ChicagoMaroon101416

OCTOBER 14, 2016

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

VOL. 128, ISSUE 5

FINANCIAL AID CRISIS LINGERS College Aid Says It Is Understaffed

BY GREG ROSS

MADELEINE JOHNSON

NEWS STAFF

MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

process.

Committee members clarified aspects of their work so far and gave insight into their probable recommendations, including the creation of a separate disruptive conduct-specific disciplinary system similar to the one for issues of sexual misconduct.

The meeting was led by Committee Chair and Law School

Three weeks into the quarter—and well past due dates for tuition bills —many students are experiencing delays and difficulties in receiving their financial aid packages from the Office of College Aid. Nearly 100 students have signed an online complaint form that will be sent to University administrators. The form targets the Office of College A id, which has experienced a reduction in staffing and is now being accused by students of inefficiency and a lack of transparency.

T he form, launched last week by second-year Trenton Crawford, seeks to address a “surge” of student complaints about the Office.

“I wanted to gather students’ experiences and let the [University] know that low-income students aren’t at the disposal of the University, and that what the financial aid office is

A group of activists campaigning for increased financial benefits for Resident Assistants (RAs) is prepared to protest if the University’s Office of College Aid does not give them a meeting.

Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL) and last year’s campaigners for a change in RA payment methods met on Tuesday to discuss their plans for the year.

The meeting focused largely on introducing last year’s call for a more equitable payment for RAs on financial aid, which SOUL has taken up, and establishing the group’s goals for the year. After last year’s petition to the financial aid office which asked for a change in the way RAs on financial assistance are paid garnered over 1,000 signatures, SOUL hoped to build on the broad campus attention the issue had received and pressure financial aid officials into a meeting.

Under the current system, the elimination of room and board costs for RAs is factored into the

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Eva I

Members of the Committee on University Discipline for Disruptive Conduct (from left to right), Christopher Wild, Michele Rasmussen, Randal Picker, and Daniel Abebe, hold a forum on the issue of disruptive conduct on Oct. 13.

Committee Evaluating Discipline for Protest Takes Student Feedback

BY ALEX WARD SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

T he f ac u lt y c om m it t e e tasked with proposing a disciplinary system for disruptive protests and other conduct that interferes with University business took student input yesterday.

The committee was created in the wake of protests last year including the occupation of

Levi Hall by a group calling for increased accountability by the University and audience interruptions of speakers including Cook County Attorney General Anita Alvarez. The All-University Discipline System, which the committee is reviewing, was created after a series of protests against the Vietnam war in 1969 that led to the expulsion of 42 students through a drawnout and contentious disciplinary

Activists Demand Meeting for RA Aid

Professor Sued for Allegedly Defaming Medical Devices for Financial Gain

BY ALEX WARD SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

Medical technology corporation St. Jude Medical (STJ) has filed a lawsuit against a University of Chicago Medical Center doctor, alleging that he was involved in an attempt to manipulate the company’s stock for financial gain.

Dr. Hemal Nayak, a University of Chicago assistant professor and electrophysiologist, is singled out by plaintiff STJ for allegedly conspiring with companies MedSec, where he is a board member, and Muddy Waters Research LLC to falsely suggest critical security issues in STJ’s products.

Nayak obtained a number of St. Jude’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) devices, including pacemakers and implanted defibrillators, for MedSec to use in a research program that claims to have found significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the devices.

MedSec brought its findings

The Muddy Waters report notes any living tissue, but was otherwise to financial research firm Muddy Waters Research LLC, which that Nayak has an “immaterial eq- functioning normally.

Within two weeks of the publipublished a report on August 25 uity interest” in MedSec, indicating describing the vulnerabilities. The his partial ownership of the compa- cation of the Muddy Waters report, report predicted that “There is a ny as a board member. The report STJ filed a legal complaint requeststrong possibility that close to half was also updated from its original ing a jury trial in the U.S. District of STJ’s revenue is about to disap- version to include a statement that Court for the state of Minnesota. pear for approximately two years.” “Nayak speaks for himself, and not The lawsuit alleges that, rather As a result, Muddy Waters revealed his employers,” referring to the Uni- than expressing genuine concern for the safety of St. Jude’s patients, that it would be short selling STJ versity.

After the report’s publication, Muddy Waters, MedSec, and Naystock, through which they would profit off of a decrease in the value STJ published a response defend- ak intended primarily to manipuof the company’s stock. STJ’s stock ing its products and pointing out late financial markets for financial dropped more than four points in a that the vulnerabilities addressed gain. According to the complaint, in the report are largely exagger- “Defendants undertook their careday after the report’s publication.

To accompany the report, Nay- ated or speculative. STJ’s response fully orchestrated scheme with the ak published a letter on University noted that an attacker would need express intent to interfere with effiof Chicago letterhead warning his to be continuously within seven feet cient public markets by intentionalpatients and fellow doctors about of a targeted implant once it was ly disseminating false information the vulnerabilities MedSec appar- actually within an individual in in order to depress the value of St. ently uncovered. The letter advises order to drain its battery as demon- Jude’s stock and profit from such depatients with STJ implants to un- strated, and that the device would pression in value by implementing plug their home monitoring systems, give a vibratory warning before a short-selling scheme.” The case is which send information recorded the battery was fully drained. The currently ongoing. by their CRM device to their physi- response also notes that the signs St. Jude’s lawsuit charges Naycians, and states that Nayak no lon- of a supposed crash documented by ak and the other defendants with ger plans to implant STJ devices un- MedSec researchers indicate only four counts, including defamation, til the vulnerabilities are addressed. that the device was not connected to violating state and federal business

practices law, and civil conspiracy.

The list of defendants also include Muddy Waters founder Carson.

Block and MedSec CEO Justine Bone.

Multiple independent entities, including the FDA and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan, have since released their own analyses of the Muddy Waters report. Both the FDA and the University of Michigan researchers concluded that the danger to patients from the possible vulnerabilities described in the report does not outweigh the advantages of the affected devices and reporting systems, according to STJ’s legal complaint.

As cited in the complaint, “the FDA advised that at this time ‘patients should continue to use their devices as instructed and not change any implanted device.’”

STJ and the lawyers representing both the plaintiff and defendants did not respond to requests for comment, and Nayak declined to comment.

On Race and Culture, Jeff Chang Promises We Gon’ Be Alright

Maroons Hanging on to Homecoming Hopes

Contributing to The Maroon

Page 7

Page 12

“Protecting our home turf is a big deal for us. We take pride in protecting Stagg Field.”

Art is not just an outlet for negative frustration, but an elevated inlet of positive change.

Not Born This Way Page 6

Trigger’d: The Revival a Safe Space for Comedy Page 8

Identity sometimes means rejecting what you were born into.

“[Trigger] hearkens to a very different conflict plaguing neighborhoods only a stone’s throw away.”

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All rights reserved. © The Chicago Maroon 2016

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Hit and Run Near South Dorm Hospitalizes Student

BY SOFIA GARCIA MARO O N CO NTRI BUTOR

A University of Chicago student was struck by a vehicle near Granville-Grossman Residential Commons last Saturday.

The car did not stop after hitting the student, according to the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD). The victim was hospitalized.

The incident occurred five minutes before midnight. Second-year Katherine Kahal, a resident of Halperin House, assumed at first that the voices she heard from her fourthfloor dormitory were students coming back after a night out.

“I heard lots of louder shouting, like not just your usual drunken conversation, so that’s when I looked out of the window and saw someone laying on the ground and everyone just crowded around [him].” Kahal said.

Another Halperin resident, second-year Billie Males, who observed the aftermath from her dorm, noted that the victim was responsive when UCPD arrived. “They were conscious and responsive up until the ambulance came, and they actually were able to stand up to sit down in the wheelchair to go to the ambulance,” she said.

The vehicle was driving southbound on South Ellis Avenue when the incident occurred.

The Fight Against ISIS Online

BY CAMILLE KIRSCH MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel discussed the Islamic State (ISIS)’s influential social media presence and how the U.S. can counter it on campus Thursday.

The 90-minute discussion was hosted by the Institute of Politics at the Quadrangle Club. It focused on the work of the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department anti-extremism initiative, which Stengel oversees.

According to Stengel, the GEC, which began as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, was founded in reaction to al Qaeda’s use of video-sharing platforms to reach a global audience. As the threat posed by al Qaeda diminished and ISIS, which Stengel refers to as “ISIL,” began to build a widespread and effective social media apparatus, the GEC switched its focus.

Initially, the GEC focused on creating its own anti-terrorism content and media campaigns. Today, it primarily works to amplify the voices of global partners who oppose religious extremism, because these partners have more credibility with disaffected Muslims. “[ISIS’s] narrative is the West is against Islam,” Stengel said. “So a tweet from the Undersecretary of State telling young Muslims not to go fight in Iraq and Syria is actually going to have the opposite effect.”

According to Stengel, social media was essential to ISIS’s rise. “They were a niche brand that became a gigantic global brand in part because of the content they were producing—beheading videos, which young men like to watch,” he said.

Although other terrorist organizations had used digital communications techniques before, ISIS reached a wider audience by linking its military effort and its communications effort. Filming battles and executions made ISIS victories highly visible, Stengel said. It also helped recruit foreign fighters.

“They have a news agency…they have a media network of what we like to call ISIL fanboys,” Stengel said.

In recent months, ISIS communications have diminished by as much as 70 to 80 percent, the State Department estimates. Stengel said that he sees this as a victory for the GEC. He said that increasing vigilance by content moderators on open social media platforms is driving ISIS members to end-to-end encrypted services such as Telegram and WhatsApp. These services are much harder for intelligence workers to access.

Stengel believes that “the nexus between diplomacy and the information field and cyberwarfare” will increasingly become the site of global crises. As warfare moves into the digital space, information will become a weapon of international conflict.

In response, he said, U.S. diplomatic agencies must begin to focus on creating and disseminating appealing messages. He cited World War I–era international broadcast entities as an example of outdated techniques.

“That old idea that if only we told people the truth we would triumph is a bit of an anachronism,” he said. “What we see instead around the world is the rise of disinformation and untruths…and if those [U.S.] organizations are still going to exist, they’re going to have to turn into competitors on that battlefield.”

Feng Ye

Forrest Stuart (left) and Jamie Kalven (right)

Forrest Stuart Talks New Book on Urban Policing at Sem Co-Op

BY ADDISON LEAVY MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

Forrest Stuart, author of Down, Out, and Under Arrest and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, along with interlocutor Jamie Kalven, writer and executive director of the Invisible Institute, discussed the intricacies of policing poverty on Skid Row during the first talk of the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore’s Urban Readers Series.

The Urban Readers Series “invites the curious public to meet the University’s faculty, staff, and alumni who think and write about cities,” according to the Seminary Co-Op website.

After some time observing life on Skid Row, a neighborhood in Los Angeles with a large homeless population, Stuart began to think of police officers as well-intentioned people, rather than, as he put it, “bigoted storm troopers storming through neighborhoods.”

“Although police interventions involv ing outr ight v iolence are most commonly publicized, the most harmful police interactions in the Skid Row neighborhood involve trivial infractions such as jaywalking or sitting on the sidewalk,” Stuart said.

For a homeless ex-convict, a $174 fine for such a minor infringement is a major obstacle to overcoming poverty. In Stuart’s account, this ticket is just as much a financial obstacle as it is a cognitive one, noting that young

homeless men are “constantly devoting mental energy to whether or not [they] will be stopped.”

Stuart also observed that high police activity leads young men of color to avoid interacting with women and white men, as even an innocent conversation could be associated with prostitution or drug sales.

After meeting some Skid Row officers, Stuart found that they “woke up in the morning wanting to make the world a better place. They are truly compassionate people.” However, Stuart said, “the most compassionate officers were oftentimes the most repressive, as their tools to correct this misery and poverty are handcuffs and weapons and their only method is enforcement.”

Stuart and Calvin agreed that using police enforcement to avoid systemic reform is counterproductive, stating that an increase in police activity is indicative of a deeper issue requiring more than handcuffs to resolve.

At the end of his talk, Stuart took questions from audience members. He discussed the root causes of frequent police enforcement, exchanges between social work organizations and the Los Angeles Police Department, and the need for officers to reframe the issues they encounter on a daily basis.

Stuart’s book Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row is for sale at the Seminary Co-Op bookstore.

Endowment Down 1.9 Percent

BY ADAM THORP NEWS EDITOR

Alexandra Davis

Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel (left) discusses America’s initiatives to stop online recruitment for ISIS on Oct. 13 at the Quadrangle Club.

The University of Chicago’s endowment dropped around $400 million last year, the first time it has lost ground since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, the University News Office announced Thursday.

The size of the endowment waxes and wanes based on fundraising, the value of the investments contained in the endowment, and the amount taken out to pay for University programming.

The endowment stood at $7.1 billion as of June 30, 2016, down 1.9 percent from $7.58 billion in June 2015. The 2015 figure was an all-time peak for the University, the result of six years of gains that more than made up for the huge losses during the financial crisis. The figure for 2016 is still the third-largest the endowment has ever reported.

The News Office statement says that the returns on the endowment compare positively to the performance of similar

endowments and the global stock market.

It is looking to be a difficult year for many university endowments. The Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service, a database of endowments compiled by Wilshire Associates, reported a median return of negative .73 percent for endowments more than $500 million—last year’s News Office statement on the endowment noted approvingly that 2015’s returns exceeded the same measure last year.

Among schools with a roughly comparable endowment size, endowments shrunk by .8 percent (Columbia), 1.5 percent ( University of Virginia), .3 percent (Notre Dame), and 2.6 percent (Duke University). Harvard’s endowment fell 2 percent, which represents a loss of $2 billion. Harvard’s annual endowment report repeatedly called the result “disappointing.” Not every prestigious university with a large endowment lost money this year—Yale and MIT posted gains of 3.4 percent and .8 percent.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Theaster Gates, UChicago Collaboration Gets $5 Million

BY BORNA KHOSHAND MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

A $5 million grant announced last month will allow a University-related urban development collaboration to accelerate several projects on Chicago’s South and West Sides.

Chicago Arts + Industry Commons (CA IC) received the grant from Reimagining the Civic Commons. A collaboration between Theaster Gates’s Rebuild Foundation, the University, and Space Fund, CAIC aims to leverage the arts and culture to promote urban development. CAIC will target the funds at three initiatives, aiming to

foster a network of revitalized spaces in economically distressed neighborhoods.

In the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side, the site of the defunct St. Laurence Catholic School will be transformed into an arts education center. Nearby, CAIC is piecing 13 vacant plots of land into a community green space called Kenwood Gardens. On the city’s West Side, old horse stables and a former power station are being turned into an industrial arts hub neighboring the Garfield Park Conservatory.

CAIC envisions a network of projects that will create momentum for reinvestment in neglected areas.

“It’s hard to have one single public asset really bear the burden of having to spark adjacent development in a community when it’s been disinvested for years and years,” said Lori Berko, chief operations officer of the University of Chicago’s Place Lab. Reimagining the Civic Commons, the grantee, is a partnership between the JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L . K n ight Fou ndation , the K resge Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. T he partnership aims to counter the economic and social fragmentation in cities through improved public spaces. In addition to Chicago, the partnership has award-

ed grants to Akron, Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia.

CAIC’s pilot project, the Stony Island A rts Bank, opened in October 2015 as a community arts center. Once the site of a savings and loan bank, the neoclassical building had deteriorated into a state of disrepair since abandonment in the 1980s. Gates’s R ebuild Foundation purchased the building for one dollar from the city in 2012 to begin redevelopment. Adjacent to St. Laurence School and Kenwood Gardens, the bank will headquarter CAIC as the collaboration embarks on the next expansion of its revitalization network.

Fewer Than 10 Students Showed up to the Disruptive Conduct Open Forum Continued from front page

professor Randal Picker. Committee members Michele Rasmussen, Daniel Abebe, and Christopher Wild were also present, along with Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Ingrid Gould and Theodore Stamatakos, a member of the University’s Office of Legal Council. Fewer than 10 people were in the audience at the event, which was held from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the South Lounge on the second floor of the Reynolds Club.

Picker began the forum by describing the Committee on University Discipline for Disruptive Conduct’s intentions, as well as the context for its creation. Earlier precedents include the 2014 committee chaired by Law School professor David Strauss, charged with recommending the University’s response to protests related to the currently-underway Level I Trauma center, and the committee led by Geoffrey Stone last year that examined the University’s broader stance on free

speech.

Both previous committees concluded that the University should be committed to free speech but also has the right to restrict protesting under certain circumstances, such as when University functions could be impeded. Picker said that the current committee will recommend ways to translate the general conclusions of those two panels into actual, on-theground policies.

According to Picker, the committee is especially interested in dealing with situations where the free speech interests of two groups or individuals come into confl ict, citing an example last year when individuals celebrating Israeli Independence Day on campus were protested by members of activist organization Students for Justice in Palestine. Picker specified that the committee is not opposed to protests, which they expect on a university campus, but do take issue with the disruption of activities.

The committee also wants to ensure that members of the University community understand the role of Deans On Call at protests, who Picker said are intended to make sure that protestors understand the potential disciplinary consequences of their actions but often do not know the specifics of those consequences themselves. Picker also suggested the designation of individuals within activism RSOs to be sources of information on university free speech policy as a way to increase the system’s transparency.

The committee’s work is divided into two stages: Meeting with various groups to gather perspectives on the current system and how it could be altered, and making its recommendation before its deadline of December 15. Picker said that the committee is currently nearing the end of the fi rst stage.

In response to audience questions about efforts by the University to rework or add to existing channels for students

to communicate issues to the administration and potentially avoid the necessity of protests, Picker said that the committee is exclusively tasked with reviewing the discipline system, and that none of the members were aware of such a project.

Audience member Emilio Comay del Junco, a Ph.D. student who was involved in the trauma center protests, said he was worried about the vagueness of the University’s motives in creating the committee, and speculated that there may be a perception that the current system is not resulting in strong enough penalties.

Comay del Junco said that proposals such as the creation of a separate disciplinary system or the enforcement of a system for organizations to register protests in advance with the administration worry him because of their potential to discourage expression. According to Comay del Junco, “It could be a serious impediment if they put much more draconian penalties on [student and community activism].”

Students Report Late Fees After Bill Due Date Came and Went Without Award Continued from front page

doing is wrong and is completely antithetical to their mission [of ] having no barriers,” Crawford said.

Second-year Alexis Wells received an e-mail over the summer that said she received a $3,500 work-study award for this academic year, which was verified by her financial aid statement.

After visiting the Office this Monday, however, she was told that e-mail was a “mistake” and that she was only allocated work-study for the summer, leaving her without work-study for this year.

While Wells managed to find alternative employment, she said, “Almost every single person I’ve talked to has had issues with the financial aid office.”

By the time his tuition bill was due, second-year Calvin Chu had still not received his aid package. After calling the Office of College Aid, Chu was told to only pay what he paid last year. He

was recently billed a $50 late fee because he was told he did not pay the full amount.

“Fifty [dollars] in the grand scheme of 70,000 isn’t that bad,” said Chu. “It’s just more of an insult to injury.” The late fee remains on his account, despite repeated calls to the Office.

For some students, however, a lack of financial aid has cost much more than $50. First-year Alexis Wolf matriculated on the assumption that she would receive the aid the University offered upon her admittance. But over the past several months, her aid package has been “cut down over time” for no apparent reason.

Despite continual calls, emails, and visits to the Office of College Aid, Wolf is still stuck with a large and unexpected bill. The Office has not addressed her issue, leaving Wolf with no option but to take out loans.

“I’m going to have to take out another loan if [the Office] doesn’t get back to me,” she said. “The reason why I picked this school is that it’s such a good school and they have this supposed No Barriers program where you don’t drown under tens of thousands of dollars of loan debt.” Wolf said she will have over $90,000 of loan debt this year alone if her financial aid dilemma is not solved.

The Office of College Aid and Director Tina Baskin did not responded to T HE M A ROON ’s repeated requests for more information.

A statement on the Office’s website says, “Recently, a number of College Aid staff departed the office for positions outside UChicago. This reduction in staffing, combined with training on a new system, led to unfortunate delays.

We are currently hiring and training additional staff to be ready for Winter Quarter questions.”

A new online payment system went live on August 1. In addition, the University has tightened its budget across administrative offices. While it is unclear exactly how these cuts have affected the Office of College Aid, students are certainly feeling the effects of the Office’s inefficiency. “[ The Office] is definitely understaffed,” said Chu. “Occasionally when you do get through, you can clearly tell that the staff are faced with answering the same questions over and over again.” Sympathizing with the staff, Chu said, “You definitely don’t want to be at the wrath of an angry mom.”

Wolf agreed, but added more: “ I think it’s partially an understaffed problem and partially a priorities problem. Finance should be the very first thing [the University] should prioritize, because students literally cannot function if they cannot pay their bills.”

“I didn’t know if I would be paying more, paying the same, maybe...paying less” Continued from front page

fi nancial aid offi ce’s calculation of the cost of attendance. This means that need-based fi nancial awards are reduced by the cost of room and board, meaning that some students would receive no additional compensation for their work as RAs. In some cases, the petition creators reported that a few students were told that they would pay more tuition if they decided to become RAs. Many students

who wish to become RAs are unaware that their fi nancial aid situation will change, and upon fi nding out, are forced to either effectively work for free or withdraw from the RA process altogether, according to proponents of changing the system.

“It was so unclear,” third-year Casey Mulroy said, one of the three main organizers on the campaign. “I didn’t know if I would be paying more, paying the same, maybe something would work out and I

would be paying less.” She hoped to become an RA last year, and was accepted for a position, but said she had to turn it down because taking on the position would have reduced her aid.

The organizers hope to meet with the fi nancial aid office to work on changing the RA payment program in a way that remains fi nancially feasible for the University. They hope that the office potentially implements a system that would treat compensation for room and board

like an outside scholarship, leaving fi nancial aid packages unreduced. If the organizers cannot secure a meeting, they are prepared to organize broader community action.

The University News Office told T HE M AROON last year that the current treatment of fi nancial aid is both long-standing and required by federal guidelines for fi nancial aid, and that the University was therefore unable to make the changes that were called for in the petition.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

FRIDAY, 10/14 What Is the Place of Sedation in the Care at the End of Life?

This one-day conference will examine sedation and euthanasia from a variety of religious and moral perspectives. The event will include numerous Christian ethicists and theologians and is open to all students. It is the first entry in a series on “Dying a Christian Death in the 21st Century,” which will run between 2016 –2019.

8 a.m.–4:30 p.m, Divinity School, 1025 E. 58th Street, 3rd Floor Lecture Hall, free, register online.

On & Around Campus U.S.–China Forum: Water and Urban Development This iteration of the Institute of Molecular Engineering’s U.S.–China forum will address water and growing cities. Experts in these areas will speak throughout the day, though promotional materials for the program focus on a roundtable on collaboration to address water challenges led

by Steve Edwards, the executive director of the Institute of Politics, at 2 p.m.

Eckhardt, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

Multisensory Tour: Stories of a Mummification Workshop Explore the little-known stories of ancient mummification through modern materials. The Oriental Institute is hosting a workshop on discovering the secrets of mummification left behind by ancient workers.

Oriental Institute Museum, 1155 E. 58th Street, 2–3 p.m.

Lidija Dimkovska Talks New Book “A Spare Life” Author and poet Lidija Dimkovska will discuss her latest book, A Spare Life. Dimkovska chronicles the lives of 12-year-old twins, Zlata and Srebra, who live in 1984 Skopje, Macedonia. A Spare Life is a story of two girls who are among the first generation to grow up under democracy in Eastern Europe.

Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave, 6–7:30 p.m.

2016 Social Justice Address Lecture featuring Marc Edwards P rofessor Ma rc A . Edwa rds, the Cha rles P. Lunsford Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, Virginia Tech University, was involved in uncovering the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. In his keynote lecture, entitled Perspectives on Environmental Injustice in the Flint, MI, Water Crisis Edwards will discuss environmental justice, advocacy, and government responsibility.

Assembly Hall, International House, 6:30 –7:30 p.m., free.

SATURDAY, 10/15 A New Way Forward: Criminal Justice in Chicago and Cook County Students for Criminal Justice Reform is holding a day-long conference on criminal justice and policing issues. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will give the keynote address. The event includes four panels with government officials, lawyers, judges, community leaders, and law enforcement.

Har r i s S ch o ol , 8 a .m.– 4 p.m., reg i st er online.

Evil? The Bad, the Ugly, and the Depraved in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy Professors from UChicago, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, and University of Wisconsin will be lecturing on the perception of evil within ancient Greek and Roman thought. From studying the actions of Roman emperors to analyzing Aristotle’s code of ethics, the conference will fully examine the effect of evil, both on thought and society. Participants will receive a catered lunch and dinner.

Regenstein Library 102, 9 a.m.–7 p.m., free, register online.

Humanities Day 2016 An annual autumn tradition since 1980, Humanities Day 2016 hosts a variety of free tours, performances, discussions, and lectures hosted by the UChicago Humanities Division. The program will feature over 30 presentations across different fields within the Humanities Division such as arts, philosophy, and linguistics. The day will also include a keynote speech by a senior faculty member of the division.

Headquarters at Stuart Hall, register online.

Unitarian Church Sale: Fair Trade Baskets from Africa and Guatemala Cindy and Richard Pardo will feature their fair trade basket business, Fairgrass, at the Unitarian Church Sale. The sale will include fair trade baskets from Africa and Guatemala, and jewelry.

Refreshments will be provided.

Chris Moore Parlor, First Unitarian Church, 5650 S. Woodlawn Ave, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Homecoming Weekend 2016 Homecoming is a week-long series of events joined by alumni, parents, families, and friends. Events aim to connect the UChicago community and cheer on the Maroon sports teams. Online registration is now closed, but cash registration will take place on site at the Homecoming Block Party on 56th Street and South Ellis Avenue beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 15.

Black Lives Matter Rally for Ronald Johnson Black Lives Matter (BLM ) Chicago is holding a rally on the second anniversary of the death of Ronnie “ Ronnieman” Johnson. His mother and BLM activists are calling for the firing and prosecution of the officer who shot Johnson, George Hernandez. They say video evidence shows that Hernandez murdered Johnson while he was running away from the police. At the rally, Johnson’s mother will collect toys to donate to children in Chicago in honor of her son.

53rd Street and King Drive, 2–5 p.m.

Christine Sneed and Shawn Shif lett on Virginity in Fiction and Life Author of the award-winning The Virginity of Famous Men Christine Sneed will join Shawn Shif lett, an associate professor of creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago to discuss the universal theme of virginity. Sneed and Shif lett both engage with the idea of virginity in their works and will discuss the role virginity played in character development, storytelling, and the author’s lives.

57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th Street, 3–4:30 p.m.

Celebrating the Seminary Co-Op: Past, Present, Future Seminary Co-Op is marking the publication of a book about its history—You Weren’t Looking for It: The Seminary Co-Op Bookstore—and looking toward its future at this event. Jack Cella, General Manager of the Co-Op for over 40 years, will provide remarks.

Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave, 4:30 –6 p.m.

SUNDAY, 10/16 Bird Walk in Washington Park Join the Hyde Park community on a bird walk through the neighborhood. The walk will stay mostly on trails, but there will be some uneven ground along the way. Binoculars are recommended.

Parking Lot, 55th Street and Russell Drive, 8 a.m.

2016 RBC Race for the Kids at Comer Children’s Hospital More than 2,000 expected participants will join efforts in raising money for the Comer Children’s Hospital. The event will include a 5K Run/ Walk and a Kid’s Dash. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.

The event hopes to raise more than last year’s $350,000.

Main quadrangle, 9 a.m.–12 p.m., $30.

Hyde Park Handmade Bazaar Local artisans will be selling candies, jewelry, clothing, and more. Produce from urban farms from Hyde Park and across the city will also be available. DJ Sean Alvarez will be playing jazz music, and there will be an open bar.

Second floor, The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Avenue, 11 a.m.–3 p.m., free.

Black Lives Matter and the Power of Media Black Lives Matter was born—or at least named— on social media; its relationship with the media institutions that repeat and sometimes distort its message has been complicated ever since. A panel of journalists, filmmakers, and activists address the relationship.

Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Avenue, 4 p.m.

South Side History Bike Tour with Dean Boyer This bike ride, led by Dean of the College and historian John Boyer, will swing by a variety of locations on the South Side of Chicago, from the tomb of Senator Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln’s famous debating partner, to the home of long-time Chicago mayor and legendary political boss Richard J. Daley. Riders should bring their own non-Divvy bicycles and helmets.

Bartlett quad, 11:45 a.m.–4:45 p.m., register online.

Hamilton Lecture Professor Ken Warren and professor Alison LaCroix will be lecturing on the themes and history represented within the different accounts of Alexander Hamilton’s life. Professor Warren will discuss the role of tragedy in American literary history. LaCroix will discuss the factual accounts of the founding fathers, and how our perceptions of history have changed over time. Students who attend this lecture will be entered for a chance to win discounted tickets to Hamilton. Tickets are required.

Logan Center, 4–6 p.m., register online.

MONDAY, 10/17 How the Media Works The process that produces a news story—through conception, reporting, and publication—will be

laid out in this seminar with three Chicago area journalists. Attendees will test their news judgement against a slate of real pitches that were either rejected or accepted by real news organizations.

Room C04, Harper Center, 5 –6:30 p.m., register online.

The Value of a Ph.D. in Public Office State Senator Daniel Biss made the perhaps counter-intuitive transition from University of Chicago math instructor to public office. At this event, he will explain how his education background has improved his effectiveness in Illinois’s General Assembly. Biss has been especially active in Illinois’s always-complicated budget wrangling.

Room 115, BSLC, 5:30 –6:30 p.m.

Theology, Ethics, and the Death of God K icking of a two -day long con ference, R émi Brague, Professor Emeritus of A rabic and Religious Philosophy at the Sorbonne and Romano Guardini Chair of Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, will deliver a keynote speech entitled, “On the Births of ‘God’s Death.’” The conference will explore themes of religion, politics, and popular culture.

Swift Lecture Hall, 6 p.m., free.

GenForward: Are Campaigns Hearing Millennials?

GenForward is a new survey of the Black Youth Project and NORC that provides monthly data on the political and policy preferences of millennials, and especially millennials of color. The event will bring together Cathy Cohen, David Axelrod, Jesse Moore, and Emma Green to discuss GenForward survey results, and explore the young adult political experience.

Assembly Hall, International House, 6:15 p.m.– 7:30 p.m., free, register online.

Hyde Park Book Club Discussion: “The Life, Work and Death of Professor Ioan Culianu” The Hyde Park Book Club will meet to discuss the book Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu by Ted Anton. Ioan Culianu was a renowned professor at UChicago, who was killed in an unsolved and politically motivated murder in Stuart Hall.

Lower Level (Basement) Meeting Room, Treasure Island, 1526 E. 55th Street, 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY, 10/18 Emerging Evidence on Medicaid Expansion Under the ACA Dr. Genevieve M. Kenney, Co-Director of the Health Policy Center, will be discussing how the Affordable Care Act will affect Medicaid. Kenney has been doing research for over 25 years on how different healthcare models inf luence access to care and is focused especially on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Room W1-B, School of Social Service Administration, 12–1:20 p.m., register online.

Conversation with Argentine A mbassador Martín Lousteau Ambassador Lousteau will be speaking about the politics and economy of Argentina. He began his tenure of Ambassador in January of this year, after running a political consulting firm for seven years and writing four books on economics.

Assembly Hall, International House, 6–7:30 p.m.

“Confronting Fundamentalism” with Catherine M. Wallace Historian Catherine Wallace will be examining how Christianity has changed over the last 70 years, and what Christians can do to reclaim the traditions of an increasingly weaponized religion.

Her latest book, Confronting Fundamentalism, is part of an ongoing series of critical Christian thought, and examines the virtues of Christian humanism.

Seminary Co- Op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Avenue, 6–7:30 p.m.

Chicago Torture Archive Website Launch The Pozen Center for Human Rights is holding an event to celebrate the launch of an online database that will host thousands of documents related to cases of Chicago “police torture” in the ’70s and ’80s. The event will feature speakers from the People’s Law Office, which collected the documents, the Chicago Torture Justice Center, and the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial.

Saieh Hall Room 146, 6:30 –8:15 p.m. “ Verk lempt ” D i s c u s sion w it h Pet er Si chrovsky Author Peter Sichrovsky spent much of his career interviewing the children of Holocaust survivors and Nazis about how the events of that past had shaped their lives. Now, he has turned his attention to fiction, writing short stories with the same themes found in his earlier work—shame, loss, and redemption.

57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th Street, 7–8:30 p.m.

Lord Thing Screening and Discussion The Washington Park Arts Incubator will be holding a screening of the documentary Lord Thing, which chronicles the events in the 1960s when one of the most violent gangs in Chicago, the Vice Lords, tried to become a positive force in their community.

Arts Incubator, 301 E. Garfield Boulevard, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, 10/19 A lice Kaplan on Literary Publishing in a

Dictatorship Editions Barzakh, an Algerian publishing house, started up near the end of the A lgerian Civil War. Since its beginning it has operated against a background of Algeria’s repressive military government. Alice Kaplan, a professor of French at Yale, is preparing an essay on the topic. Lunch is provided.

Room 224, Social Sciences, 12–1:20 p.m.

Wednesday Lunch at the Divinity School with Stephanie Arnold A rare medical condition killed television reporter Stephanie Arnold—briefly—while she was giving birth. She wrote a best-selling book, 37 Seconds, about the experience and will discuss it further at this week’s Wednesday Lunch at the Divinity School.

Swift Common Room, Swift Hall, 12 –1:15 p.m., $5, three course meal and dessert, e-mail divinitylunch@gmail.com.

HIV and Human Rights The top U.S. diplomat in the global fight against HIV/AIDS will address how best to measure the effectiveness of interventions like PEPFAR, President’s Emergency Programs for AIDS Relief.

Room 008, BSLC, 12–1:15 p.m., light lunch provided, apply online by Monday, October 17.

The Near East in the First Millennium: A Bird’s Eye View Rémi Brague, a historian of philosophy focusing on the Middle East, will argue that the region’s early history demonstrates a cultural importance that can sometimes be overshadowed by pressing military and political issues. Brague is an emeritus professor at the Sorbonne and Maximilian Ludwig University of Munich.

Room 110, Classics, 4:30 –6 p.m., register online.

Alice Kaplan on Looking for the Stranger Alice Kaplan’s latest book looks at the biographical details behind the creation of Albert Camus’s The Stranger. During this discussion with her long-term editor at the University of Chicago Press, Kaplan will lay out how the book was conceived and published.

Seminary Co-Op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Avenue, 6–8 p.m., RSVP online.

Third Debate Watch Party It may not be possible to totally shield yourself from the deleterious effects of this round of presidential debates, but not watching it alone has to be a good start. The Institute of Politics moved its party for the third debate to a larger venue to accommodate growing demand.

Hallowed Grounds, Reynolds Club, 7–10 p.m.

THURSDAY, 10/20 History of the Department of Physics Colloquium Hellmut Fritzsche will present a lecture on the University’s physics department in its first years.

Following this, a panel of physics professors will be discussing more recent developments in the department and the field. There will be a reception after the event.

Room 106, Kersten Physics Teaching Center, 5720 S. Ellis Avenue, 3:30 –5 p.m. “ William Faulkner and the Franchise” Lecture by Professor Ken Warren Professor Warren, an expert on American and African American literature, studies how cultural perceptions of race can affect the public reception of literature. In 2016’s iteration of the annual John Nuveen lecture, Warren will focus on Faulkner’s relationship to voting rights.

Third Floor Lecture Room, Swift Hall, 4:30–6 p.m.

Public Newsroom Launch Party City Bureau and South Side Weekly, two community journalism organizations based at the Experimental Station just south of the Midway, are launching weekly public newsrooms, where community members can gather to and shape news coverage. This first incarnation of that event will provide opportunities to participate in the ongoing project.

Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue, 5–8 p.m.

How to Build and Grow a Productive Team Erich Kurschat, a “personality expert,” will help attendees identify the personality types on their team and learn how to forge it into a productive unit.

Polsky Exchange, 5:30 –7 p.m., register online.

John Tipton on “Paramnesia” with Patrick Morrissey Author and UChicago almunus John Tipton will be reading from his book of poetry, Paramnesia.

This new collection, which draws inspiration from mythology, was published earlier this year. Tipton will also be joined by former poetry editor of the Chicago Review for discussion.

Seminary Co- Op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Avenue, 6–7:30 p.m.

Home Improvement: Young Mayors Tackle Old Problems The mayors of South Bend, La Porte, Indiana, Houston, and Tallahassee have a reputation for taking a fresh approach to the much mulled-over issues. At this event, sponsored by the IOP, the four public officials will discuss their approach.

Assembly Hall, International House, 6:15 –7:30 p.m.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Discovery of Radiocarbon Dating in Kent Is Now a Landmark

BY HELEN CHEN MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

A professor’s discovery of radiocarbon dating in 1946 was designated as a National Historic Chemical Landmark on Monday.

The dedication took place at Kent Chemical Laboratory, the building in which professor Willard F. Libby made the discovery that would earn him the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Radiocarbon dating, a method proposed by Libby, is used to date organic material by measuring the amount of carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The discovery is the 80th National Historic Chemical Landmark to be designated by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

According to Diane Grob Schmidt, the immediate past president of the ACS, every subject submitted for landmark consideration must fulfi ll three criteria: it must be more than 25 years old, it must represent a “seminal achievement” in chemistry, and it must have a significant contribution to society.

As she presented the plaque, Schmidt said that beyond fulfi lling the criteria, Libby’s work is “a fantastic example of the

transforming power of chemistry” because of its profound effects on not only areas of study but also “on ourselves” by providing a fuller understanding of our past.

In his opening remarks during the program, Provost Daniel Diermeier highlighted the importance of Libby’s work.

“The word groundbreaking is used so often that it sometimes has lost its meaning but in today’s event, it is marking a development, the development of radiocarbon dating, [for which] the word groundbreaking is both appropriate and non-hyperbolic,” said Diermeier. “What professor Libby discovered here at the Kent Chemical Laboratories is important much as to the field of chemistry, but continues to have profound effects for our understanding in a whole variety of different areas, obviously archaeology, geology, paleontology, and fundamentally how we view the long history of human civilization.”

The program also included two short lectures by UChicago professors, which further elaborated on the significance Libby’s work. Professor David Mazziotti, who submitted Libby’s work for consideration, first explained what radiocarbon dating is, and professor Kathleen Morrison lectured on the application of radiocarbon dating in the field of archaeology.

South Side Weekly Alums Raise $16K to Open Café on 61st Street

BY KATIE AKIN DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

This winter, two alumni will be opening a new coffee shop in the Experimental Station at 61st and Blackstone.

Build Coffee will be joining a number of community organizations in the nonprofit Experimental Station space, including the South Side Weekly, Blackstone Bikes, the Invisible Institute, and the 61st Street Farmer’s Market. Hannah Nyhart (A.B. ’15) and her business partner Bea Malsky (A.B. ’15), both former editors of the South Side Weekly, were inspired to make Build Coffee in an attempt to make the Experimental Station more accessible and inviting to the surrounding community.

“Right now, to most people most of the time, the Experimental Station is a locked door,” Nyhart and Malsky wrote on their K ickstarter page. “ There’s lots of space for folks already working within the building to collaborate, but there’s no central hub that’s open to the public: no space to meet up, hold an interview, or swing by for a cup of coffee.”

According to the Kickstarter page, Build Coffee will be the closest coffee shop to the 1,500 people in the neigh-

borhood south of the University and west of the Metra. Nyhart and Malsky have been operating Build Coffee as a stand at the 61st Street Farmer’s Market for the past year as they’ve prepared their storefront.

“We have been incredibly lucky,” Nyhart said in an e-mail. “This is a scrappy operation, funded by a combination of loans, personal investment, and a Kickstarter that surpassed our wildest dreams.” After a month of fundraising, the online campaign had raised over $16,000 to start the business.

Aside from the usual café fare, Build will have a bookshelf where people can donate and purchase used books, as well as a space to hold community meetings and events.

“This shop will belong to a ton of different people from day one, and that’s really our hope for this space,” Nyhart said on the Kickstarter.

Build Coffee has not yet announced when the store will open to the public.

Both Nyhart and Malsky have been preparing the space. When asked when the shop will be ready for customers, Nyhart replied, “You know the first really cold day between fall and winter when you think that maybe you should move?

Hopefully by that day.”

MTV Series Features Exoneration Project

BY SARAH FINEMAN MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

MTV recently wrapped up a truecrime mini-series featuring investigations of the Exoneration Project, one of the Law School’s legal clinics, into the cases of inmates in the Missouri prison system.

The Exoneration Project provides pro bono legal counsel to inmates who are appealing on the grounds of wrongful conviction. Its work has recently freed several prisoners in Illinois. Its staff consists of UChicago Law graduates as well as lawyers from Chicago-area firms.

T he mini-ser ies, Unlocking the Truth, was co-hosted by Eva Nagao, the director of the Exoneration Project, and Ryan Ferguson, who himself was wrongfully incarcerated in a Missouri state penitentiary. After being convicted of murder at age 19, Ferguson served ten years before his sentence was ultimately overturned.

Since Illinois prisons do not allow inmates to be filmed or interviewed, clients of the Exoneration Project could not be featured in the show. Instead, Nagao and Ferguson worked with the Missouri Innocence Project and focused on defendants in prisons that allowed camera access.

Over the course of eight episodes, Nagao and Ferguson examined claims of wrongful conviction from defendants Michael Politte, Kalvin Michael Smith, and Byron Case. Smith is serving a 29year sentence for assault, and Case and Politte are serving life sentences for murder. Politte is incarcerated in the same Missouri prison where Ferguson served time.

The cases of each defendant raised significant doubts, due to either originally f lawed police operations or the emergence of new evidence and technology. To re-investigate the convictions, Nagao and Ferguson looked into old po-

lice files and interviewed inmates, their families, and other involved individuals.

Unlocking the Truth stands out in MTV’s 2016 lineup, which includes shows like Catfish and Teen Wolf. This was an intentional choice. Ferguson and Nagao hoped to reach young people, especially young black men who are disproportionately affected by high incarceration rates, through the series. “We were excited and energized to reach a more youthful audience, people who are growing in their knowledge and development of the criminal justice system,” Nagao said.

The network also provided an unusual and welcome level of autonomy for Ferguson, Nagao, and their team.

According to Nagao, MTV, unlike other networks, did not put pressure on the show’s creators to have a storyline or definitive ending to the series. Instead, a camera crew followed Ferguson and Nagao for four months, documenting their work.

Still, Nagao and Ferguson were initially apprehensive about bringing these defendants’ cases in the public eye. “When you rehash these crimes, you are unlocking Pandora’s box as far as the trauma that this community endured because of this case,” Nagao said. The show’s team was careful to be respectful and open-minded during their investigations, and many of the involved families were eager to share their experiences.

The show performed well and increased publicity and online appeals for featured cases. The defendants themselves have yet to watch the program in full: its 11 p.m. EST airtime fell after lights out at the prisons where they remain incarcerated.

“Our hope is that each and every one of the defendants utilizes Ryan and I and the show as a tool if they have messages that need to get out to a broader audience,” Nagao said. “And I know they’re trying to catch the reruns.”

Kaitlyn Akin

Students to Hold Summit on Criminal Justice

BY SARAH LEWIS MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

A conference Saturday at the Harris School will consider criminal justice in the Chicagoland area with a keynote by one of Cook County’s leading elected officials.

This inaugural summit features four panels, a workshop, a keynote presentation by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and a final address from Reverend Alexander Sharp.

The summit, called “A New Forward: Criminal Justice in Chicago and Cook County,” will be hosted by the University of Chicago’s Students for Criminal Justice Reform (SCJR), and will run 8 a.m.–4 p.m.

Topics that will be covered during the conference’s four panels include: jail and prison reform, policing strategies for improving community relations, courts and the legal system, and com-

munity and youth engagement. Panels will involve discussions from judges, government officials, nonprofit members, and other community leaders. Admission is free, with priority for undergraduate and graduate students from around the Chicagoland area.

SCJR, founded in October 2015 by a group of four Harris School Students, serves to “bring consciousness to the ideas that are surrounding the criminal justice system and hopefully move toward advocacy, and to connect the students and the community at large,” according to co-founder Barbara Barreno-Paschall.

“I see this organization as becoming one of the most vibrant groups at the University of Chicago — one that is visionary and constantly rethinking how we do criminal justice, one that is constructive in how we provide and advocate for solutions for the community,” added co-founder Daniel Kowalski.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

VIEWPOINTS

Not Born This Way Identity Sometimes Means Rejecting What You Were Born Into

Brooke White At the root of every college interaction is the desire to feel accepted. From the Hull Gate procession to O-Week parties to the never-ending info sessions, we come into college desperately wanting to belong. This, in part, explains our perusal of cramped up tables at the annual RSO fair.

We search for our niche—the community that will welcome us most.

Where will we be validated in this search for acceptance? Somehow, in my overly ambitious and chaotic first year, I catapulted into the most unlikely of places: UChicago Hillel.

I attended my first service joining the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. The basement in Hillel is stockpiled with bibles and miscellaneous supplies, and somehow more than 30 of us piled in.

It was a large and intimidating step, especially considering it was an Orthodox service completely in Hebrew, but my best friend sat with me, explaining everything as it happened. She guided me through the prayer book, pausing when I had questions and slowing down when I could not keep pace with translations. For 40 minutes, Rachel’s patience never wavered.

Everyone else knew what they were doing, but they didn’t criticize me for imposing. My presence

was not an imposition.

Transition to me now: It’s the beginning of my third year, and I’m somehow coming to terms with being halfway done with college. Never would I have guessed that in the spirit of Yom Kippur, the holiest and most important day of the Jewish year, I would have squeezed between two of my closest friends during Tuesday’s evening service at Rockefeller Chapel. In the front pews, children, students, and adults alike—the men all wearing yarmulkes—cramped together. In that moment, I felt a moment of solace and community. Obviously, there’s something very spiritual about this process, but also something essentially human. And although I’m not Jewish, and I don’t know a word of Hebrew, I feel at home in UChicago’s Jewish community. And it is this sense of belonging that prompted me—the Catholic-turned-atheist Midwesterner who has never so much as attended a bar/bat mitzvah—to apply to be an outreach intern at Hillel.

I do not want to blindly submit to a practice simply because I was born into it. I don’t want to abide by a religion because my parents were taught to do the same. When I was ecstatic and told my grandmother that I was

Sofia Garcia

one out of six interns at Hillel (yes, the only non-Jewish intern), she scoffed, “We’re Italians. We’re Catholic.” What an ambiguous, baseless statement. My family doesn’t go to church, and I was never confirmed. Being the Italian and Catholic granddaughter was not my choice, yet I’m still expected to pledge allegiance to and uphold these identities and the obligations that accompany them. While I respect tradition and my ancestry, I firmly believe that education and experience provide the opportunity for extensive self-determination.

I’ve always worried about not being taken seriously. When I attended my first Shabbat at Hillel, I worried that my intentions would be misjudged. I’ve questioned if I seem sincere in my efforts to assimilate to a community, a culture, and a religion that are not by definition my “own.” And yet I wonder if actively participating in another culture and its traditions gives me enough to claim ownership to it. Being involved in Hillel and making an effort to be a part of the Jewish community has caused me to question other aspects of my life: Are the activ-

ities in my life important to me because I choose to do things like attend Jewish services? Was I just going through the motions before, when I blindly accepted my Catholic heritage, because it was what I was told to do? As I launch into my twenties, I want to remain curious and thoughtful; and as I do so, I realize that fulfillment can be achieved when we branch out from the expectations imposed on us and pursue self-inquiry.

Brooke White is a third-year in the College majoring in public policy.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

ARTS On Race and Culture, Jeff Chang Promises We Gon’ Be Alright

BY MA YA NGUEN MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

On Monday, author and hiphop scholar Jeff Chang opened the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs’ Heritage Series alongside an ensemble of artists. His keynote address drew from his book, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, in examining the country’s changing vision and conversation on race. From the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma in 1965, Chang moves to the election of President Obama—a black and white man colored red, white, and blue—and ahead to 2042, the year when minorities in the U.S. are expected to become the majority. All of us, I hope, envision a country where everyone can express themselves fully. Chang argues that the path toward this goal involves culture, rather than politics. And it is in this context of race relations that Chang poses his question: “Where does culture lead us?”

This question comes at a troubling time for America. Chang’s framing of the problem in terms of inequality resonates with issues currently dominating politics and the media. That inequality—especially racial inequality—has been growing for the past 15 years was his simplest but most illuminating statistic. Chang emphatically noted that black lives are “so visible, and yet so invisible still”: Reactionary movements like Black Lives Matter fight a battle for the centering of black lives, a call that reverberates far and wide. Most of the ques-

tions at the end of the talk revolved around issues of segregation in housing, schooling, health, and wealth.

Paradoxically, America is at once growing more segregated and more diverse. “Diversity without equity is a lie waiting to be exposed,” Chang said—a claim particularly relevant to college campuses around the country. This year, the University welcomed “a diverse group of first-year students,” according to its official “Meet the Class of 2020” article; we students are acutely aware of issues of diversity and equality.

Even UChicago Lab School students are organizing workshops to address such topics as art and activism, aiming to turn discussion into action. At the same time, our whole campus life stands largely sheltered from the rest of Chicago’s South Side. Part of the solution, as the framing on both sides of Chang’s talk by art suggests, involves turning our heads to performers and artists in the community.

Chang proposes a cultural, creative revolution. Art is not just an outlet for negative frustration, but an elevated inlet of positive change.

It is through cultural equity that wholesome equity can be reached.

When three performers of Rebirth Poetry Ensemble stepped on stage, it was as if they were in dialogue with Chang. They responded to his call for cultural equity by singing that, despite the troubles, Chicago is where they will stay and make a life. Frustrated but not angry, they almost shouted the refrain.

In a way, louder than Chang’s talk, their performance forces us to re-

think how we can live together.

At the same time, Chang fleshed out a nuanced relationship between politics and culture. The politico-juridical arena aims (with good intentions) to flatten out differences for the sake of equality.

Yet art highlights these differences for the sake of an even richer equality—as was clear from the evening’s diverse performanc-

ARTS STAFF

Check out Kenneth’s running coverage of high-profile films screened at the Chicago International Film Festival over the next two weeks. His second and third reviews of the series tackle Graduation, a drama by Cristian Mungiu, and Neruda, a drama written by Guillermo Calderón and directed by Pablo Larraín.

Mungiu is a titan of the Romanian New Wave movement, whose notable works include 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), for which he won the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and Beyond the Hills (2012). Graduation premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Mungiu shared the Best Director award with French director Olivier Assayas.

Larraín is Chile’s foremost rising filmmaker, best known for No (2012), which garnered Chile its first Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Academy Awards, and The Club (2015), which won top awards for direction and screenplay at last year’s Chi Film Fest. Neruda premiered

at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes this year. Besides Neruda, Larraín also directed Jackie (2016), the highly anticipated biopic on Jacqueline Kennedy.

* * * “We live in a world and society that is not very moral but is made up of people who believe they are moral,” Mungiu said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

This attitude cleanly expresses the thematic crux of Graduation, which follows a father who struggles with handling the sexual assault of his daughter Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) immediately before her final exams. The father, Romeo (Adrian Titieni), has invested a great deal in his daughter’s education to secure her a scholarship and life free from the limitations of their small Romanian town, but neither is possible unless her exams go well. As Eliza attempts to cope with the consequences of her assault, Romeo throws his personal ethics into question by undertaking shady measures to ensure his daughter’s academic triumph.

As an exploration of morality, Graduation is an absolute knock-

Chang also shared with the audience his burden of “creating new ideas, stories, and songs to convince people that the world that hasn’t been created is better than the one we are living in today.” This challenge proved irresistible to one member of the audience, who offered to play the piano after the talk, lending Chang’s book signing a background melody worthy of applause.

Courtesy of Gaby Ortiz Flores

Author and hip-hop scholar Jeff Chang examined the role of culture as an instrument for political change.

Graduation, Neruda Hit Chi Film Fest Cum Laude

BY KENNETH TALBOTT LA VEGA

es. To answer Chang’s question, “Where does culture lead us?”— it leads us, on an infinite number of coexisting roads, forward.

Local artists f leshed out Chang’s interplay of culture and politics: Aquil Charlton, a multidisciplinary artist from the South Side, performed a rap, followed by a cohort of students from the Lab School and singer Alex du Buclet.

out. Mungiu’s formal style, representative of the archetypal Romanian New Wave film, does wonders for the subject matter he attempts to tackle: The use of camerawork to produce routine long shots is resourceful and spatially conscious, with sparse editing enhancing the film’s realist tone. Content-wise, Mungiu especially wins with his use of verbal motifs. Often, Romeo and Eliza are told that “it could have been worse,” and in other scenes Romeo will regularly remind Eliza that her prospects for education abroad are “what she deserves.” The manner in which Mungiu intersperses these and other phrases is integral in his provocation of subjects like fairness, truth, intention, and justice.

However, there is more to these matters than meets the eye. Beyond the façade of a father facing an ethical dilemma for his daughter’s well-being, Romeo is an adulterer in a loveless marriage and a meddlesome networker in the small town’s spheres of education, medicine, and criminal justice. These aspects of Romeo’s narrative provide frameworks for critical, symptomatic approaches toward the patriContinued on page 9

Sem Co-Op, Remembered

BY KARDELEN SERTSÖZ MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

In October 2012, the Seminary Co-Op moved a block from the basement of what is now Saieh Hall to McGiffert House, where it shares a building with Plein Air Café.

Jasmine Kwong (A.B. ’06) and do cumenta r y phot og rapher Megan E. Doherty (M.A. ’05, Ph.D. ’10) decided to commemorate the Co-Op’s former space with a project that has resulted in a documentary photography book five years in the making, If You Weren’t Looking for It: The Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

The book consists of photographs taken by Doherty and Kwong, as well as interviews and a narrative history. “ I think that the Co-Op has been, for over 50 years, an integral part of not only the UChicago community, but the Hyde Park, Chicago community, and literary communities,” Doherty said.

T he bookstore was, and still is, somewhere people from all over the country—and indeed the world—can fi nd rare books. But more than just an impressive bookstore, the CoOp constantly hosts professors from various universities, author talks, and other events.

While students know the Seminary Co-Op to be bright and airy, it wasn’t always so.

According to Kwong, the old bookstore “just kind of didn’t make sense, and that was what was so wonderful about it.” The former bookstore was a windowless maze that led nowhere, full of bookshelves, hidden rooms, and dead ends.

“I just knew that it was a special thing that I needed to capture. As the project evolved, it became clear that it wasn’t just books and ideas, but that it was a community, a center that drew people together,” Kwong said.

To Doherty, the book describes “a magical place,” a place as special and uncommon as the University itself. And that was always its goal—to document the co-op’s genesis “before it...disappears to the sands of time,” Doherty explained.

W hen asked about their favorite part of the old location, Kwong immediately said, “no walls. Just books.”

Doherty paused, then added, “It was very unique…it was the only place kind of like that.”

An event with the two authors will be taking place this Saturday, October 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the Seminary Co-Op.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Trigger’d: The Revival a Safe Space for Comedy

BY NATALIE PA SQUINELLI MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

It was only fitting that a comedy show called Trigger started with not one, but two trigger warnings. Coming amid a heated debate over trigger warnings and their place on campus, Trigger was The Revival’s first sketch comedy revue. Written by an ensemble cast and directed by Cassie Ahiers, it thoughtfully and hilariously tackled the issues that elicit our strongest reactions.

The first trigger warning was a recorded announcement that lasted more than a minute, warning the audience of potentially “triggering triggers” throughout the show. The second was a musical number in which cast members accused each other of triggering them with their speech. While this start was slightly heavy-handed, the show quickly jumped into a string of thoughtful and nuanced sketches.

A live jazz band, the Cam Cunningham Trio, played as the audience took their seats and dotted the performance with accompaniment and sound effects. While there were brief instances of improvisation, the sketches were by and large rehearsed and delivered with ease. In a cozy venue like The Revival where most students, myself included, have only seen UChicago improv groups, Trigger made for a professional and reliable 90 minutes of comedy.

One strength of Trigger was the diversity of the ensemble, given the highly collaborative

process of writing a sketch revue. The show benefited from a variety of race and gender perspectives, which ultimately lent it greater depth and a broader reach.

“We all made a pretty concerted effort to stay aware and conscientious of how our jokes might be interpreted by different people, and I think our group is diverse enough to keep a lot of different perspectives on the front lines of a writing session,” said Sam Taylor, one of the six performers and a recent graduate of the University.

The sketches were almost entirely political but never exhausting, touching on everything from the election to Rahm Emanuel to Family Feud. Some of the one-liner endings got lost in laughter and audience response, but this was of little consequence.

Most engaging of all was the sincerity of writing and execution.

“I think a big goal of ours was to not slant our opinions, especially with such a diverse point of view in our cast,” said Aadam Keeley, another performer in the show. “[We tried] to boil [the issues] down to unequivocal truths.”

Indeed, the performances felt truthful, like the actors knew what they were talking about even if they were just reciting their lines. An example of this was a sketch in which three white boys (played by a mixed-race group of women) listened to experiences of discrimination from female audience members and related them to their experiences of playing lacrosse and going to Starbucks. The audience laughed at the sketch

Courtesy of The Revival

From left to right: Molly Ruthenberg, Sam Taylor, Aadam Keeley, Terrence Carey, Wanjiku Kairu, Shannon Noll.

certainly because the actors are funny and charismatic, but also because they recognized it as true.

This truth also came through in their portrayal of both sides of every issue. No one is perfect or safe from caricature, which made for an enjoyable and generous experience. In this way, Trigger was not a partisan show.

However, Trigger ultimately took a political stand. The show ended with the cast onstage holding protest posters, gathered around one sign that read, “Don’t be on the wrong side of history.”

Despite the show’s political nature, this came as a surprise—comedy about politics need not be political, and often is not. But the stance left

an impression, perhaps because of the cast’s careful and intentional treatment of issues, or perhaps because of the cast’s sincerity.

“I would love for the audience to take away the importance of knowing our history, embracing and moving forward as smarter more influential Americans. Our strong political ending emphasizes this idea without us saying a word,” said Wanjiku Kairu, another member of the ensemble.

Trigger was not simply a comedic project. Its cast and director feel strongly about the issues at hand: not just the greater, more abstract problems facing the country, but also the palpable questions of community and re-

sponsibility right here in Chicago.

“The word ‘trigger’ evokes a particular sentiment for the University of Chicago community at this point in time, but it hearkens to a very different conflict plaguing neighborhoods only a stone’s throw away. I think our theater sits at the intersection of these communities, and the word ‘trigger’ is aptly perched in the center,” Taylor said.

For an entertaining and thought-provok i ng hou r a nd a ha l f, T r igger was well worth the five bucks.

Trigger runs Saturdays at 8 p.m. through November 5 at The Revival. Tickets are $10 ($5 for students).

Ryo Kagawa Harmonizes History and Future

BY HENRY BACHA MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

“ It was the sea once / It was the sky once — once upon a time,” Ryo K agawa sang, his voice and guitar resonating through F ulton R ecital H a l l l a st S at u r d ay n i g ht . “ It’s you sometimes, and it’s me someti mes — nowadays.”

Presenting a set list that combined songs from his early career with selections from more recent recordings, Kagawa’s gracious and joyous performance, sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies, marked his first live appearance in North A merica over the span of his 46-year career.

Kagawa first rose to promi nence as a fol k si nger i n his native Japan in the folk scene centered on Osaka and Kyoto during the late 1960s. “ T here was a Tokyo folk scene, and there was a Western Japan [scene],” explained S cott A a lgaa rd , a do ct ora l candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. “ The Tokyo folk scene was very much, sort of a college folk—kids on campuses getting around in circles w ith acoustic g u ita rs, doing covers of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan. But the Western

Japan folk scene, in Osaka and Kyoto, was very different from that. It was a folk scene very much based on trying to express sentiments of their ow n…. A nd that ’s the side that Kagawa is coming out of.”

T h i s er a i n Japa n wa s m a rke d by s o c i a l uphe aval as renewals of the military alliance with the United States forged after World Wa r I I s p u r r e d p r o t e s t s throughout the country. The A merican military presence recalled still-raw memor ies of the wa r and occupation.

Several songs from Kagawa’s performance emphasized his connection to this era of Japanese history. In “ Let Us Go to War,” K agawa sang a biting condemnation of the jingoism that led Japan into World War II. After finishing the song, without pause, Kagawa lunged into “Lesson One,” perhaps his most known composition: “We have but one life; we live but once/ So don’t go and toss your life away/ It’s so easy…To falter in your stride/ When they tell you tha t/ ‘It’s for the sake of the nation.’ ” To some Japa nese, says Aalgaard, these songs are not merely nostalgic snapshots of an earlier time of blind nationalism. Rather, they retain

their message and relevance in a Japan still grappling with the legacy of the A mer ican military presence. Some have accused the works of cultivating nationalist sentiment for re-fortifying Japan’s military, a nd att empti ng t o rew r it e certain elements of Japanese history (with Shinzo Abe at the helm of such remarks).

However, not all of Kagawa’s performance dealt with the heav y baggage of h is torical reckoning. In “ Beale Street,” for example, K agawa w i s t f u l ly r e c a l le d t he month he spent in Memphis in 1976 while recording his album Southbound Highway.

Nonetheless, the songs that comprise Kagawa’s latest record, The Future, are by his ow n admission i nsepa rable f r om a nother t ragedy, the 2 011 ea r thqua ke, tsunami, and resulting nuclear disaster that rocked Japan. Musicians, says Aalgaard, were devastated by the d isaster. “[In] the musical community in Japan, there was a really common sentiment among a lot of people….‘What the hell am I doing playing music at a time like this? ’ ” Aalgaard said. Despite this initial reaction, Kagawa was able to discover new musical inspiration

Henry Bacha

Kagawa’s performance featured forward-thinking social commentary.

while travelling through the unbroken darkness of an area destr oyed by the tsu na m i.

“His musical commentary and critique always seem to be about mov i ng for wa rd ,” Aalgaard continued. Indeed, K agawa’s ability to harness

the lessons and trials of history as he gazes into the future is perhaps his greatest triumph. The continued relevance and import of his music reminds us of how easily, as he sings, “ Days long forgotten a re resu r rected.”

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Neruda succeeds in its balancing of substance with style...

Continued from page 7

archal mechanisms and systemic corruption that haunt post-Communist Romania.

As the film progresses, and Romeo’s behavior and actions become more problematic, his unethical interventions waver between matters of personal justice and self-interest. Graduation sets up a challenging but universal dialectic between the desire for agency and the innate obligation to be righteous. These concepts are never black and white on their own, and Mungiu captures their fluidity and casts them onto the screen with discretion and poise. Ultimately, Graduation is a unique and essential addition to Mungiu’s oeuvre that ought not to be missed.

Graduation runs 128 minutes in Romanian with English subtitles. It will screen Saturday, October 15 at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 16 at 8:15 p.m. Individual tickets and festival passes are available online at chicagofilmfestival.com.

* * * The underlying concept of Pablo Larraín’s Neruda is that it ought to be a biopic of the eponymous Nobel Prize–winning Communist Chilean poet and diplomat.

But what does it mean to pay homage to a man of such unique lifestyle, eclectic talents, and almost folkloric legacy? For

Courtesy of Cristian Mungiu

In Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, a father struggles with his daughter’s sexual assault ahead of her final exams.

Larraín, to begin to answer this requires constructing a bold, impressionistic narrative form that stands virtually without precedent in the history of biopics. If this sounds grandiose, that’s because it is.

The film itself boasts a dreamlike lucidity and visual lyricism, much like Pablo Neruda’s literary voice. For example, Larraín cross-cuts emotional conversation between

different angles and settings in a continuous edit, producing an effect somewhere in between reality and verisimilitude. Such methods attest to Larraín’s poetic dispositions on an individual basis; on a larger scale, the film is not so much concerned with telling a story about a good guy and a bad guy. Often enough, the viewer will dislike Neruda (Luis Gnecco) and other times

they’ll sympathize with the investigator hired to arrest him (Gael García Bernal).

Rather, the film relishes in its own journey, seeking the universal pleasure of falling headfirst into a well-fashioned poem.

Larraín and screenwriter Guillermo Calderón run a serious risk by attempting to pull off this biopic with such unconstrained panache. Yet Neruda just narrowly skirts sinking into kitsch, chiefly due to the gravity of its political scope; in the same vein, the film manages to avoid pretension by way of its heartfelt authenticity. Ultimately, Neruda succeeds in its balancing of substance with style, sincerity with whimsy— think the Wes Andersonian sangfroid that lent Grand Budapest Hotel its character.

The question of how Larraín ought to make a Pablo Neruda biopic still remains unanswered because, in a sense, Neruda is not actually a biopic. The sum of all things dialogic, visual, and stylistic, Neruda can best be described as a delirious romantic ode to the artistic legacy of its eponym, and to the whole body of art born from the Chilean revolutionary movements—an enterprise that was often just as prodigious as its political counterparts. I think Neruda himself would have thoroughly appreciated this film.

Neruda runs 108 minutes in Spanish with English subtitles. It will screen Sunday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, October 17 at 8:15 p.m. Screenwriter Guillermo Calderón is scheduled to attend both screenings.

Courtesy of Pablo Larrain

Pablo Larraín’s Neruda explores the life of the eponymous Chilean Nobel Prize winner.

(Plus: the Chicago International Film Festival will also be holding a special screening of Larraín’s Jackie on Monday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. before it hits U.S. theaters on December 2.)

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Women’s Soccer Set for Top 25 Matchup WOMEN’S SOCCER

BY MAGGIE O’HARA MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

The No. 11 women’s soccer team looks to keep rolling this weekend with its first doubleheader of UAA competition. On Friday the Maroons will face No. 8 Brandeis, followed by a Sunday matchup against New York University (NYU) for Senior Day. Both opponents are coming to Chicago riding a successful season thus far. The first matchup pits the Maroons (10–1, 1–1 UAA) against the Brandeis Judges, who have yet to suffer a loss and are sitting at a clip of 12–0–1, 2–0 UAA. The second contest of the weekend features a face off against the NYU Violets (7–1–1; 0–1–1 UAA). The last matchup against the Violets in 2015 had ended in favor of the Maroons in a double overtime 2–1 victory.

This weekend will be a true test for the Maroons, facing two successful programs back-to-back.

Noting how the team has been preparing for the upcoming weekend, fourth-year Sophia Kim said, “To prep for a double header we have to be smart about how we practice and how we play in the first game.

Training has been extremely competitive since conference has started, but we are still 1–1 in the UAA and we need to train hard but efficiently so we can play 100 per-

cent both games. Getting the job done in the fi rst 90 min will be critical for us to maximize our chances of winning. Coming out of this weekend 3–1 in conference will be massive for our record.”

The Maroons will need to battle for every ball, start to finish, in order to knock off both teams this weekend and solidify their place at the top of the rankings. If Chicago can take two W’s this weekend, the squad will likely return to the top 10 in the national rankings.

“Handing Brandeis their first loss will completely shift the UAA standings,” said Kim. “The conference is wide open right now as almost every team has a loss. We did it to them last year though and we’ll do it again this weekend: play our game and play smart. Beating Rochester last weekend was a team win and everyone needed to contribute in order for us to come out on top, and we’ll need to do the same to beat Brandeis, who is consistently one of our toughest games of the year.”

While their season is far from over, the South Siders will take a moment on Sunday to acknowledge their three fourth-years and what they’ve given to the program over the last four years. The fourth-year class, made up of Anase Asom, Sophia Kim, and Lily Wolfenzon, has compiled a record of 49–18–4, giving them an impressive .731 winning percentage over

CROSS COUNTRY

BY NATALIE DEMURO MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

The men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel to Winneconne, Wisconsin, this Saturday for the last races before their trip to Atlanta for the UA A Championship in two weeks.

T he U W – O s h ko s h K ol le g e Tow n Sports Invitational, the largest race of the year for the Maroons, will feature over 1,200 athletes from 45 teams and 10 states.

Coming off strong starts to the season, the No. 20 women and No. 31 men hope to continue their success in the toughest field yet. After five meets and multiple first-place finishes on both sides, the squads are excited for the challenge that this competition will bring. Third-year K hia Kurtenbach, one of the Maroons’ top runners, said, “ This meet will be an excellent opportunity for our team to challenge ourselves. We are looking forward to facing a really challenging field, and I think we’re ready to elevate and meet the challenge.” With months of training and strong performances behind them, the men and women are certainly well prepared for this weekend.

The Invitational will be a chance for the South Siders to put their mental and physical training to the test in a more competitive atmosphere. Second-year Owen Melia, who contributed to the team’s sixth place finish at UW–Parkside Lucian Rosa Invitational last weekend, said of the upcoming race, “It will be the best competition we’ve faced yet, with multiple nationally ranked teams in both the men’s and women’s races. The women especially will get strong competition for the first time this year; they’re undefeated right now.”

The team is looking forward to seeing this level of competition for the first time this season as the squads begin to set their sights on the final few races of the year. “We’re all really excited for Oshkosh because we see it as the beginning of our important, more competitive meets at the end of the year. This meet will help us figure out where we stack up in our region.

We’ll see Wash U there, so we’ll get a preview of the UA A Championship,” Melia said.

Wash U, which will compete against the Maroons this weekend as well as at the UA A Championship later this month, is currently ranked fifth in the nation on the women’s side and 15th on the men’s side. A number of other top-ranked teams will also be in attendance on Saturday. The Maroons are ready to face these higher-ranked teams and assess their relative talent.

Both teams have the opportunity to compare their strength with some of the top runners in the nation and figure out what needs to be accomplished before heading into the postseason.

The race this weekend will also give the teams a chance to test out the course for the NCA A Midwest Regional in November, as UW– Oshkosh will again serve as the host.

T he competition will take place three hours away at Lake Breeze Golf Club. The women’s 6-kilometer will begin at 10:30 a.m. and the men’s 8-kilometer is set to follow at 11:20 a.m.

Second-year midfielder Sydney Mathis runs the ball past a defender.

their tenure. Plus, they are on track to add more wins and another NCAA playoff run.

“Sophia, Anase, and Lily always bring a competitive edge that really energizes the whole team,” said first-year goalkeeper Katie Donovan. “They always motivate us and keep the team positive, even when

we are in tough situations. This ability to compete and uplift the team has been such a positive force throughout the whole season and will really be missed next year.”

The Maroons kick off the weekend on Friday at 3 p.m. and will also see action on Sunday at 11 a.m. for Senior Day.

Volleyball Looks for Round Robin Rebound VOLLEYBALL

BY ANNA ROSE MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

The Maroons will look to rebound after three tough losses at this past weekend’s UCh icago I nv ite at the hands of Aurora University, No.15 Elmhurst College, and No. 11 Juniata College. Last weekend’s defeats put the team at an 11–7 overall record. However, they remain undefeated in conference play with a 3 – 0 record.

Despite last week’s string of losses, the South Siders are definitely not ready to give up. On the contrary, the team views the losses as motivation to prepare for the matches at the UA A Round Robin #2 this weekend. “While we lost some really tough matches this past weekend, we always try to view those weekends as learning experiences and a chance to further grow as a team,” fourth-year middle blocker Katie LaPorte said. “It’s the response of a team to a bad loss that shows how much heart [we] have.”

First-year Anabella Pinton echoed her captain’s sentiments. “We are hoping to learn from our losses this past weekend and go into the upcoming weekend with a positive attitude,” she said.

Using their losses as motivation will definitely be necessary for the Maroons this weekend. The pressure to remain undefeated in conference play is on, as they will take on New York University, Rochester, Case Western Reserve, and No. 6 Emory University.

The team is heavily focused on improving its game for conference play. “ There is much more pressure on the conference games, as those games have a heavy inf luence on our rankings,”

Pinton said.

To prepare themselves for this upcoming weekend, the Maroons look to improve in areas they fell short during the UChicago Invite. “We are looking to improve the defensive aspect of our game as well as be more effective on the serving line,” said Pinton. “We are staying focused in practice every day and giving 100 percent effort on every contact.”

It is clear that the Maroons are looking to redeem themselves this weekend, and the match against Emory University seems to be the perfect opportunity to do so. “I think we will show what we’re made of this weekend, especially against Emory,” LaPorte added.

Excited for what this weekend’s games will hold, Pinton said, “ I am most looking forward to playing Emory. They are a very good, all-around team and will give us a good challenge.

It will be fun seeing how the team steps up to the plate.” The Emory Eagles hold an overall 18 –3 record, and, just as the Maroons, they boast an undefeated record in conference play at 3 – 0. In addition, the Eagles are riding a 14-game winning streak.

This weekend, the South Siders will travel to Waltham, M A, for the UA A Round Robin #2. The first match begins on Saturday, October 15, at 12:30 p.m. when the Maroons take on New York University (13 –7). Later on that day, the squad will be put to the test when it takes on the powerhouse Eagles of No. 6 Emory at 2:30 p.m. Play will continue on Sunday, October 16, when the South Siders play Rochester (17– 6) at 11:30 a.m., followed by Case Western Reserve (13 –5) at 1:30 p.m.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

Tennis to Be Tested in Final Tournament MEN’S TENNIS

BY ANDREW BEYTAGH SPORTS STAFF

The Maroons’ tennis programs are rounding out their fall season as the UChicago men’s team is sending three individuals to the Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association ( ITA) Cup. The Oracle ITA Cup consists of eight regional winners in both singles and doubles. T he Chicago men’s squad swept singles and doubles at the Midwest Regionals at Kalamazoo College.

The women’s team also dominated the competition only to fall just short, losing tight matches in the finals in both singles and doubles.

Third-year Nick Chua commented on the hot start to the season, but also mentioned the team’s end goal when he said, “Obviously this is a great start but we need to keep working in the off-season to make sure we’re all playing at the level we need to achieve our goal of winning a national championship.”

The dominance displayed by the South Siders was truly unprecedented.

At one point at the Midwest Regionals, the Maroons were 33 – 0, and their first loss came when one member of the team had to play another. The Maroon men also had three teams in the doubles semifinals and three individuals in the singles finals. Third-year David Liu eventually won the 128-man tournament by defeating teammate and classmate Peter Leung 6 –3, 6 –2.

The team of fourth-year Max Hawkins

and first-year Tyler Raclin defeated the team of first-years Ninan Kumar and Erik Kerrigan 6 –2, 6 –2 in another all-Maroon final.

The Oracle Cup is the premier fall tournament in tennis. Hosted in Surprise, A rizona, the best of the best come together in one of the most competitive tournaments of the year. Liu seems ready for the challenge. He commented on the Oracle Cup competition saying, “the intensity will be unparalleled” and that “every match will be competitive.” Liu even surprised himself with his play so far this season. “I came into preseason with shoulder and elbow injuries, and my regional tournament was up and down. I got lucky and really found my stride towards the end of the tournament when it mattered.”

Liu also came up huge in the regional, steamrolling his way through the competition all the way to the finals. Liu’s doubles partner, Chua, commented on his play. “Dave has a great chance of winning the whole tournament. The Oracle Cup really suits his strengths as a player,” he said. Chua also commented on the team of Hawkins and Raclin when he said, “It will be a good testing ground for Raclin, but if they play at the level that they have been, they could go all the way.”

The Oracle Cup kicks off on Thursday, October 13, and continues until Sunday, October 16. The singles commenced yesterday but resulted in a

University of Chicago Athletics Department

Third-year Peter Leung connects with a volley.

loss for Liu, the lone representative for the Maroons. However, the thirdyear has a chance to take fifth place as he takes on Nikolai Parodi of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The Oracle Cup concludes an amazing start to the season for the

men’s and women’s tennis teams. The tennis teams get back on the court in February in preparation for the ITA DIII Team National Indoor Championships.

The Lumen Christi Institute Presents

The Near East in the First Millenium:

A Bird’s Eye View a lecture by

Rémi Brague

ANSWERS TO TUESDAY’S PUZZLE Hint 1: “Each of the grids is a boggle board, that needs to be filled in to have a certain number of members in a certain category”

Wednesday, October 19, 4:30pm | Classics 110

Hint 2: “The first one is 5 Major League Baseball Teams” Answer: “Each grid is a boggle board, with a certain number of answers in a certain category. In order for each board to be complete, the blank tiles must be filled. This gives:

Cosponsored by the France Chicago Center and The Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations Rémi Brague is Professor Emeritus of Arabic and Religious Philosophy at the Sorbonne and Romano Guardini Chair of Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich. In 2012, he was awarded the Ratzinger Prize for Theology.

He is author of numerous books on classical and medieval culture, religion, literature, and law, including Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization and Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea.

For more information and to register visit WWW.LUMENCHRISTI.ORG.

7 Major League Baseball Teams: REDS, REDSOX, ANGELS, RANGERS, MARINERS, GIANTS, TIGERS 5 Colors of the Rainbow: RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, BLUE, PURPLE 6 Moons of the Solar System: IO, TRITON, TITAN, PHOBOS, DEIMOS, MOON 5 Palindromes (5+ Letters): CIVIC, RACECAR, REDDER, ROTOR, ROTATOR 5 Shades OF Yellow: CAB, CANARY, BANANA, GOLD, CORN The letters that fill in the grid spell out an extra member of the series “METS, GREEN, EUROPA, RADAR, LEMON”. Use those in the fi nal grid to get the fi nal answer of RENAMES.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - OCTOBER 14, 2016

SPORTS IN-QUOTES... “It can be difficult to make rational sense of rooting for a team but it can be shockingly easy to make rational sense of rooting against one.” —Jeff Sullivan on Twitter

No. 1 Chicago Set to Face Two Conference Foes MEN’S SOCCER

BY SIDDHARTH KAPOOR MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

This weekend will see the No. 1 Maroons involved in an intense doubleheader against two skilled UAA foes, as Chicago will host Brandeis on Friday and then New York University (NYU) on Sunday.

This promises to be a tough test for a South Sider squad that has been unstoppable so far.

Indeed, the Maroons have a 12–0–0 record this season, which is the best in DIII across the country. Brandeis, on the other hand, has a 5–3–3 record, showing inconsistency. However, the Judges are buoyed by a thrilling 1–0 victory after two overtimes against Massachusetts Maritime on Monday. In addition, Brandeis has a stronger record away from home, having lost only one game on the road while winning three.

As a consequence, the Maroons will have to be at their very best to get a positive result. One of the biggest strengths of the Chicago team this season has been its prolific scoring with 34 goals this season and an average of 2.83 goals per game.

When the going gets tough, the Chicago attack gets going, as was seen in the 2¬–1 victory against Rochester last Saturday.

Having gone a goal behind, the players did not lose hope and made a spirited comeback to win the game. The players have trust in

their abilities and belief in each other.

“Personally, I was very anxious to start the season, but my teammates have been very supportive along with coach Babst and coach Flinn,” first-year forward Dayo Adeosun said. “I have enjoyed my time so far. The team is very welcoming and determined.” It is with this confidence and belief that Adeosun was able to provide one of the game’s key plays with an assist on first-year Nate Johnson’s winning goal.

However, with the games coming thick and fast, keeping the momentum is important.

“These are the most important games of the season, because Brandeis is coming in with total desperation to get a win,” Adeosun said. “Also, it will be two games in three days, so we must have players contributing on all cylinders in order to come out with two season-defining wins. Maintaining focus and working at the highest quality is what we constantly impose into practices, so that it transfers into these upcoming games.”

After Brandeis, the Maroons face a NYU team with a 5–4–2 record. While NYU has a worse record than Brandeis, the fatigue factor for Chicago must be taken into account, having played a game just two days before. The defense will have to be on full alert, and one player the squad will be counting on is fi rst-year defender Sam Drablos. Drablos has been a very important part of

University of Chicago Athletics Department

Second-year midfielder Nicco Capotosto passes the ball upfield.

a defense that has only conceded four goals this season. With such a balance between defense and attack, Chicago will hope to get through these games unscathed.

The game against Brandeis is scheduled to take place Friday, October 14, at Stagg Field at 5:30 p.m., while the game against NYU will kick off at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 16, at the same venue.

Maroons Hanging on to Homecoming Hopes FOOTBALL

BY MIRANDA BURT MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

The Maroons will be back in Chicago this Saturday, looking for a homecoming win against conference foe Rhodes College.

Chicago is coming off a tough road loss at Berry, where the Maroons held a 14–0 halftime advantage before ultimately dropping the contest 28–21. However, while the squad did lose the game, there were many positives that the players plan to take into their game against the Lynx this weekend.

For instance, fourth-year quarterback Burke Moser broke the school record for attempts and completions, going 43 of 76 in the game. He also threw for 383 yards.

This was the third straight game Moser has gone for more than 300 yards through the air. The Maroons would like to continue this trend against Rhodes, who gave up 429 passing yards last week, which translated to the Lynx forfeiting 56 points as well as 210 rushing yards.

The South Siders are looking to break .500 after falling back to 2–2 in conference

play, while the Lynx are looking to improve their 1–2 record in Southern Athletic Association (SAA) play. After this game, the Maroons will then go on the road to visit Hendrix and Sewanee, making the importance of picking up a huge win on homecoming weekend even greater.

“It’s a pretty big game to help us get back on track. It’ll be good to get a home win now, because we don’t have another home game for three weeks. Protecting our home turf is a big deal for us. We take pride in protecting Stagg Field,” said first-year

University of Chicago Athletics Department

Fourh-year linebacker Hayden Harrow tackles a Case Western Reserve Spartan as second-year lineman Stash Rowley looks on.

defensive lineman Ben Christiansen.

So far, the Lynx and the Maroons have had one common opponent, the Berry Vikings. While Chicago was able to play the Vikings close on the road, only losing by seven points, Rhodes did not fare quite so well. The Lynx lost a home game 34–10 to Berry in their fi rst SAA game, which bodes well for the South Siders.

While Rhodes’s record has not been overly impressive, the Lynx have had some offensive success. The squad averages 287 yards through the air, 169 yards on the ground, and 27 points per game.

The Maroons have been hard at work this week to be prepared for the Lynx’s fast pace offense.

“They have a really talented offense with some fast athletes that work extremely well in their high tempo offense.

We are practicing with a high intensity and preparing every day like it is the real game,” Christiansen said.

In trying to stop this offensive threat, the squad will look to improve a defense that has had a bend but not break attitude all year. The Maroons have given up an average of 34.4 points per game, and an average of over 500 yards allowed per game. Despite this, the Maroons have been able to get some big stops and win some high scoring games.

While this weekend’s game will be a tough test, Chicago will have the help of the largest expected crowd this season.

Stagg Field has also been kind to the team, as it has been host to the team’s two wins and has not yet seen a loss. The Maroons will kick off on Saturday, October 15, at 1:30 p.m. for their Homecoming Weekend game.