Chicagomaroon112117

NOVEMBER 21, 2017

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892

VOL. 129, ISSUE 17

Clinic Takes on Dumping

by U.S. Steel

BY KAMRYN SLOMKA NEWS REPORTER

to University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) incident reports.

When reached for comment, a fourth-year victim reported that he had never even removed his laptop from his bag while eating alone at Bartlett; it was stored within a

The City of Chicago and the University of Chicago Law School’s Abrams Environmental Law Clinic plan to sue the U.S. Steel Corporation over its violations of the Clean Water Act, as the company dumps hexavalent chromium into Lake Michigan via the Burns Waterway in Indiana.

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel declared yesterday that the City will be piggybacking onto the Law Clinic’s pending lawsuit against U.S. Steel, which was announced in a notice of intent to sue sent to U.S. Steel on November 13. The Law Clinic is representing the Surfrider Foundation, a group whose members surf in the area of Lake Michigan into which the Burns Waterway flows. Pollution from U.S. Steel’s Midwest Plant in Portage, Indiana, is adversely impacting the members of the Surfrider Foundation, according to the Law Clinic’s notice of intent to sue.

This is not the first time that U.S. Steel has come under scrutiny for chromium dumping at the Midwest Plant. In April 2017, the company discharged an amount of chromium far higher than the legal limit of 30 pounds per day.

Neither the company nor environmental regulators were the first to divulge this information to the public. Instead, the National Park Service warned residents not to visit the lake through a press release. Then, from 7 a.m. on October 25 to 7 a.m. on October 26, U.S. Steel released 56.7 pounds of chromium into Lake Michigan.

According to a letter sent by the company to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) on October 31, Indiana officials were not notified until October 27, the following day.

According to Robert Wein-

Continued on page 2

Continued on page 3

Paula Martinez-Garcia

UT’s Next to Normal is an emotional examination of the ways in which families deal with grief and mental illness. More on page 6.

Beyond Grad Unionization Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Long-running Effort to Seize Iranian Artifacts in the Oriental Institute Before Supreme Court Field Museum.

In September 1997, three suicide bombers associated with the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, carried out an attack on a shopping mall in Jerusalem. A mong those a f fected were eight Un ited States citizens, who later filed a civil action case in a U.S. court against the government

BY MADDY MOORE • Faculty Forward looks to c a p c l a s s lo a d , achieve “faculty” status for their membership • Union, University are still in contract negotiations, almost two years after Faculty Forward won their NLRB vote

NEWS REPORTER

The University’s Oriental Institute (OI) is involved in an ongoing Supreme Court case in which American terrorist victims are seeking compensation from the Iranian government through seizing Iranian artifacts from the OI and the

of Iran and its involvement in providing financial support to the bombers.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. awarded the plaintiffs $71.5 million in damages, which the government of Iran refused to pay.

The plaintiffs have since filed several lawsuits demandContinued on page 2

Library Workers • The University’s challenge to the successful vote to unionize is before the NLRB • If allowed to proceed to bargaining, the union hopes to stabilize work schedules See more online...

Repeated Laptop Thefts in Bartlett Dining Hall

BY KATIA KUKUCKA & JIHYEON YEO

is unknown whether the acts have been committed by one individual or several, or whether the events are related.

The thefts occurred on Tuesday, October 24, Tuesday, October 31, Thursday, November 2, and Thursday, November 9, according

NEWS REPORTERS

At least four laptops have been stolen from bags left momentarily unattended in Bartlett Dining Hall over the past four weeks. It

Teju Cole Sees the Unseen Page 5 Photographer, writer, and renaissance man Teju Cole visited campus last week.

Maroons Make Final Four Page 8

UChicago and the Asymmetry of Power Page 3 Universities—including our own—can be dangerous places for women.

Women’s soccer advances yet again in the NCAA DIII Championship.

COMING TENTH WEEK...

THE MAROON’S FOOD ISSUE

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - NOVEMBER 21, 2017

Events 11/21–11/27

Div School Professor Refutes New Testament Justification for Moore’s Sexual Abuse

Today

BY CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Health Reform Now and Then Institute of Politics, 12:30 p.m.

This seminar will feature Director of the IOP David Axelrod and resident fellow Kathleen Sebelius as part of her “What the Health? Why It Matters to All of Us” series. It will cover the politics and economics of the Affordable Care Act, its effects and the actions recently taken to roll back the reform.

Implications for the Next Generation of Public Servants with Gillian Tett Institute of Politics, 3:30 p.m.

Featuring author and journalist Gillian Tett and resident fellow Fred Hochberg, this seminar will discuss what industries, institutions, and roles are available for public servants interested in trade. The seminar will also discuss how globalization and recent global changes will affect career opportunities across the government. The talk is part of Hochberg’s series, “The Politics of Globalization: How Trade Became a Four-Letter Word.”

Title IX and Healthy Relationships with Olivia Gatwood Mandel Hall, 5:30 p.m.

Panhellenic Council will be hosting a Healthy Relationships and Title IX workshop and performance with poet and educator Olivia Gatwood. Gatwood’s pieces have been featured on HBO, Button Poetry, and the Huffington Post, and she uses community-building and performance art as avenues to speak about sexual assault.

Third Tuesday Jazz Logan Center Cafe, 7:30 p.m.

The Hyde Park Jazz Society, along with the Logan Center and WDCB Radio, will be featuring local jazz musician Roy McGrath. Food and a full coffee bar will be provided. Admission is free, and seating is fi rst-come, fi rst-serve.

Sunday Sundays at Rockefeller: Jazz Sunday Rockefeller Chapel, 11 a.m.

The Sunday performance is part of the “Sundays at Rockefeller” series, a series centered on celebrating the spiritual arts of cathedral traditions. The artists in residence will perform jazz renditions of traditional Christian music.

Citizen Bulletin Alderman Willie Cochran, who represents parts of Woodlawn and Washington Park, says his decision not to run for re-election is unrelated to the news of a 15-count federal fraud indictment. Find more at chicagomaroon.com/contributor/ citizen-bulletin/.

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NEWS REPORTER

In a Time article last Friday, University Divinity School professor Margaret Mitchell delivered a rebuke to a New Testament justification of Senate candidate Roy Moore’s alleged sexual assaults.

I n response to a l legations that Moore sexually assaulted or harassed six teenage girls while in his thirties, Alabama state auditor Jim Ziegler argued that Mary was a teenager while Joseph was an adult in his twenties to explain Moore’s actions.

Mitchell, a professor of the New Testament and early Christian literature, said in an interview with T HE M A ROON that although Mary may be a teenager—according to the non-canonical Infancy Gospel of James, which tells the story of Mary’s early life — no piece of early Christian literature states Joseph’s age.

Any emphasis on an age difference was likely intended to make the circumstances of Jesus’ birth seem more extraordinary, Mitchell argued.

“It does call her a parthenos, which is a word that means a young girl, but also can refer to the status of young girl as virgin, that is as one who hasn’t yet had sexual congress,” she said.

Mitchell also said that while Ziegler may have been making a literal appeal to the New Testament, he neglected the fact that the text’s writers emphasize

the abnormality of Mary and Joseph’s relationship, and in doing so, Ziegler inverted its meaning. “ The whole point of the gospel narratives about the conception and birth of Jesus is that this is not the norm.

The whole point of the story is that this is not the way life goes…. He’s reading against the grain of the text,” she said.

Though the historical Joseph was likely significantly older than Mary, the Infancy Gospel of James states that Joseph was afraid to marry Mary for fear of ridicule. So he left her at home for four years after marriage, during which time she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

This would make Mary’s age at conception 16.

“In the text, Mary is twelve when betrothed, Joseph is a widower who already has children, and he’s old and grumpy and he doesn’t really want to do this, and he’s not even home when she conceives,” Mitchell said.

Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court Justice who has been elected to and removed from the Court twice, is running for the seat Jeff Sessions vacated in order to become attorney general. Despite the accusations, Moore has said that he will not drop out of the Senate race.

Mitchell, whose work centers on the New Testament and Christian literature up to the fourth century, has also done research on the American religious right’s interpretation of the

Bible.

Much of her work has sought to problematize the perceived simplicity of declaring a Biblical interpretation as literal or allegorical. “ O ne of the cha ract er istic features…of the Christian right [is] that they declare that they take the Bible literally, and in general the American press accepts that self-claim as if it’s completely accurate,” Mitchell said.

“One of the crucial steps of Biblical interpretation is choosing what you think is relevant to what you want to talk about. Is everything in the Bible equally relevant to modern American society? The New Testament also recognizes chattel slavery.”

Mitchell added that any conversation centering around Biblical precedents in the 21st century is likely to be anachronistic, and the defense of a political candidate—even a candidate who has made his career into a crusade for Biblical fidelity—is more nuanced than simply drawing a direct comparison between his actions and Biblical events. “ T he problem of how an ancient text…can be brought into the modern discussions is much more complicated than throwing proof texts around,” she said.

Oriental Institute at Center of Supreme Court Case, Rubin v. Iran Continued from front

ing Iranian artifacts and antiquities held by the University as compensation, and have also attempted to seize artifacts from the Field Museum in Chicago and other museums in Massachusetts and Michigan.

The Supreme Court hearing will be the fourth time the case has gone to court since the plaintiffs were awarded $71.5 million in 2003. The University appealed the decision and since then has won subsequent trials in 2011 and 2014.

The plaintiffs appealed the 2014 ruling, and it was chosen by the U.S. Supreme Court for review on June 27.

The Court is scheduled to hear the case on December 4.

If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it could set the precedent that a foreign government is subject to the terrorism exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and the property of a foreign government may be attached to a civil judgement, despite the location of the property or current ownership.

This case could allow the Supreme Court to define what assets can be seized from a state accused of engaging in or supporting terrorism, even when the assets are held or owned by a separate entity unaffiliated with the foreign state.

The plaintiffs have targeted three collections of ancient Persian artifacts held by the OI and the Field Museum of Natural History in downtown Chicago.

The artifacts include prehistoric pottery, ornaments, and tablets with Elamite wr iting, the oldest known writing system from Iran.

Both the OI and the Field Museum have stated that they own the items, but the plaintiffs maintain that Iran does.

The case is centered on the FSI A, which places limits on the circumstances in which foreign entities may be sued in U.S. courts. Typically, foreign states are immune from lawsuits or property seizure due to this act.

However, the plaintiffs have argued that FSI A contains a terrorism exception, which would allow them to

request the artifacts as a means of compensation.

This case has gone to the Seventh Circuit court, stating that there was not an exception included in the act that pertained to the case. This decision created a split with the Ninth Circuit court, which ruled in the plaintiff ’s favor.

T he Un iver sit y a nd I ra n h ave challenged the plaintiffs based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in First National City Bank v. Banco Para El Comercio Exterior de Cuba (Bancec).

This case created the “ Bancec doctrine,” which states that a case against a foreign state may not be executed on the property of a separate entity.

According to the University, since it owns the Iranian artifacts and is a separate entity from the government of Iran, the plaintiffs may not seize the artifacts to their case.

The OI could not be reached for comment by press time.

Wave of Laptop Thefts Plagues Bartlett Dining Hall Continued from front

sleeve in his backpack the entire time. Even though the laptop was not visible in the dining hall, he checked his bag after getting up to get food a few times to find that his MacBook was gone.

Another second-year victim reported that he had been working on his laptop alone at a house table before stowing it in his backpack and leaving for a few minutes to get food. When he returned, the laptop was gone, and no one near the table had witnessed anything out of the ordinary.

Using the tracking capabilities built into the MacBook via iCloud, the victim was able to trace the location of his laptop immediately after the crime. It was last located around Campus North Residential Commons before going offline.

UCPD officers were spotted in Bartlett Dining Hall last week questioning students about the recent thefts.

The UCPD and Bartlett Dining Hall both told THE MAROON that they were unable to comment on the incidents, as the investigation is ongoing.

To prevent any future thefts, the UCPD recommends that students register their laptops through the UCPD’s Community Services Division, available at (773) 702-6008.

When registered, laptops are installed with bar codes, allowing the UCPD to track them if lost.

The UCPD also advises students not to leave any valuables unattended and to stay aware of their surroundings at all times, especially in crowded places. Moreover, if anyone ever loses a laptop, they should immediately inform the UCPD.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - NOVEMBER 21, 2017

“What I don’t want to get lost in all of this is that the corporate strategy of cost-cutting was at the expense of both the Plant’s workers and public health and the environment.”

Continued from front

stock, a lecturer in law at the Law School and the Abrams Environmental Law Fellow, members of the Surfrider Foundation approached the Law Clinic a year ago because they were concerned about what was in the water where they surf in Indiana. After the April spill, the Law Clinic began focusing more intently on U.S. Steel than they did on other companies in the area.

Students in the Law Clinic discovered the letter while they were tracking pollution violations at factories on Lake Michigan’s southwest shore just before the notice of intent to sue was sent to U.S. Steel. The document, which asks for “confidential treatment under all applicable statutes” from Indiana officials, is a key piece of

evidence that the Law Clinic will use during its upcoming lawsuit against U.S. Steel for continuously violating the Clean Water Act over the past five years.

The letter was a “jarring revelation, because U.S. Steel publicly stated that they were resolving their issues,” Weinstock told THE MAROON. The company’s request to treat the letter confidentially was “particularly disturbing given all the public attention on U.S. Steel,” Weinstock stated.

According to Weinstock, the timing of the letter was concerning, as was the state of Indiana’s response. While the letter was posted on the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s database and publicly available, U.S. Steel and IDEM did not notify the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency (EPA) or the general public. The weekend following the chromium discharge was one of the best surfing weekends, and “thousands” of surfers were in the water, ignorant of the contamination, according to Weinstock.

A host of side effects are associated with hexavalent chromium.

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) states that exposure to the compound can lead to “nasal and sinus cancers, kidney and liver damage, nasal and skin irritation and ulceration, and eye irritation and damage.” According to the Scientific American, NTP scientists also report that the compound can be carcinogenic when consumed. A study done by the NTP shows that after drinking water containing doses of hexavalent chromium, mice and rats con-

tracted malignant tumors in their mouths and small intestines.

The exposure of Indiana citizens to the compound “hammered home just how much needs to be done to hold U.S. Steel accountable and how much we need strong action, transparency, and oversight from regulators,” Weinstock said.

He believes that the problems at U.S. Steel are driven by measures to reduce expenses that involve laying off maintenance workers.

“What I don’t want to get lost in all of this is that the corporate strategy of cost-cutting was at the expense of both the plant’s workers and public health and environment,” Weinstock said.

This mirrors the City’s intended lawsuit, believed to be a move to crack down on polluters following President Donald Trump’s

funding cuts to the EPA and state regulatory enforcement officials.

“The silence from the Trump EPA has led the city of Chicago to sue and to also shake up and wake up the EPA to their responsibilities,” Emanuel said at a press conference on Sunday.

In a statement released to the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, U.S. Steel said the chromium release in October “did not pose any danger to water supply or human health.”

“U.S. Steel is committed to complying with all environmental standards, to ensuring the safety of our employees and our neighbors in the communities in which we live and operate, and to safeguarding our shared environment,” the company said.

VIEWPOINTS UChicago and the Asymmetry of Power Academic Circles Can Be Unwelcoming and Dangerous for Women

Urvi Kumbhat Recently, HuffPost published an article by C. Christine Fair (S.B. ’91, A.M. ’97, Ph.D. ’04), a faculty member at Georgetown University.

The original article has since been taken down but was subsequently published by Buzzfeed, and Fair also wrote about it on her blog. She recounts her harrowing experiences with sexual misconduct, the perpetrators of which were often powerful male academics. According to her account, these men used the relative security of their positions

to harass her as she navigated her way through the academic world.

Dipesh Chakrabarty, a reputed scholar in UChicago’s history and SALC departments, is implicated in her allegations— she maintains that he made improper sexual remarks directed at her. I reached out to Chakrabarty for comment, and he responded: “I have taught at this university as a member of its faculty since 1995 and as a visitor in 1994. I have always worked to maintain a respectful, profession-

al, and cordial relationship with my students. If any student or colleague ever approached me saying that they had been hurt or offended by something I said or did, I would, of course, listen to them carefully and take appropriate action.”

Fair also blames the University of Chicago for fostering an environment in which she was repeatedly made vulnerable to advances by male superiors, without any hope for redress or justice. She recounts numerous futile attempts to address her deep discomfort with higher-ups in the department. (Steve Collins, a UChicago professor who Fair remembers as “the ally of Chakrabarty’s victims,” declined to comment on the matter.) The Uni-

versity statement on the issue can be found at the end of this article.

This article should have been a big deal for students at UChicago—a reminder that the repeated violation of women’s rights is often institutionally protected. Tellingly, this is hardly UChicago’s first controversy surrounding sexual harassment; just last year, UChicago quietly fired Jason Lieb, a professor who was employed despite indications of a prior history of sexual misconduct. We, so proud of our ability to think critically, should have been reflecting on how ostensibly progressive academic institutions like our own can allow professors and faculty members to exercise power with impunity. We should have been thinking about

how professors can irreversibly alter their students’ life chances. We should have surmised long ago that elite institutions are always more committed to protecting themselves, and launching investigations of this sort would threaten to disrupt our university’s carefully curated reputation for academic excellence.

But the article was largely ignored by the general UChicago community, as far as I can tell. The fact that no one saw it or is talking about it should tell us something about the way women’s testimonies are treated. I’m inclined to believe that at least part of our silence is because no one wants to think about the implications. As a student interested Continued on page 4

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“The repeated violation of women’s rights is often institutionally protected . . .”

Continued from page 3 in postcolonial theory, I’ve been considering taking one of Chakrabarty’s classes ever since I first heard of his work. As I read Fair’s article, I had the uncomfortable realization that taking his class now would mean one of two things: that I didn’t believe Fair’s story, or conversely, that I believed it, but would be willing to set aside the implications of her experiences for the duration of class. Regardless, I would have to grapple with the possibility that I could be putting my own security and chances at success in danger. I shouldn’t have to make decisions like that simply in order to get an education—it’s UChicago’s duty to make me feel secure in a learning environment.

The question of believing survivors of sexual violence has long been a topic of discussion.

As the terrifying details surrounding Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long abuse of women came into public focus, and the #MeToo campaign began trending across social media, it quickly became apparent that millions of women—not including the many who are rightfully reluctant to speak, or cannot speak—have faced some form of sexual harassment. The reality that most women live every day is being crystallized for all to see. We are constantly vulnerable and at risk of having our bodies violated, with the possibility of justice at best fleeting and complicated, and at worst impossible.

We’ve seen public figure after public figure being held accountable online and in print— Kevin Spacey, Roy Moore, Louis C.K., and most recently, Al Franken. Clearly, something is changing in the way we report and react to allegations of sexual misconduct. In a related turn of events, Raya Sarkar, a woman of Indian origin and a law student, posted a list on Facebook naming dozens of South Asian academics, including Chakrabarty, who have been accused of sexual harassment. In her post, Raya simply says, “If any one knows of

academics who have sexually harassed/were sexually predatory to them or have seen it first hand PM me and I’ll add them to the list [sic].”

This list, then, is unapologetic in its mission—it offers no explanations or detailed accounts of what happened—it is simply intended as a method of keeping women safe from elite scholars who benefit from a wide asymmetry in power. Similarly, in the wake of Weinstein’s crimes, an anonymously crowdsourced Google spreadsheet dedicated to exposing “Shitty Men in Media” reverberated across social media, eventually leading to a public rebuke of journalist Leon Wieseltier, even after it was removed from the web.

UChicago is no stranger to such lists either.

In 2014, a list emerged on Tumblr, accusing male students of sexual violence, citing University inaction as a reason for its creation. As women, we develop mechanisms for keeping each other safe, passing on any information we might have about men who may harm us. In a way, these lists are a more widely accessible version of that.

Sarkar’s list propelled a wave of deeply polarizing debate in India. Some people likened it to mob justice and called for “due process,” while others hailed this “naming and shaming” as an act of resistance and protection. I stand

by Sarkar and the women who (anonymously) contributed to this list. The legal system surrounding cases of this nature is such that the burden always lies on the victim—almost always a woman—to prove the “truth” of the accusations. Women have historically been ridiculed, shamed, brutally punished, and ignored for sharing stories of assault. Who can blame them for not wanting to register complaints against men that are shielded by fortresses of institutional power, institutions that rely on them for their prestige? Many of the men named in this list would never have faced any consequences, and still probably will not.

Some of India’s most revered feminists, including Kavita Krishnan and Nivedita Menon, have come out in opposition to Raya Sarkar’s list. They ask women to seek justice through due process, which they dubiously characterize as “fair and just.” Sarkar is a law student, so if she thinks this list is necessary, then it speaks volumes about the dependability of our judicial mechanisms. I have no space here to go into the prolific history of courts failing women, but we need only look at the case of Mahmood Farooqui, an acclaimed director deeply entrenched in academic circles, who was accused of rape by a Columbia researcher. The Delhi High Court acquitted Farooqi based on the logic that a woman’s feeble “no” can sometimes mean “yes”. Elsewhere, in America, for every 1,000 accusations of rape, only six perpetrators will face jail time. That’s due process for you.

This condemnation by Indian feminists is shortsighted and harmful. For one, the process of seeking legal action is not incompatible with the existence of this list—the two can coexist and perhaps even help each other. A woman abused by an academic who feels alone in her experience of sexaul assault might see a list of this kind, realize her assaulter has likely abused more victims, and subsequently feel more confident in seeking legal justice.

Additionally, spewing pseudo-intellectual platitudes about the importance of “due process” conveniently diverts attention away from what should really be at issue—that there are over 60 professors on this list, many of them well known, many of whom present themselves as progressive and feminist. We should take this as proof of a simple fact: Academic circles are not welcoming spaces for women.

UChicago students love to talk about Foucault, but we’re blissfully ignorant when real power-knowledge complexes allow elite academics to act as they please with their

students, while the women impacted are forced to change the very course of their lives.

Right now the focus is on upper-caste South Asian academics, but the problem is rampant and deeply ingrained in institutions of higher learning all over the world. We, as a student body, need to hold UChicago accountable for creating a safe learning environment for everyone, and think critically about the ways in which we are complicit in making academia a hostile space for women.

We too deserve protection, and we too have the right to learn freely— I wish women didn’t have to repeat this every few days. If that freedom comes from a list and a blog post, then sign me up. But ultimately, the onus for fighting structurally entrenched patriarchy cannot lie solely on women, and when we are trying to fight it tooth and nail, the least you can do is listen to us.

Urvi Kumbhat is a third-year in the College majoring in English language and literature and creative writing and is a head Viewpoints editor.

Editor’s Note: The University has issued the following statement in response to the allegations referenced in this column: “The University is committed to maintaining an environment in which all members of our community can participate fully. The Policy on Harassment, Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct acknowledges the ‘inherently unequal power’ in some interactions, and includes provisions that take such imbalances into account. Our training for students is intended to encourage reporting of incidents. In this case, University authorities have written Dr. Fair inviting her to contact them if she wishes to discuss these incidents.”

Tax Reform Firestorm The Republican Tax Reform Effort Threatens Higher Education as We Know It House Republicans last week succeeded in passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a bill that aims to fundamentally restructure the notoriously complicated American tax code.

The bill’s perceived deference to corporations and the wealthy has garnered the most backlash, but additionally troublesome are components of the bill that would economically burden graduate students and tax the endowments of wealthy private universities like our own.

While many hurdles remain before final passage—including the Republican Party’s tenuous hold over the Senate, disparities between the House and Senate versions of the bill, and mounting public discontent—the Republican tax reform effort nevertheless represents one of the most pressing threats to university education in recent memory.

Most notably, the bill that passed the House repeals Section 117(d)(5) of the current tax code, a provision in place to ensure that higher education remains accessible for lower-income graduate students. Universities typically grant tuition waivers to graduate students, ensuring that the full-time job of student-researcher-instructor remains feasible. Repealing Section 117(d)(5) would effectively treat tuition waivers as taxable income, even though no money in these waivers is ever pocketed by students. In other words, a doctoral student making $30,000 a year and receiving a $50,000 tuition waiver would owe the same amount of money in taxes as someone making $80,000.

The life of a graduate student is challenging enough as it is; our school’s recent debate over student unionization, which culminated in an overwhelming pro-union vote, underscores this. According to a report from the

Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, around 87 percent of graduate students nationwide had incomes of $50,000 or less, and a majority made less than $20,000.

Counting waivers for increasingly bloated tuition costs as taxable income would do more than merely complicate the lives of graduate students: It would make graduate degrees impossible for all but the most wealthy. The estimated 145,000 current graduate students benefiting from Section 117(d)(5) would face a staggering choice: going further into debt to pursue their academic futures or reneging on their educational aspirations altogether.

In rendering graduate student life more financially burdensome than it already is and subsequently deterring others from pursuing graduate education, the Republican tax plan would deeply undercut the ability of universities to fulfill their goals of instructing thousands of students and funding groundbreaking research. How could a university like our own, which relies heavily on graduate students to teach and TA classes, function at its full capacity if this Republican tax bill were signed into law?

The plan’s proposed tax on endowments similarly threatens universities. Under the plan, private universities with at least 500 students and whose endowments represent at least $250,000 per enrolled student would be subject to a 1.4 percent excise tax on the total investment income made from their endowments. Around 60–70 universities would be subject to such a tax, including the University of Chicago.

While the needlessly heightened tax on graduate students is categorically wrong, endeavoring to tax the endowments of exorbitantly wealthy universities is more under-

standable. From 2001 to 2016, the 10 largest university’s endowments altogether grew by about 80 percent, from around $106 billion to $180 billion. Harvard’s endowment of almost $38 billion now rivals the annual GDP of Serbia, while UChicago’s $8 billion roughly matches Niger’s GDP. Favorable tax treatment of these sky-high endowments means that the U.S. government is subsidizing elite universities to the tune of $20 billion a year.

As students at a well-financed university, we reap the benefits of this lax policy. That being said, it is hard to argue that efforts to direct some portion of endowment money elsewhere—perhaps to any number of underfunded public colleges—wouldn’t be preferable. Many universities’ frustrating lack of transparency on how they handle their endowments underscores the potential problems with allowing universities unfettered access to wealth.

However, a tax hike has to be understood in context. Most prominently, the Republican tax plan proposes cuts to the corporate tax rate, offering a massive giveaway to corporate America, whose financial reserves already dwarf university endowments. Universities, while occasionally secretive and over-eager in their spending, nevertheless are better stewards of the public trust than corporations, which are more likely to spend their untaxed revenue enriching shareholders than contributing to the public good in any substantive way.

Unhelpful endowment-related tax policies would be less likely if universities were more forthcoming about how endowment money is actually spent, but the Association of American Universities’ claims that “endowments support substantial aid and student service

programs” and that this proposed tax on endowments “will only harm students and their families” have merit. Allowing corporations to accumulate wealth with impunity comes with the consequence that low- and middle-income students will have even more trouble affording college.

And for what gain? Republicans are profoundly burdening students, parents, and universities, only to collect an increase in tax revenue so meager that it doesn’t even begin to pay for the rest of the bill’s prolific corporate giveaways. A report from the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the endowment tax would raise a mere $250 million a year, paying for less than 0.2 percent of the proposed corporate tax cut.

Rather than addressing the persistent unaffordability of college, these grad student and endowment “reforms” exacerbate the problem. The House Committee on Ways and Means admits this, clarifying that the bill would raise the collective cost of attending college by more than $65 billion over the next 10 years. By prioritizing a symbolic rebuke of universities—supposed bastions of progressivism—over a meaningful reform of outdated tax laws, Republicans are threatening the very livelihood of the American university system.

—The MAROON Editorial Board Editor’s Note: News editor Pete Grieve recused himself from this editorial. He is coordinating coverage on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - NOVEMBER 21, 2017

ARTS Teju Cole Invites Audience to Look for What Can’t Be Seen

BY JONATHAN MANDEL ARTS STAFF

As Teju Cole concluded his talk, “Seeing and Writing and Both,” before a packed Logan Performance Hall last Wednesday, a middle-school-aged girl raised her hand and asked a question: “If you were given one sheet of paper, one canvas, and you were to take all your photos and all the books that you wrote, and were to paint a piece, or draw a piece, what colors would you use and what would it be?”

“I think it might be interesting to make a highly detailed drawing of the night sky, and all the stars, and a very precise set of constellations,” Cole responded. “I think if you did it carefully enough, it would be almost exactly the same as a photo, and that’s kind of miraculous…it actually captures a particular moment in time.”

Cole is a present-day Renaissance man—a fiction and nonfiction author, art historian, photographer, and photography critic for The New York Times Magazine— who is probably best known for his photography work. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that he would choose to draw as photographically as possible. Beyond simply alluding to his propensity for photography, Cole’s answer captured the essence of his talk.

Although Cole’s hypothetical drawing would be an index of the night sky—a record of how a particular moment in space and time was perceived—it would nonetheless remain beautiful, mysterious, and intriguing.

What, exactly, is out there in the night sky?

That will always remain a subject of inquiry, even though the contents of the universe are, to a certain extent, unknowable.

It became clearer throughout the evening that it is precisely this enticing interplay between beauty, facts, and the unknown which Cole seeks in his various endeavors. In his lecture, Cole focused specifically on how the mediums of photography and literature create this interplay.

Cole began the evening by discussing the conversation between images and text in his novel Every Day Is for the Thief. “A photo that’s unmanipulated reflects a certain reality, but by the time you’ve put it next to another photo, you’ve created a narrative,” he told the audience. Even though there are only about fifteen photographs in Every Day Is for the Thief, the juxtaposition between each “presents to tell a story that really happened, but it did not.” While in some cases Cole took photos to complement the written narrative of his novel, in others, the photographic nar-

rative shaped the written. Cole read aloud from his novel, in which “fiction and nonfiction met each other halfway.” As is the case with his hypothetical night sky drawing, the beauty of Every Day Is for the Thief lies not only in Cole’s style, but in the interaction between what we can observe to be true, and what we can understand through fleeting sensory perceptions—whether actually experienced or simply described in art.

Cole went on to discuss his latest project, Blind Spot, a collection of 150 photographs from 10,000 negatives he took while traveling the world, each accompanied by text. The title for and inspiration behind Blind Spot come from Cole’s experience with papillophlebitis, also called “big blind spot syndrome,” which caused him to spontaneously lose vision in his left eye for two days. “A writer is a little bit like a monkey sitting under a banana tree hoping for something to fall,” Cole remarked. “This banana fell into my hand, and I realized this was something I needed to explore more deeply.”

He thinks of Blind Spot as “voice-overs” rather than captions. “I think a caption is doing a very direct kind of work, relative to an image,” he explained. “A caption is what the curator writes in a museum to go next to a painting, and if you’re a museum people-watcher like I am, you’ll notice that people spend a lot more time reading the captions than looking at the pictures…as if the caption is the main event.” Rather than simply imposing meaning on the images in Blind Spot, the voice-over text is “a little bit at cross purposes” with the images it complements, forcing viewers to think more deeply about what is, and what is not, in front of them. Although big blind spot syndrome forces those whom it afflicts to view the world as flat— depth perception requires both eyes—Blind Spot as a book weaves together seeing and writing to challenge the single, flat recording of the world, that the each might present if not accompanied by the other.

Cole concluded his lecture by discussing his photography criticism. When writing about seeing, “meaning will always come.

Sometimes the meaning comes out of the description. I think this is why I’m a photography critic, because photos can be described, and then something might come out of that description.”

Cole read aloud the first essay that he published in the New York Times Magazine as their resident photography critic—“I mean, I know it’s the failing New York Times.

It’s fake news—but it’s my fake news, and I get paid for it, so it’s good!” joked Cole.

Courtesy of Teju Cole

The inspiration for Cole’s latest work Blind Spot, a collection of photographs from his travels around the world, stems from a temporary bout of blindness in one eye.

Cole’s essay, “A True Picture of Black Skin,” examines the photography of Roy DeCarava, who was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2006. Working mostly in the latter half of the 20th century, DeCarava primarily focused on black subjects. For many photographers, Cole noted, this would have presented difficulty: “Cameras and the mechanical tools of photography have rarely made it easy to photograph black skin. The dynamic range of film emulsions, for example, were generally calibrated for white skin and had limited sensitivity to brown, red or yellow skin tones.” Rather than meticulously seeking clarity, DeCarava explores “just how much could be seen in the shadowed parts of

a photograph, or how much could be imagined into those shadows. He resisted being too explicit in his work,” instead finding power “in the loveliness of its dark areas.”

Miles Davis once said, “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” Teju Cole mobilizes a variety of mediums to heed this imperative. Whether imagining himself drawing the night sky in perfect detail, or describing the way in which Roy DeCarava’s photography finds solace in the uncertainty of darkness, Cole pushes us beyond complacency with factual observation, into the realm of potential, imagination, and truth that is not so readily apparent.

Indie Drama Lady Bird Soars

BY MICHAEL SHERMAN MAROON CONTRIBUTOR

Lady Bird opens with a defining shot: As the protagonist Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother (Laurie Metcalf) are driving back from a college road trip, their conversation becomes so intense that Lady Bird throws herself out of the moving vehicle. As Lady Bird ejects herself from the car, the narrative is immediately jolted into its given context: Lady Bird, a senior at her Catholic high school, is on a quest to understand herself as she grapples with both the superficial and the profound stresses that accompany that time in her life.

As a student watching this film, Lady Bird’s anxiety is all too familiar. Supported only by her father, she meets with college counselors, teachers, and even parents who express skepticism about her ability to

achieve her goals. In addition to external pressure surrounding college applications and school, Lady Bird reckons with an internal identity struggle: Who is she in relation to the people she cares about, and who are those people?

One emphasized plot point that asserts Lady Bird’s desire for individualism is her self-assigned name. As she states, the name Lady Bird is entirely her own: “I gave it to myself. It’s given to me by me.”

The biggest looming question surrounding any movie set in high school is: How can this movie stand out from hundreds of other Hollywood teen comedies? From American Graffiti to The Breakfast Club to Juno to The Edge of Seventeen, the high school dramedy genre has reached a saturation point that nearly rivals World War II and superhero movies. Yet, Lady Bird has all the necessary charm to survive and even thrive in this cluttered landscape.

Greta Gerwig’s role as writer and director is a major contributing factor to the film’s success. Known in the indie scene for her work with Noah Baumbach on films like Greenberg, Frances Ha, and Mistress America, Gerwig pioneered the mumblecore subgenre, creating naturalistic 20-something characters in low-budget films. Drawing from the character development of her previous works, Gerwig’s Lady Bird brings the best elements of mumblecore—natural, unfussy dialogue; messy yet relatable characters; tender moments— for a refreshing take on an overdone genre.

Gerwig’s presence introduces an additional layer of authenticity. Inspired in part by her childhood in Sacramento, the dialogue feels based on real-life organic conversations. Like so much of the current critically applauded media, the dialogue frequently addresses the existential identity crises with which young people grap-

ple. Fortunately, for its own sake, the film does not restrict this emotional complexity to Lady Bird. Unlike most teen films whose adolescent characters are whiny, self-absorbed, and clueless, one of Lady Bird’s main challenges is in realizing that those closest to her are dealing with problems greater than she could fathom. These moments of self-awareness make her a more realistically perceptive and nuanced character than the characters in other comingof-age dramas.

One of the most appealing moments in this movie is when Lady Bird realizes her subconscious love for her hometown, a place to which that she has never felt particularly attached. In its ability to communicate a nostalgia and beauty in seemingly mundane moments, Lady Bird is truly able to distinguish itself from the tired tropes of its genre.

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THE CHICAGO MAROON - NOVEMBER 21, 2017

UT’s Next to Normal Stuns With Powerful Performance

BY IVAN OST ARTS STAFF

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s 2008 Next to Normal raked in honors in its early years: three Tonys, an Outer Critics Circle Award, the 2010 Pulitzer for Drama—a prize for which it had not even been shortlisted. Its score was hailed as one of the best of the 20th century. It retained this glamour as a University Theater

(UT) show, selling out all four performances. The night I saw it, the audience had spilled into the walkway and was sitting in backup chairs scrounged by the stage crew. Next to Normal is a Hamilton, a Big Work—a production whose offstage presence is a show of its own.

What does it take to draw that clamor and crowd? Next to Normal tackles mental illness, depression, and the blend of misery and ecstasy that is everyday life

Paula Martinez-Garcia

Second-year Kate Connors and first-year Luke McKeever gave powerful performances as Diana and Dan, a couple whose marriage is crumbling around them.

Brooke Nagler

Next to Normal is deeply critical of the way doctors prescribe endless pills to treat emotional trauma and mental illness.

by examining a dysfunctional family at crisis point. Rock-steady Dan (fi rst-year Luke McKeever) is committed to the point of self-destruction in a loveless marriage with his bipolar wife, Diana (second-year Kate Connors), who suffers crippling grief over the death of her son, Gabe (first-year Brandon Powell). Lurking in the background and often forgotten is the second daughter, Natalie (fourth-year Madeline Callaghan), who feels she must hopelessly compete with her long-dead brother for her parents’ attention.

The musical concludes that there are places “next to normal” where a person can control the difficulties of their life enough to function, but not to force themselves into a rigor mortis-esque facsimile of normalcy—whatever “normal” really is. A thematic summary of the work sounds a siren call to the student body of the University, famed and derided for relishing suffering.

Gabe hangs like a shroud over Diana’s entire life. She imagines that he is around as a teenager, though he is visible to none but her. UT’s stunning set design—including shapes on the floor drawn by white LEDs and a balcony from which Gabe, wreathed in clean light, can look down on his family—emphasize how Gabe, though nearly two decades gone, still dominates his family. While often framed as a musical about mental illness, Next to Normal seems more about grief—how Diana’s illness is exacerbated by her guilt over forgetting (read: moving on from) her son.

Rather than defining mental illness as a physical condition (a disease like diabetes, as Diana’s therapist tells her), the musical reveals how it bleeds through every element of a person’s life. It arrives at the unsettlingly real conclusion that there is never a clear path to treatment.

The medical establishment is not treated kindly in Next to Normal, where doctors often push pills or electroconvulsive therapy with a focus on wrenching Diana’s body into a state of regularity without addressing her emotional turmoil. The few moments of lucidity between Dan and Diana, or Diana and her therapist (second-year Jonathan Rockhill), come when they talk freely about the past. When Gabe’s death

is a sublime terror, so huge as to lose shape and proportion, Diana flounders.

Dan is so stoic he almost becomes a boulder: He focuses on “normalcy” to a degree where he loses his own humanity trying to remain stable for Diana. The musical presents a strange and borderline sexist narrative of crazy women being supported by good, stoic men; when Natalie departs from her academic overachiever mold to dabble in hard drugs, clubs, and a stoner boyfriend, it is Henry (first-year Connor Tree) who pulls her back, providing the same support that Dan gives to Diana. Natalie’s boyfriend is more patient and a better listener than Dan, but we are left to wonder whether the musical doesn’t see a connection between women and instability, rather than mental illness and instability.

At the end, Diana makes the painful choice to leave Dan and pursue treatment where she is not expected to hunt for normalcy at any price. It’s a hard, fair choice, although it hurts to see Dan weeping while Diana carries a suitcase out the front door.

The bittersweet ending asks us what it means to be selfish when pursuing treatment.

A royal romp to watch, UT’s production featured a talented cast who handled strikingly difficult voice parts. A strong instrumental section, complete with electric guitar and drum kit, rendered with aplomb the infectious, melodic show tunes that won the musical a Tony. The beautiful spectacle of the production smoothed over any dropped notes or inconsistent acting.

Despite running for over two hours, the audience remained enthralled throughout.

Next to Normal was one of the best UT shows I’ve seen at UChicago, and a very respectable piece of theater in the bigger world. It rendered difficult themes believably and rarely flattened nuance into trope. A productive and insightful production that shows how mental illness cannot be dealt with in an isolated sense or solved without addressing its origins, the musical was just the right kind of show to put on before winter quarter, when things get really hard. Bravo, University Theater: Next to Normal deserved all its hype.

When Rock Bands Become Symphony Orchestras

BY JAD DAHSHAN ARTS STAFF

Without the traditional cacophony of rock guitars and drums violently expunging rage and woe, Evanescence’s latest album is less angsty and more cathartic than its predecessors, perhaps mirroring the band members’ and their fans’ newfound maturity over the years.

After years of waiting, legendary goth rock band Evanescence finally released their fourth studio album on November 10. Titled Synthesis, after what lead singer Amy Lee described as “the combination, the contrast, the synergy between the organic and the synthetic,” the record remasters select songs from the band’s oeuvre into symphonic-electronic masterpieces that reach new dramatic peaks.

The first single released was one of the most renowned Evanescence songs, “Bring Me to Life” from Fallen (2003).

It was brought back to life with arrangements by David Campbell, a frequent collaborator since the band’s debut. Lee recently revealed that the inclusion of Paul McCoy’s vocals on the 2003 track was the result of corporate sexism; the band’s record demanded a male presence to counter Lee’s purportedly aggressive femininity.

McCoy’s guest vocals are absent from the remake, however, returning Lee’s long-de-

served agency.

The second single is one of the only two completely new songs written for Synthesis. For Lee, “Imperfection” is a song “for all the people we’ve lost, all the people who we could lose, to suicide and depression.” Lee’s signature belting combines dense synth elements with a quick tempo to make the song ironically the most reminiscent of past material. The other new track, “Hi-Lo,” is a decade-old song originally designated for the eponymous 2011 album yet now featuring violinist Lindsey Stirling.

“Lacrymosa,” which carried the early signs of potential for Synthesis on The Open Door (2006), might be the most creative reworking of all the songs in the album. The original track sampled segments from Mozart’s Requiem, emulating its harrowing string performance and haunting choir. Whereas the band had originally superimposed rock instrumentation on the composer’s work, the now-disassembled piece creates a more coherent and powerful whole that seems less like appropriation and more like an authentic work in itself.

Furthermore, “The End of the Dream” and “Never Go Back” had been among Evanescence’s heaviest songs when first produced in 2011, but the latter now features delicate vocals with less of the original’s outraged desperation while the former is

even more subdued, opening with a low, cavernous hum and Lee’s crooning rather than an eruption of metallic instrumentation. This ominous tranquility allows for, as in most of Synthesis, a buildup of tension throughout the track that culminates in an emotionally gripping apex. Where the incessant sense of urgency permeating the original tracks left the listener feeling pumped yet drained at the end, the remade versions instead leave the listener in awe.

“Imaginary” is one of the band’s oldest tracks, released in an EP from 1999 and reworked for 2003’s Grammy-winning Fallen. A song about hiding oneself away in an oneiric utopia to avoid the atrocities of the real world, the latest version of “Imaginary” prizes unadulterated vocals over digitally-constructed choir sounds and other alterations of Lee’s voice. In addition, the predominance of a string arrangement and electronic beats over typical rock elements transforms the melodic depiction of a nightmare into one of a dreamscape saturated with drama and tragedy. Similarly, in “My Heart is Broken,” Lee forgoes her previous position as hard-rocker to assume that of an operatic virtuoso mourning the pains of existence.

On the other hand, not all Synthesis tracks are drastic transformations of the band’s older records. Tracks such as “Lost in Paradise” (2011), “Your Star” (2006),

and the much-beloved “My Immortal” (2003) seem to be the least changed, perhaps because they originally included less goth rock instrumentation than Evanescence’s other songs. The rearrangement of synth elements and various instruments nonetheless accentuates the songs’ meanings: “Lost in Paradise” undergoes a metamorphosis from piano ballad to symphonic epic while “Your Star” grows more celestial, darker, and deeper.

True to its name, Synthesis is more than a compilation of songs—it is a dynamic, continuous soundtrack representing Evanescence’s journey and that of its fans.

Besides the musical flow from song to song, the album also includes two interludes and an overture that create narrative cohesion.

The exclusively instrumental pieces, albeit slightly histrionic, give listeners a welcome respite from lyricism and allow them to indulge completely in melody.

“We’re not going to be the rock band in front of the symphony orchestra,” Evanescence guitarist Jen Majura said about performing the album live. “We are just one entire group working on the best possible sound for the Synthesis.”

The Synthesis tour began on October 14 and will continue through April 2018.

7

THE CHICAGO MAROON - NOVEMBER 21, 2017

EXHIBIT [A]rts

BY JAD DAHSHAN ARTS STAFF

T UESDAY [11/21] 5:30 p.m. Spoken word poet and T itle I X educator Olivia Gatwood will be leading a workshop and performance on sexual assault, consent, and healthy relationships. Chipotle will be served afterwards. Mandel Hall, free.

7–8 p.m. The Open Door series, which showcases work from Chicagoland writing instructors and their students, features Chicago State University English professor Kelly Norman Ellis and her student Andrea Rehani.

Poetry Foundation, free.

7– 9 p.m. D o c F i lms hosts f i lm scholar and A nrezj Żuławski expert Daniel Bird as he introduces a special screening of Żuławski’s The Third Part of the Night. Doc Films, $5.

7:30 p.m. As part of the Hyde Park Jazz Society’s ongoing series, Third Tuesday Jazz, composer and band leader Roy McGrath will perform with his tenor saxophone. Café Logan, Logan Center, free.

a trip to the annual Christkindlmarket, a German-inspired outdoor Christmas market in downtown Chicago with food and gift vendors. Open 11 a.m.–4 p.m on Thanksgiving; open 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 11 a.m.–9 p.m Friday to Saturday for the rest of the season, Daley Plaza, free.

T HURSDAY [11/23] 8 a.m. Get your Thanksgiving off on the right foot with the 40th A nnual Turkey Trot in Lincoln Park.

There are races for all ages supporting the Chicago Food Depository. There will be pre- and post-race activities including corn hole, football toss, and warm apple cider. Register at turkeytrotchicago.com, $50 fee for 5K/8K. Start line at Diversey at Cannon Dr. 11 a.m. Stretch your legs after too much turkey and cranberry sauce with

M ONDAY [11/27] 9:30 p.m. L ess well known than classics like Vertigo and Psycho, Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier and Jean Fontaine, was Alfred Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film. Doc Films will be presenting a late-night screening of the moody masterpiece. Do c Films, $5.

F RIDAY [11/24] 4:30 p.m. Experience the holiday spirit as the Lincoln Park Zoo gets lit up by millions of colorful Christmas lights. There will be themed displays, carousel and Ferris wheel rides, and live ice-sculpture carving. Visit lpzoo. org to find the full calendar of events.

Lincoln Park Zoo, free.

7–10 p.m. Trumpet player and composer Marquis Hill performs with a band of keyboard, bass, and drums, as well as a guest DJ for a night of jazz sure to make you sway. The Promontory, $40 VIP table seat, $34 row seat, $15 standing lounge.

South Siders Start Season Strong MEN’S BASKETBALL

BY MIRANDA BURT SPORTS STAFF

The Maroons men’s basketball team opened this weekend with a pair of victories against the Rose-Hulman Fightin’ Engineers and the Trinity Trolls.

The Maroons began against the Fightin’ Engineers, and a balanced attack helped lead them to victory.

Fourth-year Jake Fenlon (15 points), second-year Jordan Baum (13 points), and third-years Justin Jackson (12 points) and Noah Karras (11 points) all scored in double figures for the South Siders. RoseHulman kept the game close in the first half, holding their largest lead at 19 –12 before the Maroons retook the lead 34 –29 at the break and never looked back, winning 89 –76. The balanced effort showed in the stats, as the Maroons had 26 assists to the Fightin’ Engineers’ 6. The Maroons also led 17– 0 in fast break points.

Sunday was another good day for UChicago, as the South Siders defeated Trinity 79 – 67. Fenlon led the Maroons, scoring 31 points with nine three-pointers out of 20 attempts. In the second half, Fenlon helped the Maroons, who only shot 29.9 percent overall from the field. The Maroons out-rebounded the Trolls 53 –35, and

also led them in second chance points by a 14-point margin.

Baum commented on the fast start to the season. “ We’re feeling good coming off these two hard-fought wins. We rebounded well today [against Trinity] which is going to be big for us as a team. Once we start to finish more around the rim, we are going to be a scary team offensively.”

The Maroons will play at North Park University today.

Baum was confident about the rest of the year. “If we keep working and getting better defensively, this could be a really special team. As we continue to get more in-game experience, we will improve on a lot of the little things that we haven’t been doing great thus far. As long as we do those things, it’s going to be a really fun year.”

8

THE CHICAGO MAROON - NOVEMBER 21, 2017

SPORTS Maroons Make Final Four WOMEN’S SOCCER

BY DIESTEFANO LOMA SPORTS STAFF

The University of Chicago women’s soccer team continues to conquer its opponents and is another step closer to its goal of winning the NCAA DIII Championship, having made it to the Final Four for the fifth time in program history. The Maroons improved their record to 21–1, with convincing victories over No. 17 Wheaton and No. 15 UW–La Crosse.

In their first match against Wheaton, the Maroons scored their first goal with spectacular contributions from two firstyears. Having just entered the match, firstyear Katie Jasminski accelerated down the right and sent an on-point cross that fellow first-year Maddie DeVoe battled for with a Thunder defender. In the end, the ball entered the far post in the 19th minute.

UChicago’s lead was extended in the 59th minute, when crucial movement of the ball from fourth-years Kelsey Moore and Madori Spiker initiated a pass from second-year Hanna Watkins to third-year Jenna McKinney, who sent the ball through the goalkeeper’s legs for an insurance goal.

The game ended with the Maroons outshooting their opponent 15–1, another stel-

lar performance from second-year Katie Donovan and first-year Miranda Malone.

The Maroons have only conceded six goals this season.

The next day, the South Siders faced off against UW–La Crosse with the desire of making it to the Final Four.

The opponents did not seem to matter to fourth-year Mia Calamari, who said, “No matter who we were going to face, we have a goal in mind, and that is to make the Final Four. It didn’t matter what team we were playing against, it didn’t matter if they’d beaten us consistently for the past decade, or if we hadn’t seen them. We didn’t care. It’s about us when we go on the field.

Playing our style and playing our game has been really important and we’ve been really consistent in that no matter who we come up against, what the conditions are, we come out and we do what we intend to do.”

Treating it as just another game, the Maroons did not hesitate to open the scoreboard and were not fazed by the low temperature and high 20 mph winds. In the 12th minute, Jenna McKinney once again scored for the Maroons with the assist by Hanna Watkins.

The second goal came after 15 minutes

University of Chicago Athletics Department

First-years Maddie Devoe and Katie Jasminski and third-year Jenna McKinney celebrate a goal. when second-year Rachel Dias sent a ball net after rebounding a shot taken by Watthat Jasminski headed in. Continuing the kins. The final dagger came in the 81st pressure and aggression, UChicago main- minute, when a left-footed shot from sectained possession for the majority of the ond-year Julia Lodoen went in decisively. time with only eight shots taken by the The final score, with 28 shots and 13 shots on goal, was 4–0 in favor of the Maroons.

Eagles.

The No. 3 Maroons will play their The remaining two goals by the Maroons came in the second half. In the 67th NCAA Final Four match on December 1–2 minute, Moore launched the ball into the at the UNC Greensboro Soccer Stadium.

Rainy Rewards for Soccer MEN’S SOCCER

BY ALYSSA RUDIN SPORTS STAFF

It’s been a busy weekend for the University of Chicago men’s soccer team. The Maroons hosted four teams competing in the NCAA Sectional Championship for a spot in the Final Four. The Maroons came out on top, booking their spot in the national semifi nals in Greensboro, North Carolina after a weekend full of rain, lightning, and drama.

In their fi rst game in the round of 16, Chicago faced No. 1 Calvin College. The Maroon offense started the game ready to play and scored two goals in the fi rst four minutes. The fi rst goal came courtesy of second-year Dayo Adeosun in the fi rst

minute off an assist by fi rst-year Scott Lich. Barely two minutes later, third-year Max Lopez scored to consolidate the Maroon lead. The scoring momentum was unfortunately stymied by an hour and a half of rain and lightning delays.

Coming back from the break, it was up to the defense to close out the game.

Led by fourth-year goalkeeper Hill Bonin, who recorded his 14th win, the Maroons held onto their lead for the rest of the game and earned their 10th shutout of the year.

While the Maroons took out the top seed, their next match against UAA rival Emory, the team that ended the team’s perfect record and cost them the No. 1 ranking, would not be an easy affair. The

Maroons once again started well, scoring fi rst in the ninth minute. However, the Eagles struck back in the second half to tie the game at 1–1. Neither team could crack the other’s defense for the rest of regulation. The teams headed into overtime, where the stalemate continued. After double overtime and no more goals, the match went to penalty kicks, in true movie fashion. It was now up to firstyear goalkeeper Aaron Katsimpalis and five players to win or lose this game. The Maroons showed the ice in their veins as they converted all five penalty kicks and Katsimpalis held the Eagles to only three goals, winning the game 5-3 in PK and earning their Final Four bid for the fi rst time since 1996.

The road to a national championship will not get any less challenging for the Maroons. They face No. 5 North Park University, who they lost to 1–0 earlier in the season. North Park is currently 20–1 and on a 20-match winning streak. Looking ahead to this game, Adeosun is nothing but confident in the team’s chances, “The loss to North Park ended up being great for the playoff standings and for the team in general. Having that be the only game I was injured, I plan on making a major impact for the squad in this next match. I trust our team and the confidence that is floating around in each individual player, and as long as we maintain our hunger and determination, I think we will have a great chance to win in this rematch.”

Split Weekend for South Siders WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

BY KEVIN JOHNSTON SPORTS STAFF

This weekend saw the Maroons take on Colorado College and No. 25 Illinois Wesleyan as part of the Midway Classic at the Ratner Athletics Center. Although the women dropped their first game to Illinois Wesleyan, they responded with a strong outing against Colorado College, grabbing the second victory of their young season to move their record to 2–1.

Saturday’s game against Illinois Wesleyan coincided with the return of the Midway Classic tournament and was also the Maroons’ home opener. Although UChicago jumped out to a two-point lead in the first 10 minutes, the Maroon’s poor shooting percentage would come back to bite them. Illinois Wesleyan quickly assembled a lead that they would not give up for the rest of the game, despite the best efforts of the Maroons. The Maroons struggled with shooting the ball, only making 25 percent of their shots from

M AROON

SCORE BOARD SPORT

W/L

Opponent

Score

Women’s Basketball Women’s Basketball Men’s Basketball Men’s Soccer Women’s Soccer

W L W W W

Colorado Illinois-Wesleyan Trinity Washington (Mo.) Wisconsin(LC)

83–52 56–77 79–67 2–1 19–14

the floor. They also turned the ball over 21 times compared to Illinois Wesleyan’s 14 turnovers. On the plus side, the Maroons shot 80 percent from the charity stripe, led by second-year guard Mia Farrell’s 10 for 11 free throws. Third-year forward Olariche Obi also led all players in rebounds with 15.

In the second half of the Midway Classic, the Maroons were able to bounce back with a very strong showing against Colorado College. The Maroons demolished the Tigers 83–52, ending the weekend with a resounding victory. First-year forward Elisabeth McCray credited the victory to the team’s improved chemistry, “Our team chemistry grew over the first two games as we got a better understanding of how each other play, so today we were able to execute and finish.”

This improved chemistry was certainly apparent looking at the score line of the game, as the Maroons were never really threatened by the Tigers.

The Maroons’ improved shooting per-

centage was undoubtedly a major factor in their victory. This time around they had a 51.4 shooting percentage, while the Tigers offense was limiting to a paltry 32.8 shooting percentage. The Maroons’ offense was well-rounded, with four players scoring in the double digits. Obi was again a monster on the boards, racking up seven rebounds.

First-year Meaghan O’Hara also contributed on the glass, getting seven rebounds and scoring 13 points. Scoring for the Maroons was led by forward Taylor Lake, who scored 16 points with seven out of 11 field goals.

With the game in hand by the final quarter, the Maroons were able to give their bench players extra minutes, allowing reserve firstyear guard Ionie Banner to score five points, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

The women look to continue their winning ways against Rose-Hulman on Tuesday, November 21, at the Ratner Athletics Center.