student discount card
Transcription
student discount card
2 must present student id student discount card THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 Step 1 PRESENT STUDENT ID MUST BE AN ILLINOIS STUDENT ID Step 2 PRESENT DISCOUNT CARD Valid September 15 - October 31, 2014 Valid for multiple reuses all purchases in Setpember & October 2014 no minimum purchase required Limit one coupon per guest. Void if copied, transferred, purchased, sold or prohibited by law. No cash value. Must present coupon upon purchase. Coupon valid on regular priced items only. Cannot combine coupon with same coupon. Not valid on alcohol. Step 3 GET 10% DISCOUNT REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR CARD CAN REUSE UNTIL OCTOBER 31 3460 N. BROADWAY ST. | 75 W. ELM ST. 1639 N. WELLS ST. | 680 N. LAKE SHORE DR. 2121 N. CLYBOURN AVE. | 1526 E. 55TH ST. | 911 RIDGE RD. THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS P. 4 Welcome Home P. 39 Campus traditions • While you were out P. 8 Chicago: The School of Life U of C/Hyde Park History • Chicago Politics, Past and Present • While You Were Out and The Road Ahead—Chicago Edition • Transportation: How to Leave Hyde Park • Chicago: North , Central, South, West, and the “Burbs” • Reading List & the Media Hook-Up • Navigating the Law Who’s Who: Top of the Ivory Tower Administration • Trustees • Alumni • Career Advancement v. The Road Not Taken • Non-academic Institutes • Student Ombudsperson P. 16 Habitas: Your Guide to Getting Settled P. 44 Guide to Dorms • Roommates • Dining Halls • Campus Coffee Shops • Coffee Shop Interviewing Process • Hyde Park/Area Dining • Managing Your Money P. 25 Life of the Body: Athletics, Physical Health, Physical Phun Athletics History • Varsity Athletics • 2013-14 Athletics Preview • Club and Intramural Sports • Chicago Pro Sports Primer • (R)o-mance: Dating, Hooking Up, UChicago Crushes • Functional Fitness • What to Do (and Don’t) When You Get Sick Student Groups from A to Z Campus Politics • Student Activism • Cultural Groups • Religious Groups/Institutes • Volunteering and Social Service Groups • Campus Journalism and Publications • Campus Arts • Campus Business/Startups/Consulting • Campus STEM • Greek Life P. 31 Back to the Stacks: A Day in the Life, A Life in the Reg The Core • Professors and Grad Students • Libraries • Bookstores (onand off-campus) Editors’ Note The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892. Editors-in-Chief Emma Broder Joy Crane Managing Editor Jonah Rabb Design Nicholas Rouse Photography Sydney Combs Cover Art Ow Wei Yi Greetings! The rush of orientation week is upon us all. By now, your loved ones have hushed their whimpered good-byes. They depart; without a bang the day draws to a close, with no more than an iPhone photo album called “Move-In Day” to mark it. An engine roars; the car pulls away. Is this it? You keep waving. Wildly now, flapping the O-issue tucked in your armpit. But the car is not coming back. Editing Will Dart Tatiana fields Sarah Langs Kristin Lin James Mackenzie Christine Schmidt Emma Thurber Stone Jake Walerius Sam Zacher A hand touches your shoulder from behind. “First-year?” the stranger asks. You nod. Taking this paper from your hands, the upperclassman scans the front page. “ôrēən’tāSHən,” she reads. “I’m sorry?” “You heard me: ôrēən’tāSHən,” she repeats. “Noun. An animal’s change of position in response to an external stimulus, especially with respect to compass directions.” Copy Editing Alan Hassler Sherry He Katarina Mentzelopoulos Taking the paper from your arm, a loud whaackkk echoes through the courtyard as she whips the newsprint to the ground. “What the—“ “Wake up kid. This,” she waves the paper in front of you, “is not some beginning, nor some great end. It’s just the goddamn Chicago Maroon.” “And this,” she waves the paper outward toward the quads before them both, “is not some beginning nor some great end. It’s just the goddamn University of Chicago.” “Just keep reading, friend.” She hands you back the paper, walking away. By Botany Pond now, the stranger halts. She shouts back: “Oh, and welcome!” Welcome, friends. 3 4 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 WELCOME HOME SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON CAMPUS TRADITIONS Scav You know what Scav is. You have presumably received at least one promotional brochure during the admissions process that mentioned it. You may have read the 2012 New Yorker article profiling the hunt. You might have heard about how Scav officially took the Guinness World Record in 2011 for the world’s largest scavenger hunt. Depending on your team allegiance, which is typically comprised of houses banded together, Scav is either the Super Bowl of collective effervescence or a blip on your radar. Hardcore Scavvies are known to forgo classes, sleeping, and eating in pursuit of victory and eternal glory. For the rest of the student body, abnormal sleeping and eating patterns continue as per usual. Shake Day There are milkshakes for $1 at the C-Shop on Wednesdays. Rejoice! Bar Night Wednesday nights in the Alpha Delt basement. Buy drinks for less than $5, see random people from your Hum class, spend the rest of the night doubleshampooing your hair to get rid JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON of the smell of cigarettes. Ah, the sweet nostalgic stench of postadolescence! Breaking down the quarter week by week Welcome to the quarter system. Each quarter is 10 weeks. The end of 10th week is reading period. Finals are technically 11th week. Your whole life for the next four years is going to be organized around whichever week it is in the quarter (first week, second week, third week, etc.). There is no scientific or empirical proof that certain weeks are universally more difficult, but that shouldn’t stop you from using the blanket excuse and/or gripe, “Ughh, X week.” We understand X week is always the hardest, even if last week was previously the hardest. Winter It starts roughly fourth week of fall quarter and ends roughly eighth week of spring quarter. Make friends with the cold. Make friends with reality. Just watch out for the ice because that is treacherous and is not your friend. Going to Valois anytime you hear Obama is in town In case you haven’t heard, Hyde Park is Obama Town, U.S.A. Look to your left! Obama walked there (probably). Your right? That’s Mr. President’s dry cleaners right there because he’s got a lot of tan suits to dry-clean. But Barry’s favorite Hyde Park hang is the cafeteria-style diner, Valois, on 53rd Street. Every few months, when someone spots the motorcade cruisin’ around Chicago, the entire student body descends upon Valois to eat breakfast all day and wait for Barry to waltz in. The success rate ain’t high, but it ain’t called a success rate for nothing. Parties not starting at the time they say they will on Facebook Add 90 minutes. Two hours if you don’t know more than three people. The youths these days just aren’t punctual, and all that Sosc reading is not helping matters. To the brave souls who show up to parties on time and power through those first awkward hours where everyone just holds an alcoholic beverage and checks their phone, you’re the real MVP. Seriously. Spending all day at the Reg, checking Facebook and getting coffee at Ex Libris Ah yes, the Reg, the towering, brutalist library that serves as both a prison and a hub. Everyone goes to the Reg planning to study, and most, when asked, will claim to have been studying. But it’s a rare specimen that spends all day at the Reg (as you will hear endlessly) actually studying. And after repeatedly refreshing your Facebook and Twitter feeds and watching a couple YouTube clips, you really need to get a coffee to hunker down and bust out some pages. Hey, you spent all day at the Reg— you deserve it! See you tomorrow on the third floor! Falling asleep in the Harper reading room armchairs It happens to the best of us. You just wanted to sit in a comfortable chair for a few minutes to catch up on your reading. You know, to give your eyes a break from your laptop. You just took your shoes off because, hey, it’s eighth week (see: “Breaking down the quarter week by week”), and we’re all pretty cozy by eighth week. Not knowing where the shuttles pick up or drop off. Seriously, where is the East these days? Does it change routes every other week? Why did I not look this up before going outside (see: “Winter”)? Is the app that tracks the shuttles working? Can I even properly use my phone with three pairs of gloves on (see: “Winter”)? At this point, is it more time-effective to just walk home? Perhaps, if I start walking, I’ll run into the shuttle, yes? Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko (Kuvia) Still not pumped for winter (see: “Winter”)? COUP is here to help! Second week of winter quarter (see: “Breaking down the quarter week by week”) is the weeklong festival Kuviasungnerk, which is named after the Inuit word for the pursuit of happiness. Every morning during Kuvia, students meet at 6 a.m. in Henry Crown Field House for Kangeiko, which is named after the tradition in karate to exercise during the coldest time of the year, but is in reality mostly yoga and dancing followed by bagels and regret. The last morning of Kangeiko concludes with a walk to the Point and a celebratory free T-shirt for everyone who made it out every morning. Free T-shirts validate all struggle in college. Summer Breeze After the ice melts, both on the ground and in your heart, the Summer Breeze festival kicks off. For one glorious afternoon, you can drink to excess on the quad, go see a concert put on by the Major Activities Board (MAB), and wonder if this is what it would feel like to go to a school without a Core and in a warmer climate. Last year, Flying Lotus headlined with supporting acts Pusha T, Baauer, and Vic Mensa. Nelly, Crystal Castles, Nas, Spoon, Broken Social Scene, and Run DMC have played at the concert in the past. —Mara McCollom THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 WHILE YOU WERE OUT It’s one thing to know the University of Chicago by the broad strokes of its reputation and brochures, quite another to know it as a community member experiencing the penciled-in fluctuations of each year, the ones not yet inked into the history books. But it turns out that the history of this University is written by the accumulation of that nittygritty. In order to know where this University is going, it helps to know from whence we came. So, for your benefit, what follows is a summary of 2013–2014’s major events and dialogues; a year in the life at the University of Chicago. One full calendar cycle ago last September, the University Community Service Center (UCSC) found itself at the center of student controversy after restructuring some of its staff and institutional missions. The real kicker, however, was the abrupt dismissal of Trudi Langendorf, the Center’s beloved and awardwinning assistant director. Student protesters alleged that the wind of changes unduly took place behind closed doors, and questioned the Center’s ongoing commitment to its founding aim: social justice. Salt was added to the wound when changes to the UCSC’s social justice internship program Summer Links were announced in January. The revamped internship program included the addition of for-profit internship sites. Alumni of the program penned a petition to protest, which gained over 1,000 signatures. Students, though, had something to celebrate come October, when University of Chicago economics professors Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen, along with Robert Shiller of Yale University, received the Nobel Prize in Economics. More than a month before the first day of winter, a chill ran through campus when Freenters, a popular free on-campus printing service, was hacked by a group calling themselves the UChicago Electronic Army, compromising the personal information of the service’s student users. And then winter arrived, bringing with it a polar vortex (or two, as it’s wont to do) and also delivering the University’s first snow day since the Snowpocalypse of 2011. In February, the University community mourned the passing of third-year Nicholas Barnes, who was found dead from alcohol poisoning in I-House. That same month, the University came under the investigation of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for its handling of sexual misconduct cases. Three months later, the University announced the creation of a new associate dean of students position to specifically address cases of sexual assault. In addition, the University formed a University-wide disciplinary SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON committee to hear complaints, and clarified its sexual assault policies. The University also held its first Sexual Assault Awareness Week in May. For the upcoming year, SG has allotted $10,000 for resources pertaining to sexual assault. Last year the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) transitioned to a “full-service” police force, with additional duties and increased autonomy from the Chicago Police Department (CPD). In March, over 750 students and community members called for the UCPD to exercise not only greater powers, but also greater responsibilities in a petition for increased transparency regarding policing practices, police records, and a simplified process for filing complaints. The UCPD also faced allegations of racial profiling from the Coalition for Equitable Policing (CEP), though Chief of UCPD Marlon Lynch has asserted that the department does not engage in the practice. As of this spring, the UCPD is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA), meaning that the police service has been certified as meeting the standards of an internationally recognized agency, both limiting liability and, student activists hope, increasing accountability. And then came spring quarter, with its tendency of leading students to feel freshened, although perhaps not any more fabulous. The announcement that Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre, a Goldman Sachs trader found liable for fraud in the financial crisis of 2008 and a University of Chicago economics Ph.D. student, would be serving as the teacher of an undergraduate economics course led to controversy both within and outside the University. Tourre was removed from the undergraduate teaching position shortly afterward, and will fulfill his program’s teaching requirement at the graduate level. In May, 108 faculty signed a petition calling for the Council of the Faculty Senate to vote on discontinuing the existence of the Confucius Institute (CI) at the University of Chicago. The CI supports the University’s East Asian studies department and falls under Chinese law because of its connections with the Chinese government. Petition signers voiced concerns that the institute does not align with the University’s values of free and open inquiry, but also pointed to the Institute as a symptom of a shift in powers from professors to administrators. After two meetings of the Faculty Senate, though, the Governing Board of the CI at the University of Chicago— comprised of University of Chicago professors and Chinese government officials—issued a recommendation that the University’s five-year contract with the CI be renewed. The University is likely to follow the recommendation. Later in May, the Trauma Center Coalition—an umbrella term for multiple groups advocating for the establishment of a Level I trauma center on the South Side—staged a Week of Action, kicked off by a group of protestors who chained themselves to the University of Chicago Medical Center parking garage construction site and effectively halted work. The debate surrounding the trauma center has been colored by the University’s ironclad handling of the protests, such as the controversial treatment of protesters during the trauma center protest in the winter of 2013. The UCMC continues to maintain that supporting a Level I trauma center is not financially feasible. And in June, as the school year began to close, the Institute of Politics (IOP) hosted a talk featuring Dan Savage, a gay relationship and sex advice columnist. Both Savage and IOP fellow Ana Marie Cox, a political columnist for The Guardian, used a transphobic slur at the event. The word was not directed at any specific student but offended some of the audience, an offense that culminated in more than 1,000 signatures demanding both that Savage officially apologize and that the IOP ban the slur from future IOP events. The IOP did not agree to the requests of the petition, but released a statement on their “Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion.” Lastly, the University launched a new interdisciplinary Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD). The Center aims to focus on research concerned with social disadvantage and promoting equal opportunity. It seems fitting that this recounting of last year’s happenings concludes with a nod toward the road ahead. Keep an eye out for the William Eckhardt Research Center (not to be confused with Eckhart Hall of the math department), scheduled to open in fall 2015. One of the institutes 5 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 6 it will house, the Institute of Molecular Engineering (IME), will offer its first undergraduate engineering course in fall 2014. The IME has already announced an engineering minor degree program, the first of its kind at the University of Chicago, and plans to introduce a major degree program during the 2014–2015 school year. Accordingly, do anticipate the “are we preprofessional” existential crises to bare its teeth. Another scenic construction site has opened with the beginning of the construction of Campus North, the new residence and dining hall scheduled to open September 2016. Campus North plays a significant role in the University’s public aim to boost the percentage of students residing on campus, from around half the student body up to a bold 70 percent. MAC Property Management, the landlord for most students living in off-campus housing, is keeping rather quiet on the matter. And, while we’re on the topic of new buildings, how about that presidential library? The University has now submitted its response to the Barack Obama Foundation’s Request for Qualifications, requesting that the Obama presidential library be located on the South Side, but not on campus, and would seek to provide educational programming for South Side youth. The foundation will select finalists and request proposals from them to be completed by the end of September. Arguably the largest of these physical expansion projects, Harper Court and related developments on 53rd Street, is in full spring. Over the past few years, the University has taken the lead in curating the real estate landscape of the street, with more than a few bumps in the—well, road. Not without its successes— the new Chipotle opened there is popular among both students and residents, and the new Hyatt Place Hotel has brought increased business to the area. But other local businesses have less favorable stories to tell, including the strongarmed departure of some native mom-and-pop businesses and revenue decline due to relocation or obstructions caused by construction. In what struck many as a rather dramatic plot twist, the University sold its brainchild Harper Court in August. But the development office maintains that 53rd Street is one of the major arenas of University engagement with the surrounding Hyde Park community, and that it will still be heavily involved in bringing new businesses into the area. Conversations to listen for: neogentrification, à la The Town versus The Gown. —Eleanor Hyun JULIA REINITZ | CHICAGO MAROON Join us! Sunny east Hyde park 3 Bed room, 2 bath room, 2-level condo town home with key upgrades. Short Walk to everything - lake, museums. U of C, shopping, downtown express bus stop at the front door step -15 min ride. $2600 Per month. Garage parking option available. photos available - Contact [email protected] or call 773 230 9883, 312-953-0261 The Maroon is holding an open house for interested writers, photographers, designers, copy editors, business team memebers, illustrators, and miscreants. Thursday, September 25th, 3pm Hutchinson Courtyard THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 “the city’s liveliest, most versatile vocal ensemble” — Chicago Tribune Global Transcendence: World Sacred Harmony and Chant Hear the musical intersections of the world’s faiths, as acclaimed vocal ensemble Chicago a cappella explores harmonically stunning and mystical sacred vocal traditions. From Jerusalem to Athens, Rome to Mumbai, be awed by the music of Jewish, Hindu, Baha’i, and other traditions at this inspiring and inventive concert event. 5 $ STUDENT TICKETS UCHICAGO ARTS PASS Sunday, October 19, 4:00 pm Rockefeller Memorial Chapel 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago Additional performances in Oak Park (Oct. 11), Naperville (Oct. 12), and Evanston (Oct. 18) TICKETS: www.chicagoacappella.org/maroon or (773)281-7820 7 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 8 TOP OF THE IVORY TOWER THE HEADS OF POWER: a who’s-who guide of campus administrators All is not what it seems. The gargoyles on the sides of Cobb Gate are said to represent the admissions officers who guard access to the University of Chicago, as well as the ascending first-, second-, third-, and fourth-years at the peak who tower over the gate’s entrance. That may or may not just be a cute fiction imagined by a wired admissions counselor. But, yes, the hard fact of the matter is that real power at the University of Chicago is not wielded by knowledge itself, but by the administration. Shed a tear, then educate yo’ self: Fourth-year reigning gargoyle (the Offices of the President and Provost) At the top reigns President Robert Zimmer, in office since 2006 and pledged to stay until at least 2019. The former math professor and depart- ment chairperson has been at the helm during a tremendous growth spurt for the University. Under his watch, the University has seen the addition of two new dorms, its first ever engineering program, extended community development and engagement, the opening of two (soon to be three) new study abroad centers, and the reorganization of the higher-ups in his administration. Should you pass by the President’s House at the corner of 59th and University one morning on your way to your 9:30 class, there’s a good chance you’ll spot crews packing up furniture and tents from a fundraising celebration the Zimmers hosted the night before—fundraising is one of the principal responsibilities for the University president, especially since the launch of the $4.5-billion Inquiry and Impact fundraising campaign this past May. Third-year gargoyles (the deans) Next on the gate comes Provost Eric Isaacs, acclaimed physicist and former director of Argonne National Laboratory, whose responsibilities now revolve around all things academic at the University. The deans of the University’s academic divisions, from the Law School to the Divinity School to the College, report to him, as do the heads of campus institutes such as the Smart Museum and the Urban Education Institute. Second-year gargoyles (the vice presidents) There is, however, a step that lies between the deans and the provost on the administrative tiers: the vice presidents of the University. One of the most prominent VPs to students is Karen Warren Coleman, in charge of Campus and Student Life and Student Services since 2009. Her stated duties range from UChicago Dining to the Spiritual Life Office, as well as Student Counseling Services, but she was also the point person last year when several students protested the University’s lack of a trauma center by holding a sit-in at a University construction site. Warren Coleman also played a significant role in the University’s decision to abandon the swimming test for incoming students in 2012. Currently vacant in this tier is the position of chief financial officer. Its previous occupant, Nim Chinniah, left UChicago this summer to become the chief operating officer at Northwestern University. The search to replace him is ongoing. First-year gargoyles and bottom gargoyles Last but not least on the totem pole of gargoyles come the deans, a grouping of administrators so broad and vast that it deserves two levels on Cobb Gate. By far the most visible dean is Dean of the College John Boyer, the unofficial historian of the University, longest-serving in his role as dean and bike aficionado—not to mention a parttime Prancerciser, thanks to a certain item on last year’s Scav list. Boyer continues to study and share the history of the University and beyond as the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of History and has frequently taught parts of the Civilizations study abroad program in Austria. Twenty-one years behind Boyer in her tenure, Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen joined last year in the newly created position. However, Rasmussen is quickly making her presence known on campus, holding lectures on lemurs (one of her areas of expertise) and hosting other events with students, including a Leadership Conversation organized by Student Government last spring that quickly turned to the discussion of the trauma center activism. Eyewitness accounts report that she also participated in yoga during last year’s Kuvia winter festival. But even younger yet is John “Jay” Ellison, the Harvard administration transplant who joined UChicago on July 1 to replace Dean of Students in the College Susan Art. News of Art’s departure broke in the *Maroon* last spring, coming after a year of embroilment in federal and local student allegations of mishandling cases of sexual assault and leaves of absence. Art maintained that her decision to retire was unrelated. Ellison told the Maroon in April that one of his goals is to be as approachable as possible for students, faculty, and staff. His primary obligation lies in maintaining the student advising system. —Christine Schmidt THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 9 TRUSTEES If the administration is represented by the gargoyles on Cobb Gate, then the trustees are the ones who decided which way they’re facing. Tasked with shaping the University’s long-term vision, the Board of Trustees is comprised of 55 prominent alumni and industry leaders ranging from *New York Times* op-ed columnist David Brooks (A.B. ’83) to businessman and Board Chairman Andrew Alper (A.B. ’80, M.B.A. ’81). The Board selects who will serve in the higher levels of the administration, including the president, provost, and vice presidents, as well as fellow trustees. Crafting the University’s future plans goes beyond the structure of the administration—it involves the crafting of the actual infrastructure of the University. The past decade has been a period of major campus growth, from the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts (opened 2012) to South Campus Residence Hall and Dining Commons (2001) to Joe and Rika Mansueto Library (2011). These projects were in large part provided for by a recent fundraising campaign, spearheaded by Alper over the course of eight years and resulting in more than $2 billion raised. The University recently ramped up fundraising in a new campaign entitled Inquiry and Impact, with the target of raising $4.5 billion by 2019. While the Board of Trustees may seem like a transcendent entity, one of its ties to the student body comes in the form of Student Government’s Undergraduate and Graduate Liaisons to the Board of Trustees. This year’s liaisons—School of Social Service Administration student Katie Schumacher and second-year in the College Leeho Lim—enter their roles after campaigns that strongly questioned the disenfranchisement of the liaisons. ’00), writer of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. This three star–rated film has the potential to be a satirical chronicle of a UChicagoan’s trip to the fast food restaurant, as none is within walking distance of campus. Most likely to have perfect attendance at Bar Night Tucker Max (A.B. ’98), Internet celebrity and New York Times best-selling author, famous for publishing his inebriated and sexual escapades. Success is measured in all sorts of ways here at UChicago. acclaimed meteorologist who developed the Fujita system for measuring tornadoes. He must have had eventful spring quarters, with the Midwest’s tornado season falling between March and June. —Christine Schmidt ALUMNI One of the most school spirit– arousing events each year is the announcement of the Nobel Prize winners. With nearly 90 laureates calling UChicago home between our alumni and faculty members, sometimes the achievements of the other thousands of alumni can be overlooked. Here, the Maroon imagines what some of these former UChicagoans were up to during their time on campus, from the bookstacks to Bar Night. Most likely to do weekly all-nighters in the Reg Joe Mansueto (A.B. ’78, M.B.A. ’80), CEO of Morningstar. After seeing too many concrete walls and never-ending bookstacks, you would want to build a glass study space, too. Most likely to have been a Cubs fan Tom Ricketts (A.B. ’88, M.B.A. ’93), current chairman of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Even though Hyde Park is technically in White Sox territory as a South Side neighborhood, perhaps this alumnus can pull the team out of its 100+ years of World Series drought. Most likely to have worked at one of the student-run cafés Joseph Neubauer (M.B.A. ’65), chairman and CEO of food supply giant Aramark. Maybe he was inspired to expand beyond coffee shops after serving students cappuccinos at Cobb Café or Hallowed Grounds. Most likely to have loved the view from the top of Rockefeller Chapel Jeannette Piccard (S.M. ’19), the first licensed female balloon pilot in the U.S. and the first woman to fly in the stratosphere. The stairs to get to the top of the chapel are more claustrophobiainducing than the openness of the stratosphere, but both viewpoints are probably out of this world. Most likely to have written for the MAROON John Paul Stevens (A.B. ’41), former Supreme Court justice, former editor-in-chief of the Chicago Maroon. This is fact—the Maroon staff has a tradition of celebrating the end of the quarter in his style. Most likely to have written for satirical publication The Chicago Shady Dealer Hayden Schlossberg (A.B. Most likely to have been Doc Films’s most ardent critic Roger Ebert (A.B. ’70), Pulitzer Prize–winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. Here’s hoping that most of the screenings were two thumbs up. Most likely to make a Punnett Square pun Janet Rowley (Ph.B. ’44, S.B. ’46, M.D. ’48), noted biologist who discovered the genetic roots of some cancers. She probably employed some humor while studying such a humorless disease. Most likely to have been a fundamentals major Bret Stephens (A.B. ’95), columnist and editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal. This creative thinker actually did study fundamentals, focusing on the intersection between democracy and technology as interpreted by Abraham Lincoln. Most likely to have ventured south of 65th Street on a regular basis Sudhir Venkatesh (A.M. ’92, Ph.D. ’97), author of Gang Leader for a Day and expert on urban sociology and poverty. While it’s not fair to assume that the surrounding neighborhoods are all dangerous gang strongholds, an in-depth study of that sort had to be conducted outside of Hyde Park’s boundaries. Most likely to have lived at University Theater Anna Chlumsky (A.B. ’02), actress from Veep and My Girl. Her inspiration for political characters probably stems from interactions with the econ and public policy majors on campus. Most likely to have roadtripped during the heart of tornado season T. Theodore Fujita (S.B. ’53), Most likely to have gone to a Maroon athletics event Kim Ng (A.B. ’90), an executive in Major League Baseball who was seriously considered for G.M. for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. The baseball team’s record during the late ’80s wasn’t exactly stellar, but perhaps Ng was inspired by the attendance at the games to incite more team spirit for other groups. Most unlikely to have gone to a Maroon athletics event Nate Silver (A.B. ’00), scarily accurate statistician and founder of FiveThirtyEight.com, ESPN’s statistical analysis website. At first glance, you wouldn’t think that this math wonk was an avid baseball fan, but he actually wrote about sports for the Maroon and even got his start in statistical analysis with a baseball website. COURTESY OF WWW.BUSINESSWEEK.COM KIM NG (A.B. ‘90) COURTESY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SUDHIR VENKATESH (A.M. ‘92, PH.D. ‘97) COURTESY OF STEVE GRANITZ ANNA CHLUMSKY (A.B. ‘02) —Christine Schmidt 10 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CAREER ADVANCEMENT V. THE ROAD NOT TAKEN When it comes to figuring out what career you want to pursue as an undergraduate, every experience is worthwhile. Now is the time to sample. Think of these opportunities, from summer internships and career treks to job fairs and spring break externships, as standing in line at the ice cream shop and being “that guy” who takes six samples before just going ahead and getting cookies and cream anyway. When it comes to your professional development at UChicago, you’re encouraged to be “that guy”—or that kid, if you will. Some job experiences will end up being your flavor exactly, which is a beautiful thing. But in most cases, it’s about sampling and discovering what isn’t for you. And what’s your onestop shop for kissing all these frogs? UChicago Career Advancement. When the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program began in 1997, it offered just nine paid internships for students. By the 2013–2014 academic year, Career Advancement was offering around 1,000 10-week summer internships, each of which provides a $4,000 stipend. According to Career Advancement’s website, “over 4,500 students and 1,000 employers both within the United States and abroad” have taken up these opportunities to explore the 9-to-5 world beyond Hull Gate. Alternatively, the more self-directed path is the Summer Action Grant route, where an undergraduate must propose and find their own internship and mock up a budget, and the University will bear the brunt of the expenses. While Summer Action Grants apply exclusively to unpaid jobs in the United States, also up for grabs are International Experience Grants, which provide funding to work abroad. Stipend amounts vary. To access Chicago Career Connection (CCC), the central online portal of Universitysupported job listings and internships, you must first make an inperson appointment with a career adviser. At this meeting, the adviser will look over your résumé and then activate you in the system. Advisers are available by appointment for undergraduates for all four years and can ease a wide range of careerrelated headaches, from revamping cover letters and résumés to simply chatting about goals. CCC is an expansive database of all career opportunities—internships, jobs, grants—the University has to offer. Searching the database is fairly simple. First, you browse by location, industry, and opportunity type. Next, you apply directly through the site by uploading your materials—résumés, cover letters, writing samples, and transcripts. However, when applying specifically for Jeff Metcalf internships, the process is slightly different. Say you apply for a Jeff Metcalf internship at Peace Corps. First, an inhouse adviser or advisory board from UChicago’s Career Advancement office—not the host employer themselves—will be the first round of eyes to screen your application material. From this, Career Advancement will then decide whether or not to pass you on up to the actual employer, for an additional round of screening. From there, the employer may choose to contact you directly in order to set up a phone or in-person interview. Non–Jeff Metcalf internships and jobs (which are listed on CCC but also exist out there in the, you know, “real world”) involve direct contact with the employer without any middleman screening rounds. And so goes the mad scramble to bolster one’s résumé, from late fall to early spring. Yet another wing of Career Advancement are the UChicago Careers In (UCI) programs, which bundle a vast array of funding and educational opportunities into singular preprofessional tracks: business; education professions; entrepreneurship; health professions; journalism; arts and media; law; public and social service; and science, technology, engineering, and math. The majority of these UCI groups are non-competitive and open for any student to join—you just have to make an appointment with an adviser or drop by the Career Advancement offices, located mostly in Ida Noyes Hall. Just the business and education professions groups involve competitive application processes. Through the UCI programs, you have access to workshops, tailored career advice, site visits, and treks. UChicago offers treks across the country and the world that help you clarify your career goals, get your networking sea legs, and learn how to really nail down your dream job. From day trips to downtown Chicago to weeklong visits to London, Beijing, New York, and San Francisco, these treks can be an invaluable experience for expanding one’s horizons. Employment opportunities through Career Advancement are vast in scope, hitting practically every industry. Want to work in a food truck for the summer? Get out your taupe, because the Eastman Egg truck offers a Metcalf. Determined to become the Wolf of Wall Street? There are dozens of investment banking internships here and abroad. Angling to be the mayor of New York City or the governor of Illinois? Easy there, tiger—it’s too early for you to run for office yourself, but you can intern for Mayor de Blasio or Senator Cory Booker while you’re considering it. Do you live vicariously through Kevin Spacey as you binge watch House of Cards? Get out of bed and take a trek—a public service trek, that is—with the UChicago Institute of Politics to D.C. and meet the real realpolitikers as they live and breathe. Wanna make movies or fancy yourself an artist? You could work for Paramount in L.A. or a slew of film festivals across the country, or even secure funding to do your own creative project for the summer. You can even create your own apprenticeship during the academic year and get a travel stipend to follow around your dream employer for 10 weeks. Overwhelmed yet? Go talk to a career adviser. As for the career of life, well, that’s a whole other matter. —Summer Fields THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 11 Visit the Claret Center, a behavioral health center residing in Hyde Park for over twenty-five years. We offer services self-pay, insurance bill, and through Medicare. Sliding scale available for qualified clients. x Psychotherapy x Spiritual companioning x Massage therapy x Acupuncture x Cranial sacral Therapy x Workshops & Classes 5536 South Everett Avenue 773-643-6259 WWW. claretcenter.org First Annual Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures LAWRENCE LESSIG Roy L. Furman Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University AMERICA: COMPROMISED STUDIES IN INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 The Paradigm Case: Congress Inaugural Berlin Family Lecture FREE | 5:00 p.m. Mandel Hall Information and RSVP berlinfamilylectures.uchicago.edu 12 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 APEL H C D N O B PEL | A H C R E L L OCKEFE R | E F I L SPIRITUAL Spiritual Life welcomes you to its new space! THURS SEPT 25, 12:30–2:30 PM IDA NOYES 034 OPEN HOUSE & LUNCH $W6SLULWXDO/LIH\RX·OOÀQGEUHDWKLQJURRPDQGDSODFHWRUHÁHFWRQ questions of meaning with new friends of traditions from Ásatrú and Atheist to Zen and Zoroastrian. %XWÀUVWMXVWFRPHIRUOXQFKLQRXUQHZVSDFHRUGURSLQGXULQJWKHZHHN SPIRITUAL LIFE THIS WEEK SUN SEPT 21, 11 AM ROCKEFELLER SUNDAY COMMUNION Rockefeller’s weekly Sunday service, drawing from tradition both ancient and contemporary, always open to all. Today with music of Anton Bruckner, including his beautiful Locus Iste. ROCKEFELLER AND BOND CHAPELS THURS SEPT 25, 2 PM ROCKEFELLER 021 (HINDU PRAYER ROOM) HINDU SANGAM OPEN HOUSE Visit the campus Mandir, meet the Hindu Student Sangam’s leadership team, and participate with them in a bhajan session. THURS SEPT 25, 3–5 PM (repeated weekly) SPIRITUAL LIFE, IDA NOYES 034 BREATHING ROOM Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. Relax, talk with a friend, draw a mandala, enjoy the quiet of the meditation space, or hang out with Spiritual Life staff—every breath is yours. Light refreshments. SUN SEPT 21, 1 PM BARTLETT QUAD RESOURCE FAIR Come and meet religious advisors of diverse traditions at the fair! SUN SEPT 21, 6 PM ROCKEFELLER AUTUMN EQUINOX Join the Pagan Student Alliance for a gentle ritual for the equinox, followed by didjeridu meditation from 7:30 pm onwards. MON SEPT 22, 8 AM (repeated every weekday) ROCKEFELLER TWENTY MINUTES STILL Meditate for twenty minutes in the quiet stillness of Rockefeller. No experience necessary, open to all spiritual backgrounds. WED SEPT 24, 5 PM (repeated weekly) ROCKEFELLER ZEN MEDITATION Still your mind with a half hour of Zen meditation. 5 pm optional instruction, 5:30 pm meditation, followed by dharma talk or discussion. ROSH HASHANAH THURS SEPT 25, 4 PM (repeated weekly) BOND CHAPEL GENTLE YOGA Easy movement to relieve stiff shoulders! Bring a yoga mat if you have one, and wear loose clothing. Note: Tuesday restorative yoga at Rockefeller begins Week 1, 5:30 pm and 6:45 pm. FRI SEPT 26, 1 PM and 2:15 PM (repeated weekly) BOND CHAPEL JUMU’AH PRAYERS Muslim Friday prayers. Prayer times are adjusted from November 2 for daylight savings time. SUN SEPT 28, 11 AM ROCKEFELLER SUNDAY COMMUNION Rockefeller’s weekly Sunday service, drawing from tradition both ancient and contemporary, always open to all. Today with jazz music in honor of Hyde Park Jazz Fest! SUN SEPT 28, 12:45 PM ROCKEFELLER BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS Missing your pet? Come and join Hyde Park’s dogs and cats as they come for their annual blessing at Rockefeller. Literally a touching event. Throughout the high holy days, Chabad and Hillel and Hyde Park synagogues KAMII and Rodfei Zedek provide Rosh Hashanah events including services, meals, and social and cultural opportunities; or you can pick up a Rosh Hashanah kit from jU and host a meal for friends in your dorm. More details in your O-Book. L’shanah tovah to all who are celebrating! jU, juchicago.org KAM Isaiah Israel 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd., kamii.org Newberger Hillel 5715 S. Woodlawn Ave., uchicagohillel.org Rodfei Zedek 5200 S. Hyde Park Blvd., rodfei.org Rohr Chabad 5700 S. Woodlawn Ave., chabaduchicago.com MAJOR PERFORMING ARTS SPACES AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL AND CEREMONIAL CENTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY MON SEPT 22, 8 PM ROCKEFELLER EVA-MARIA HOUBEN Superstar German pianist and organist Eva-Maria Houben appears as part of the Chicago Wandelweiser Festival organized by the Frequency Series at Constellation and a.pe.ri.od.ic. An hour’s recital of minimalist performance on the great organ. Presented by the Renaissance Society. TUES SEPT 23, 11:30 AM (repeated Wed–Fri) ROCKEFELLER TOWER TOUR For O-Week, student performers play the magical bells of the carillon! You’re invited to climb the tower, learn about taking lessons, and take in the spectacular view. Involves climbing 271 steps up the tower’s spiral staircase. From Week 1, repeated every weekday 11:30 am and 4:30 pm. TUES SEPT 23, 4:30 PM (repeated weekly) ROCKEFELLER TEA & PIPES Come every Tuesday, help yourself to tea and biscuits, and listen to music from around the world on the University’s grand E.M. Skinner organ, 8,565 pipes, and more than a little ecstasy. Today: a Rosh Hashanah special! SAT SEPT 27, 11 PM ROCKEFELLER HYDE PARK JAZZ FESTIVAL WITH CRAIG TABORN The Hyde Park Jazz Festival reaches its late night climax with master jazz pianist Craig Taborn and a thousand jazz revelers! AUDITIONS WANT TO SING OR LEARN TO PLAY THE CARILLON OR ORGAN? WED SEPT 24, 7:30 PM ROCKEFELLER PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN MEET & GREET Part story-telling event, part Q&A. Mingle over snacks, hear from religious advisors and other students, get a sense of progressive Christianity in Hyde Park. See your O-Book for many other events sponsored by religious advisors and RSOs connected to Spiritual Life. VOICE Auditions for Motet Choir, the Chapel Choir, and other vocal ensembles are held O-Week and Week 1. The Chapel Choir offers choral scholarships by audition. See music.uchicago.edu (look for Performance 3URJUDP(QVHPEOHVRUJRWR/RJDQWKÁRRUWRVLJQXSIRUDQDXGLWLRQWLPH CARILLON Learn to play the carillon in a practice studio, and then play the actual bells of Rockefeller! 3UHUHTXLVLWHSLDQRVWXGLHV7RÀQGRXWPRUHFRQWDFWWKHSUHVLGHQWRIWKH*XLOGRI6WXGHQW&DULOORQQHXUV Kat Ziegler, [email protected]. ORGAN /HDUQWRSOD\WKHPDJQLÀFHQWRUJDQVRI5RFNHIHOOHUDQG%RQG&KDSHOVZLWKDFFHVVWRRWKHU instruments in the city also! Prerequisite: performance-level skills in piano or organ. Two organ scholarships are offered by audition. To audition, contact associate University organist Phillip Kloeckner, [email protected]. Rockefeller Memorial Chapel 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. Campus & Student Life Dean Elizabeth J.L. Davenport Jigna Shah, assistant dean and director of Spiritual Life spirit.uchicago.edu rockefeller.uchicago.edu 13 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 Divini i ty y Hous se Bus 4 Ministry E. 57TH H E. 57TH FREE ATM - FREE ATM CA A M PUS W WE E ST FREE ATM FREE ATM E. 58TH E. 58TH H FREE ATM Parking WELCOME BACK! S. KENWOOD FREE ATM FREE ATM MAIN N Q UAD A R ANG A LE CA FREE ATM MEDICAL EDICAL CAL CAMP CA P US S FREE ATM FREE ATM LABOR L O ATO O RY SCHOO CHOOLS O Bus 192 E. 59TH E. 59TH MIDWAY PLAISANCE NORTH MIDWAY PLAISANCE SOUTH S. DORCHESTER FREE ATM S. KENWOO OD S. KIMBARK FREE ATM S. ELLIS S. DREXEL S. INGLESIDE CAMP US S SOU OU TH S. WOODLAWN E. 60TH S. UNIVERSITY E. 60TH S. COTTAGE GR R OVE You’re sitting in class or at work thinking about everything you want to do with your friends and family over the weekend. Then you remember that to do any of those things, you’ll need cash. That means a visit to the ATM. You don’t want to mess with traveling to your bank, so, for the convenience, you’ll stop by the first ATM you see. But of course, since it’s not your bank’s machine you know you’ll get hit with an ATM fee... AGAIN! This is the fourth time this month you’ve had to dish out $2.50+ just for visiting the ATM. Aren’t there better things you could be spending your money on? WHEREVER YOU ARE, THERE’S A FREE ATM NEAR YOU! Hyde Park Bank (1311 E. 57th St.) (58th and Ellis Ave.) Reynolds Club lower level (57th and University Ave.) Law School lower level Booth School of Business Harper Center Stuart Hall lower level Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital International House (59th and Dorchester) Goldblatt Pavillion of the Mitchell Hospital (near 59th St. entrance) (58th and Drexel) (59th and Greenwood Ave.) Mitchell Hospital lobby (near 58th and Maryland Ave.) (58th and Woodlawn Ave.) (58th and Maryland Ave, 2nd floor) (60th and University Ave.) Brain Research Building Chicago Theological Seminary (60th and Dorchester) GET OUT AND DO MORE WITH TOTAL ACCESS CHECKING FEATURING FREE ATMS NATIONWIDE!1 (OPEN WITH ONLY A $50 MINIMUM DEPOSIT ) (USE ANY ATM, ANYWHERE AND WE’LL REFUND THE FEE) =I<<8::FLEKEFD@E@DLD98C8E:<KFD8@EK8@EEFDFEK?CP=<<J=I<<FEC@E<98EB@E> DF9@C<98EB@E>2DF9@C<;<GFJ@KJ2 ( ( PROUD TO BE A WINTRUST COMMUNITY BANK. We are nearly 3,500 community and commercial bankers, home loan officers, financial advisors and specialty lenders focused solely on our customers and the communities where they live. We all have the same mission: To provide best-in-class financial services to all of our customers, be the local alternative to the big banks, and to improve the communities which we call home. HYDE PARK’S NEIGHBORHOOD BANK 773-752-4600 | www.hydeparkbank.net Hyde Park Bank is a branch of Beverly Bank & Trust Company, N.A. 1. The bank does not charge its customers a monthly card usage fee. No transaction charge at any ATM in the Allpoint, MoneyPass or Sum surcharge-free networks. Other banks outside the network may impose ATM surcharges at their machines. Surcharge fees assessed by owners of other ATMs outside the network will be reimbursed. Reimbursement does not include the 1% International Services fee charged by MasterCard® for certain foreign transactions conducted outside the continental United States. 2. Use of Online Banking is required for use with Remote Deposit Capture and access to Mobile banking. Mobile/Internet connectivity is required. See your wireless service provider for fees related to text messaging. Remote Deposit requires an established Checking, Savings or Money Market deposit account for personal, family or household purposes with the Bank for at least 30 days and has had no more than six overdraft occurrences within the past or current calendar year. See a personal banker for more details. 14 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 Your Home. Your Rules. Whether you’re looking to buy your first house or your next, you’re just steps away from calling it “Home”. Competitive rates and a wide variety of product options and offers SureStart® Pre-approval so you can shop with confidence 1 Jumbo loans up to $8 million On-time closing guarantee for peace of mind 2 Sandy Salas Home Lending Officer 708-557-1200 [email protected] NMLS# 727049 Citibank, 5812 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago IL, 60637 1 SureStart is a registered service mark of Citigroup Inc. Final commitment is subject to verification of information, receipt of a satisfactory sales contract on the home you wish to purchase, appraisal and title report, and meeting our customary closing conditions. There is no charge to receive a SureStart pre-approval. However, standard application and commitment fees will apply for the mortgage loan application. 2 If you are purchasing a home, we guarantee to close by the date specified in your purchase contract, unless prohibited by federal law,† and further provided that the date is at least 30 days after the application date and the date of your purchase contract. If your loan fails to close on time due to a delay by Citibank, you will receive a credit toward closing costs of $1,500. Offer not available for refinance loans, co-ops, unapproved condos, residences under construction, community lending programs and government loans. In Texas, the credit may not result in your receiving cash back. (†Federal law requires certain disclosures be delivered to the borrower at least 3 business days before consummation. The guarantee to close does not apply if such disclosures are required and your closing is delayed due to the 3-business-day waiting period.) © 2014 Citibank, N. A. Equal Housing Lender, Member FDIC. NMLS# 412915. Citi, Citibank, Arc Design, and Citi with Arc Design are registered service marks of Citigroup Inc. ok, so my subs really aren't gourmet and we're not french either. my subs just taste a little better, that's all! I wanted to call it jimmy john's tasty sandwiches, but my mom told me to stick with gourmet. Regardless of what she thinks, freaky fast is where it's at. I hope you love 'em as much as i do! peace! Established in Charleston, IL in 1983 to add to students GPA and general dating ability. 8" SUB SANDWICHES GIANT club sandwiches All of my sandwiches are 8 inches of homemade French bread, fresh veggies and the finest meats & cheese I can buy! We slice everything fresh daily in this store! It tastes better that way! My club sandwiches have twice the meat or cheese, try it on my fresh baked thick sliced 7-grain bread or my famous homemade French bread! Tell us when you order! #1 PEPE® SLIMS™ Any Sub minus the veggies and sauce Real wood smoked ham and provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato & mayo. (The original) slim slim slim slim slim slim #2 BIG JOHN® Medium rare choice roast beef, mayo, lettuce & tomato. #3 TOTALLY TUNA® Fresh housemade tuna, mixed with celery, onions, and our tasty sauce, sliced cucumber, lettuce & tomato. (My tuna rocks! Sprouts* optional) #4 TURKEY TOM® Fresh sliced turkey breast, lettuce, tomato & mayo. The original (Sprouts* optional) #5 VITO® 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ham & cheese Roast beef Tuna salad Turkey breast Salami, capicola, cheese Double provolone Low Carb Lettuce Wrap ® JJ UNWICH Same ingredients and price of the sub or club without the bread. The original Italian sub with genoa salami, provolone, capicola, onion, lettuce, tomato, & a real tasty Italian vinaigrette. (Hot peppers by request) #6 THE VEGGIE Layers of provolone cheese separated by real avocado spread, sliced cucumber, lettuce, tomato & mayo. (Truly a gourmet sub not for vegetarians only, Sprouts* optional) Bacon, lettuce, tomato & mayo! (My B.L.T. rocks) ★ Soda Pop TW YM NL J // NSF ¹8 Q J.J.B.L.T.® ★ sides ★ U N C H ES ★ ★ BOX LPLATTERS ★ Y T ★ PAR TY SU BS ★ ★ PAR HOUR NOTICE, WHAT ER 24 WE PREF CALL , WE’LL DO EN! PP U BUT IF YON TO MAKE IT HA WE CA DELIVERY ORDERS will include a delivery charge per item. ORDER ONLINE @ JIMMYJOHNS.COM freebies (subs & clubs only) Onion, lettuce, tomato, mayo, sliced cucumber, hot peppers, Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, oil & vinegar, oregano, sprouts*. #8 BILLY CLUB® Choice roast beef, smoked ham, provolone cheese, Dijon mustard, lettuce, tomato & mayo. #9 ITALIAN NIGHT CLUB® Genoa salami, Italian capicola, smoked ham, and provolone cheese all topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo & our homemade Italian vinaigrette. (Order it with hot peppers) #10 HUNTER’S CLUB® A full 1/4 pound of medium rare roast beef, provolone, lettuce, tomato & mayo. #11 COUNTRY CLUB® Sprouts* optional Fresh baked turkey breast, provolone cheese, avocado spread, sliced cucumber, lettuce, tomato and mayo! #12 BEACH CLUB® #13 GOURMET VEGGIE CLUB® Double provolone, real avocado spread, sliced cucumber, lettuce, tomato & mayo. (Try it on my 7-grain whole wheat bread. This veggie sandwich is really yummy! Sprouts* optional) #14 BOOTLEGGER CLUB® Roast beef, turkey breast, lettuce, tomato & mayo. An American classic! #15 CLUB TUNA® ★ Real potato chips or jumbo kosher dill pickle ★ Extra cheese or extra avocado spread 1/4 pound of real wood smoked ham, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato & mayo! Sliced turkey breast, real wood smoked ham, provolone, and tons of lettuce, tomato & mayo! (A very traditional, yet always exceptional classic!) ★ Chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookie ★ Extra load of meat #7 SMOKED HAM CLUB THE J.J. GARGANTUAN® The original gutbuhstuh! Genoa salami, sliced smoked ham, capicola, roast beef, turkey & provolone, jammed into one of our homemade French buns, then smothered with onions, mayo, lettuce, tomato & our homemade Italian vinaigrette. The same as our #3 Totally Tuna except this one has a lot more. Housemade tuna salad, provolone, sliced cucumber, lettuce & tomato. (Sprouts* optional) #16 CLUB LULU® Sliced turkey breast, bacon, lettuce, tomato & mayo. (JJ's original turkey & bacon club) #17 ULTIMATE PORKER™ Real wood smoked ham and bacon with lettuce, tomato & mayo! (This one rocks!) WE DELIVER! 7 DAYS A WEEK TO FIND THE LOCATION NEAREST YOU VISIT JIMMYJOHNS.COM "YOUR MOM WANTS YOU TO EAT AT JIMMY JOHN'S!" ® *WARNING: THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ADVISES THAT EATING RAW OR UNDER-COOKED SPROUTS POSES A HEALTH RISK TO EVERYONE, BUT ESPECIALLY TO THE ELDERLY, CHILDREN, PREGNANT WOMEN, AND PERSONS WITH WEAKENED IMMUNE SYSTEMS. THE CONSUMPTION OF RAW SPROUTS MAY RESULT IN AN INCREASED RISK OF FOODBORNE ILLNESS. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT YOUR PHYSICIAN OR LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT. ©1985, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014 JIMMY JOHN’S FRANCHISE, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. We Reserve The Right To Make Any Menu Changes. 15 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 MORE THAN A ROOF Three hubs of learning outside the classroom “Cloisters, ancient libraries…I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone,” reminisces the history teacher from playwright Alan Bennett’s acclaimed History Boys. Wise as this character is, it’s an admittedly easy mix-up to make: Amid all the ivory and the cobblestones, one tends to forget that an education has no bounds. Do yourself a favor: Take a wander out of the library. Go on, really push the limits; wander on over to UChicago’s three “non-academic” institutes on campus: the Institute of Politics, the University Community Service Center, and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Under the umbrella of Campus and Student Life, all three of these separately housed organizations seek to apply and create meaning from academia, outside of pure academia itself. Institute of Politics (IOP) Founded in January 2012 by Barack Obama’s former advisor David Axelrod (A.B. ’76), the IOP is the campus gateway to the world of all things politics, public policy, and public services. Located at 5707 South Woodlawn Avenue, the IOP was created as a nonpartisan institute that seeks to broaden student interest in politics through three distinct programs: a speaker series, internship opportunities, and a fellows program. In its speaker series, the Institute brings to campus a wide range of specialists, ranging from political officials to journalists, to discuss current events and issues. In the past year, the Institute hosted lectures by Vice President Joe Biden, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, environmental activist and former vice president Al Gore, and many other political movers and shakers. In addition to the speaker series, the IOP also offers students an opportunity to apply for a variety of internships related to politics, including some within the Institute. While some of these internships take place in the summer, there are also opportunities to intern throughout the academic year. In its first year, the IOP offered students 163 internships in various career fields and locations, ranging from CNN to the UChicago Crime Lab, and summer programming events for stu- dents based in Washington, D.C. The third central pillar of the IOP is the fellows program. This program brings professionals to the University for a full academic quarter. Throughout their 10-week stay in Hyde Park, fellows hold weekly seminars for students, each centered on a certain political theme or issue. Past fellows have included former House Representative Vin Weber, political strategist David Muir, and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele. However, the Institute of Politics has not been free of controversy in the past year. Last May, during a fellows seminar co-hosted by Ana Marie Cox, a political columnist for The Guardian, and guest speaker Dan Savage, columnist and founder of the It Gets Better Foundation, Savage came under fire for using a transphobic slur at the event. Students who found the slur to be offensive responded by drawing up a petition, which called for a formal apology from the IOP, along with a commitment to ban transphobic slurs from future IOP events. The IOP chose not to release a formal apology regarding the matter, as per the request of the petition’s 1,100 signatories. But the institute did release a statement affirming its ongoing commitment to pluralistic discourse. University Community Service Center (UCSC) The UCSC was launched as a student-run organization in 1992, and has since sought to service Hyde Park and other surrounding communities through volunteer work. This non-academic center matches students with a myriad of volunteer and community immersion opportunities. There is a diverse assortment of volunteer options for students, often tailored to one’s specific interests. These options include, but are not limited to, studentrun groups, campus-wide days of service, internships at nonprofit organizations, and communitybuilding programs. The UCSC also promotes a volunteer referral program that seeks to connect students to short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities throughout Chicago. In addition to fostering individual volunteerism, the UCSC runs many community service– oriented programs. This includes programs such as Summer Links (a 10-week internship program at a host site over the summer quarter) and Chicago Bound (a weeklong pre-Orientation program that promotes community building and civic engagement to incoming students). Since its 1992 inception, the Center has grown in size and mission. Former UCSC Director and current First Lady Michelle Obama was one of the principal drivers of this growth in the mid1990s. Last academic year, the Center came under fire after a announcing a slew of changes to its Summer Links internship program. Past participants and student leaders of the program charged the new UCSC administration with neglecting to involve student input in the changes. Around that time, some students and employees defected from the organization outright, alleging that changes to the Summer Links program spoke to larger shifts in the organization’s central mission. Proposed changes to Summer Links included reducing the program by a week, doubling housing costs, and adding for-profit internship sites. Students riled by these proposals created a petition that garnered over 1,000 signatures and called for a restoration of the essential aspects of the program. Despite student outrage, the bulk of planned changes were still made to Summer Links. However, the spat did spark the founding of the new UCSC Advisory Board. Last May, the UCSC chose to name an advisory board composed of students, faculty members, community partners, alumni, and campus colleagues in order to promote and support the UCSC, to serve as ambassadors for the office, and to oversee the Center’s operationalization of its mission statement. Students looking to get involved with the Community Service Center this fall should tie up their laces. “Plans are underway to offer student-led neighborhood explorations every Saturday in fall quarter,” says UCSC Director and Associate Dean of Students Amy Chan. “Tours led by partner organizations such as Forgotten Chicago, Pocket Guide to Hell, and the Bronzeville Historical Society will also be offered, along with annual events such as the Saturday, October 4 South Side History Bike Tour and Jane’s Walks in the spring quarter.” Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs is an organization that seeks to foster “intentionally diverse and inclusive communities” through special pro- gram emphasis on black, AsianAmerican, Latina/o, NativeAmerican, and multiracial student experiences at the University. OMSA was founded in 1986 as the Coordinating Council for Minority Issues (CCMI), as a result of suggestions by students, faculty, and staff. However, the name was later changed to OMSA on July 1, 2007 to better reflect the overarching mission and work of the Office. The Office provides students with various academic and cultural resources, including grants, funding opportunities, and an in-house resource library, among many others. In addition, students can participate in a wide variety of programs specifically tailored to the multicultural community, such as the Multiracial Affinity Group and mentoring programs such as Chicago Multicultural Connection (CMC). There are also more than 40 multicultural recognized student organizations (RSOs) for both undergraduate and graduate students to participate in during their time at the University. OMSA is located at 5710 South Woodlawn Avenue, and is jointly homed with the Office of LGBTQ Student Life. The building is the main hub for events and resources specifically tailored to LGBTQ students and students of color. —Marta Bakula SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON RAND PAUL DISCUSSES HIS POLITICAL VIEWS WITH DAVID AXELROD AT AN IOP EVENT THIS PAST APRIL. STUDENT OMBUDSPERSON If there’s something strange in your neighborhood…if it’s something weird and it won’t look good…who you gonna call? Instead of the Ghostbusters, shoot the ombudsperson a message. Located on the third floor of the University bookstore building, student ombudsperson Deepa Das Acevedo, a secondyear student at the Law School, and associate ombudsperson Charles Huff, a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, serve as media- tors between two parties at the University. Students can turn to the ombudspeople for help in a variety of situations, including issues with a faculty member, a fellow student, or a roommate. A part of the University since 1968, the ombudsperson is a part-time, salaried position. Their role is outside of the University’s administrative structure to ensure independence, but they are technically part of the Office of the President. They are appointed annually by the Office of the President, and this year’s term began September 1. “A lot of what we do is talk through things with students who may not want to take any formal course of action,” Das Acevedo told the *Maroon* in February when she was appointed as associate ombudsperson. “We’re there to listen, bring resources to light, facilitate dialogue, and mediate dialogue.” According to Das Acevedo, an ombudsperson can help stu- dents think through a situation, learn more about University policies, or resolve a dispute between employees and employers. However, they cannot give legal advice, conduct formal investigations, or supersede the authority of University policies or officials. The Office of the Student Ombudsperson dealt with 37 cases over the winter and spring quarters of 2014. “We’re a harbor should a storm arise,” Huff said. Acevedo is a native of Nova Scotia who received her Ph.D. in anthropolog y from UChicago in 2013. Huff is a student at the Divinity School and resident head of Thompson House, hailing from San Antonio, with interests in studying the Hebrew Bible as an ancient Near Eastern text. Students can send an e-mail to ombudsperson@uchicago. edu to request an appointment. —Christine Schmidt 16 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 STUDENT GROUPS CAMPUS POLITICS MUNUC The Model United Nations Team of the University of Chicago (also known as MUNUC) is one of the three branches that constitute the University’s MUN program. Founded in 1988, MUNUC is the branch that focuses on hosting high school competitions. While it is regarded as a separate RSO, MUNUC members work closely with members from ChoMUN and the University’s collegiate Team. MUNUC seeks to educate, introduce, and demonstrate to high school students the art of debate and public discourse in regards to politics, economics, and social welfare. This conference is historically known to have provided secondary school students with educational simulations of United Nations and other international affairs–themed bodies. At each conference, a school usually represents one country, and each member from that school becomes a delegate and represents that country on a committee. The conference is usually divided into several committees, including the UN Disarmament and International Security Committee, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, and the Organization of American States. Sam Neal, the secretary general of MUNUC, credits his longtime involvement in the organization for increasing his general knowledge of politics and economics. “As a high school student, I attended MUNUC, and it was a life-changing experience. It gave me confidence and knowledge in a way that nothing else did. I have gained even more as a member of MUNUC staff. The people who are a part of our organization are really special, and I can’t imagine what college (and life) would have been like without MUNUC,” Neal said. The team’s most significant event is the annual four-day conference that takes place every winter. This year’s conference will be held on February 5, 2015, and ends on February 8. MUNUC staff is composed of a select number of UChicago students and alumni who undergo months of training in order to benefit high school students at the conference. Team members usually meet in the first floor of the Biological Sciences and Learning Center every Tuesday from 8–9 p.m. “MUNUC can be as simple as a onehour commitment every week, but it can be so much more. What you gain from MUNUC is proportional to what you invest in it,” Neal said. ChoMUN ChoMUN is another branch of UChicago MUN. The University of Chicago’s traveling Model United Nations Team founded this section of the MUN program in 1998. The main objective of this collegiate equivalent to the high school organization is to provide college delegates with the opportunity to discuss and debate a wide range of issues in the context of unique, innovative, and diverse committees. Fictional scenarios and situations regarding individuals in addition to nations are also discussed to give students a chance to discuss more personal, social issues. While the number and type of committees we run vary each year, certain core elements have come to be recognized as the essence of ChoMUN. ChoMUN works most closely with the competitive team, members who take part in the conference itself. The most significant event that ChoMUN prepares for is the Chicago Model United Nations Conference. This coming school year, ChoMUN XVIII will be held from Thursday, April 2 through Sunday, April 5, 2015, at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. The competitive team and other members generally meet in Harper Memorial Library, room 130 every Wednesday from 7–8 p.m. Nisha Bala is the president of the team, and Jesse Orr is the secretary general. UChicago Democrats and Republicans For those who share strong beliefs or interests in either the left or right sides of politics, the University offers both Democratic and Republican societies. Now in its twelfth year, UChicago Democrats (Dems) aims to bring together students who are interested in politics and maintain a Democratic view of most economic, political, and social issues. Conversations about politics take on different settings, such as hosting speakers, film screenings, panel discussions, and debates among members. There are also conversations with Chicago aldermen, panel discussions on international crises, and debates with the College Republicans. There are also more social events, such as recreational enactments of the past and their effects on Democratic leaders and societies today—the most notable event from May 2013 was the Impressions of Seven Presidents. “I came into college without an ounce of political experience or understanding of the Chicago political scene (It’s a doozy, by the way) and in two short years, I’m in the thick of it all—in large part because I walked into a Dems meeting and met some nice people along the way. There’s really no other political experience quite like being a civically engaged college student in the City of Chicago—I implore you to try. Because life of the mind, yo,” president Robin Ye said in a statement. For those who are interested in join- ing UC Dems, general meetings are held every Monday, 6–7 p.m. in Bartlett Trophy Lounge. The organization is also introducing a new additional meeting on Thursdays, 7–8 p.m. in Harper Memorial, room 148. Ye is this year’s president, and Henry Bensinger is the treasurer. UChicago College Republicans (Reps) was founded in 1989 to advocate the Republican standpoint of politics to students who may have this particular view on most issues. This organization also supports Republican candidates in elections and arranges discussions with them on campus. “In just last year alone, UChicago College Republicans have met with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, National Review columnist Ramesh Ponnuru, and have had opportunities to greet and introduce nationally known Republicans such as South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and RNC chairman Reince Priebus. UChicago CRs have also become friends with one another through dinners such as the winter quarter Republican dinner at the Publican and have had the chance to meet their counterparts on the other side, such as through a recently created annual public debates with the College Democrats,” said Steven Yaffe, UChicago Reps treasurer. While they offer the same kinds of other conversational events as UChicago Dems, most meetings are held every Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Institute of Politics. Jake Mansoor and Jonathan Godoy are this year’s presidents. American Civil Liberties Union Founded in 1992, the University of Chicago’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) seeks to foster awareness education of individual rights and liberties and the threats to them around the University campus. They also 17 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 fight these injustices through various petitions and rallies. The chapter then relays University efforts to the national and state offices of the ACLU. The ACLU on campus usually concentrates its goals on marriage equality and student rights with a range of petitions that strive for both freedom and protection, depending on the circumstances. This year’s committee consists of Executive Director Matthew Cason, Managing Director Alan Hassler, Treasurer Kris Chatterjee, and Outreach Director Joseph Bayerl. Regular meetings are held every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Bartlett Trophy Lounge. Important dates and quarterly events to note, for those who are interested, are the RSO Open House on Thursday, September 26 at 11 a.m. in Reynolds Club conference room 019 and the Student Activities Fair on Friday, October 4 from 3–5:30 p.m. The annual ACLU UChicago student rights panel featuring Marlon Lynch (chief of UCPD and associate vice president for Safety & Security), the assistant vice president for student life and associate dean in the College, and Belinda Vasquez (associate dean of Students for Student Affairs) is also an event that teaches newcomers about student rights and freedoms in a University setting is on Tuesday, October 1 at 6 p.m. in Harper Memorial Library, room 130. Once the year has started, events to look forward to are Volunteer Night on Wednesday October 16 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. (dinner will be provided); a discussion on surveillance and privacy at Northwestern Law School on October 19, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.; and the defense for marriage equality on October 22 at the Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield. Student Government The University of Chicago’s premier student-led organization is a group that directly represents the student body when making executive decisions on their behalf. These students thrive on fostering a better university life for their peers by listening and responding to common concerns, including the sexual assault policy and benefits for students with disabilities. Student Government also allocates over $2 million a year to RSOs, student initiatives, sports clubs, and other approved student-run organizations. While an executive committee does exist, there are several other committees that work on finances, community service, crime, and technological issues. This year’s Executive Committee consists of President Tyler Kissinger, Vice President for Administration Arlin Hill, and Vice President for Student Affairs Aseal Tineh. “Participating in Student Government is a great way to have a substantial impact on University policy and the student experience. With a $2.1 million budget and a democratic structure that channels the student voice, no other group on campus has the ability to so directly affect and improve student life,” Tyler Kissinger said in a statement. “Although incoming students can undoubtedly expect to encounter numerous obstacles during their careers at UChicago, if they can maintain a certain degree of humility, curiosity, and openmindedness, they can expect to experience tremendous intellectual growth and development,” Arlin Hill added. Student Government typically holds quarterly meetings at the Booth School of Business at 6 p.m. —Cairo Lewis CAMPUS ACTIVISM UChicago’s student activism is marked by a focus on issues radiating far beyond student life, and by a degree of solidarity between different activism groups. Issues range from increased awareness of transgender rights to the lack of a level I adult trauma center at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), and many groups have formed around flash points over the last few years. Here’s an overview of activist groups and issues discussed on campus. Founded early last year and focused on queer activism and social justice work, Queers United in Power (QUIP) garnered national attention last spring. Controversy erupted when QUIP launched a petition demanding that the Institute of Politics (IOP) apologize for use of a transphobic slur by guest speaker Dan Savage. Co-founder Sara Rubinstein said the controversy was “in some ways negative and difficult” but said she was “proud we managed to start a big conversation.” In addition to the petition, the group also held a panel called Trans 101, which Rubinstein cited as a major success, and the group is focused on heightened sensitivity to gender pronouns, mapping gender-neutral bathrooms, and examining the intramural sports policy in the upcoming year. Another major event last spring was the Trauma Center Coalition (TCC)’s May Mayhem Week of Action, which united student and community groups lobbying the UCMC for a level I adult trauma center. The week featured a different event every day, the most notable of which was a sit-in at a UCMC construction site that ended with protestors dragged out by the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD). Some notable groups in the TCC include student group Students for Health Equity (SHE); South Side organization Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) and its youth group affiliate, Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY); and several local churches and on-campus groups. Activism for a level I adult trauma center began in 2010 when FLY founder and STOP member Damian Turner was shot and died in transit to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Another member of the TCC is the Southside Solidarity Network (SSN), which was founded in 2007 to focus on methods of community organizing. SSN works on campus, Chicago, and statewide campaigns, and is a part of IIRON Student Network, which lobbies on a state level for economic and social justice issues. SSN’s current campaign is the Coalition for Equitable Policing (CEP), which alleges racial profiling on the part of the UCPD. Founded in spring 2013 in the wake of a forceful arrest of a black graduate student at a trauma center protest perceived as racial profiling, CEP works toward greater transparency and accountability from the UCPD. CEP founder Ava Benezra cited the “consistency of stories of individuals” as a key success of the campaign, which she hopes will engage more commuSYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON nity members and become less student-driven in the next year. CEP’s focuses are working with the UCPD to create a process to obtain information and get access to UCPD records, particularly with the racial breakdown of police stops. Another group associated with SSN is the RSO Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL). Organized under its parent national organization United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), SOUL is dedicated to working with laborers, both locally and internationally. Member Psalm Brown cited the group’s campaign to keep Pierce dining workers employed with the University when Pierce Dining Hall closed as a major success, and said the group is now focused on the End Deathtraps campaign, which lobbies for the rights of sweatshop workers in Bangladesh. Graduate Students United (GSU) is also focused on labor, working to unionize graduate students. In the short term, GSU is focused on health care, tuition, and child care for graduate students. Organizer Claire Roosien cited victories as winning stipends for child care and a stipend for doctoral studies at the School for Social Service Administration. Another campaign that has gained traction last year is Stop Funding Climate Change (SFCC), which lobbies for divestment of the University’s endowment stock in fossil fuel companies. Following a spring 2013 referendum where 70 percent of voting students supported divestment, last February SFCC delivered a report to President Zimmer detailing its case for divestment, and had follow-up meetings with President Zimmer and University trustees. SFCC is affiliated with UChicago Climate Action Network (UCAN), which spent much of the past year lobbying against fracking in Illinois. Many activists cited both work between activists and resistance from the administration as realities of activism on campus. Members of SHE, SOUL, and CEP described the administration as unwilling to engage with their campaigns, and all groups described working with a network of other groups. Several activist groups united in A Better U of C Coalition last spring. Citing frustration with the administration, GSU, QUIP, SHE, SOUL, SSN, and UCAN, as well as Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán, Socioeconomic Diversity Alliance, and Students for Justice in Palestine held a teachin during Alumni Weekend. Student Government President Tyler Kissinger also spoke at the event. Activist groups will again unite to host Disorientation, an educational event designed to introduce first-years to the relationship between the University and the South Side. “I think students coming in need to think about what they care about and why, and essentially get involved in campaigns,” SSN member Emma LaBounty said. —Sarah Manhardt 18 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 GREEK LIFE Porches and yards filled past capacity for entire weekends, guys in tanks playing football in the street, parties raging on weeknights. Doesn’t sound like a scene you’d find at the University of Chicago, does it? Believe it or not, Greek life has a rich history at UChicago. Beginning in the 1860s, certain chapters were alive and well in Hyde Park, even before the founding of our school. Today, you can find more than twenty Greek organizations on campus, including service fraternities, business fraternities, social fraternities, and more. There are about 12 widely known social fraternities and sororities (depending on whom you ask), and that number is growing. Two more chapters—one fraternity and one sorority—were established or revived on campus just in the last five years and have already solidly established themselves. Many guys go Greek almost immediately when school starts, usually after hanging out at a particular house during O-Week. Girls don’t exactly have this opportunity, as rush weekend isn’t for few more weeks into the quarter. An oft-cited reason for joining a fraternity is access to a more… liberal leisure environment, shall we say. UChicago is no state-school rival when it comes to partying, but it’s still “college,” and some Greeks want to have it both ways: U of C education, U of M party scene. It’s a delicate balance. Bar Night at Alpha Delta Phi By Juliet Eldred Along with partying come encounters with the opposite sex (gasp!), another common motivation for joining Greek life at UChicago. A staple of frat life is a weekly mixer, a private party with a sorority (and vice versa); and at a school like UChicago, this can be one of the most painless ways to meet someone. But it’s not all party dresses and EDM; fraternities and sororities have philanthropic duties as well, and some organizations have been known to raise up to $40,000 with a single fundraising event. Members also have the opportunity to take on leadership roles within their organizations (e.g., president, treasurer, philanthropy chair)—these can help cultivate leadership skills in addition to the obvious boost to one’s resume. There’s an extremely wide range, to say the least, of Greek organizations on campus, and if any of the aforementioned motivations appeal to you, then rushing the fraternity or sorority scene is likely right for you. A little advice, though: Don’t pledge on a whim—think the decision through, as it will significantly impact your college career. But, when done correctly, pledging a fraternity or sorority is often the best decision* that some students make during their time here. Or at least it beats hanging out in the Reg. *Some drinking required. —Sam Zacher 19 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 VOLUNTEER/SOCIAL SERVICE The University of Chicago is home to more than 50 different Community Service Registered Student Organizations (CSRSOs) that work closely with the Hyde Park, South Side, and greater Chicago communities. More than 2000 undergraduates are involved with one or more of these types of organizations, which range as widely from the Comer Tutors, where students help sick children in the UChicago Comer Children’s Hospital to keep up with school work, to Paws UChicago, where students volunteer at local animal shelters. Many organizations also have a broader focus that extends outside Chicago and into the global community, such as China Care and Medlife. Members of China Care raise money for orphans living in China by selling bubble tea in front of Cobb, and students in Medlife have the opportunity to go on an international service trip to a medical clinic in Peru over spring break. Another opportunity for service-minded individuals is Alpha Phi Omega (APO), a co-ed community service fraternity. Brothers of APO (both female and male members are called brothers) participate in various service opportunities and fellowship events throughout the year. APO is partnered with various campus and community organizations, and brothers tutor local children through Friends of Washington, make food runs to homeless shelters downtown, and maintain a community garden on a weekly basis. Traditional aspects of fraternity life, such as having a big brother, going to formal, and participating in fellowship events are also an important part of APO, and large groups of brothers can be seen each Wednesday meeting for dollar shakes in C-Shop. For those especially interested in community service and advocacy landscape, the University offers a unique program called Seeds of Justice, offered exclusively to firstyear students. Twenty first-years are selected each fall into this full-year program and meet weekly to explore social justice issues in Chicago and engage with local community-building organizations. While a larger time commitment than many other service programs, the program allows students to become more intimately familiar with the challenges the South Side faces and the efforts being put forth to change for the better than most other opportunities. Interested individuals should submit an application to the University Community Service Center (UCSC) by October 10. At the end of O-week, all new first-years are invited to participate in the Engage Chicago Through Service (ECTS) program that acts as a capstone of the O-Week festivities. Along with members of their house, participants will be bused to various sites around Chicago, where they will meet with community members to work on a relevant service project that has an immediate impact. Past projects have included building a playground, doing SAT prep with local high school students, and setting up a community garden. To sign up for ECTS, go to my.uchicago.edu under the My O-Week tab. —Andrew McVea JOURNALISM/PUBLICATIONS Let’s be honest with ourselves: Everyone fancies themselves a writer at this University. Why, if it weren’t for the blessed free market, the supply of student clubs and organizations surely couldn’t come close to meeting the demand of writerly egos. Thank god UChicago, like, created the free market, man. For no matter how you hold your pen, there’s probably a campus publication that’ll print your byline. Probably. If you want to go the journalism route, you have a rich portfolio of options. But the story of on-campus journalism begins, of course, with yours truly: The Chicago Maroon, the leading independent student newspaper since 1892. This national award-winning newspaper covers news, art, sports, and opinion content twice a week in print, and around the clock online, in text and video. Join the ranks of the likes of David Brooks, Nate Silver, John Paul Stevens, and Tucker Max by spending your Monday and Thursday evenings in the Maroon office located in Ida Noyes (conveniently within spitting distance of The Pub, one might add). In addition to following the pulse of campus happenings, the Maroon puts three “special” issues (the O-Issue, the Historical Issue, and the Graduation Issue) each year with expanded content. The Maroon’s sister publication, Grey City Magazine, features hardhitting investigative stories, hitting news stands thrice a year. Another well-respected rag is the South Side Weekly, an alternative newsprint magazine covering the South Side community but run by UChicago students. It, too, puts out special issues, its annual Best of the South Side issue, a spunky survey of all the South Side has to offer, as well as the Housing Issue, a field guide for UChicago students as they navigate the morass of off-campus living. It includes the nuts and bolts, such as renter’s rights, as well as in-depth reflections on living in the Windy City. Maybe you spent your summer devouring Veep and House of Cards and want to nurse your fledgling political consciousness. For the chance to pen political opinion and analysis, from national education policy to popular political memoirs, look no further than The Gate, an online, nonpartisan publication partnering with the Institute of Politics. There’s also The Midway Review, a quarterly, nonpartisan, erudite source of sociocultural and political commentary and criticism that provides deep-dive analyses of current events, philosophy, religion, and all the big questions. For the progressive at heart, check out Diskord, which tackles both student issues and global concerns or The Platypus Review, which seeks to wake up the politics of the left. Poetry and fictionists of many beret-shades will also find their home here. Memoryhouse is a quarterly publication for creative nonfiction and visual images that has a small performance ensemble, while Sliced Bread is home to a whole spectrum of literary genres, from poetry and travel essays to photography and painting. Drinkers with a Writing Problem shows by its clever title that it is “dedicated to the love of writing and the winos who made it great,” according to its Tumblr. Perhaps the student organization that adheres best to UChicago’s motto, Crescat Scientia, Vita Excolatur, is the Torsten B. Veblen Truth Seeking Society of Chicago; they argue on their website that “truth cannot wait, so neither can we—in fact, we refuse to.” So you better get your truth-seeking cap on. The UChicago Palate is a new RSO devoted to food reviews and journalism—a worthy publication that will motivate us all to venture beyond the dining hall, even in the coldest of winter, to delve into one of the best culinary locations in the country. MODA, UChicago’s fashion organization, has an annual magazine and blog to showcase its fashion shows and to promote the impressive sartorial achievements of UChicago students. The Quad is a storytelling and cultural podcast that aims to capture the voices of the UChicago campus, from students and alums to professors. The Valentine’s Day episode was about bug romance; another episode was about a third-year who was on College Jeopardy and a research scientist who was on Breaking Bad, just to give you a sample. Whether you’re interested in editing, writing, interviewing, or just coming up with story ideas, The Quad exposes stu- dents to all aspects of audio production. The Quad also works with other RSOs to develop their own audio content. You may be thinking it—“All this real news and staunch analysis and navelgazing storytelling is far too dry, and I like messing with people by posting Onion links on Facebook.” UChicago answers you with its own satirical publications. The Shady Dealer is our longest-living satirical newspaper that welcomes submissions from students, faculty, and community members alike. It features such gems as “Area Woman Pays Face Value for Klondike Bar,” and “Zimmer Attacked by Mountain Lion.” The Dealer fashions itself as “the only intentional humor publication of the University of Chicago,” per its slogan, but thanks to the Humor Magazine, that’s no longer true. The magazine’s cryptic prompts include “Epilogue: How that could have gone better,” “When handshakes go awry,” and “The notes in the lunchbox: I think mom’s trying to kill me.” Each of these print publications is the perfect opportunity to get your Onion juices flowing, UChicago style. —Summer Fields 20 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CAMPUS ARTS Music It’s an exciting time for music at UChicago—as of 2014, we now have at least a handful of rockin’ campus bands, some of which are actually pretty good. This explosion of student musical creativity is not unrelated to the opening of the Logan Arts Center, which has made available muchneeded practice space and equipment. The musical community is growing in both size and cohesion and is ready to welcome you eagerly. Make sure not to miss the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. The music is world-class, the admission is free, and it’ll only be steps away from your dorm. It takes place on the Saturday and Sunday before classes start, and includes almost 40 different performances by both local and visiting artists. Definitely catch saxophone king Ari Brown, Tomeka Reid’s visceral string trio, and mind-bending drummer Dana Hall. For musicians seeking a more formal performance opportunity, the music department offers a variety of ensembles. The classically minded should look to the Symphony Orchestra or the Wind Ensemble. Jazzers should check out the X-Tet for all their blue-note needs. There are more than 15 ensembles of diverse size and specialty, so everyone can find their niche. Auditions usually occur during O-Week, so stay alert and get your chops up to scratch. If you are looking to expand your audial horizons, you should tune into WHPK, the campus radio station. Over 50 years old and run by a staff of around 160 students and community members, WHPK is your source for all the music you’ve never heard of, while also hosting discussions on community issues and interviews with local politicians. Program director Rob Sperry-Fromm described a WHPK DJ as one who is “discovering the (un)known musical multiverse, discovering themselves, [and] illuminating the dark corners of consciousness.” Woah, dude. Before you apply, here are some helpful tips: Get a job at Cobb cafe, pierce some part of your face, and do not let on that Radiohead is your favorite band. Catch a show at 88.5 FM or stream online at WHPK.org. WHPK also occasionally provides venues for local student bands, of which there are now more than ever before. The Flaccids, a punk three-piece with a focus on gender politics, have become infamous for their stormy cover of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” Robert J. Zimmer is a technically impressive prog rock group boasting a full suite of horns and citing influences from klezmer and jazz. Cordoba, meanwhile, is an experimental soul band providing moments ranging from intricate composition to group improvisation, and Treetop combines hip-hop sampling with live drum set and improvised classical piano. The storied and monolithic Dirt Red Brass Band plays New Orleans– style groove music and is liable to fill up apart- ment buildings with joyous gyrating. And this is just a sample of what will be playing local basements this fall. Bands desiring practice space should look into Logan room 502. It comes equipped with a well-maintained drum set, piano, bass-stack, and PAs. Room 502 has become a watering hole where musicians inevitably meet each other and often end up collaborating. Grab your friends, go play, and don’t forget to come up with a good, in-jokey band name before you commit to any gigs. further? The Classical Entertainment Society stages readings and retellings of ancient works by Homer, Aristophanes, Virgil, and just about every other old playwright you’ve ever heard of. Their productions (generally one per quarter) are known for their inventive set design and musical accompaniment, and they have lately begun teaming up with Court Theatre for marathon readings of the Illiad and Odyssey. It’s more exciting than it sounds, honest. Of course reading lines isn’t the only way to get up on stage around campus. The more coordinated among you may want to check out one (or all) of UChicago’s 10+ dance troupes, each with multiple showcases a year that cater to all skill levels. Phinix Dance Crew and UC Bhangra are now omnipotent fixtures on campus, but I might also recommend Rhythmic Bodies in Motion, the Ballroom and Latin Dance Association, and Flamenco for added versatility. Try out a few workshops from each and start absolutely killing it at Bar Night. And don’t worry, recreational circus performers: Le Vorris & Vox is your one stop for mime, magic, juggling, trapeze, tumbling, clowning, puppetry, pyromancy, and all manner of face-painted ridiculousness. Less “Entrance of the Gladiators” than Cirque du Soleil, the student circus troupe puts on two shows a year and is always looking for more talented performers with a yen for high-flying theatrics and the ability to walk on stilts. They do not currently have a dedicated lion tamer (RIP), but are otherwise open to every form of theatrics and buffoonery under the big top. And should you ever find yourself in the mood to take your moody poetry from the hallowed stalls of Harper and into the public eye, look no further than Catcher in the Rhyme, our very own slam poetry RSO. Catcher hosts its own Poetry Slam open mic each Wednesday at the Logan Cafe, where veterans and newbies are welcome to recite their best verses in front of fellow slammers and slam appreciators from campus and beyond. (Note: it doesn’t actually have to rhyme.) In short: If you can do it on stage, there’s a company, troupe, or RSO that wants to help you do it. If there’s not, you can always make your own. If the University or Illinois state law say you can’t make your own, you should try something else, because the world obviously isn’t ready for your gifts. Break a leg! —Zach Upton-Davis COURTESY OF JULIET ELDRED Theater and Performance See: Performativity, Judith Butler Much has been made of the introverted tendencies of the UChicago student. We’re known for bundling up, for staying indoors, for writing angry bathroom poetry and passiveaggressive Facebook posts. Except for one Universitysanctioned week in midMay, you’ll find that there are very few opportunities on this campus to strip away your inhibitions, don colorful costumes, and exercise your latent exhibitionist streak in front of a welcoming crowd. Just kidding. For starters, there’s University Theater, which has provided quality, student-directed productions ELLEN RODNIANSKI CHICAGO MAROON | for more than 100 years and is open to budding thespians of all majors, as well as those interested in the more technical side of stagecraft. (UT makes good use of our shiny new Logan Arts Center and its impressive bevy of theater spaces.) Auditions are held the first week of every quarter; the fall lineup kicks off with A Streetcar Named Desire, followed by Patrick Marber’s Closer (6th week), Becket’s Endgame (8th week), and what one can only assume will be a rather interesting version of Macbeth (10th week). Those with less time for practice but more time for strangeness should try out for one of the four eclectic mini-productions featured in 5th week’s Weekend of Workshops—they’re putting on an adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are! But what if you’re a classically trained actor with no taste for post-Elizabethan theater? Get thee to The Dean’s Men! UChicago’s foremost troupe of dedicated Shakespeareans, The Dean’s Men will be putting on Henry V this fall (7th week), and will also be hosting play readings on a biweekly basis. Their company bylaws expressly forbid the use of fake British accents, but you could probably still get away with it if you’re sneaky. Want to go back even —Will Dart 21 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 Visual Arts For budding artists and art enthusiasts alike, our campus offers a vast array of opportunities in the visual arts, but as seasoned UChicago students will tell you, these offerings are easily missed in the thick of the academic grind. Here’s a brief rundown on our best arts RSOs, museums, and galleries. Outside the Lines, the University’s figure-drawing club, is one way to break into the UChicago arts community. The club hosts weekly sessions and provides opportunities for students to have their work exhibited. To join, sign up on the Outside the Lines Facebook group. ArtShould combines art and community service for those who want to get involved in the Hyde Park community. The club offers afterschool art programs at four CPS schools as well as art workshops and events. No prior teaching experience is required. Recruitment starts at the beginning of every quarter. For those who prefer to work behind the lens, Glass Eyeball, the student photography club, provides free darkroom space, digital printing, and equipment rental services for experienced and beginning photographers. The club also hosts quarterly critiques, exhibits, workshops, and photo walks. To get involved, join the listhost and check for events on the Facebook page. Nestled between Henry Crown Field House and Ratner Athletic Center, the Smart Museum of Art is the University’s small but worldrenowned art museum, displaying the likes of Rothko, Rodin, and Goya. The Smart houses a collection that spans five continents and a millennium. This fall the Smart will celebrate its 40th anniversary with two all-museum exhibitions, the first on defining sculpture. Carved, Cast, Crumpled: Sculpture All Ways will run from September 27 to December 21. For students interested in getting involved, the Smart offers student docent and gallery attendant jobs, as well as a student advisory committee. If you’re looking for a break from the Reg, the Smart Café is a great space to study on the weekends or catch up with friends over coffee. For decades, the Renaissance Society has served as a premier exhibition space for the world’s upand-coming artists. Located high up on the fourth floor of Cobb Hall, the Society began as a Midwestern response to the avant-garde art of the 1920s and 1930s in New York and Paris. Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Alexander Calder, and Jeff Koons are some of the artists who have been showcased in the Society’s lofty dwelling. This fall the Society will host the first solo exhibition in America by the Austrian artist Josef Strau. The New World, Application for Turtle Island will focus on the interplay between language and the environment. While the Smart Museum and the Renaissance Society are the University’s forefront art exhibition spaces, the Logan Center Gallery, the Booth School of Business, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House are also worth a visit, the latter two especially so for the architecturally inclined. Sometimes even UChicago students need a break from neo-Gothic. with the Institute of Politics on a really exciting series of Errol Morris’s documentaries on Thursdays at 7 p.m.,” says Frankel. “It’s going to be fast, cheap, and out of control.” The bad news in all of this is that you’re going to have to find time in your busy fall schedule to go see Zoolander, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Princess Bride at Ida Noyes. The good news is that, thanks to their crazy-cheap quarterly passes, you can see every film in the entire Doc Fall Catalogue—about 80 in total—for just $30; a must-buy for anyone with even a passing interest in moving pictures. Still too steep? Volunteers get to see every screening for free, and Doc is currently looking for new fall quarter help. Doc’s volunteer gigs provide hands-on experience at all levels of cinema management, from the box office to the projectionbooth, with varying time commitments for each. Their use of student projectionists means that enterprising film nerds can learn how to work with funky, old-fashioned 16- and 35mm film reels, just like grandpa used to do. It also means that there’s a 50 percent chance that the sound will cut out during the emotional climax of your favorite Wes Anderson film. That’s a filmviewing experience you won’t get at just any AMC, folks! Want to make movies of your own? Fire Escape Films is the student filmmaking company de jour, and a regular producer of highquality, quirky shorts that often make the rounds at local festivals. Though small and still growing, the company’s reach is extensive, FEF President Hamid Bendaas says. “Last year, 25 short films were made under the Fire Escape banner by over 120 students,” Bendaas said. “Long-lasting annual traditions, like intro projects to induct new members and the 48-Hour Film Festival, in which teams race to complete a film in a weekend, ensure the Fire Escape community remains closeknit, enthusiastic, and fun.” You can check out some of Fire Escape’s work on their Vimeo channel and at their annual O-Week screening at Max Palevsky Cinema. Pro-tip: The Film Studies Center, located on the third floor of Cobb Hall, has a ginormous (3000+) collection of ancient and obscure prints for your viewing pleasure. Netflix’s catalog of silent cinema is decidedly limited, but you can hit up the FSC anytime you’d like and watch old movies to your heart’s content. You cannot take the prints home. You may be able to smuggle in some popcorn. —Lauren Gurley Film Enterprising film nerds, look no further With the coming of Harper Theater to 53rd street, lovers of the moving picture need no longer take the red line north every time they want to see Guardians of the Galaxy. But, for the price, location, film selection, and overall experience (nothing beats watching classic cinema with college kids), your best ticket for movie night will always and forever be the legendary “cinephile heaven” that is Doc Films. Founded in 1932, the Documentary Film Group (“Doc” for short) is the oldest continually operating student film society in the country, if not the oldest film society, period. The name has stuck, although they’ve since expanded their vision to include films of all kinds, from blockbusters to foreign classics to the tiniest and weirdest of art-house fare. Each quarter, Doc’s programming committee selects a handful of “series,” which run each night of the week (more recent releases are traditionally saved for the weekends). These series include 10 titles, each pertaining to some sort of unifying theme—the work of a particular artist, a filmmaking trend, a sociopolitical movement, or something else entirely (Spring 2013’s Headbangersploitation was particularly good). “Our calendar this fall is really varied, but also entirely accessible,” Doc Programming Chair Daniel Frankel says. “During O-Week, we have a free screening of Woody Allen’s 1977 classic Annie Hall—the perfect introduction to neuroses for all you first-years.” Other fall highlights include Bowie’s Greatest Hits on Thursdays (a series of Bowie’s best and weirdest film appearances, shown in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art’s David Bowie Is retrospective), and the works of ’80s comedy-legends John Hughes and Rob Reiner on Fridays. “We’re also collaborating —Will Dart Comedy LOL Allegedly an enclave of scholarliness and sobriety since 1892, the University of Chicago has in fact played an integral part in the development of the legendary Chicago comedy scene. According to one dubious source, improv as we know it today was invented right down the street at the old Compass Tavern (now Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap), when a drunken pickup attempt spun out of control and turned into an impromptu comedy sketch. The Compass Players, which formed around the incident, continued to perform its skits through the late ’50s, where, as Wikipedia puts it, “audiences flocked to see these clever youngsters whip up theatrical magic out of thin air.” The Players left Hyde Park soon after to become the now-famous Second City, but Compass alumnus Bernie Sahlins (A.B. ’43) returned in 1986 to found the group’s spiritual successor: Off-Off Campus. Thirty very odd generations later, Off-Off continues to perform five Friday nights a quarter (beginning 4th week) at the Blue Gargoyle Theater, and all kinds of mini-shows elsewhere. New members are chosen by audition at the beginning of fall quarter—but be forewarned: They take only the funniest and most deranged, and the two-quarter training period is pretty brutal. It’s a commitment, if a worthwhile one. “Off-Off is like a frat where you actually do something,” said Dan Ackerman, member of Off-Off ’s 27th Generation. He, like many would-be improvisers before him, had trepidations about putting on outlandish performances in front of his peers, but was quickly won over after seeing the troupe’s annual O-Week Show. “I was so impressed, and I found the audition process so welcoming and weird that I was willing to trade fifteen hours a week for some serious improv training and performing.” Off-Off takes its laughs seriously, and it shows. But while they may be the oldest jesters on campus, Off-Off didn’t hit the off switch on campus comedy groups. Occam’s Razor, its plucky but lovable younger brother, was founded in 1999, and while it may be slightly more laid back, it is by no means less entertaining. (Its proclivity for complete improv over Off-Off ’s more sketch-based comedy tends to make its shows really fucking weird.) According to a prepared statement by Razor alum Willie Calvin, “With an open atmosphere that welcomes all to audition and participate, Occam’s Razor is an improv comedy group you want to bring home to your Uncle Brendan.” Truth. A word to the canny: Occam’s is also the proprietor of UChicago’s only student-run talk show, The Logan Evening Show. Filmed in front of a live studio audience at the tippy top of the Logan Center, the Show features entertaining chats with notable faculty and figures on campus, musical guests, and liberal use of poorly edited audio-visual gags. It’s a delightfully surreal Friday night experience (the whole thing feels very “Tim and Eric”–esque), and demands to be attended at least once by everyone at this school. Or maybe you’re looking for a more cultured approach to the art of the giggle? I am proud to announce that we now have our very own Commedia dell’Arte RSO! Chiefly known for its stock characters, crazy voices, outrageous pantomime and sight gags, Commedia dell’arte is the ancestor of many of the comedic performance styles we know today; one can trace the genealogy of Jack Black and John Cleese right back to 16th-century Mantua. UChicago’s Commedia puts on at least one show a quarter, and is always searching for fearless actors with an above-average capacity for improvisation and a penchant over-the-top silliness. Sound like you? Of course it does, you silly goose! Our campus is clearly a pretty funny place—but let’s remember that we’re also living in the best city for comedy in the country, with endless opportunities to laugh and to make other people laugh, too. Have jokes of your own? Here are a few places to try them out: Beer Belly Open Mic at Pint Bar, 1547 North Milwaukee Avenue. Wednesdays; 8:30 p.m. sign up, 9 pm start. The Chaser at The ComedySportz Theatre, 929 West Belmont Avenue. Mondays; 7:30 p.m. sign up, 9:30 p.m. start. Rathskellar Open Mic at Lottie’s Pub. 1925 West Cortland Street. Tuesdays, 8:30 p.m. sign up, 9 p.m. start. In the Works Open Mic at Underground Lounge. 952 West Newport Avenue. Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. sign up, 8 p.m. start. Cole’s Open Mic at Cole’s Bar, 2338 Milwaukee Avenue. Wednesdays; 6 p.m. sign up (go early!), 9:30 p.m. start. Long wait, tough room, good beer selection. —Will Dart 22 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CULTURAL GROUPS Here are some of the University’s well-known cultural groups and their objectives: The Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) The Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) is the University’s group of students that supports and advocates Hispanic and Latino diversity on campus. Although the oldest Latino organization on the University of Chicago dates back to 1989, it was then called HSA (Hispanic Student Association). The name was then changed to HACER (Hispanic Association for Cultural Expression and Recognition) in 1990, then its present name, OLAS, in 2000. There are frequent social events that members of OLAS hold each quarter. Some notable activities over the past years have been music festivals, discussions about the welfare of Latin American countries with renowned Latino politicians, and parties where the attendants are expected to practice learning Spanish with fluent speakers. The most notable event, however, is the group’s annual cultural show, which is held every spring. This event showcases the best of Latino music and art. “OLAS is a constantly evolving organization that will provide you with a support network and a guaranteed good time. From learning new dances at social events, to practicing your Spanish, to learning about anything and everything from Latin American students on campus, OLAS is truly the place to learn more, dance more, and share more fun experiences,” Cristina Ochoa, one of three cultural directors, said in a statement. In addition to Ochoa, this year’s committee consists of several board members, all of who are headed by co-chairs Daniel Ramirez-Raftree and Esteban Valencia. Weekly meetings are held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 5710 South Woodlawn Avenue, where most cultural groups on campus meet. The Organization of Black Students (OBS) Since its inception, this 2013 “RSO of the Year” organization has strived to address issues that concern the black community around the campus and the surrounding community with the intention of continuing the growth of black education and culture. The Organization of Black Students (OBS) also hosts several socials throughout the year and releases its very own online magazine, Blacklight. Writing for the magazine usually takes on the form of firsthand experience as a student of the minority community. Poetic pieces and art and music reviews are also welcome. OBS socials are usually dinners or study breaks, with some of the more notable events being the annual OBS Cultural Show and the Heritage Ball. Other events involve deep conversations about the well-being of the black community, as well as involvement in politics and national affairs. These discussions are commonly referred to as “Real Talk.” Nina Kate, a second-year who is actively involved in OBS, says it made her a stronger person. “Joining OBS gave me a place to air my frustrations and be around people who didn’t just ‘get’ the same issues, but had actually experienced them as well. Organizations like OBS are like very specialized insurance policies; you often don’t realize how important they are until something happens to shake you up—but when you finally do, it’s hard to imagine life without them,” Kate said in a statement. This year’s Executive Board is headed by President Duaa Mohamed. There are several other positions that exist to represent students’ interests and to reach out to alumni, but current members must hold some of the positions. OBS generally meets at 5710 South Woodlawn Avenue for weekly meetings at 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. The subjects vary each week, from being a black student at the University to being a black member of society. South Asian Student Association For twenty-six years, the South Asian Student Association (SASA) has been known for its elaborate festivals and socials that promote South Asian education at the University. This organization is best known for creating the largest cultural event on campus every spring. The SASA spring show is showcased by an array of music, food, and dancing, which serve as an educational break from studies for students. In fact, this RSO won two UChicago RSO awards for the 2013–14 school year: the Best Event Award for the 2014 Cultural Show, SASA 101, and the Innovative Funding Strategy Award, for being the RSO with the most successful funding strategy. SASA produces at least one big show per quarter: Diwali puja and celebration (fall quarter), the annual culture show (spring quarter, with preparations throughout the winter), and Holi (spring quarter). SASA also hosts large cultural meetings and screenings in the Stuart Cox Lounge or at Harper Memorial Library at 7 p.m., but most of the large events are held in Mandel Hall in the Reynolds Club. Tickets are sold at least a month in advance. Meetings vary, from cultural discussions to movie screenings of old films. Smaller weekly meetings take place every Monday from 9 to 10 p.m. at 5710 South Woodlawn Avenue. President Amita Prabhu and Vice President Arushi Tomar lead members of this year’s Executive Board. Korean Student Organization The Korean Student Organization (KSO) was founded in 1976 and has since then grown to have more than JULIA REINITZ | CHICAGO MAROON 100 active undergraduate and graduate members each year. In 1980, the organization hosted the first culture show on campus and has since established an annual KSO tradition for the past 33 years, and has also set a precedent for all other cultural groups on campus. KSO aims to represent the Korean community and to bring together students who have a common interest in Korean culture. They also seek to establish a positive relationship for the entire University community by having open conversations and events with other cultural organizations. “Before becoming part of the board, I played as one of the main characters in KSO’s annual culture show. Although it required high time commitment, the show provided me an opportunity to ask and think about important questions on my own cultural background and most importantly how I should/want to represent it on UChicago campus. KSO not only helps the rest of the community—the outsiders of Korean culture—to learn about it, but also helps me and other insiders to understand our own culture and discover new aspects of our identities,” Yeo Bi Choi, a rising second-year and current social chair of KSO, said in a statement. In addition to campus awareness and education, KSO also donates to the surrounding community by raising funds for various charitable organizations such as Korean American Women In Need (KANWIN) and Agglobe Services (North Korean food aid). Favorite events from KSO involve huge ramen sales, the annual Cultural Show, and PanAsia’s New Year’s Celebration. Weekly meetings, conversations, and socials are held in Stuart at 9 p.m., and ticket sales are usually in the Reynolds Club. Large events such as movie screenings and formals take place all over campus. Members of the KSO committee are led by President Kristine Ma and Vice President Ryan Kim for the 2014–15 school year. —Cairo Lewis 23 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CAMPUS BUSINESS/START-UPS/ CONSULTING You own “business casual” for each day of the week. You subscribe to The Economist or The Wall Street Journal— or both. As a child, you ran the Walmart of lemonade stands and drove bit players ( Jimmy from next door) to the ground. You are probably an econ major. And now you want to join a business RSO. Maybe you want to sharpen that trader’s intuition or dip your fingers into finance. The O-Issue’s got your back: With our Q3 2014 “Let’s Get Down to Business” report, you’re guaranteed to find the RSO with the synergies you’re looking for. Eckhart Consulting (EC) is the campus strategy and management consulting RSO. EC does pro bono work for nonprofit and for-profit clients: Members work in small teams of four or five to address client needs. It runs two project cycles a year, typically with one nonprofit, one for-profit, and one university client. Recent clients include Joffrey Ballet School, the University of Chicago Library, and the City of Chicago. “Eckhart was a great experience as a first-year,” said Ben Veres, a rising second-year and engagement manager for EC. “Because the teams are so small, it is critical that every member contributes a lot. The team is very supportive, but expectations are high, so it was a great environment to challenge myself.” His spring-cycle project involved working with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, a leading derivatives marketplace. “The project was heavily quantitative, which fits my skill set,” said Ben. “Our team developed tools using big data to improve the CME Group’s marketing strategies.” How do I join?! Attending an info session is a great way to learn more about EC. It accepts applications for both fall and spring cycles—the process can be selective, as EC typically has around twenty members. Pareto Solutions is the pro bono marketing consulting RSO on campus. Its approach integrates data analysis and creativity to provide strategy recommendations to clients. Projects run from six to eight weeks, and past clients have included Chicago Booth, Bridgeport Coffee Company, and Epoch Education. “Pareto provides a unique opportunity to gain hands-on consulting experience,” said thirdyear Kejia Ren, a manag- ing director for Pareto. “Members have the chance to work with clients on interesting, relevant business issues, learning about data analysis, marketing strategy, and client management throughout the process.” How do I join?! Pareto accepts applications in the fall. Attend an info session and hit up some current members with questions—there’s an interview process as well, to check if candidates mesh with the club’s culture and values. Phoenix Funds (PF) is an academic finance RSO that aims to make abstract financial theory accessible to its members. It hosts weekly lectures on a variety of topics, ranging from the efficient-market hypothesis to the Black-Scholes model. PF also organizes a speaker series throughout the year with both graduate students and corporate veterans. “It’s all very UChicago style,” said Victor Tan, a rising second-year in PF. “You get to learn a lot in a relaxed environment. I was interested in finance but wasn’t entirely sure where to start, and I found that PF was great for filling in gaps of knowledge I never knew existed—I would never have learned what a ‘samurai bond’ or a ‘dimsum bond’ was without PF!” How do I join?! PF only has one recruiting cycle in the fall, so make sure to stop by for info at the RSO fair. There’s a round of interviews to get through, too. The Blue Chips (TBC) is the largest undergraduate investment RSO on campus, with over 100 members. It manages a $100,000 all-equity portfolio, split into seven sectors: basic materials, con- sumer, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, and technology. Working within their assigned sector, members pitch attractive investment opportunities for the portfolio using a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. “I learned a great deal about accounting and how to acquire specific bits of information used to valuate a publicly traded company,” said David Tong, a rising second-year in TBC. “I’m in the tech sector, and one of my favorite pitches is Yandex, a Russian internet–search engine.” How do I join?! TBC accepts applications at the beginning of every quarter. After an interview round, new members must go through a training program. Keep your eyes peeled for their fall quarter info sessions. —MJ Chen RELIGIOUS GROUPS/INSTITUTES During your time on campus, you’ll find that the life of the spirit isn’t strictly metaphysical. From recognized student organizations (RSOs) to religious advisers and interfaith discussion groups, most wandering paths stem out of the Spiritual Life Office, a comprehensive resource for spiritual life on campus. The office is located in beautiful Rockefeller Chapel, which itself serves as an all-encompassing space for you on your journey. The chapel regularly offers a number of diverse events and activities, including but not limited to 20 Minutes Still (20 minutes of daily meditation open to all backgrounds) and Restorative Yoga. Rockefeller also has a Hindu prayer SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON room, where the Hindu Student Sangam (HSS) meets every week for devotional songs, meditation, and reading Hindu texts. Every April, HSS collaborates with the South Asian Students Association and the Spiritual Life Office to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, on the main quad. Muslim students, in addition to using Rockefeller’s Muslim prayer room, can get plugged into the Muslim Students Association, which offers events during Ramadan, service events, and Friday prayers. Also meeting weekly in the basement of Rockefeller Chapel is the Secular Alliance, a community of atheists, agnostics, humanists, skeptics, rationalists, naturalists, non-theists, and other freethinkers. The group hosts a range of speakers and activities, including weekly discussions and science and philosophy workshops. The Buddhist Association acts as a hub for Buddhist student activity and other meditation groups. It also works with the Queer Spirituality group and the Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago to cosponsor Queer Dharma, a meditation and discussion group for LGBTQ students. UChicago Hillel, the campus branch of an international organization, supports individual Jewish students as well as Jewish RSOs such as Jewish Students Association ( JewSA). A program of an Illinois nonprofit, JewishU runs events during Jewish holidays and provides internship opportunities to students, among other programs. Another branch of a nationwide organization is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which offers Bible studies throughout the week, large-group gatherings, and other events and conferences during the year. Calvert House, the University’s Catholic center and home to the Catholic Students Association, celebrates mass throughout the week as well as running the Calvert House Tutoring program. The Bahá’i Association is a community and discussion group based on the texts and teachings of the Bahá’i Faith, whose central principles include the unity of God, religion, and humanity. Alongside these groups are also networks for students and faculty who identify as Jain, Quaker, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Pagan/Wiccan, Unitarian Universalist, and more. There are several interfaith groups as well, such as Interfaith Dialogue, which brings together students of all faith backgrounds not only for discussion, but for various religious site visits and social events as well. In 2011, the Spiritual Life Office launched Spirit Week, now an annual tradition, which includes the Annual Multifaith Celebration, presented by the Spiritual Life Council, the Spiritual Life Office’s student advisory board. The celebration consists of a diverse line-up of song, meditation, chant, and prayers, as well as a space for members of various faith (and non-faith) communities to come together. With such a comprehensive pool of opportunities, the only limits on your spiritual growth during your time here are your own expectations. You are encouraged, on all levels mental and spiritual, to scrutinize, define, deny—all of the above, and to pave your own way. —Grace Koh 24 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 Free student programs at the Smart Thursday, September 25, 8–10 am Smart Start Kick off your O-Week morning with free coffee, pastries, and art. Thursday, October 2, 5–7:30 pm At the Threshold 500 Clown debuts The Art of Experience, with live performances and more. Thursday, October 9, 8–10 pm Make or Break After-hours party inspired by Carved, Cast, Crumpled. Sculpture All Ways September 27–December 21, 2014 smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Your vision. Visionary art. So Smart. GRADUATE FROM THE status quo. Management and business skills are critical tools to help you accelerate your career growth. The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University now offers an MS in Management Studies to help graduating college seniors jumpstart their careers – in less than a year: • Kellogg’s top-tier education, with classes taught exclusively by Kellogg faculty – in downtown Chicago • Membership in the global Kellogg alumni network LEARN MORE • Highly personalized career coaching and preparation THURSDAY, OCT. 23 ATTEND OUR INFO SESSION: IDA NOYES HALL, 1212 E. 59TH ST., 2ND FLOOR, EAST LOUNGE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: kell.gg/msms-ignite Thursday, December 4, 9 pm–1 am Study at the Smart The galleries are transformed into a late-night study hall. Admission is always free CONNECT WITH US facebook.com/SmartMuseum @SmartUChicago THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 25 HABITAS SETTLING IN: THE GUIDE SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON COMPENDIUM OF DORMS Blackstone 5748 South Blackstone Avenue Blackstone combines the intimate feel of a small residence hall (comprised only of denizens of Blackstone House) with the relative privacy of half-double apartments. Each apartment in Blackstone consist of two adjoining rooms, a shared bathroom, and either a kitchenette or (for the first time this year) a storage unit. To accommodate this change, a community kitchen will join the hall’s amenities, which already include a lounge with a fireplace and grand piano, a study lounge, and a TV room. The array of communal areas facilitates Blackstone’s budding house culture, kick-started a few years ago by the addition of first-years to the previously upperclassman-only house. Breckinridge is far from most campus buildings, but the long walk is offset by the hall’s proximity to the Midway Plaisance (prime real estate for outdoor recreation) and the 59th Street Metra stop. Broadview 5540 South Hyde Park Boulevard With a 15-minute walk to the main quads, most Broadview residents quickly pick up an intimate knowledge of the shuttle routes and #171 bus schedule. But if you’re willing to sacrifice convenience for quality of accommodation, Broadview’s apartment-style living arrangements might not be so bad. Living in Broadview is perhaps the best The brick façade of the six-story residence hall blends nicely with the quaint residences that surround it, but Blackstone is also somewhat remote. Despite being about a 10-minute walk from the main quads, and even further from other campus locations, residents enjoy convenient access to public transit options and community businesses and restaurants—in other words, a neighborhood. Breckinridge 1442 East 59th Street Named after Sophonisba Breckinridge, who became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in political science from UChicago in 1901 as well as the Law School’s first ever female graduate, Breckinridge Hall is another single-house dorm. The hall offers single and double rooms divided into single-sex floors, as well as other amenities such as a weight room and large community kitchen. SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON approximation of apartment life in “on-campus” housing. The building offers a mix of single, double, and a few recent forced-triple first-year rooms, all of which have an adjoining private bathroom. Another perk of the distance from campus is an increased familiarity with Hyde Park, as well as the rest of Chicago—the nearby #6 bus stop will take you straight to downtown. Broadview takes advantage of both the physical building and proximity to the surrounding community. A large ballroom, left over from the hall’s days as a hotel, serves as the venue for an annual, formal-dress Broadview Ball for the dorm’s three houses, and neighborhood children are invited to trick-or-treat on Halloween. B-J 1005 East 60th Street Let’s get one thing out of the way: Burton-Judson is unironically, unapologetically referred to as B-J. Giggle to yourself now and get it out of your system. B-J, built in 1931, is a neo-Gothic building with plenty of character and no air-conditioning or elevators. Its location is convenient—just south of the Midway, a short walk to the main quads, and just a few steps away from a dining hall and late-night convenience store. B-J is home to six of the smallest houses on campus. House culture is heavy on traditions, and they have plenty of reason for house pride, having fostered several famous alumni, Carl Sagan and David Broder among them. Residents also make use of two large first-floor lounges, a basement movie theater, and the two enclosed courtyards around which the building is built. Rooms in B-J are mostly singles, though doubles are also common. B-J doubles are a bit unusual, though, in that they are made of two adjoining rooms, only one of which has a door out to the hallway. This level of privacy is certainly a plus, but debate is ongoing as to whether it’s preferable to live in the room that your roommate will always have to walk through when coming home THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 26 late, or the room in which one could conceivably find themselves trapped while being sexiled. I-House 1414 East 59th Street Life in International House (IHouse) is not your typical dorm experience. The hall houses around 430 residents, only 250 of which are UChicago undergraduates. I-House was founded in 1932 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to connect students from around the world and promote cultural exchange and understanding; today it houses a variety of students from over 50 countries, as well as students in the College. In spite of I-House’s unique purpose, the four houses located there (Booth and Phoenix, recently formed to accommodate the expanding undergraduate population, and Shorey and Thompson, part of the post-Pierce exodus) have all the trappings of the housing system— house tables, RHs, RAs, etc. Each house also has a small lounge, but the main common spaces in I-House are shared by the building, including a notably spacious kitchen and plenty of seating and lounge space on the first floor. Booth and Phoenix Houses offer exclusively single rooms, and Thompson and Shorey have only a few doubles. Maclean 5445 South Ingleside Avenue Located further north than any other residence hall and housing about 100 students in a single house, Maclean Hall is rumored to have more than just geography in common with Game of Throne’s Winterfell—other students have been known to joke that Maclean, too, is fictional. Maclean’s location in a residential area of Hyde Park is not all that far from the main quads, and just two blocks from Ratner Athletics Center. Offering an overwhelming majority of single rooms, Maclean couples privacy with social opportunity; video games, IM sports, and movie nights are mainstays of the house culture. The hall also features a large communal kitchen, a theater space for the aforementioned movie nights (organized by the house “movie czar”), and an exercise room. Walking around the dorm, Maclean’s vibe can be seen in the decor, with famous quotes painted on hallway walls by residents. Max Palevsky Residence Hall 1101 East 56th Street Colloquially known as “Max.” A dorm funded by a man of wealth and taste, Max Palevsky is often criticized for its audacious color scheme. Forgive that, and realize that its location is second only to Snell-Hitchcock. Along with South Campus, Max is the other housing “big dog” in terms of the number of students it holds, and is made up of four-person apartments and a smattering of singles. Reg, food, and gym are all in a 100-meter radius. The dorm thus tends to draw both athletes and the profoundly lazy. You know who you are. Stony Island Residence Hall 5700 South Stony Island Avenue Probably because it was a dorm originally intended for grad students, Stony has almost zero maintenance issues—especially compared to the other satellite dorms. The rooms, which are all four-person apartments, are superior in build quality and are larger than even those in South Campus. New Graduate Residence Hall 1307 East 59th Street New Grad is the home of the other half of the post-Pierce exodus. Its East 59th Street location exposes residents to a diverse cross section of the student body. Plus, residents get to live in a building that looks sort of like the Parthenon. The rooms, which are mostly doubles, are some of the nicest on campus, owing to the fact that they weren’t intended for undergrads (no offense). South Campus Residence Hall 6031 South Ellis Avenue South, as it is popularly known, is the imposing, glassy behemoth at 60th and Ellis which houses 800 people. It is a mix of singles, doubles, and apartments. Build quality can be shoddy in places, but this is mitigated by the fact that it’s sort of new. Services and maintenance response times are among the best on campus, perhaps because the University wants a Potemkin village to show parents. The ice machine next to the laundry room is a must for any rager. Snell-Hitchcock Hall 1009 East 57th Street Snell-Hitchcock is the oldest JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON dorm on campus, and the one that’s famous for being zealous about Scav. In order to live there, one usually must have either turned in one’s housing form early or paid someone off. Snell House is made up almost exclusively of singles, while Hitchcock House contains a mixture of singles and doubles. Residents of both houses share a laundry room and have access to a pool table and ping-pong table. Pierce/Campus North 5514 South University Avenue Pierce Tower was a very lovable place before it was razed last year. Literally. Among a host of other maintenance issues owing to the building’s age, the toilets had a tendency to explode. If you don’t believe us, you can read about it in old issues of the Maroon. Beginning last academic year, ex-Pierce residents (and their RAs and RHs) were relocated to the New Grad and I-House dorms. Earlier this year, the University announced that Studio Gang Architects, a Chicago-based architecture firm, had won the contract to build a new dorm on the Pierce site, called Campus North. We don’t know much about North yet, save that there’s going to be a lot of glass, it will have its own dining hall, and it should open in 2016. —Isaac Stein and Clair Fuller MANAGING YOUR MONEY For many students, managing a tight budget or dealing with stressful financial circumstances isn’t a reality that sets in after college—it’s a fact of undergraduate life. The good news is that if you know where to look, free assistance and social support networks are increasingly available on campus to help you deal with financial hardship. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE: GRANTS AND FUNDING There are a variety of grants available to support you in your time at the College. The University has an emergency loan policy in case of sudden and unavoidable changes to your finances, and the Financial Aid Office can handle any concerns you may have about being unable to manage payments. The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) provides grants that can assist with the costs of study abroad, and the University’s study abroad website provides many more. Career Advancement is also a great provider of free resources that can help you make the best of your education and prepare for whatever comes next— they offer employment counseling appointments, networking opportunities, and professional training services available free of charge, things that are hard to find for free or cheap elsewhere. If your financial situation becomes a problem, there are people who can get you financial assistance when you’re in a bind. According to Jacqueline Gaines, the director of College Academic Support Services, the first person to go to in case of emergency should be your College adviser. Gaines says that advisers “are well suited to put the students in touch with the resources that best meet the student’s needs,” and also “can help advocate for students as their needs change over the course of their time at the College.” Your adviser can access your financial aid information, get a sense of what services might be most useful to you, and direct you accordingly. If you’re not sure where to go for a first step, go to your adviser. If you know that your concerns are isolated to financial aid, it’s a good idea to contact the office directly. The Office of College Aid has a phone line where students can ask questions about their financial aid or changes to their aid, and there are also in-person counseling services available. If you want clarification on your situation, go straight to the source, and ask for help— they’re ready for you. PRACTICAL CONCERNS: TIPS FOR EVERYDAY While there are plenty of resources that help you figure out tuition questions, there are also plenty more that help you balance other budgets. Whether it’s paying for Saturday dinners (dining halls are closed Saturdays after 2:30 p.m.) or for house trips, there are continuous small-scale challenges when it comes to funding student life. According to Danielle Wilson, a member of Socioeconomic Diversity Alliance (SDA) at UChicago (which aims to support low-income students, first-generation students, and those at the intersections), OMSA is a particularly useful resource when it comes to everyday practicalities, providing free laptops to borrow (in addition to those offered at the Reg, which are also free) and copies of books on loan for some core classes. Wilson also noted that SDA has put together a resource guide that gives students detailed information aimed at helping them navigate various costs of life in housing (this guide is available in hard-copy form at OMSA). SOCIAL NETWORKS: COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT Practical and large-scale financial considerations may not be the only barriers for you if you’re facing financial difficulty—oftentimes, students managing an emergency or tight budget are likely to feel socially isolated. Wilson says that students facing tough financial circumstances often may not want to ask for help, and SDA attempts to combat those feelings of isolation through the creation of open and honest discussions about class issues (of which there will be several this fall, including an event on November 18 featuring the president of First Generation Harvard Alumni). SDA perhaps best exemplifies the trend toward a growing support network on campus for low-income and/ or first-generation students, as well as for students experiencing financial emergencies. Attend events, discussions, or groups aimed at fostering an environment of inclusion if that’s your cup of tea, while also bearing in mind that more private support is available through a financial aid counselor, your adviser, or the Student Counseling Service. The most important thing is to reach out somewhere if you’re feeling trapped or unsure—no student deserves to have financial worry eclipse his or her potential for wellbeing and success. —Emma Thurber Stone 27 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 ALL SUFFERING MUST PASS: 21 TIPS FOR DEALING WITH YOUR ROOMMATE The University of Chicago is a demanding school, and one of the most difficult challenges you may face will be getting along with your roommate. If living in harmony with an absolute stranger is proving more difficult than you feared, read on for The Chicago Shady Dealer’s tips on how to endure, or even enjoy, your next several months together. 1. When in your room, make yourself as small as possible to show your roommate you are not a threat. 2. Murmur; do not speak at full volume. 3. Never warn your roommate about sexiling. They will probably love the surprise, and may even want to join in on the fun. 4. Create your own copy of all of your roommate’s e-mails, text messages, Facebook chats, etc. for your own use when you need something from them. Don’t think they’re not doing the same! 5. It is nice to make your room a pleasant place to return to. Cover it with a bed of pine needles and aromatic spices. Burn sage, and if you’d really like to go over the top, have a shaman come in to bless it! 6. Never throw anything away, weave trash into a blanket to keep your roommate warm in the winter. 7. Remember, housing prohibits keeping outside pets in your room. You can, however, catch your own little buddies that are already living in the house (cockroaches, mice, mold spores, etc.) by leaving food out for several weeks. 8. If they ask, give a kidney. No questions, but you’re entitled to an organ of equal or lesser value at any future date. 9. Anything that you lick is yours permanently. 10. Have sex under their bed. 11. Always use a condom. 12. Hide under a pile of laundry and yell, “SURPRISE!” when they come home every day. 13. If your roommate is called on a worldspanning quest of adventure, romance, and destiny, you have first dibs on being the comicrelief sidekick. 14. Host parties with 30 of your closest friends and 30 of their closest friends the day before your roommate’s midterms. That way they can wind down a bit. 15. Put the “mate” in “roommate.” 16. Put the “vroom” in “roommate.” 17. Put the “ate” in “roommate.” 18. Deal an array of illicit substances from your room. Offer your roommate a discount to keep them quiet. Then, tell your RH of your roommate’s illegal activities. When you have a new roommate, repeat. 19. Start tunneling now on your roommate’s side of the room. The dresser should be large enough to cover said tunnel so that the guards don’t notice until the time to run comes, and by then it’ll be too late. Do not tell your roommate you are doing this. It gives them plausible deniability. 20. If you doubt their loyalty, get hitched in Vegas without a prenup. —The Chicago Shady Dealer Staff DINING HALL HACKS The Unlimited meal plan is appropriately named, as it literally gives you as many meal swipes as you need to satisfy your stomach. But with great power comes great responsibility—or, rather, the need for great creativity. Because the dining hall can get monotonous—fast. As soon as you run out of your quarterly flex dollars and are constrained to eating three meals a day in the same room with food served on a more or less rotational schedule, you’re going to want new options. Here is what my house and I have found. 1. Mixing and matching Though the dining hall is compartmentalized by strange names like “harvest” and “global,” the best way to defeat monotony is to combine food from different stations. Use the parmesan cheese from the salad bar to garnish your pasta; put peas in your macaroni and cheese; add corn from the entrée station to your tacos. If you think of the food as ingredients rather than finished products, you can jazz up your dinner with very little work. 2. There are two types of hummus, and one is better than the other The hummus at the kosher station tastes significantly better than its counterpart at the salad bar. 3. No two dining halls are the same Though Cathey and Bartlett claim to have all the same goods, they don’t. There’s a hazelnut-flavored coffee at Bartlett, but not South. Captain Crunch is only served in Bartlett, but Cathey more consistently has Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cathey is also home to the Mongolian grill on campus, where you can watch your vegetables and meat get stir-fried with the sauce of your choice. the microwave or toaster oven. 6. Waffle machines too During fourth meal, you can put tater tots in the waffle machines to make a potato waffle. It’s what some experts call genius. be used at all campus coffee shops except for Grounds of Being, the Divinity School coffee shop. If you go to Cobb Coffee Shop, you will find hot lunches catered from local restaurants like the Snail and the Nile. 7. Maroon Dollars can take you a long way If you’re tired of eating in the dining hall, you can always use the 100 flex dollars set aside for you each quarter. Maroon Dollars can 8. …so can meal exchanges The Unlimited meal plan will afford you three meal exchanges, which are essentially preset meals that seem like they cost you nothing. Many places on campus 4. It’s all about the bressert Combining breakfast and dessert items can lead to an exciting dessert or a sugary start to your day. Put a cookie in the waffle machine with some waffle batter and you get a wookie. Replace sprinkles with cereal for your ice cream topping. 5. Microwaves and toasters can perform miracles You’d be surprised how much better food tastes when it’s piping hot. Put your pita bread and chocolate chip cookies through SYDNEY COMBS SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON | CHICAGO MAROON offer meal exchanges: Among these options, C-Shop offers a bagel and coffee, the BSLC has hot dogs (among other items), and Hutchinson Commons (aka Hutch) will give you three tacos at Qdoba. Look for a maroon sign at any place that provides food. Follow these instructions and before you know it, you’ll be able to switch to the Phoenix plan. —Kristin Lin 28 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 COFFEE SHOPS C-Shop Besides its prime location on the first floor of the Reynolds Club, C-Shop hosts the historic Dollar Shake Wednesdays‚ during which milkshakes are sold for— wait for it—one dollar. Rumor has it that Einstein Bros was only allowed to operate in the space if it maintained this tradition. C-Shop is popular among hungry students looking for a bagel-ish breakfast alternative to nearby Bartlett Dining Hall or a quick snack. Or, for a clandestine meeting, snag a booth. Hallowed Grounds Right upstairs from C-Shop is Hallowed Grounds, with pool tables, old hardwood paneling, and couches spread throughout. Hallowed is and historically has been UChicago’s closest approximation to a student union, and remains the central student social/ political center on campus. Proof: The café was nearly shut down to make space for RSO advising offices in 2013. A subsequent student-led petition to Save Hallowed reached more than 1,000 signatures. Ex Libris You will end up going because it’s in the library and you will be hungry while studying, or between studying and class. Ex Lib acts as a comfortable extension of the Reg. It is a good place to people-watch, but in the words of one Maroon staffer, “People there are basic.” Expensive/mediocre coffee, Mediterranean and orzo salads from Foodism. It’s all in the name: ex libris, “out of the library.” Plein Air Café Located right next to the popular Seminary Co-Op bookstore, the Plein Air Café opened March of this year and remains a relative unknown to many at the University. Styling itself after a rustic French atelier, the café serves water in mason jars and specializes in simple but stylish (expensive) food and drink. The professional designers and curators behind the shop and the art that graces its walls help to distinguish it from the other coffee shops on campus. Common Knowledge Common Knowledge is famous not for the quality of its coffee or its diversity of eating options (both of which are above average), but for its proximity to the Harper reading room (officially the Arley D. Cathey Learning Center). Indeed, the shop is often referred to simply as Harper Café. This synonymy with Harper is only enhanced by the café’s status, on Sundays through Thursdays, as the only coffee shop on campus that stays open until midnight. After midnight, if you are still in Harper, they give away free leftover coffee! Cobb Coffee Shop Cobb accepts that sometimes less really is more. There’s a sort of ramshackle approach to proceedings in Cobb, but that’s the point: Where other cafés feel formal, like venues for a meeting or study session, Cobb is more of a social center, with the music and low prices a huge part of the draw. Cobb has some of the cheapest coffee on campus, and a huge selection of fresh-baked goods every day keeps students coming back, many making a stop right before rushing off to class. Grounds of Being “Where God drinks coffee.” If your goal is simply to have the best cup of joe campus has to offer, look no further than Grounds of Being. If other on-campus coffee shops serve as alternatives to Starbucks or Einstein Bros, Grounds of Being exists as an alternative to that. A different coffee supplier, different sponsor, and different management (Alterra, the Divinity School Association, and Div School graduate students, respectively) all serve to create a unique, divine experience. Logan Café On the first floor of the Logan Center for the Arts lies the Logan Café, a home for those who feel a little too closed in by the University’s more centrally located cafés (read: all of them). There’s a no-noise policy, but Logan often feels like the calmest of all the coffee shops on campus. A modern aesthetic that matches the rest of the Logan Center—couches in the middle of the room and alcoholic options—helps give the café its own flavor of Aramark identity. The biweekly Catcher in the Rhyme slam poetry event and open mic nights happen there on even-numbered weeks. Coffee Shop Hiring So you want to be a barista? Come work at Hallowed Grounds, Cobb Coffee Shop, Ex Libris, or Harper Café this year. While researching each of our studentrun coffee hangouts will give you an idea of location (to your dorm when you’re late to shift), type of coffee and local vendor selections (when you need that employee discount because your flex dollars are low), and atmosphere (so you know if your music will be accepted), the easiest way to get to know about these places is to come to open hiring! You may apply separately to each shop by sending in an application or inquiring with staff (contact e-mails below), or you can come to open hiring, where participating coffee shops interview you at once, then decide who is the best fit for each shop (aka the “wand chooses the wizard” method). Questions will be based on your availabilities, music preferences, experience, and personality. Open hiring will be hosted the middle of O-Week, so start looking into applications and our coffee shops now! Contact information for shop managers: Hallowed Grounds: [email protected] Cobb Coffee Shop: [email protected] Ex Libris: steffeskevin@ gmail.com Harper Café: brownpe10@ gmail.com —Austin Brown 29 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 HYDE PARK/AREA DINING Casual Food from these places might actually be less nutritious than ramen, but they are loved all the same. Daley’s Diner 809 East 63rd Street (773) 643-6670 A historic diner that has been owned and operated by the same family (no relation to the mayoral contenders) since the 1920s. Stop in and ask for Mike, the owner…. He’ll hook you up. Excellent Midwestern diner fare; similar to Valois but with more options. For South Campus residents, this is your break from the horror of Subway. Dinners run less than $10 and include an entrée, two sides, and cornbread. Harold’s Chicken Shack #14 Fried chicken, Southern, casual 1208 East 53rd Street (773) 752-9260 Excellent fried chicken for Eisenhower-era prices. Go on Sunday through Wednesday to take advantage of the half-dark special—half a fried chicken for $3.51…$3.19 if UChicago ID is shown. Location next to Kimbark Liquors and a laundromat makes for choice one-stop shopping. McDonald’s American, casual 5220 South Lake Park Avenue (773) 288-2161 Perhaps the slowest service out of any McDonald’s anywhere, but that’s Hyde Park. Like Harold’s, Donald’s House bails you out when you’re eating alone and have no more than four dollars to spend on Saturday night dinner. Don’t be sad. Have a sack of McDoubles. Valois American, breakfast, casual 1518 East 53rd Street (773) 667-0647 Officially endorsed by Obama, but whatever. The draw here is excellent and heavy breakfast food SYDNEY COMBS that is not for the faint of heart, pun intended. Weekend revelers and Reg dwellers alike eat here at 5:30 a.m., for obvious reasons. Date-worthy Impress your date. A10 French, semiformal 1462 East 53rd Street (773) 288-1010 Trendy and chic. Ideal for a third date, or if you don’t like money. B’Gabs Goodies Vegetarian, vegan 6100 South Blackstone Avenue (773) 363-1505 Within the bowels of the UChicago steam plant, which keeps your dorm warm, is B’Gabs…a vegan eatery which will certainly warm your insides. Food is highquality and innovative, as exemplified by the vegan tacos. Kikuya Japanese, semiformal 1601 East 55th Street (773) 667-3727 Good for sushi when the point is to enjoy it, rather than to eat as much as you possibly can. Attentive wait staff and pleasant decor combine to make this a viable choice for a date. Kilwins Sweets, ice cream 5226 South Harper Avenue (773) 675-6731 Once you get past the fact that you paid five dollars for an ice cream cone, it’s all gravy. Cute store layout combined with a location right next to Harper Theater (5238 South Harper Avenue) makes an excellent movie/ice cream date easy to finagle. Siam Thai Thai 1649 East 55th Street (773) 667-5423 The best among the strip of three or four Thai restaurants on 55th Street. Status quo: delicious. This is how food should taste. Sit-Down Meal Bring a group or friends, or just your B.A. draft. These restaurants work in any scenario. Clarke’s Diner, late night 2441 North Lincoln Avenue (773) 472-3505 Service and food quality are somewhat inconsistent, but being open 24 hours is a major credit in a neighborhood where everything seems to shut down at 9 p.m. Have Greek fries and a choc milkshake. Leona’s American, casual 1236 East 53rd Street (773) 363-2600 Leona’s serves solid lunches and dinners which revolve around the pizza/salad/sandwich train. Drawback is inconsistent service; enjoyment of dining here depends on frame of mind (Is that plate of pasta bigger than your head?!) Medici American, casual 1327 East 57th Street (773) 667-7394 Eating here is a no-risk proposition. Take your boss, a date, or your dad out to lunch at the Med and he or she will certainly find something enjoyable. Personal-size $10 deepdish pizzas are a great idea, and are an even better idea during a midwinter Reg binge. Salonica Diner, Greek 1440 East 57th Street (773) 752-3899 Solid diner fare at reasonable prices. Its location, a block west of Stony Island Avenue, also makes Salonica a desirable stop before leaving Hyde Park via the Metra or the #6 bus. Shinju Japanese, casual 1375 East 53rd Street (773) 966-6669 ETHAN STOCKWELL CHICAGO MAROON | bring beans you didn’t buy there. Hyde Park Produce Supermarket 1226 East 53rd Street (773) 324-7100 Beats the price of prepared food by a wide margin. Produce selection and closer-to-campus location are marginally better than rival Treasure Island (1526 East 55th Street). Greater South Side Beyond the gown. Dat Donut Doughnut, pastry 8251 South Cottage Grove Avenue (773) 723-1002 Makes both Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme look scrub. Consider purchasing the Big Dat, a glazed doughnut four times the size of any other on the market, for about $3.20. Dat also shares building space with a good barbecue joint if a war declaration on the intestines is imminent. Lem’s Bar-B-Q Meat 311 East 75th Street (773) 994-2428 Unique among South Side barbecue, Lem’s slathers its offerings in a delicious vinegar-infused sauce. Get the rib tips. Specialty/Miscellaneous Ohhhh, shit. Get your group of hungry college students together for all-you-can-eat sushi, which runs about $22 a head after tax. The food quality is decent. Produce and Grocery Giordano’s Deep-dish 5311 South Blackstone Avenue (773) 947-0200 As Edwardo’s on 57th officially hit the bricks lastsSpring, Giordano’s is now the only deepdish pizza game in HP. Eating here means eating an absurd amount of cheese, so bring/prepare to drink a gallon of water over the course of your evening. | CHICAGO MAROON Open Produce Fruits, vegetables, specialty 1635 East 55th Street (773) 496-4327 The riddle of why Hyde Park can churn out Nobel laureates like a juggernaut but is foreign to a decent apple has been mostly solved by Open Produce. Decent selection of fruits and vegetables year-round, plus they let you use their industrial coffee grinder for free, even if you Bartlett Dining Commons 5640 South University Avenue (855) 862-3463 Verbatim, from Yelp: “Judging by the number of people who frequent Bartlett Dining Hall, it seems to be a very popular dining destination especially popular among the hip, young crowd…. Overall, the first couple meals here are not bad, but the next hundred or so tend to feel somewhat repetitive.” Kimbark Beverage Shoppe 1214 East 53rd Street (773) 493-3355 Wine has calories, right? —Isaac Stein 30 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 The Office of Civic Engagement is pleased to announce its 2014-2015 Student Advisory Committee Laura Lee Burks, 2nd year, Chicago Harris Jeanne Chauffour, 4th year, College Alex DiLalla, 2nd year, College Kenzo Esquivel, 2nd year, College Stephanie Greene, 2nd year, College Cosette Hampton, 2nd year, College Meselle Jeffe-Eke, 4th year, College Ronald Jones, 3rd year, Law School Phillip Moore, 4th year, College Louisa Richardson-Deppe, 2nd year, College Julianna St. Onge, 3rd year, College Nuwan Samaraweera, 2nd year, Chicago Booth Sean Wiley, 1st year, Chicago Harris The Student Advisory Committee is a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, who help to shape the University’s civic engagement activities and strengthen the connections between the Office of Civic Engagement and the many student-led community initiatives across the campus. Email the Student Advisory Committee with ideas, questions, or suggestions at [email protected]. Visit us at UChicago.edu/engage Follow us @UChiEngagement 31 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 BACK TO THE STACKS JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON PROFESSORS AND GRAD STUDENTS Can you spot the difference? Academia as an institution consists of much more than students and teachers. There are graduate students who work as instructors, professors who work as administrators, and administrators who are also graduate students. Understanding the basic distinctions between faculty members and other academic appointments can get you pretty far in understanding how UChicago functions, not just in the classroom but as a school. Graduate students Graduate students are a diverse bunch who have one thing in common: their pursuit of a master, doctoral, or professional degree. A group of 9,502 spanning five divisions and six professional schools, they are on campus for an average of five to seven years to take classes, conduct research, and write their disser- tations. Given their long stays on campus, graduate students contribute a significant amount to undergraduate life, whether by being the resident head in your dorm or your neighbor in an apartment complex, a TA critiquing your Hum paper or working in research, an instructor teaching a full class or a classmate no different than yourself. At UChicago, graduate students enrolled in doctoral programs are guaranteed funding, issued through quarterly stipends that are used to cover rent and other costs of living. Graduate students even have their own union, Graduate Students United (GSU), which acts as a voice for the graduate student body and lobbies for their rights. Started in 2007, GSU has successfully doubled the pay for TAs and called for more affordable health care and child care for graduate students. Faculty The University has 2,190 full-time faculty who conduct research, teach, and contribute to decision-making on campus. Faculty are divided into four categories that vary based on factors like length of appointment and experience. The distinctions are as follows: Instructors are hired by the University on a one-year or two-year basis and do not necessarily have a doctorate. Collegiate assistant professors are appointed for four years at a time. You might want to watch for the HarperSchmidt fellows, who are hired as Collegiate assistant professors to teach Core courses in the humanities, social sciences, and Western civilization. Because the fellowship is highly selective and is tailored specifically toward enriching SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON the Core Curriculum, Harper-Schmidt Fellows tend to be excellent instructors— or, at least, receive rave evaluations. A word of advice: When choosing core courses, bid for the ones that they teach. You’ll get more out of reading evaluations than you will out of some class readings. The tenure track comprises three types of professors. Assistant professors serve for a renewable term of either three or four years for a total of no more than seven, at the end of which they are considered for tenure. Associate professors and professors have received tenure, which means that they are guaranteed their position at the University for an indefinite period of time. As an academic community, the University puts great care into ensuring that its faculty have the power to shape the environment in which they work. These decisions are made through the University Senate, which is composed of tenure-track professors, along with the president, provost, and vice presidents of the University. According to the University’s bylaws, the University Senate is charged with “all advisory, legislative, and administrative powers in the University concerning its education work, except those vested in the president by the Board of Trustees.” The University Senate meets once a year to discuss “matters of University interest,” whatever that means. The Council of the University Senate, a subset of 51 members of the senate, consists of the president and provost, along with 49 elected members of the senate. The council meets at least once a quarter. Will any of this affect your life as an undergraduate? The short answer is: Probably, but the heck if we know how. Try to make friends with some professors or grad students. –Kristin Lin 32 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 LIBRARIES Study ‘til you drop Take a group of friends to the Reg to hang out on the first floor and procrastinate the night away, or go to Eckhart and wipe out some problem sets solo: The libraries are versatile, and how you perceive them depends on how you use them. Regenstein Upon your first visit to UChicago, the first library you’ll notice is the imposing Regenstein Library, or “the Reg.” Notable for its location on the site of the University’s former football stadium, Stagg Field, the symbolism is not lost on students or administrators, most of whom recognize the Reg’s importance as the de facto hub of University activity. On any given day, one can see the Reg populated by economics study groups in the A-Level, coffee-addled writers with a looming deadline, and idle students who pretend to work but just want a place to chill. Tables are arranged throughout the seven floors (nowhere quite as concentrated as the interconnected second and third floors) but for those seeking comfort and possibly a quick nap, a better bet might be the couches arranged near the windows. Those interested in privacy should take solace in the equally widespread cubicles that are interspersed on almost all floors. The Reg might not be known for its positive, chilled-out vibes or the niche that it serves, but it instead makes its presence known through sheer scope and widespread usefulness. Whatever your needs are, they can most likely be served in some fashion by the Reg’s extensive collection. Mansueto Just a short hallway away, the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library offers a new study experience. Rows of desks with charging outlets fill the domed structure, and the extreme silence that pervades the area makes it clear that this is an exclusively study-oriented space. Mansueto is so quiet that even the sounds of students packing up and leaving often draw restless looks from the other patrons, sneezes or coughs prompting death stares. The flipside to this, of course, is that this is one of the prime studying areas on campus: free of distractions, home to an underground 3.5 million–book storage area that is OPERATED BY A ROBOT, and still within short walking distance of dining commons. Several movies, TV shows, and ad campaigns have been filmed in Mansueto since it opened in 2011. Arley D Cathey Learning Center Despite its clinical-sounding name, which it only got this past school year, Cathey, more commonly known as Harper, is one of the most relaxed and homey studying areas in the University. Found right next to the Common Knowledge Café, the former Harper Reading Room has comfortable seating, placement close to classrooms, and plentiful electric outlets. On any given night, the space will be filled with students either finishing up their papers or succumbing to the sleeping surface that couches on either side of the area offer. The quiet façade in Harper disguises a vibrant social atmosphere, with “Harper self- ies” and Facebook chats across tables common distractions from the day-to-day studying. This, along with the inviting decoration and wood furnishings, makes Harper one of the most appealing places to work. The hours also promote long-term visits, with the library open all day from Sunday mornings to Friday afternoons, giving visitors a reliable location for all-nighters. Eckhart Found in Eckhart Hall, home to the Department of Mathematics, Eckhart Library is home to, as might be guessed, math volumes and textbooks. However, despite the dry, precise space that these facts might imply, Eckhart gives off a stylish aura, with as much attention paid to artful, aesthetically pleasing design as to ergonomics and effective study space. Crerar Your first visit to Crerar, the science library, might be a bit of a bait-and-switch: The building looks relatively unassuming, and even peering inside doesn’t indicate anything abnormal about the space, but once you step inside you realize that this is, without a doubt, the quietest study space on campus. In addition, the resources here are immense. The halls contain 1.4 million volumes, and the size of the library itself means that there is plenty of room to spread out and find a place to make your own. Feel free to study here if you like your mind to be absolutely undisturbed, or find a quiet spot and relax if you prefer; it’s unlikely you’ll be interrupted. D’Angelo Law Library If you’re looking for a change of pace, a way to get some space and an area away from most of the undergraduate population, the D’Angelo Law Library might be right for you. As an undergraduate student, you will see few friends or classmates, but the professional ambience is well worth it for some. The most like an office building of all the libraries, the Law Library nevertheless attracts its fair share of students looking for an alternative to the Regenstein-Mansueto-Harper trifecta. For the film buffs out there, D’Angelo also has one of the more comprehensive DVD collections in the school, with selections like The Wire and The Godfather available, in contrast with the more academic selections that might be found in other libraries. SSA Last but definitely not least, found right near South Campus housing and BurtonJudson, the Social Services Administration Library is a comfortable, fun library, somewhat understated when looked at in comparison to behemoths like the Reg. Couches are spread throughout, and a relaxed vibe permeates the space. This library might be the one least visited by undergraduates, but it still acts as a valuable foil to the imposing atmosphere of some of the other libraries. —Austin Brown Librarians of UChicago Chicago Maroon: How do you help students that come to you? Catherine Mardikes, Senior Humanities Bibliographer, Bibliographer for Classics & the Ancient Near East, Electronic Text Services Coordinator (Ph.D. ’95): Sometimes I help them find an angle in their topic.... Professors do this more than I do - usually they have a fairly well formed topic by the time they come to me - but they don’t know where to start. I am able to get them started and work through all the crazy abbreviations we have in this field. In Classics we don’t just abbreviate our journal titles, we abbreviate our dictionaries and encyclopedias and our collections of pots and papyrus. Sometimes I tease them and say, you know, some people think that learning Greek is the secret handshake to becoming a classicist, but other times I think it’s really mastering all those crazy abbreviations we have.... If anything I’d like people to realize that we’re here to do more than just find that one book. We’re here to help them with their research strategies. And we enjoy it! Chicago Maroon: What do you do at the reference desk? Rebecca Starkey, Librarian for College Instruction and Outreach (A.B. ’95): We answer all sorts of questions. You can come to us with questions like, “Where do I go in the library for this?” or “I’m working on a research paper for the first time, how do I find good sources for my topic?” We can sit with you and go through the different resources, databases, and catalogs that are available. So for a lot of subject areas we have a specific database that covers literature for that area so you can go beyond using Google or JSTOR and really search some of these academic resources that are available to you as students. .... So that’s really the part I enjoy most: interacting with the students and helping them learn and not struggle with their research. When I was a student here I was always intimidated by the library and wasn’t always good about asking for help. What we want students to know above all is that librarians are here to help you. We are a service here to help you achieve success with your studies and get good grades. We’re here to help you. We’re not just a warehouse for books, we’re a place where you go to study with lots of people that can help. So that’s really my montra, to help undergraduates understand that. Chicago Maroon: How did you become the Math, Statistics, and CS Librarian? Jennifer Hart, Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Librarian: I have an undergraduate degree in math so that’s how I got into that -- since that’s my specialty. The math and statistics I was really familiar with and the Computer Science is somewhat related. So I handle all the ordering of the books, resources, journals, and etc in those subject areas so I understand the language of it fairly well. CM: Is it important to have a familiarity in your field? JH: Some people pick it up. Where I worked before I did physics too, and I don’t know a lot about physics, so you have to learn and read a little on the subject. But it helps to know it and to know how people do research in the field and what kinds of things they are looking for and how they find information. So if you studied it at one point, then that insight can be helpful too. —Sydney Combs THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 33 BOOKSTORES Shop ‘til you drop store has all the school supplies a student could possibly need, often imprinted with the UChicago logo, from notebooks to mugs to computer programs. The building also houses a Starbucks to keep students caffeinated between classes. BEST PLACE TO: show some Maroon pride. SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON Powell’s Books “Nothing in life is free,” my mom once told me. This is true, until you check out the almost omnipresent cardboard box of free books outside of Powell’s, containing free novels, anthologies, and much more. Powell’s has been in Hyde Park since the ’70s and sells books both used and new on East 57th Street and South Harper Avenue. The best part is that Powell’s sells its books far below full price, usually just a couple of dollars. As it is a used bookstore, the selection is far more varied than your usual Barnes & Noble, with cool finds like British editions of Harry Potter and an entire basement section dedicated to biographies of Jack the Ripper. At the checkout counter, there is a stack of copies of Chasing Vermeer, a bestselling novel set in Hyde Park, in which Powell’s serves as the backdrop for teenagers attempting to solve an art crime. These days, there isn’t much crime solving to be had in Powell’s, but you’re sure to find respite from the crime of exorbitant book prices. BEST PLACE TO: find a good deal and FREE BOOKS. Myopic Books This Wicker Park used bookstore is one of the largest and most historic bookstores in Chicago. Though the storefront looks small in width, the inside of the eclectic space is gigantic in depth and height, with three and a half stories and no shortage of nooks, crannies, and bends with (you’ll never guess) books stuffed into them. The store has some pretty strict regulations—no phones, no photography, and leave all bags at the front desk if you want to explore the upper or lower levels. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Myopic has an antique rather than intimidating feel, more like a collection than a commercial center. The floor-to-ceiling shelves evoke a roof literally held up by books, and if you climb all the way up to the open gallery area on the top floor, the only space not crammed with tomes of literature, you can enjoy the semi-weekly series of readings and occasional poets’ talks and live music on Monday nights. BEST PLACE TO: enjoy live entertainment, see a bookstore cat (Leonard). Seminary Co- Op The Seminary Co-Op has been on the Hyde Park bookstore scene for a while, but they’re still breaking in their spiffy new locale, located at East 58th Street and South Woodlawn Avenue, right next to the historic Robie House. The Co-Op is cooperatively owned by its 53,000 members (3,500 of whom are located overseas) and sells shares of stock for $10 each; a purchase of three shares constitutes a membership, which provides a 10 percent discount. The Seminary Co-Op is a popular location for students to purchase course books, located in the basement, and to sit down and peruse literary works ranging from biographies on modern political powerhouses to introduction guides to ancient medicine—comfortable reclining chairs are located next to the Co- Op’s expansive windows. Finding the perfect academic read at the Co-Op will be no problem; the bookstore stocks the largest selection of academic volumes in the United States throughout its extensive maze of shelves. BEST PLACE TO: find that new carpet smell (the Co-Op’s building is just two years old). 57th Street Books Entering 57th Street Books feels a little like entering the dwelling of a strange, literary forest sprite. The small awning outside boasts a shingled roof and a healthy growth of moss, lit by a single light bulb. Further, you have to venture down a number of stairs to enter the bookstore, giving the impression of entering an underground cave. Inside, the bookstore feels like a secret tree house, lined with books and various nooks in which to sit and leaf through a book. With multiple rooms market by cheekily pointing signs, the bookstore is easy to navigate, with each section—young adult fiction, photography, Chicago, and self-help, among others—in a separate bend of the store. Don’t know which book to read next? Staff recommendations are taped to almost every shelf, giving a brief summary and personal thoughts on a particular book or series. Signs inside and outside of the shop remind patrons to “shop local,” an easy task when the local wares consist of beautifully designed (albeit pricey) copies of all the classics in several different prints and editions. 57th Street Books is part of the Seminary Co-Op bookstore network and is famous for its mystery, science fiction, and cooking SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON sections, and occasionally holds events in its space or in the grassy, fenced lot next door. Other attractions include a children’s reading area and twinkly Christmas lights that are present year-round. BEST PLACE TO: start a themed book club—have you seen the window displays? University of Chicago Bookstore Your typical college bookstore, the UChicago Bookstore is many a student’s first stop during O-Week to get a maroon sweatshirt to proclaim their collegiate pride. Come first week, you’ll likely head there again, this time to the second floor to purchase books for your non– Hum and Sosc needs. The campus bookstore offers every type of UChicago-emblazoned paraphernalia possible as well as proudly displaying stacks of alumni- and faculty-authored works. Forgot your headphones at home? Too much luggage to bring your collection of multicolored highlighters? No worries—the campus book- Quimby’s This eclectic bookstore located in Wicker Park distributes “independently published and small press books, comics, zines, and ephemera, [favoring] the unusual, the aberrant, the saucy, and the lowbrow.” Walking in can be a little overwhelming if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking and even more overwhelming if you do, because the majority of the store’s contents are small, handproduced booklets brought in by artists and authors on consignment. These “zines,” as they are termed, range in topic from radical parenting to trans oral history projects to anarchy and politics to minicomics to chapbooks produced by Chicago middle schoolers. Toward the back, you can find the sale section, on an elevated platform, guarded by a cross-legged, red- hued devil woman, and near the cash register, there are “grab bags” for purchase, where one can acquire 10 randomly selected art periodicals for $2.50. Quimby’s does offer some commonly commercially available books, but a limited selection, usually, “stuff that deals with topics that in some way relate to outer limits, carnies, freaks, conspiracy theory, lowbrow art, miscreants, mayhem, that kind of stuff.” Quimby’s mascot is the cute Quimby the Mouse and their venue is the location for many monthly literary events, featured on the events section of their highly informative and user-friendly website. BEST PLACE TO: support independent artists and authors. —Kiran Misra 34 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 THE CORE For two years, your bookshelf full of the Western canon... For life, you, full of critical thought? School is sort of a big deal over here. While our noses aren’t always buried in some dense reading as we trod to the Reg, our collective effervescence for all things academic is still quite present on campus. It is laced into our vocabularies by the end of the first quarter (“collective effervescence”), soaked into our subconscious by the third. We have the Core to thank for much of this. Yet the Core means different things to different people. For some, it is the Michelle to their Destiny’s Child, the awkward third of an otherwise glamorous experience. For others, the Core will spark interest in a new major or previously underappreciated discipline. Regardless of your own slant, choosing the classes of best fit for you, not the friends you just met in your house, will help you wring the most from your experience. All first years are required to take Hum (pronounced “Hume”), which delves into the philosophy and literature foundational to (primarily) Western thought. A cornerstone of the Core, Hum can offer you access to different collections of literary and philosophical thought, depending on the class you choose. Take something more traditional like Human Being and Citizen, and you will spend at least two quarters reading the great books, from Homer’s Iliad to Aristotle’s Nicomachaean Ethics and Dante’s Inferno. Readings in World Literature, on the other hand, ventures beyond the Western canon with works like the Mahabharata. Some of you will choose to tackle the three-quarter Social Sciences (“Sosc,” pronounced “Sosh”) sequence during your first year. Credit ambiguously named classes like “Power, Identity, and Resistance” and “Self, Culture, and Society” for all those Arendt, Durkheim, and Smith references you will probably make after taking them. Sosc allows you to delve into the history of political philosophy or, even better, learn how to develop social and political theories of your own. Considered a more “practical” option for the Core, Social Science Inquiry gives you the foundation to carry out your own social science research, while Mind allows you to circumvent the classics for psychology articles galore. In addition to Hum, the Core has both Art and Civilizations (“Civ”) requirements. You must take six quarters among these three disciplines, with no less than one quarter in each. Choose from the likes of the theoretical (art history, music theory) and the hands-on (drawing, theater) for the art portion of your core. But beware: Because of the small class sizes and high demand, core art classes become increasingly difficult to nab as you progress through your four years. Bid early, bid often. For Civ, it is (not surprisingly) a popular option to enroll in a study abroad program and spend one quarter frolicking around cities such as Barcelona, Istanbul, Beijing, and Oaxaca— although the new Gender Studies Civ could be equally uncharted territory. While not every Civ abroad has a language prerequisite, you will have to learn a foreign language as part of the Core—the completion of an introductory sequence, or its equivalent in test credit. The math and science portion of the Core requires six quarters, with a minimum of two quarters each in natural sciences, physical sciences, and math. A general Core Bio course, the natural sciences staple, is paired with a bio topic of your choice (though the Nutrition sequence can serve as an alternative); physical sciences classes will have you studying astronomy, global warming, and natural hazards if you want to avoid chemistry or physics; and for those allergic to calculus, fear not! Statistics and computer science are both accepted for your math requirement. A.P. or I.B. credit can waive many of these classes. When it comes down to it, the Core is your introduction to the Life of the Mind in practice. There will be times when you are up at the witching hour, cursing your past self, thinking “What sequence of events brought me to this terrible pit of ennui?” To that existential question, not a single one of the people you will read will bear an answer. Well, except for Marx and his theory of alienation. And maybe Freud—yeah, I could see that. And in a twisted way, this is the Core at its finest: tediously, sometimes even painfully, gifting you an invaluable, fluid way of looking at the world. —Kristin Lin 35 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOKSTORE YOU HAVE OPTIONS SAVE UP TO 60% Rent SAVE ON AVERAGE 50% Highlight, take notes, and make them your own. We’ll send a courtesy reminder message when your rentals are due back. ON TEXTBOOKS Used SAVE 25% Used books are 25% off the price of a new book. Sell your used textbooks back and get up to 50% cash back. Thousands of copies available. Reserve your used copies at [email protected]. eTextbooks SAVE UP TO 60% Instant download right from UChicago.bncollege. com. Download the free eTextbook application for PC and Mac OS (incl. iPad) at : New Year FRESH START If you love cracking open a new book at the start of the quarter. Sell your new books back at the end of the quarter for up to half the cash back. YUZU.com/college. visit our online store: UChicago.bncollege.com a huge assortment of UChicago gear, from hoodies to coffee mugs, and... shop the UChicago Bookstore online or in store for dorm room needs, classroom supplies, and... computer, audio, phone accessories and much more! OUR HOURS FOR O-WEEK AND QUARTER OPENING: Sat, Sept. 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9AM–5PM proudly brewing 970 East 58th Street (58th & Ellis) Chicago, IL 60637 773.702.7712 uchicago.bncollege.com facebook.com/UChicagoBookstore Sun–Fri, Sept. 21-26 . . . . . . . . . 8AM–7PM Sat, Sept. 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9AM–5PM our cafe accepts Maroon Dollars Sun, Sept. 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10AM-6PM Mon–Tue, Sept. 29–30 . . . . . . . 8AM–7PM 36 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOKSTORE Read up! new and featured titles for this fall Perfidia is a novel of astonishments. It is World War II as you have never seen it, and Los Angeles as James Ellroy has never written it before. Here, he gives us the party at the edge of the abyss and the precipice of America’s ascendance. Perfidia is that moment, spellbindingly captured. It beckons us to solve a great crime that, in its turn, explicates the crime of war itself. It is a great American novel. Levitt and Dubner offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. As always, no topic is off-limits. They range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the long-awaited new novel—a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan—from the award-winning, internationally best-selling author Haruki Murakami. Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages. Building Ideas: An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago explores the environment that has supported more than a century of exceptional thinkers. This photographic guide traces the evolution of campus architecture from the university’s founding in 1890 to its plans for the twenty-first century. NOW $179. 970 E 58th chicago il facebook.com/uchicagobookstore m-f 8-6 sat 9-5 37 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 Put yourself there. artspass.uchicago.edu facebook.com/groups/UChicagoArtsPass YOUR UCID IS YOUR ARTS PASS. USE IT FOR FREE OR REDUCED-PRICE ACCESS TO CHICAGO’S BEST ARTS AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. See Phantoms in the Dirt at the Museum of Contemporary Photography through October 5, 2014. Richard Mosse, “Sugar Ray” 2012 (Courtesy of Jack Shainmain Gallery, NY) at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. 38 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 :HOFRPHEDFN :HOFRPHEDFN 8QLYHUVLW\RI&KLFDJR 8QLYHUVLW\RI&KLFDJR VWXGHQWV VWXGHQWVIDFXOW\DQGVWDII IDFXOW\DQGVWDII IDFXOW\DQGVWDII 9LVLWXVDWHLWKHURIRXUWZRORFDWLRQV http://hydeparkanimalclinic.com / • • • • Thomas Wake, DVM Andrea Baley, DVM Jeremy Williams, DVM Gail Henry, DVM $QGMRLQXVLQZHOFRPLQJ: $QGMRLQXVLQZHOFRPLQJ • • Gabriel Mills, DVM Lauren Dempsey, DVM 66WRQ\,VODQG$YHQXH (UG 6WUHHW In addition to our veterinary services for your canine, feline and exotic companions, we offer day and over-night boarding! The Lumen Christi Institute for Catholic Thought Featured Autumn Quarter Events at the University of Chicago W EDN E SDAY, OC TOBER 15 “Interpreting Pope Francis” Anna Moreland, Villanova University W EDN E SDAY, OC TOBER 29 “The Modern Scientist as a Palimpsest of Three Fausts” Stephen Meredith, University of Chicago W EDN E SDAY, NOV E MBER 5 “The Necessity of Goodness” Rémi Brague, Sorbonne T HU R SDAY, NOV E MBER 13 “The Myth of Romantic Love: de Rougemont’s Love in the Western World” Mark Shiffman, Villanova University For more information on these and other upcoming events, visit www.lumenchristi.org Founded in 1997 by Catholic scholars at the University of Chicago, the Lumen Christi Institute’s lectures, symposia, master classes, and non-credit courses engage the culture of the university. National leadership programs—including faculty colloquia, a Program in Catholic Social Thought, and summer graduate seminars—renew Catholic thought and form university students and faculty in the Catholic tradition. Now in its eighteenth year of operation, the Lumen Christi Institute enjoys a national reputation as a leading institution of its kind and continues to work toward leavening American higher education with future leaders better educated in Catholic faith and thought. 122 0 E a st 58th Str eet | Chic ago, IL 6 0 637 | 773.955. 5887 | w w w.lumenchr isti.org 39 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CHICAGO: THE SCHOOL OF LIFE JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON U OF C/HYDE PARK HISTORY “University of Chicago” and “neighborhood” are not the same thing You may not notice it right away, just from walking around, but the one-way streets and dead-ends in Hyde Park form what is essentially a maze. This is not without purpose. From the south, you can only get in by poking through South Ellis or Woodlawn Avenues, from the west, East 51st and 55th Streets. And, inside the neighborhood, almost no street runs continuously for more than a few blocks. This neighborhood was designed and built with the University’s interests in mind. Hyde Park was annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889; the University arrived in 1892. For the first 50 years or so, most people in Hyde Park were white, and most were of the upper-middle or upper class. It was an elite neighborhood with an elite university. But things began to change around World War Two; Chicago’s black population increased by 42 percent between 1940 and 1950, due in large part to the ongoing Great Migration. Areas to the north and west of Hyde Park were soon predominantly black (from 1930 to 1950, the black population in Kenwood rose from 1 percent to 84.7 percent). University administrators considered moving the school to Arizona or New Mexico for a time, or at least the Chicago suburbs. In the prewar years, neighborhood “improvement associations” had worked to “maintain the color line,” often with University support. One way of doing this was through restrictive covenants, legally enforceable agreements that prevented selling and renting to non-white people. From 1933 to 1947, the University spent more than $110,000 on “community interests,” more than $83,000 of which went towards the protection of restrictive covenants. Many of the restricted proper- ties, in Hyde Park, Washington Park, and Woodlawn, were owned by the University, and while it sought to disassociate itself from the covenants publicly, its influence was well-known: The Chicago Defender called the covenants “the University of Chicago Agreement to get rid of Negroes.” When the Supreme Court declared restrictive covenants unenforceable in 1948, urban renewal became segregation’s new modus operandi. Cheap tenements and other properties with signs of wear were purchased and redeveloped, pushing poor, especially black, residents out of the neighborhood. Sounding very much like The Chicago Defender, Lawrence A. Kimpton, the University’s president from 1951 to 1960, called urban renewal a strategy for “cutting down [the] number of Negroes” in the neighborhood. By 1958, redevelopment plans were in place that covered much of the land from East 47th Street to East 59th Street, over an 855acre territory. The plans called for removing “blight” and the construction of a “compatible home” for the University. In all, after the plans were pushed through the City Council, 193 acres were demolished, 30,000 people were displaced, bars, jazz clubs, and other businesses were pushed out, and 41 acres were claimed as additions to the UChicago campus. Over the next decade, Hyde Park’s black population would fall by 40 percent. These are, of course, only certain facts about the University’s history in Hyde Park, though they are facts, and they are undeniable. It is important to convey them here because you’re not likely to hear them anywhere else—and not all of them are in the past. When plans were announced for a slew of developments at Harper Court in 2012, David Greene, an executive vice president of the University, called it “enlightened self-interest for us.” One shouldn’t expect the University to go out of its way to apologize for the consequences of restrictive covenants and urban renewal. Yet one might expect it to acknowledge more than it does, to not brush these consequences off as problems (the more popular word here is “tensions”) of a pre¬–civil rights era gone by, as if everything were OK now. If you go to the “History” section of the University’s website, for instance, you will read that Hyde Park was “once a solidly middle-class neighborhood,” but that, in the early 1950s, “it began to decline.” By this account, the only things “profoundly affected” by the subsequent measures of urban renewal BEN GILBERT | CHICAGO MAROON were “the neighborhood’s architecture and street plan.” If you go to the page on Kimpton, you’ll read of a conflict between “some Hyde Park activists” and others who “recognized that the University’s power, money, and prestige were crucial in pulling together the government and private resources needed for redevelopment.” Once this happened, “things happened quickly, sometimes more quickly than the community expected.” Today Hyde Park is, nominally, one of the few racially integrated neighborhoods in the city. The University has made moves to embrace the surrounding community, notably with the construction of the Arts Incubator in next-door Washington Park, and certainly not everyone who shops at and benefits from Harper Court is a student or a member of the faculty. But “enlightened self-interest” means embracing Hyde Park and the South Side only when it is convenient. From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of rent-burdened residents in the neighborhood—those who spend more than 30 percent of what they earn on rent—rose from 43 percent to 58 percent. This was before the Hyatt, the proposed Whole Foods, the Promontory, A10, Yusho, Chipotle, Five Guys, Akira, and the pop-up boutique Sir & Madame. Today the University thankfully, obviously, does not go about changing the neighborhood the same way it did in the 1930s or the 1950s. But this does not mean its relationship with the neighborhood no longer needs to be critically examined. One thing hasn’t changed: The University still has trouble seeing Hyde Park as something separate from itself. –John Gamino 40 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CHICAGO POLITICS, PAST AND PRESENT Let’s all watch a Rahm-Com If you were to ask anyone about what’s wrong with the state of politics in America, three words would help in defining their frustrations—Chicago-style politics. Defined by legendary examples of corruption, patronage, and disruption, Chicago has become in the eyes of many a national example of everything that is broken in government today. But where did this perception come from and is it really as bad as everyone says? To pinpoint the origin of Chicago’s political narrative is difficult. Early examples of Chicago-style politics include the story of Richard J. Hamilton, the appointed Cook County school commissioner, who loaned the City’s school fund to private real estate speculators who defaulted on their loans. A few decades later, the 1871 municipal election rallying cry of Mayor Joseph Medill for the “Fireproof ” ticket was to “vote early and vote often.” Throughout the past two centuries, political scandals of different forms and fashions have captivated Chicagoans and bewildered the rest of America. However, the history of Chicago politics is more than a chronicle of tabloid scandals. It is a story about democracy in practice. Chapters of Chicago’s story would undoubtedly be titled by the names of the individuals who have led the city as mayor. Names such as Thompson, Daley, Cermak, Byrne, and Washington have become integrally connected with the city itself. The first truly notable mayor following the Great Fire of 1871 was Republican three-term Mayor William Hale Thompson. Thompson’s time in office was characterized by high levels of corruption, including partnerships with famed organized crime leader Al Capone, and use of crude ethnic patronage. Every mayor since Thompson has been a Democrat, beginning with Anton Cermak, who built a broad coalition of ethnic and working-class voters along with progressives such as University of Chicago professor Charles Merriam, business leader Julius Rosenwald, and social reformer Jane Addams to defeat the incumbent mayor Thompson. The Democratic Party would become stronger throughout the city and reached its peak during the tenure of Richard J. Daley from 1955 to 1976. Daley, a career politician from the Irish American Bridgeport neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, would become the longestserving mayor in Chicago’s history at that time. Daley emerged as a political force in the early days of the New Deal and developed a reputation for working to keep the city financially sound by exploiting the state’s decision to divide the financial budgets of the city and county governments based on need. These separate budget rules continue to this day as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is in charge of the county’s nearly $3 billion budget, which encompasses entire hospital systems including UChicago’s own UCMC. Daley also ran the city by exploiting racial politics. By allowing de facto segregation of African American and Latino populations to occur through discriminatory city housing policies, Daley was able retain support among working-class whites while giving limited resources to low-income minority populations. The segregation of the city would lead Martin Luther King Jr. to visit Chicago in 1966 and claim that he had never seen any other place “so hostile and so hateful” as Chicago. During his time in Chicago, King also spoke at Mandel Hall about “economic reforms aimed at combatting the spread of urban slums.” The racial and ethnic divides throughout the city became increasingly volatile in the 1970s and ’80s as different party factions attempted to disrupt the Daley status quo. Two candidates who succeeded in challenging the Daley machine were Jane Byrne and Harold Washington. Mayor Jane Byrne, at first a loyal member of the Democratic machine, worked to unseat Mayor Daley’s successor, Michael Bilandic, in 1979. Positioned as a political reformer, Byrne hired Ruth B. Love, Chicago’s first black school superintendent, and also became the first Chicago mayor to recognize the city’s gay community. Byrne is the only woman ever to serve as mayor. Mayor Harold Washington ran to unseat Byrne in the 1983 mayoral election. By creating a coalition of first-time minority voters from throughout the South and West Sides, Washington became the first black mayor in Chicago’s history. Washington’s candidacy also saw the rise of another Chicago political institution—Institute of Politics Director David Axelrod. Axelrod worked for Washington’s reelection campaign in 1987 after more than a decade in journalism. Axelrod would go on to work for more than 150 local, state, and national campaigns—including the senatorial and presidential campaigns of Barack Obama. Our two most recent mayors, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, have worked to prepare Chicago for the challenges of the 21st century. In Richard M. Daley, Chicago elected the son of the longestserving mayor in Chicago’s history, who then outdid his father by working in City Hall for 22 years. During Daley’s tenure, he worked to promote business, infrastructure, and tourism. With Emanuel, Chicago elected the first Jewish mayor in the city’s history. Today, Chicago is facing many serious challenges. CNN’s Chicagoland documentary series this past year underscored its many challenges, from crime to youth unemployment and the many budgetary travails of its government entities. The size of Chicago’s unfunded pension liability, the difference between its estimated obligations and assets, is the largest among U.S. cities and on top of that it has a current municipal deficit of $339 million. Chicago Public Schools faces major budget challenges too, as Emanuel continues to fight with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who herself is considering a run against Emanuel in the upcoming mayoral election over the record number of school closings during Emanuel’s tenure and the increased number of charter schools throughout the city. With all of these problems it is easy to fall in line and claim the city’s political system is fundamentally broken. The best way to change that reality is to stand up and get involved. Why not join in the scrum and make a little political disruption? –Will Fernandez JAMIE MANLEY JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON | CHICAGO MAROON THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 41 WHILE YOU WERE OUT AND THE ROAD AHEAD—CHICAGO EDITION A small list of big-city happenings From rising violence on the city’s South and West Sides to the largest public school closure in American history, Chicago has been making national headlines. Chicago is a politically active city, and most Chicagoans, you will find, know their Chicago politics. For those who are new to Windy City, here is a brief walkthrough of major city issues and events from the past year, and some stories to keep your eye on in the upcoming one. In retrospective: CPS School Closures In 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration made a highly contentious decision to close 50 under-enrolled Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the majority in minority communities on the city’s South and West Sides. The closure, the largest in any city in American history, sparked anger and protests across the city as students and teachers were displaced from their established communities. Among critics, the event earned Mayor Emanuel the title “Mayor 1 Percent.” This fall, CPS will lay off 1,000 of its employees while increasing its investment in charter and selective-enrollment schools. In the 2014–2015 school year CPS graduation rates are projected to reach 82 percent, a 25 percent increase since 2007. Homicides and Shootings In 2013, when homicides topped 500, Chicago was named murder capital of America by some, and by others, “Chiraq.” Violence in the city was yet again on high this summer with more than 70 shootings over the July 4 weekend and the murder of 11-year old Shamiya Adams, who was struck by a stray bullet at a slumber party in West Garfield Park. Community organizers across the city held vigils and anti-violence protests, and Governor Pat Quinn and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy recruited state troopers and FBI agents to the city’s South and West Sides for the month of August. Critics of the City complain that adding officers is only a short-term solution to a problem that stems from the dearth of economic opportunities on the city’s South and West Sides. So far, the homicide rate is the lowest this year since 1967. Shootings are up. Housing for Central American Immigrants You’ve probably heard about the growing border crisis: thousands of unaccompanied Central American minors who have fled violence in their home countries are being housed in detention centers along the Mexican border and many neighboring communities are protesting that these children be deported. This summer the City of Chicago announced that it will welcome 1,000 immigrant children in November, and city officials are currently arranging for their housing. Some Chicagoans argue that tax dollars should instead be allocated to the city’s most vulnerable communities, while others argue that Chicago should continue to foster a large and diverse immigrant community. George Lucas Museum This summer Star Wars creator George Lucas finalized the search for the site of his Museum of Narrative Art. After considering San Francisco and Los Angeles, Lucas selected Chicago as the future home of the museum that will house his art collection and Star Wars memorabilia. Mayor Emanuel pushed hard for the museum to come to Chicago’s Museum Campus, and many taxpayers and Cubs fans are upset with the expensive plans that will remove tailgating space from the area surrounding Soldier Field. Prominent Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, whose firm is building the new North Campus dorm at UChicago, is already lined up to design the garden surrounding the museum. Up Next: 2015 Mayoral Race February 2015 promises to be a big month in Chicago politics. Emanuel, former chief of staff to Barack Obama, who left the Capitol to run his hometown, is up for reelection, and the polls aren’t looking promising. So far, the only serious contender is Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has a 47 percent lead on Emanuel in a recent Tribune poll. Lewis, who went head-to-head with Emanuel during the 2012 teachers; strike, says she will run a grassroots campaign. The polls show her support lies with the black and Latino communities. But Lewis hasn’t officially declared whether or not she will run and Emanuel, who already has $7 million in his war chest and the backing of several Super PACs, will have little trouble raising many more millions. Alderman Bob Fioretti is also considering a run. Minimum Wage The $8.25 minimum wage in Chicago could see a major hike in upcoming months. Emanuel and Governor Pat Quinn have recently pushed for an increase to a $13 wage by 2018. Some say this isn’t high enough, while other say this will result in the loss of jobs. The measure could appear on the ballot this November. CPS Civil Rights Violation Investigation CPS is currently under a civil rights violation investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. Two South Side schools, Dyett High School and Mollison Elementary, claim they have been stripped of resources such as teachers and honors courses as enrollment has dropped. “Discrimination and segregation are alive and well in the city of Chicago,” one member of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization said at the announcement of the federal investigation in July. If the claim is determined to be valid, the schools will try to reach a settlement with CPS. The outcome of the case could have large implications for CPS. Obama Library Recent polls show that Chicagoan are split on whether tax dollars should be spent on the Obama Presidential Library. According to a Tribune poll, only 47 percent of Chicagoans are in favor of Emanuel’s proposal to spend $100 million on the project. This fall New York, Hawaii, and Chicago will continue to duke out their proposals for the Obama Presidential Library. Many Chicagoans feel that the library should be on Chicago’s South Side, where the president began his political career and grassroots organizing. Proposals have been made for Woodlawn (the neighborhood just south of the University) and the North Side’s Lincoln Park. —Lauren Gurley TRANSPORTATION: HOW TO LEAVE HYDE PARK Welcome to Chicago! To Hyde Park, specifically. You’ve landed in what some have called the most mysterious neighborhood in America. Your next four years here will be consciousness-expanding and loaded with complex and confusing experiences and observations. An obvious part of the neighborhood’s draw is its proximity to the rest of Chicago. I will take some time to explain to you your options for getting around, and go so far as to make recommendations, pronouncements, and judgments. Your options begin when you choose which mode of transportation you will use to get around. The obvious modes are walking, biking, taking the bus, and taking the train. Walking When you are in Hyde Park, walk! The neighborhood is compact enough that you are rarely more than 15 minutes from your destination. Walking is the best way to experience a new place. Observe the streets, buildings, humans, etc. and take it all in. Simply add more layers as it gets colder. There is no shame in wrapping your face in a scarf (or two!) as you walk home from the library in December. There are some safety concerns around walking but you will be briefed elsewhere about those. Biking Almost as good as walking. Try it when you’re in a rush. Also good for leaving the neighborhood. The Lakefront Path is beautiful year round and the city’s evolving network of bike lanes offers relatively safe passage to the rest of the city. Pick up a refurbished bike at Blackstone Bicycle Works on East 61st Street. The bikes there are assembled and worked on by youth from the surrounding neighborhoods. The Bus The Bus Often maligned, the bus is simply the best way to get around Chicago. No need to disparage train travel, but the bus will be your best friend while you live here. Chicago’s bus routes are much more comprehensive than its rail routes. Buses run (by law) on streets at half-mile intervals throughout the city, so you are never far from one. I will now take a minute to explain Hyde Park’s bus options. #55- The #55 is your trusty route to and from Midway Airport, the Red Line, the Green Line, and many other South Side neighborhoods. It passes through an incredible diversity of places and is a great introduction to the city. Be warned that during rush hours not all buses go as far as Midway; pay attention to the marquis to make sure you do not get stranded halfway. #6- “Route 6, Jackson Park Express”: You will hear this refrain many a time for the next four years. The #6 is the neighborhood’s fastest connection to downtown. Pick it up on South Hyde Park Boulevard (or South Lake Park Avenue north of East 51st Street) and enjoy your express ride downtown. You’ll make it in 20 to 30 minutes if the traffic’s not bad. It also continues further south, ending at East 79th Street. Do not discount this direction, as there’s a lot to be seen in Woodlawn and South Shore. The #6 usually stops service around midnight or 1 a.m. depending on the night, but you best look this up to be sure. #2- The Hyde Park Express is similar to the Jackson Park Express, but it runs a slightly different route, only during weekday rush periods. Try it out. #4- Route #4 is the Cottage Grove bus. It runs from downtown to the South Side primarily via South Cottage Grove Avenue. Surely you have been told terrible things about Cottage Grove, but it is undeniably an important artery. The area’s history is legible in the ornate buildings that surround the bigger intersections. If you have business in North Kenwood, Bronzeville, or at the Chatham Target, the #4 will be your conduit. #15- The Jeffery Local will take you to and from the East 47th Street Red Line station. Unlike the #55 at the Garfield station, you can wait for the #15 indoors at 47th Street, making it a good winter option. It goes south all the way to East 103rd Street. The Train Chicago is famous for its elevated rail system. Now operated exclusively by the Chicago Transit Authority, the elevated railway lines were run by private corporations until their consolidation in the 1940s. Seven of the nine lines pass through downtown and move people to and from more outlying neighborhoods. The phrase “the Loop” refers to the set of elevated tracks the Orange, Green, Brown, Purple, and Pink Lines share in the central area. The Red and Blue Lines pass through downtown as subways. They are also the only two lines that run all night. Your options for leaving Hyde Park on CTA rail are the Green Line and the Red Line. The Green Line is about 10 minutes closer, though both are best accessed via the #55 bus. The Green Line runs on elevated tracks through Washington Park and Bronzeville before arriving downtown, and from its windows you can see the contours of the neighborhoods. The Red Line runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway, affording it much less access to scenery. The Green Line is a bit faster than the Red Line and a good artery for destinations west of the Loop, like the Garfield Park Conservatory, but if you are headed to the North Side a continuous ride on the Red Line may be your most enjoyable option. So, there are your options. Enjoy using them to explore Chicago. Try to think of Hyde Park’s unique location and the many hours you will spend on the CTA navigating it as a blessing rather than a curse. —Patrick Dexter (A.B. ’14) THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 42 NEIGHBORHOODS: NORTH, CENTRAL, SOUTH, WEST, AND THE “BURBS” Evanston Known to many Chicagoans as the only cool suburb, the city of Evanston is a long but straightforward trip from Hyde Park: just take the Red Line alllllll the way to the end of the line at Howard Street, then hop on the Purple Line or any of the northbound buses that leave from Howard Station. Or, if you’re coming from downtown, the far quicker option is to board a Metra North Line train from Ogilvie Transportation Center and get off at Main or Davis. If you toured Northwestern before choosing in favor of the life of the mind, you’ll already know that Evanston’s lakefront is gorgeous and great for a long walk or bike ride. Venture just west of campus for huge houses, well-kept lawns, and an unfathomably high concentration of 19th century churches. Evanston has started to fight back and poke fun at its history of churchliness and once-resident temperance movement figurehead Frances E. Willard with a number of new local brewing operations, including Temperance Beer Company and FEW Spirits. However, the Frances E. Willard House Museum and Archives preserves her larger legacy as an educator and advocate for women’s suffrage and is open for public tours. If you’re craving more bustle, keep this rule in mind: Evanston has several small business districts, each concentrated around its Purple Line stops and each with its own particular draws. Get off at Main to see cool geodes and a free geology museum at Dave’s Rock Shop or eat cheap and excellent GreekAmerican food at Cross-Rhodes; at Dempster, check out affordable and unpredictable boutique The Mexican Shop, shop for antiques at Secret Treasures, and browse a great collection of used books and music at Squeezebox. Davis Street is true downtown Evanston, where you’ll find familiar chain clothing stores, a large movie theater, and some great bars and restaurants. At a single street corner you’ll find Gigio’s Pizza, Vintage Vinyl, and Bennison’s Bakery, all of which are not to be missed, especially when the latter’s pumpkin cake donuts come into season. All in all, Evanston is a great weekend day trip, a chance to venture just outside the boundaries of the city without feeling that you’ve really left—just don’t fall asleep and miss your stop on the way home. –Rachel Schastok Pilsen Pilsen is a fascinating study in Chicago history. Originally a Czech neighborhood, and still home to the incongruous Dvorak Park, this neighborhood is now best known for its high-quality Mexican food and has one of the largest Hispanic populations in the city. Recently however, in a strange twist of fate, the neighborhood is being gentrified and starting to show signs of its roots with restaurants like Pl-zen harkening back to its original Czech inhabitants. However, the neighborhood is still a definite must-go for any and all varieties of Mexican and Tex-Mex, topped only perhaps by Little Village further west, where many ex-Pilsen inhabitants were driven once Pilsen started gentrifying. Tacos, burritos, carnitas, agua fresca, and Mexican pastries are to be had in droves, with restaurants offering varying styles and traditions. Spend a day wandering the streets, admiring Pilsen’s fascinating and varied murals adorning many alleyways and buildings, stop in for free at the National Museum of Mexican Art on West 19th Street, and grab some traditional Mexican hot chocolate (if it’s cold, and let’s face it, it probably will be) at nearby La Catrina Café on West 18th Street. Pilsen has also recently become home to a strip of thrift and vintage clothing shops along West 18th Street, whose price and selection beat out many of the more touted spots further north. Knee Deep Vintage, along with Comet Vintage and Pilsen Vintage, will quell your hunger for quirky clothing and knick-knacks, and across the street, Cafe Jumping Bean (a Pilsen staple for 20 years) can serve a mean pick-me-up with their version of Mexican hot chocolate plus a shot of espresso. For lunch or dinner there is no dearth of options: Head for tacos, traditional Mexican fare, or something a bit more Tex-Mexy at any number of spots along West 18th Street and the surrounding area. I’m not giving away my favorite spots; it’s best if you find some for yourselves. Chinatown Getting to Chinatown is easy: the Red Line drops off right in the heart of Chinatown at the you’d-have-to-be-asleep-to-miss-it stop, CermakChinatown, just a few miles north of Hyde Park. Deciding what to eat, and where, once you get there is a slightly more Herculean task. Compared to the Chinatowns in New York or San Francisco, Chicago’s Chinatown may seem a bit meager. The streets are rarely teeming, and the area, while certainly holding some of the best restaurants in the city, is far from expansive. That doesn’t mean choosing a restaurant is any easier. The roughly seven-block neighborhood is packed with delicioussounding places promising all kinds of cuisine. Is the old Three Happiness on West Cermak Road better, or the New Three Happiness across the way on South Wentworth Avenue? How do you choose between Lao Beijing or Lao Shanghai or Lao Sze Chuan? Should you head to Chiu Quon Bakery or Tasty Place Bakery or Man Shi Da Bakery? What about a nice bubble tea post-meal? Chinatown is a neighborhood that favors two kinds of people: those adventurous and decisive enough to blindly enter the first restaurant that takes their fancy, and those who like to do research and find exactly where they can find the best pork buns for their buck (hint: Chiu Quon on South Wentworth Avenue). The former can stop reading here, grab their jackets, and head for the Red Line. The latter might benefit from continuing. The most important factor in navigating the culinary waters of Chinatown is knowing what you want. Like spicy food? Szechuan cuisine is famous for its spicy dishes with crunchy red peppers that will bring tears to your eyes, best served up at Tony Hu’s Lao Sze Chuan. Three Happiness (the original on West Cermak Road) serves up some of the best seafood and is open 24/7. Got a large group who can’t agree? Joy Yee’s vast picture menu includes dishes from all over China, not to mention Korea and other parts of Asia, along with a truly staggering collection of bubble tea flavors and combinations to please even the pickiest diner. But watch out, the portions are huge, and with its expansive menu and customer-oriented service, it can be easy to get caught up in the Joy Yee bubble; make sure to pop it every now and then. Lincoln Park Yes, Lincoln Park is home to some of the most expensive apartments, condos, and houses in the city, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to chow down on some of the best greasy tacos you’ve ever tasted at Allende Restaurant at 4 a.m., or listen to blues all night at the nearby Kingston Mines, one of the oldest blues joints still open in the city. The neighborhood boasts scores of restaurants and joints catering to high, low, and middling budgets, with the culinary range to match. Want a Korean barbecue taco? Hit up Del Seoul on North Clark Street. Or if that doesn’t make the cut, grab a hulking burrito at next-door Angela’s Burrito Style, or head a bit further north for hot dogs and embarrassment Ed Debevic’s style at The Weiners Circle. For a North Side neighborhood full of million-dollar condos, Lincoln Park can certainly dish out some affordable grub. Though of course, if your student life is starting to feel a bit too starving artist or greasy spoon, you can hoof it up to Lincoln Park for a jaunt through the Lincoln Park Zoo and oft-overlooked, but wonderful, collections of flora at the attached conservatory (both of which are always free), take in some contemporary art at the DePaul Art Museum (also free), and finish it all up with tea, coffee, and pastries at Bourgeois Pig Cafe on West Fullerton Avenue. If that doesn’t have you purring like the city’s fattest of cats for the price of a metro fare and a few cups Darjeeling, I’ll eat my hat. The best way to get to Lincoln Park is to take the Red Line to the Fullerton stop, which drops you off right near DePaul’s campus. However, during the warmer months, biking to Lincoln Park along the Lake Shore path is a delightful way to spend a few hours, not to mention the ride itself is spectacular, beaches filled with droves of Chicagoans and the sun, so absent during the winter, glinting playfully off the lake. The ride does take around an hour to and hour and a half, but in early fall or late spring is a wonderful way to bid goodbye, or hello, to summer. Wicker Park This North Side neighborhood is famous for being one of the birthplaces of modern hipsterism. Originally a somewhat seedy area, the blocks surrounding the famous “six corners” intersection have long since started the tortuous process of gentrification, changing the area from cheap artist hangout to an expensive retail and restaurant haven. The old wave, however, is still putting up a fight, and in between high-end stores like Brooklyn Industries and Rag and Bone, coffee shops, record stores, and small pop-up vintage clothing sales still hold on. The neighborhood has become a place where few working artists and musicians can still live, but the extensive collection of galleries, concert venues, and events still has the city’s creative types flocking to Wicker Park for culture and craft beer. For a student, Wicker Park’s greatest asset may be the stretch of Milwaukee Avenue including Myopic Books, Reckless Records, and Wormhole Coffee. Though the neighborhood is traditionally touted for its thrift stores and vintage shops, it is now a friendlier place for shoppers looking to splurge on new boots at the Doc Marten store or expensive jeans at, well, many, many different places. Wicker Park, though in some areas less scenic than some of its North Side relatives, can still be a fun place to spend the day. The food scene is burgeoning and you can dish out a few bucks for an excellent taco at Flash Taco, conveniently located under the Blue Line stop, pizza by the slice (a surprising rarity in Chicago) at Demo’s on North Damen Avenue, or a prix-fixe dinner of mod- ern American fare at the Trencherman on North Avenue, all within a few minutes walk of the Blue Line stop at Damen. Logan Square Logan Square, reachable by the Blue Line, a few stops past Damen at the eponymous stop Logan Square, has recently become a haven for some of the city’s most interesting restaurants. Waits can measure in the hours for popular spots like Fat Rice (an incredible Portuguese-Asian fusion joint worth waiting days for, in my opinion), and Longman & Eagle, neither of which accept reservations, but are still neighborhood, and city-wide, favorites. Lula Café, serving up bi bim bop or buckwheat pancakes for brunch, and offering a six-course vegetarian tasting menu for dinner, is another favorite. The list goes on and on. Of course there are many other reasons to head up to Logan Square. The Logan Theatre hosts the yearly Reeling: The Chicago LGBT International Film Festival and the Chicago Underground Film Festival, as well as screening indie flicks alongside blockbusters and old cult-favorites. The theatre brings a little slice of old Hollywood glamour to Logan Square, with thick carpeting, old-timey soft yellow lights, a concession stand that looks more like a speakeasy bar than an overpriced popcorn counter, and old movie posters along the hallways. Logan Square is a vibrant, artistic neighborhood, often cited as the area where ousted ex–Wicker Parkers move to escape the upscale chains and yuppies. The food scene is one of the best in the city, and is constantly changing, rent and attention still low enough for experimentation. The best way to explore Logan Square is to wander the streets and find your own favorite restaurants, shops, cafés, or bars. Logan Square is a neighborhood that rewards a little extra legwork. —Robert Sorrell SEE THE MOVIE OF YOUR LIFETIME “ THE BEST FILM OF THE YEAR. A NEW AMERICAN CLASSIC.” PETER TRAVERS ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★ ‘‘ HIGHEST RATING ’’ ‘‘ ROLLING STONE ‘‘ HIGHEST RATING HIGHEST RATING LA DAILY NEWS ’’ ‘‘ SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ’’ ‘‘ US WEEKLY ‘‘ HIGHEST RATING HIGHEST RATING HIGHEST RATING ’’ WASHINGTON POST ’’ ‘‘ TIME OUT LOS ANGELES ’’ ‘‘ HIGHEST RATING HIGHEST RATING ’’ ASSOCIATED PRESS ’’ ‘‘ METRO NEW YORK HIGHEST RATING 99% Written and Directed by ’’ USA TODAY Richard Linklater A+ CRITICAL MASS AVERAGE HIGHEST RATING EVER BOYHOODMOVIE.COM NOW PLAYING EVERYWHERE! CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS AND VISIT BOYHOODMOVIE.COM TO FIND A THEATER NEAR YOU Campus Circle Friday,9/5 2col(5.13)x8 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 43 READING LIST AND THE MEDIA HOOK-UP To supplement in-person explorations, basic Chicago-specific reading A world-class city with a rich history and culture is bound to produce a plethora of great writing. Here are a few starting points to put on your reading list, which you can revisit while you’re procrastinating on that Sosc paper. On the regular Stay up to date on all the latest happenings. The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times are the city’s two daily newspapers. They say all politics is local, so political junkies in particular will appreciate the Trib’s Clout Street blog (a nod to Chicago’s history of political patronage) and the Sun-Times’ Early and Often blog, both focusing on city and state politics. The Chicago Reader is the city’s alternative weekly, with longform investigative features and arts and culture coverage. Check out Crain’s Chicago Business for the lowdown on the city’s big movers and shakers in the business and finance world. Gapers Block and Time Out Chicago are essential sources for making your weekend plans, with listings of the city’s best concerts, plays, exhibits, festivals, etc. Longform journalism A good place to start is A.J. Liebling’s classic profile, “Second City,” in which he blisteringly criticized Chicago — though the name stuck. Also from the vault, sportswriter E.M. Swift celebrated the charms of Wrigley Field in “There’s No Place Like An Old Place.” Mike Nichols (X ‘53) and Elaine May (X ‘53) recounted how their comedy duo, formed while both were students at UChicago, led them to fame and served as the foundation for Chicago’s famed Second City comedy theater, in “Who’s Afraid of Nichols & May?” From 2008, learn about how Chicago shaped President Barack Obama’s political career in “Making It,” by Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker’s political correspondent. And this year, The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates released the much discussed “The Case for Reparations,” drawing on extensive reporting on the institutional racism embedded in Chicago’s housing policies. Fiction Poet Carl Sandburg memorably described Chicago as “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.” Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle epitomize Sandburg’s Chicago — the city as a rough-andtumble industrial mecca. Inspired by real life experiences, Native Son by Richard Wright and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros examine the city’s black and Hispanic communities, respectively. More recently, the characters in Audrey Niffenegger’s bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife, timetravel in various Chicago locations, including the Newberry Library. In addition, Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy takes place in a futuristic version of our city. Nonfiction The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson takes place right in our backyard, chronicling serial killer H.H. Holmes’ reign of terror during the 1893 World’s Fair. The legendary Studs Terkel (Ph.B. ’32, J.D. ’34) wrote prolifically, publish- ing numerous oral histories about ordinary Americans. One selection particularly worth a look: Division Street: America, a collection of stories about working class Chicagoans living in the tumult of the 1960s. Boss, by Mike Royko, may be the definitive biography of Mayor Richard J. Daley, whose family ruled Chicago politics for over five decades. Alex Kotlowitz’s There Are No Children Here is a stark depiction of life in a Chicago public housing complex. And Nature’s Metropolis by William Cronon explores how Chicago’s unique ecological and geographical features turned a frontier town into an economic powerhouse. More non-fiction reads (short-list): UChicago Disorientation Guide, Family Properties, Death and Life of Great American Cities (Hyde Park sections). —Marina Fang COURTESY OF SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT, LLC NAVIGATING THE LAW The ins and outs of law in the Windy City Of course, state and local laws aren’t the only regulations you’ll need to have on your radar while you’re here—a complete list of University policies and regulations can be found at commonsense.uchicago. edu or studentmanual.uchicago.edu —but they are good to know. Here is a sampling of Chicago and Illinois laws of interest that you (and any out-of-state or unfamiliarwith-state visitors you might bring along) ought to bear in mind. 1. For drivers or future Zipcar patrons: As of January 1st of this year, it is illegal to use cellphones while driving in the state of Illinois—unless that use is hands-free (speakerphone or Bluetooth). Otherwise, you could be penalized starting from 75$. Also noteworthy for car drivers is the recent proliferation of red-light cameras in the city, which have a reputation of being merciless—they were the subject of a recent Chicago Tribune watchdog investigation. Don’t give them anything to go on. 2. Pedestrians should note that while it is technically mandatory for all bikes and cars to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks at unmarked intersections, most motorists seem to be struggling with the transition. Even if a crosswalk is labeled as a conditional stop, it’s still likely that drivers will keep going—be vigilant and expect the worst; pessimism remains the best way to protect yourself from vehicles. 3. Smoking is illegal inside of all public buildings in Chicago (as well as in lobbies and hallways of apartment buildings), and smokers outside those buildings must be at least fifteen feet away from entrances. As of September 10th of this year, smoking is also illegal in all Chicago beaches, playgrounds, parks, harbors, and Park District buildings. It is also campus policy—as well as my own heartfelt plea—that students, faculty, and staff avoid smoking near to building vents, as the smoke can easily get sucked inside and into the ventilation systems. 4. Bikers in Chicago are fortunate to have an extensive network of bike lanes and the newly introduced and still-expanding Divvy bike-sharing program, but there are some responsibilities that go along with the conveniences: Bikers are expected to use hand signals and bike lanes whenever possible, and to obey all traffic laws. Generally, riding on sidewalks is forbidden, although local ordinance varies. Night riding is permissible if your bike is outfitted with a white light visible from 500 feet on the front and a red reflector visible from 100 feet on the rear. 5. This is a new one, and likely isn’t on your list of things to know, but it’s still a good thing to have on your radar: since 2013 Illinois has been in the process of implementing concealed carry legislation. The process for applying for a license is still a lengthy bureaucratic maze, but Governor Quinn’s veto was overridden on July 9th of 2013 and concealed carry appears to be here to stay, at least for the short term—although you’ll notice that all University buildings are outfitted with signage advertising that firearms are forbidden on campus. —Emma Thurber Stone 44 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 AUMER SHUGHOURY | CHICAGO MAROON LIFE OF THE BODY ATHLETICS, PHYSICAL HEALTH, PHYSICAL PHUN ATHLETICS HISTORY We may no longer be in the Big Ten. And perhaps we aren’t on that list of teams that’s perennially challenging for the DI national championship in some sport or another. But that doesn’t mean the Maroons lack a storied history. In fact, it’s a rich one, in both the distant and the more recent past. Let’s take it from the beginning. The beginning of what, you may ask? How about the Big Ten Conference. Our Maroons were cofounders back in 1896, along with a list of schools whose athletics remain on the national stage to this day. Chicago was a force in the Midwest during the 40 years that Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the football squad (1892–1932). Yes, that’s the same Stagg whose name adorns the trophy awarded to the winner of the Big Ten each year in football, and our very own football field on campus. Stagg led the Maroons to six Big Ten championships (seven if you count the 1922 shared title with Iowa and Michigan). And Stagg’s victories extended beyond his time—the Statue of Liberty play that Boise State used to win the 2007 Fiesta Bowl was partially Stagg’s creation, while coaching here in 1908. The coaching, of course, wasn’t the only exciting element to early 1900s Maroon sports. The players possessed certifiable, DI-level talent, too—which helped Stagg and other coaches look good. One crucial chess piece of his was Jay Berwanger. Berwanger was the first recipient of the Heisman Trophy, still awarded each year to the best player in college football. The halfback was given the honor in 1935, when it was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy. The next year, they renamed it the Heisman, and that name stuck. For those who doubt that the Maroons could ever reign supreme on the gridiron, Berwanger’s Heisman trophy sits in the middle of the Ratner Athletic Center rotunda. Long before Title IX, female Maroons were putting on a show as well. Between 1898 and 1935, Gertrude Dudley served as director of “physical culture” for women. She organized multiple female teams and crusaded for more women’s sports at the University. Then, sports seemingly faded into the background. The South Siders left the Big Ten in 1946, after University President Robert Maynard Hutchins decided to eliminate the University’s varsity football team in 1939. We rejoin the South Siders’ highlight reel in 1987, when the Maroons again helped to charter a sports conference. This time, it was the NCAA DIII University Athletic Association, also known as the UAA. Chicago has won 50 UAA championships and participated in NCAA tournament play 66 times. In 2012, the excitement over the women’s basketball team was palpable on campus, as it went undefeated en route to an impressive SYDNEY COMBS | CHICAGO MAROON showing in the NCAA tournament, where the women fell to Calvin College in the Sweet 16. That same year, the women’s tennis team made it all the way to the national title match, before losing to Williams College. The appearance in the finals was the Maroons’ first in women’s tennis, and the national runner-up trophy was quite a feat. Last year, two Maroons added the distinction of national champion to their—and the school’s—résumés: Michael Bennett in the pole vault and Abby Erdmann in the 200-yard butterfly. Other bright spots in recent history include women’s cross country, men’s swimming and diving, and women’s swimming and diving, each of which finished in the top 10 nationally last season. In addition, women’s track and field, women’s cross country, and volleyball each won the UAA in their respective sports last year. The athletics department is always changing, too. New athletic director Erin McDermott took office last July. The new athletics website that launched last year is the easiest to navigate of any team in the UAA. Stagg might never have dreamed that his coaching record would one day be mentioned on the same page as a female athletic director, and that it’d be a pretty commonplace occurrence at that. That’s the thing about the Maroons: Their history is lively and unique, just sometimes on a smaller scale. —Sarah Langs THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 45 VARSITY ATHLETES The University of Chicago is a better school for sports than any Division I program in the country. Yes, you read that right. Now understand, Chicago does not have the best teams or athletes in the nation. The football team would not last one down against Florida State, and the basketball team would not stay within 30 points of Connecticut. But here’s the kicker for the Maroons: Every student who attends the University of Chicago has the ability to truly know who he’s rooting for. This O-Week, first-years will undoubtedly enter Ratner Athletics Center to get in a quick run, lift some weights, or even check out the first Heisman Trophy won by Jay Berwanger in 1935. Swiping those students through the turnstile will likely be third-year Michael Bennett. Bennett won the NCAA Division III Indoor JAMIE MANLEY | CHICAGO MAROON National Title in the pole vault last year. The only thing he does better than pole vaulting is talking, and he will be ecstatic to meet new people. As you take your first Sosc class, you might even find secondyear Abby Erdmann sitting next to you, discussing Aquinas’s definition of law. Erdmann won the NCAA DIII title in the 200-yard butterfly as a first-year. As a Maroon, you may very well meet both of them by the end of your first quarter. Chicago has a tight-knit community, and when you know the people you are rooting for in any sport, the sport doesn’t matter; the relationship does. Chicago provides Maroons with an opportunity to really get to know Maroon athletes. That’s what separates the 1,000-seat stadiums of Chicago from the 100,000-seat stadiums at large state schools. Now don’t get me wrong—the University’s sports feature more than just friendly faces. They display dominance in their own right. Maroons strive for excellence in everything they do: on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. Last year Chicago took 16th in the DIII Directors Cup, which ranks athletic departments by the success of their teams. The Maroons featured a handful of conference champions, a slew of AllAmericans, and a boatload of winning programs. Both cross country teams made the NCAA postseason at the same time for the first time in history. The women took fourth nationally. Women’s volleyball broke into the second round of the Final Four tournament. Both men’s and women’s swimming finished the season ranked 10th in the nation. Track and field featured numerous athletes at both the indoor and outdoor national meets. Chicago wrestling featured a fourth-place finisher, second-year Charlie Banaszak, at the NCAA championship. Softball hosted and competed in the first round of the NCAA postseason. Finally, women’s tennis ranked ninth in the nation. And that’s the condensed version. As you meet your new housemates and go to your first classes, take a second to appreciate the company. Chicago gathers young people who are unique and different but share a passion to achieve excellence, whether in the classroom, on the athletic field, or both. – By Isaac Stern Editor’s Note: Isaac Stern is a member of the varsity football team. CLUB AND INTRAMURAL SPORTS Whether you’re an experienced player or just looking to make friends, UChicago’s diverse slate of intramural and club sports has all your bases covered. Last year, according to Assistant Athletic Director Brian Bock, about 5,500 students, graduate and undergrad, participated in 32 different intramurals ranging from broomball to football to euchre. Another 1,000 students participated in 41 different club sports. Broomball in particular is an important part of the UChicago brand. During winter quarter, so long as the weather is cold and the ice is firm, students head to the ice rink on the Midway to play a modified version of hockey, with sneakers subbed in for skates, brooms for sticks, and a tiny soccer ball for the puck. And, in the last couple of years, enthusiastic students from the Harry Potter generation have popularized Quidditch, in which players run around with brooms between their legs. Scoring the Quaffle works roughly as it does in the magical variant, whereas Seekers chase a Snitch that’s actually a rubber ball in a sock tucked into a volunteer’s waistband. Soccer, flag football, and basketball, though, are predictably the most popular intramurals, and soccer actually surpassed flag football last year as the most popular intramural. It’s not unusual to see intramural teams where the majority of players have high school experience. The athletics department offers coed, men’s, and occasionally women’s leagues for both graduate and undergraduate students. The leagues come with the works: playoffs, referees, and trophies for league champions. For students who like to keep their competition and their physical fitness separate, the University offers leagues in chess, backgammon, and other individual games. “We use the term sports sometimes loosely,” Bock said. “So some people might not say backgammon, euchre, and spades are sports. But at the University of Chicago, they are.” Another UChicago tradition is midnight soccer, which students organize outside the aegis of the athletics department. Starting first week, teams from different houses come out to play on the Midway at around 9 or 10 p.m., with as many players a side as they can handle. The results are a formality more than anything—and the season stretches until the ground freezes over. Whereas intramural sports offer a way for houses to bond and for friends to stay in touch, club sports are social circles unto themselves. The University distinguishes between clubs focused on competition and clubs focused on instruction and recreation. Clubs, like varsity sports, travel to compete against other Midwest schools. Badminton is the most popular club sport, with 56 participants in the 2013– 2014 school year. But crew, archery, water polo, climbing, women’s rugby, and men’s ultimate aren’t far behind, all with about 50 participants. Different club sports attract different sorts. The badminton club is full of international students, many of whom played badminton in their home countries. The men’s volleyball club, on the other hand, leans West Coast, and the triathlon club is full of science majors. Every club, though, has a mix of experienced players and curious newcomers, and most clubs actively seek out new members at the beginning of each year. The slate of 41 club sports is a veritable smorgasbord: There’s squash, gymnastics, several varieties of martial arts, fencing, cheerleading, lacrosse, handball, and quite a bit more. Club sports are categorically more demanding than intramurals, which, for some students, is a draw. The crew team, for example, meets before sunrise to practice on the Chicago River during fall and spring quarters. When the river’s frozen, they meet several times a week for indoor workouts instead. Travel is also a major plus—the sailing team, for example, has spent a week in France each of the last two years in what its skipper called the “best week of [her] life.” Clubs also have a strong social dimension, both within the University and without. Team members tend to become friends outside of just their sport, and several sports, DREW WESTFAHL | CHICAGO MAROON like archery, encourage opposing teams to mingle at meets. Sign-ups for intramurals usually happen through houses’ designated intramural rep, via the online registration website IMLeagues.com. Club sports usually have Facebook pages or websites, and tend to advertise at RSO fairs. – By Derek Tsang 46 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 CHICAGO PRO SPORTS PRIMER I came to Chicago for the sports…didn’t you? As a huge professional sports devotee, the city’s plethora of teams and venues seemed like a dream come true. You could say I’ve spent my last three years here learning sports—through sports, about sports, and channeling what I’ve learned into sports, too. Even if you didn’t come for the same reason, make it a bucket list item for the next four years: Catch a game at each of the city’s professional sports venues. Whether you’re a fan or not, whether you root for the Chicago team’s rival, or you don’t even know how baseball is scored, put it on your schedule. You’ll be glad you did. We are lucky to have two baseball teams, one football team, one hockey team, and one basketball team just a little ways away on public transportation from our campus. Sporting events give us a chance to forget about homework and classes for a few hours, a great bonding experience with our companions, and a time to connect with this city we reside in for nine months of the year. Head down to U.S. Cellular Field at the end of this week and get one last chance to see Paul Konerko (albeit on the bench) in a White Sox uniform. Or, head out to Sox/35th on the Red Line next spring to see the 2005 World Series champions celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their breaking an 88-year World Series curse. If North Side baseball is more your thing, take the Red Line to Addison. Whether you go in the next few days or wait until next spring, you’ll be treated to Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, Kyle Hendricks, and the future of Major League Baseball. Baseball games are accessible from campus: Just take the #55 bus to the Red Line, or the #6 to the Red Line downtown if you’re going to Wrigley. Cheap tickets for either squad’s games can be found pretty easily online; plus the dorms often organize group outings with subsidized tickets. As the weather cools off, it’ll start to feel more and more like football season. That means Bears games at Soldier Field. Football is a lot pricier than baseball, but any of the eight home games would be worth the experience. Situated south of the Loop, you can easily walk to Soldier Field from the first downtown stop on the #6 bus or the Roosevelt Red Line stop. Football is an incredible experience in person, and the indoors of Soldier Field is a sight to behold, especially covered in snow. Dress warmly. For your hockey fix, I’m sure the 2013 Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks will do the trick. Chicago absolutely comes alive in support of the team when it enters a playoff run. Last spring, the dinosaur skeleton outside the Field Museum had on a dinosaursized Blackhawks jersey for the duration of their postseason run. Grab a friend, grab a sweater, and head to the Madhouse on Madison. The United Center, as it’s also called, houses the NBA’s Bulls as well. There’s the Green Line to get there, or the #4 bus to the #20. Head out there to see a basketball game. Try to see Derrick Rose. I’ve been trying for three years running, so I wish you the best of luck. Learn the lingo, too. The big names these days are the Blackhawks’ Toews and Kane, the Bulls’ Rose and Noah, the Bears’ Forte and Cutler, the Sox’s Sale, and the Cubs’ aforementioned Soler and Baez. The great thing about sports in Chicago is that, despite the Billy Goat curse, these teams seem to always make it interesting. The Blackhawks weren’t able to defend their Stanley Cup last year, but they staved off elimination until overtime in Game Seven at home. It was electric. I was there…which brings me to my next point: Take advantage of any game you’re given. One of the things that makes sports captivating is that even the most harmless or small-storylined of games can become epic. Outdoors game at Soldier Field with subzero temperatures projected? Go anyway. Game Seven between two teams you don’t care strongly about? Go anyway. Free tickets to Cubs/Phillies when it’s clear they’ll both be bottom feeders this season and rain is predicted? Go anyway; a pitcher might go three-for-four. Chicago’s sporting field is wide, so do yourself a favor and be a sports fanatic. You don’t have to be a White Sox, Cubs, Blackhawks, Bulls, or Bears fan. In fact, you can be the opposite. All you have to do is be willing to sit through three hours—an afternoon unlike any you’ll find on campus. – By Sarah Langs COURTESY OF KEITH ALLISON (R)O-MANCE: DATING, HOOKING UP, UCHICAGO CRUSHES Ah, the O-mance. You’ve spent the entire month of September stuck at home, launching a strategic Facebook liking campaign to win the attention of that special someone in the Class of 2018 group and anxiously reading think pieces about college hookup culture. At last, you arrive on campus and meet each other in person—your time is now! But on the off chance that your O-Week hookup isn’t “The One” and you find the spark fizzling by third week, fear not. Your college years represent a smorgasbord of social, romantic, and sexual opportunity, should you choose to partake. After all, you will most likely never again find yourself surrounded by so many smart, interesting people who are mostly single and, objectively speaking, probably the hottest they’ll ever be. Sure, you could always join an RSO or play the long game of befriending/seducing your Core Bio lab partner, but this is the 21st century. So, assembled here for your convenience: three of the most millennial “dating” methods on campus. Looking to anonymously appreciate the cute person who you always see studying on the same floor of the Reg and/or objectify strangers? The Facebook page UChicago Crushes is the perfect venue. Moderated by a mysterious editor who must spend half of his/her life keeping up with the steady flow of submissions, it’s unclear how many posts are genuine and how many are written by those masquerading as secret admirers in order to give their friends a self-esteem boost. Either way, now that summer is over and the annoying influx of poems addressed to significant others fighting the long distance blues has eased up, the page is sure to be good for entertainment, at the very least. If words aren’t your specialty, Tinder replicates the basic experience of meeting people in bars, but in app form. Set your desired age range and location radius to be shown a steady stream of photos from eligible single/bored people in your area. If you and another user both “swipe right” to indicate approval when presented with each other’s profiles, you’ll be matched up and given the opportunity to chat. Perfect for exchanging flirtatious messages with cute grad students on the North Side and screencapping the profile of your Sosc class’s very own That Kid. Finally, for the bold amongst us, there’s always 2studentbodies.com. Founded by UChicago students and ostensibly a dating site catered toward the populations of various college campuses, the website is more often used by students seeking nostrings-attached hookups and usually caters to those with kinkier tastes. Though there’s no way of knowing how many users are successful in finding partners with their desired fetishes, the website seems rarely used. Interested parties might be better off joining the RACK, the RSO dedicated to kink culture and BDSM. But if the Internet betrays you and you find yourself alone, staring into a void of manufactured digital flirting and desperate for a shred of human contact as you struggle to find meaning in the hellscape that is your 20s—and the hellscape that is Chicago in the winter—just relax. Romantic entanglements are meant to come at their own pace. And if all else fails, there’s always Bar Night. —Claire Fuller 47 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 FUNCTIONAL FITNESS In Parks and Recreation, Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle set aside one day of the year called Treat Yo Self. It’s what it sounds like: Treat yourself to everything— clothes, treat yo self; fragrances, treat yo self; massages, treat yo self; mimosas, treat yo self; fine leather goods, treat yo self. Here at UChicago, you can treat yo self any day of the year. Campus abounds with wellness and alternative health initiatives to help you manage stress and feel good while getting a workout. Of course, there are intramural sports and club teams, but for those who prefer to get their exercise in more creative ways, UChicago is the place to be. For those who are into yoga, SYDNEY COMBS you have options on and around campus. Ratner Athletics Center holds drop-in and registered classes every quarter. Or if you’re looking for a nicer view, consider showing up for restorative yoga in Rockefeller Chapel, which is held twice a week in the early evening. The class is aimed at relaxing you, and Meredith Haggerty, who leads the program, will often give you a few dabs of essential oil at the end of the class to soothe your stressed-out soul. Yoga addicts who want their daily fix can consider CorePower Yoga on East 53rd Street and South Lake Park Avenue, where a membership will give you access to hot yoga classes. Your sweat will probably freeze on the long trek back to campus, but hey, isn’t that something you’ve always wanted to experience? Closer to campus, you’ll find that Ratner runs two fitness programs. FitChicago offers commitment-free, drop-in classes that are open to everyone in the community. Classes range from cardio kickboxing to zumba and 15-minute ab workouts. Phoenix Fitness requires registration at the beginning of each quarter and provides a more structured routine for those who need the motivation. These classes generally provide instruction for activities that require more specialized skills, like ballroom dancing and golf. If making friends is your pre- rogative, several RSOs also provide alternatives to the traditional workout. To get out of Hyde Park or even the Midwest, join the Outdoor Adventure Club, which holds outings to go kayaking, rock climbing, backpacking, slacklining, camping, and beyond. In the past, the OAC has gone kayaking on the Chicago River and taken weeklong backpacking trips during spring break. If its activities do not fit your schedule, you can also rent camping gear from the group for a small fee and go on your own time. Le Vorris & Vox Circus is an RSO that will teach you everything from unicycling and stilts walking to aerials and acrobatics. It meets three times a week and puts on shows and workshops open to the public. Or perhaps you’re looking to impart wellness on the masses. Stressbusters is a program that trains students in proper massaging technique and deploys them to relax the muscles of the masses on Wednesdays in the Reynolds Club. The athletics department also offers a CPR/AED/first aid class through its Phoenix Fitness program to certify students. The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that when the intellectual life inevitably gets tough, there are many ways to get out of it. So I’ve got three words for you: Treat. Yo. Self. – By Kristin Lin | CHICAGO MAROON WHAT TO DO (AND DON’T) WHEN YOU GET SICK Getting sick on campus is like pulling an all-nighter: It’ll happen eventually, and could go over better or worse than expected. Also like an all-nighter, it’s best to be somewhat prepared. First things first, DO come to school stocked with essentials: your preference of Advil or Aleve, Midol for one student demographic, and whatever your go-to cold medicine is. Whether you’re accustomed to fending off disease with Mucinex or Zyrtec, Tylenol or Claritin, have some stocked—it’s much easier to take what you’re used to from your own dorm cabinet, rather than borrowing a friend’s generic or making the trip to CVS. DO yourself a favor, and be proactive. When you feel the onset of cold, waste no time by taking a vitamin and/or taking care of yourself. Try to arrange time to get extra sleep. I swear by Airborne—I got through the entire polar vortex without a sneeze or two turning into pneumonia or even a head cold. DON’T suffer through the watersoluble ones, they’re gross—they now make chewables, thank god. DO use UChicago’s extensive medical complex as a resource. The Student Health Service provides appointments on East 59th Street for when you’re starting to feel really sick. Your Student Life Fee paid at the beginning of the year will cover doctor’s appointment fees, flu shots, basic lab tests, STI and pregnancy testing, contraception consultations, and wellness promotion (aka free condoms). DON’T wait until the last minute to make an appointment—you don’t want to drag yourself there and wait for hours in the office on top of feeling like death itself. That being said, walk-in hours are available for certain cases, if symptoms are approved; call the appointment line to see if you qualify for one. If you do walk in, expect an hour wait, so DO bring some reading material. Alternatively, for mental health consultations or even someone to talk to when you’re facing tough decisions or situations, use the Student Counseling Service as your resource and support system. SCS provides group therapy, couples counseling, academic counseling, short-term mental health consultations, and a helping hand when you’re in need of a confidante to keep your mental health in balance. DO remember everyone has access to this reliable resource; utilize it if you are facing symptoms of mental illness, unnatural stress, or situations in which you need support. DON’T pass by the opportunity to get a free flu shot. Held on specific days late fall quarter, free flu shot events take place at various stations across campus. They make it quite easy—stations are usually placed outside Bartlett, Regenstein Library, and other hubs of student life, where you can walk in and get your flu shot at that moment with little wait. It’s worth it when winter comes around. DO bring a buddy for moral support, or at least to give you a reason to cover up your fear of shots, and help pick out colorful Band-Aids. DO go to the Wellapalooza fair held on the quads during fall and spring quarters. There are puppies to play with, farmer’s market plants to take home, as well as free back massages, postcards, condoms, and candy—what more can you ask for on your walk back from class? By utilizing these resources and services right in front of you, the majority of which are free, and stocking your own medicine cabinet for what you know you’ll eventually need, you can counter that cold, and whatever else comes your way this year. —Sammie Spector 48 THE CHICAGO MAROON | ORIENTATION | September 22, 2014 WELCOME BACK WEDNESDAY Wednesday, September 24, 2014 20% OFF Regular priced items *Must show a U of C id. Cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers, must be 21 years old to purchase. Like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for special offers including Maroon Mondays and Tap room Thursday. U OF C WEDNESDAYS 10% off all regular priced @kimbarkbev items for any University student, alumni, staff, or facility U **Must show a U of C id. Cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers, must be 21 years old to purchase. OF C WEDNES S Y DA KIMBARK PLAZA SHOPPING CENTER -www.kimbarkbeverage.com % ' % ' # - % # # ! * " - 7 7 3 . 4 9 3 . 3 3 5 5 FREE PARKING--+'Kimbark Bev'#72727'#%)* !,($'&#"#(%'&'"&")"' Monday - Thursday 9:00 am until 11:00 pm -Friday - Saturday 9:00 am until Midnight -Sunday 11:00 am until 10:00 pm