MAY 19, 2017
Disruption Rules Edited for Tuesday Vote BY PETE GRIEVE SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
The faculty senate will vote next Tuesday on whether to implement a new disciplinary system for disruptive conduct. Components of the proposed system under consideration by the 51-member Council of the University Senate have just been revised in several major ways. A provost-appointed committee made the revisions after a period of soliciting feedback. A number of the proposed revisions respond to criticisms from faculty senate members who found the first proposal too strict. Notably, the involvement of the Board of Trustees has been put off until next year. The committee that produced the report recommended revisions to the University’s statutes, which only the Board can do, but now it is suggesting that a separate committee be tasked with statute updates. In particular, the committee would consider revising Statute 21, which defines “disruptive conduct.” The Additions There is now a statement that most incidents will be addressed informally with “educational content” about free expression and boundaries. There is a stipulation that the provost will select the faculty members who will hear cases from the pool of professors who have served on the faculty senate in the past five years. Students and staff members will be selected upon consultation with academic deans. Disciplinary committees will be comprised of three faculty members, a student, and a staff member. It is stated that only suspension and expulsion will appear on a transcript. The proposal now explicitly states the presumption of innocence. The University will make available a number of people knowledgeable of the University’s rules who would be willing to serve as “support persons” for respondents and complainants. Continued on page 2
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University Files Against Graduate Unionization Election TYRONE LOMAX NEWS STAFF
The University has filed in opposition to Graduate Students United (GSU)’s recent petition to be recognized as the bargaining representative for many of the university’s graduate students. The University’s filing challenges the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB’s) ruling in last year’s case involving Columbia University. In its ruling last August
against Columbia University, the NLRB established that graduate students who work as teaching or research assistants at private universities are classified as workers under the NLRA, allowing them to collectively bargain for pay and working conditions. This decision overturned a precedent set by an earlier NLRB case at Brown University in 2004. GSU, an organization involved in organizing students since 2007, took advantage of the change in
JORGE ERNESTO CLAVO ABBASS NEWS STAFF
The Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity house on University Avenue was vandalized in the early hours of Wednesday, May 17. A phrase opposing racism was spray-painted on the front of the building. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is investigating the incident. FIJI’s house was spray-painted with the words “FUCK RACISM” on the wall of the building facing University Avenue, as well as an “X” boxed in by a rectangle on the front doors of the building. CPD officer Michael Carroll stated in an e-mail to T HE M AROON that police were called to the FIJI house at approximately 4:49 a.m. on May 17 to respond to allegations of criminal damage to property.
“Police found that multiple racial slurs [have] been spray-painted on the front of the building and door,” Carroll said. “Closed circuit television cameras recorded a masked offender defacing the property and subsequently [fleeing]. No arrests have been made and Area Central Detectives are investigating.” It is not immediately clear what the “multiple racial slurs” refer to—no graffiti was visible except the statement on racism and the rectangle on the front of the building. The fraternity covered the spray paint with cardboard until the Department of Streets and Sanitation came in the early hours of the afternoon on May 17 to wash it off. Graduate Board President Robert Tamillow told to THE M AROON that he had no new information beyond what he had already
the NLRA and cannot be represented by GSU. The University argues that an employer-employee dynamic is not present within its relationship to graduate students, thereby nullifying GSU’s petition. The University also cites the different circumstances surrounding the University’s and Columbia’s graduate students as grounds that Columbia’s ruling does not apply to the University’s graduate students. According to Continued on page 3
Courtesy of Richard Oyeniran
stated to The College Fix in an e-mail interview. In that interview, he stated that “[FIJI has] the perpetrator on video and [is] currently working with the University and the police regarding this matter.” He further stated that “the chapter is not in any trouble, from the University or our International organization.”
FIJI faced accusations of racial insensitivity from several campus groups for hosting a party the night of May 5 where brothers were dressed in construction garments. Requests for comment from the FIJI campus chapter have gone unanswered at the time of publication.
New Fellowship to Replace Public Interest Program KATHERINE VEGA SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
The University’s Career Advancement Office is ending the UChicago Public Interest Program (UCPIP) and disbanding its alumni board as it prepares to launch a new post-graduate fellowship program. The new program, called the Kimpton Fellows Program, will provide paid yearlong fellowships to students in different industries, including public interest, health care, and STEM. UCPIP provides these fellowships in the public interest sphere.
A UChicago News article announced the new program publicly on Thursday afternoon. According to the article, UCPIP had served as a model for the new program, which will include professional development seminars and mentorship opportunities, as in UCPIP. T HE M AROON reached out to the News Office for further comment about the new program and its effect on UCPIP, but no further clarification was provided by press time. “The Kimpton Fellows Program will be modeled on a network of post-graduation fellow-
Passing the Buck
Page 2 A new, zinc-sided design for the cantilevered conference center is one of a series of changes along the south side of the Midway.
the legal landscape to file for a union certification election at the University. If the election goes forward and more than half of the ballots cast support representation by GSU, GSU will represent many of the university’s graduate studentss with research and teaching responsibilities in contract negotiations with the University. According to the University’s filing with the NLRB, the University is proposing that graduate students are not employees under
FIJI HOUSE VANDALIZED IN WAKE OF RACISM ALLEGATIONS
ship programs throughout the country, including the University of Chicago Public Interest Program, which placed students in yearlong fellowships with nonprofits, government agencies and social service providers,” the press release states. “The College and Career Advancement are deeply grateful to the alumni, parents and employers who have supported these post-graduation fellowships.” The UCPIP alumni board, which helps coordinate host site recruitment, programming, and fellowship matching, was in-
Senior Spotlight: Tiffany Chen
Page 4 “The University seldom has to deal with speech issues from the far right, largely because, as a whole, the student body is upwards of 90 percent liberal snowflake.”
New Design for Rubenstein Forum
VOL. 128, ISSUE 48
formed via e-mail on May 4 that it would be disbanded. In the e-mail, from Career Advancement staff members Rachael Ward and Sara Bosworth, the new program was branded as a “re-launch” of UCPIP thanks to a “series of gifts.” The e-mail describes the new program as similar to the popular Metcalf program, explaining that students from a wider variety of academic backgrounds will now be able to participate. “With the program’s new scope and mission, the volunteer Continued on page 3
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