Go to Steppenwolf.org or call the box office at (312) 335–1650 for details and ticket pricing.

Car Seat Headrest Steers in New Direction With Twin Fantasy

BY GIANLUCA YONG GONZALEZ MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

Will Toledo has been releasing music under the name Car Seat Headrest— which he chose because his first recordings were done in his car—for close to a decade now. What started as a lo-fi, one-man project on Bandcamp eventually evolved into a four-man rock band signed by a label. The group’s latest album, Twin Fantasy, sees it quite literally returning to its roots by completely re-recording and rewriting one of the band’s first and most popular Bandcamp albums. Though it incorporates many newer, more cleaned-up sounds, it stays true to their DIY aesthetic.

Compared to its previous album, Teens of Denial, Twin Fantasy is noisier, less melodic, and less cohesive. However, this is not a fault as much as it is a strength. While the songs sound messy and noisy, they are, in fact, thoughtfully assembled and work well as a whole.

The new album continues to touch upon many of the same themes as the band’s past work, such as sadness, youth, sexual confusion, drug use, and

existential crises, but this time through the context of a failed relationship and its fallout.

It opens with the track “ My Boy (Twin Fantasy)” which only has one short, repeated verse. This track perfectly sets the mood for the rest of the album, both thematically and stylistically.

It begins with Toledo singing softly over jangly guitars and crescendos, culminating in a noisy collage of airy vocals and ringing guitars. The only verse on this song includes the line, “Somewhere down the line/ We won’t be alone,” introducing the loneliness and sadness that is present throughout the album, all the while holding onto hope for the future.

T he next track, “ Beach Life-inDeath,” is a tripartite 13-minute epic.

The track more than justifies its length by keeping the lyrics interesting and frequently introducing new rhythms and melodies. It begins the motif of Toledo questioning what it means to be human and what he wants to accomplish in his life, which is seen in other tracks like “Nervous Young Inhumans,” “Cute Thing,” and “Famous Prophets (Stars).”

Whereas “Beach Life-in-Death” is

long yet continually interesting, the album’s longest track, “Famous Prophets (Stars),” seems like the unrealized magnum opus of the album. Here, Toledo descends into existential ponderings and ends on a cryptic monologue regarding time and the fact that everything will eventually decay. Though this track is interesting at best, its 16-minute runtime feels like an eternity and its five-minute instrumental is boring.

The track could have had the same effect while being half as long.

The middle of the album is full of melodic pop/rock tunes. These are the most fun and accessible songs on the album. “Sober to Death” is the catchiest, beautifully combining low-fi and pop elements as it handles depressing topics, such as loving a person that makes you miserable.

“Cute Thing” is the song on the album that is most similar to a standard rock song, complete with a distorted, heavily fuzzy guitar solo. This song also shows Toledo’s use of humor, when he sings about wanting “Frank Ocean’s voice” and “James Brown’s stage presence” in order to become a “rock god.” He

goes on to incorporate the lyrics of “Ana Ng” by They Might Be Giants.

T he album ends with the track “ Twin Fantasy (Those Boys),” which seems like a continuation of the first track. He accepts that a world shared with his lover is just a fantasy, but does not necessarily give up hope for this.

The only issues with the album were the monologues. Though they do add a bit more insight into the narrative behind the music, they end up feeling much too long and, occasionally, pretentious.

Car Seat Headrest has produced an excellent album that perfectly encompasses the fears that come with realizing the often-dark reality that is adulthood, while alluding to the singer’s hope for the future. The constant singing about menial tasks, as well as the very candid descriptions of drug use, sexuality, boredom, and everyday sadness make the songs relatable despite the strangeness of the music. Through all the noise and distortion, Twin Fantasy is a deep, enjoyable, and catchy pop/ rock album that shows the band is continuing to grow, but determined to stick to its lo-fi roots.

SPORTS

Emory Breaks Maroons’ Undefeated Record MEN’S TENNIS

BY ANNA ROSE SPORTS STAFF

The men’s tennis team traveled to St. Peter, Minnesota, this past weekend to compete in the ITA DIII National Team Indoor Championship. Competition included No. 1 Emory University, No. 6 Wash U, and No. 10 Carnegie Mellon. The men finished the weekend with two wins and one loss. On Friday, the Maroons beat Carnegie Mellon 6–3, but on Saturday they fell short, losing 5–4 to Emory University. On Sunday, the Maroons were able to redeem themselves, beating conference rival Wash U 5–4.

Although the Maroons are proud of their performance, they are still far from satisfied.

Second-year Tyler Raclin commented on his feelings in regards to the weekend.

“We did very well this weekend, coming very close to defeating the defending national champions, Emory University,” he said.

“We were definitely excited to capture a win over our conference rivals, Wash U.” Second-year Erik Kerrigan echoed his teammate’s sentiments. “With this weekend, I think everyone is feeling pretty happy, but still not satisfied. We got third, which was a solid result, but we really wanted to take out Emory in the semis. We almost did, only

losing 5–4, so it was a bit of a bittersweet tournament,” he said.

This weekend’s loss to Emory University broke the Maroons’ undefeated record.

Their overall record is now 9–1. However, the Maroons are using the loss as ammunition and as an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and improve. Breaking the weekend down and understanding what they did well and what they need to work on will be essential for the Maroons as they move forward.

Kerrigan and second-year Ninan Kumar commented on the team’s strengths and weaknesses this past weekend.

“Moving forward I think we can start a little better instead of getting behind early and having to come back and win in the end,” Kumar said.

Kerrigan added, “I think we did well responding to tough situations as a team, namely by bringing a lot of energy to all of our matches, especially when the other team raised their cheering levels.”

Looking ahead, the Maroons are ready to hone their skills. Improving every day in practice is always a priority for the South Siders.

“To improve, I think it’s just about everyone consistently putting together their

Alexandra Nisenoff

Second-year Erik Kerrigan being congratulated by a teammate last week. best-quality matches and knowing we are in a good place moving forward,” Kerrigan said.

Raclin agreed, saying, “Moving forward we are going to focus on hitting better drop shots to throw off our opponents in the future.”

The Maroons’ goals are clear: to win a

national championship. If the squad continues improving and playing the way it has been, the goal is certainly tangible.

“The team’s goal at this point is definitely to win NCAAs this year,” Kerrigan concluded. “I really feel that when we’re locked in together, that’s what we are capable of achieving.”

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 27, 2018

SPORTS

Maroons Finish the UAA Season Undefeated WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

BY DIESTEFANO LOMA SPORTS STAFF

The University of Chicago women’s basketball team concluded its regular season this past Saturday, with a 96–90 victory over Wash U. The Maroons not only captured their 21st straight win, but remained undefeated in UAA play (14–0), the seventh occurrence in league history.

The Maroons set the tone from the beginning, taking a 21–15 lead at the end of the first quarter and extending it to 47–37 as the first half ended. Second-year Mia Farrell found her rhythm, scoring 12 points during this period, with third-year Olariche Obi scoring 10 points to maintain the lead.

The second half began with second-year Taylor Lake making a layup and scoring two free throws, making it 51–37. The lead was extended to 18 as second-year Miranda Burt scored a three-pointer and first-year Marissa Igunbor followed with a layup.

The Bears continued to attack, however, going on a 17–7 run in the third quarter to bring the lead down to eight at 66–58. They outscored the Maroons by a 21–19 margin.

Almost halfway through the fourth quarter, the deficit was lowered to seven. The Maroons responded again, thwarting any possible Wash U comeback. Farrell ensured the

victory by making 8-of-10 free throws in the fourth quarter alone.

Farrell ended the game with a career-high 31 points as well as five rebounds, going 15-of-18 from the free-throw line. Lake contributed with 18 points, three steals, two blocks, and two assists. Obi notched her 14th double-double of the year, with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Fourth-year Elizabeth Nye and second-year Jamie Kockenmeister also scored in double digits, with 12 points and 10 points respectively.

Wash U had the advantage when it came to rebounds, totaling 42 as opposed to the Maroons’ 30, as well as productivity of the bench, outscoring UChicago 36–19. Even when it came to field goal percentage, the Bears edged the Maroons’ 46 percent (29of-63) with 46.7 percent (28-of-60). However, where it counted, the Maroons displayed their dominance, forcing 22 turnovers from the Bears, and in turn scoring 25 points off of turnovers.

For the second consecutive year, the Maroons will participate in the NCAA DIII tournament. Last year, UChicago was eliminated in the second round in a close game.

This year, the team has the potential to go even further, with the cohesion and dominance shown on both ends of the floor.

Burt spoke of the chance to be in the

Men Stun No. 2 Wash U

Zoe Kaiser

Second-year Miranda Burt has a breakaway against Wash U. tournament, saying, “I think we have a much smaller team this year, and because of the size of the team we’ve really been able to spend more time individually with each other. As a result, we’ve gotten closer off the court and performed better on it. The firstyears came in and bought into our mindset and goals. The fourth-years have so much experience and their leadership has been

Women Capture UAA Title

MEN’S BASKETBALL

BY THOMAS GORDON SPORTS STAFF

In its up-and-down season, the UChicago men’s basketball team had one last chance to end on a high note. Heading into Saturday, the Maroons were playing some of their best basketball of the season, winning four of five matchups. However, facing Wash U was a completely different task all together. The Bears, ranked second in the nation, came into this game undefeated in the conference and on a 14-game winning streak. Wash U was on fire, with only one scare throughout its conference schedule, and a one-point victory against our very own Maroons. Chicago was eager to get revenge for a game that it deserved to win.

Within the friendly confines of the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, the Maroons initially took an 8–4 lead and had the looks of a tight, competitive game. Suddenly, Wash U showed the quality that made it the No. 2 team in the country. UChicago’s defense could not keep up with the Bears’ efficient offense and slick passes. The Bears ended up shooting 71 percent for the first nine minutes of the game, opening up a 26–12 lead. At this point, many in the crowd must have thought that the game would be done and dusted. Instead, the Maroons established rhythm on both sides of the ball and stormed back into the game with a 20–5 run to retake the lead.

The two teams traded baskets for the rest of the half, with UChicago claiming a narrow, five-point edge at the break. After

TRACK & FIELD

the half, the Bears were able to cut the lead down to two points with the hosts leading only 47–45. For every punch that the Bears threw, the Maroons had a counter. Following this cut into its lead, Chicago scored eight-straight points to regain control of the game. Whenever the Bears tried to make a move to tighten the game, the Maroons, leaning on the lights-out shooting of fourthyear Jake Fenlon and second-year Jordan Baum, would drain a backbreaking three to stymie the run. They shot seven of 13 from the three-point line in the second half of the game.

In the end, the Maroons were able to keep Wash U at bay for the rest of the game and ended up pulling off an upset victory 86–77. It was a remarkable way for the four fourth-years, Collin Barthel, Jake Fenlon, Ryan Shearmire, and Porter Veach, to finish off their careers. The senior class led the Maroons to 62 career wins over their four years. In particular, Jake Fenlon had one of his best-ever games in the UChicago jersey with a total of 31 points, with most coming from behind the arc. First-year Ezra Swell summed up the emotions, saying, “It was a great that we came out on top in our seniors’ last game against Wash U.” Swell also added that despite the slow start to the season it was “great that [they] brought it all together to accomplish something big.”

Overall, the Maroons ended their rollercoaster of a season well, with five wins in their last six games to finish 13–12 on the season, with an unforgettable stunner over rival Wash U.

UPCOMING GAMES

invaluable. Our experience last year as well as in the tournament makes us feel so much more prepared going the second time around.

I think the combination of these things will lead us to success.”

The Maroons will take on Wisconsin Lutheran (WLC) this Friday at 5:30 p.m. in St. Paul, MN for the first round of the NCAA DIII tournament.

BY KEVIN JOHNSTON SPORTS STAFF

The UChicago women took home the program’s fifth UAA Indoor Track and Field Championship this past weekend.

Case Western Reserve University was the scene for the Maroons’ glorious victory, in which the Maroon women managed to topple a highly competitive field, including last year’s champion Wash U. The team score was tight from the start, as the Maroons found themselves at a deficit to Wash U following the action on day one. However, by the conclusion of day two, it would be Chicago, not Wash U, taking home the UAA title with a nine-point margin of victory.

The Maroon women were led by a series of exceptional performances in a wide variety of events. Second-year Alisha Harris placed second in the 60-meter, while fellow second-year Mary Martin took third in the same event, alongside a second-place finish in the 200-meter. Martin and thirdyear Nicole VacaGuzman were a part of the 4x400 relay squad that finished second, outsprinting the Wash U relay team by a solitary second. VacaGuzman also finished second in the individual 400-meter. Fourth-years Megan Verner-Crist and Ade Ayoola rounded out the second-place finishers, both grabbing the second spot on the podium in the one mile and shot put respectively.

The highlight performance for the Maroons had to have been the high jump, where the Maroons swept the top three

places. Second-year Laura Darcey won her second event at the UAAs, after winning long jump the previous day, while thirdyear Alexandra Thompson and Ayoola followed up right behind her. The Maroon women ended the weekend with an impressive 14 all-UAA performances alongside the team championship.

The men’s team, although not quite as successful as the women’s, still managed to place a respectable third out of seven teams. The men also finished in third place last year. Second-year Joe Previdi captured first in the 800-meter, while fourth-year Patrick LeFevre placed first in the 60-meter hurdles. The 4x400 relay on the men’s side managed to place one better than the women’s 4x400 relay, taking first place with a time of 3:22.77. Finally, second-year Alexander Scott placed fourth in the shot put, with a distance of 15.18m.

While the men’s placing may seem a heavy disappointment compared to the success of the women’s team, fourth-year sprinter Connor Turkatte held an optimistic viewpoint regarding both teams. “Both the men’s and women’s teams did a fantastic job at UAAs this year! The women’s team finished first place in team score, and the men came in third,” Turkatte observed.

“I think everyone did a really great job, and it was a lot of fun watching everyone rise to the challenge and perform so well.”

The indoor track and field season continues next Friday, as the Maroons compete at the Carthage Final Qualifier, beginning at 3 p.m.

M AROON

SPORT

DAY

Opponent

TIME

Women’s Tennis Track & Field Women’s Basketball Diving

Friday Friday Friday Friday

Washington & Lee Carthage Qualifier WLC NCAA Regionals

11 a.m.

3 p.m.

5:30 p.m.

6 p.m.

SPORT Men’s Tennis Men’s Basketball Women’s Basketball Women’s T & F Men’s T & F

SCORE BOARD W/L Opponent W W W W W

ITA Champs Wash U Wash U UAA UAA

Score 2nd of 4 86–77 96–90 1st of 7 3rd of 7