Post-outcry, UCSC advisory board named Al Gore talks climate

TUESDAY • MAY 13, 2014
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
ISSUE 46 • VOLUME 125
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
Trauma center
campaigners barred
from praying in hospital
Sarah Manhardt
Deputy News Editor
Scav Judgement
Second-year Max Weiss on the Snell-Hitchcock team displays item number 91, for which he played
Kanye West’s “Power” Sunday at Ida Noyes. See full coverage on page 7.
JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON
A weekly prayer circle associated
with the Trauma Center Coalition
(TCC) at the University of Chicago
Medical Center (UCMC) has recently been barred from meeting in
the UCMC. The prayer circle is a part
of TCC’s faith-based wing, which
formed within the last year and recruits
churches to the campaign.
The prayer circle prays for the establishment of a Level I trauma center
at the UCMC on Fridays at 5 p.m. in
the Duchossois Center for Advanced
Medicine (DCAM) lobby. The group
has met since January, according to
third-year Students for Health Equity
(SHE) member Azeem Ahmad.
“There’s a few members of our group
who come from a strong faith background, and they really started this
out as a way to personally express their
prayerful wishes. It wasn’t political at
the outset at all,” he said.
Lorna Wong, executive director of
strategic communications for UCMC,
said she was unaware the group met
and called the prayers a form of protest.
“No one knew of this group’s claim
about these protests allegedly occurring
for the last four months,” she wrote in
an e-mail.
TCC is composed of Fearless LeadUCMC continued on page 4
Post-outcry, UCSC
Signers of faculty petition raise concerns advisory board named
on Confucius Institute, faculty freedoms
Marta Bakula
News Staff
Raymond Fang
News Staff
A recent petition signed by 108
faculty members asking for the termination of the University’s ties to the
Confucius Institute [CI] at the University of Chicago reflects a broader
frustration by signers of the petition
with the growing administrative reach
and changed goals of the University.
The CI is a Chinese government–
affiliated organization that provides
Chinese language and culture educa-
tion and funds related research. The
petitioners’ main issue with the CI is
that it gives an outside organization
too much agency in academic matters.
The petitioners claim that Hanban, the Chinese governmental organization that oversees the Confucius Institutes in various universities
and schools world-wide, screens the
teachers it chooses to send to universities for links to dissent groups and
controversial religious organizations.
Though the University can reject the
recommended professors, the petition
stated that this power had not been
exercised.
Confucius Institutes have presented
freedom of speech issues for faculty at
other universities. Hanban dismissed
a teacher working at McMaster University in Canada after it was discovered that she followed Falun Gong, a
moral and meditative practice that is
illegal in China. When the case was
brought to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, McMaster University
had to defend a decision that was not
CI continued on page 2
Last Wednesday, the University Community Service Center (UCSC) announced a new
15-member advisory board to advise the UCSC on effectively carrying out its mission to provide
students with service opportunities
throughout the city of Chicago.
The board was created after controversy over changes to the UCSC’s
mission.
The board includes four undergraduate students, three graduate
students, two alumni, two faculty
members, two campus colleagues
representing other University offices, and two leaders of community
organizations, known as community partners.
“Board members will serve as
UCSC ambassadors, promote and
support events and activities, and
work with staff on how to make the
greatest impact on our campus and
the broader Chicago community,”
UCSC Director Amy Chan said in
a statement.
The development of an advisory
UCSC continued on page 2
Al Gore talks climate change, the role of money in politics at the IOP
Christine Schmidt
Associate News Editor
Former U.S. Vice President, 2000
presidential candidate, and environmental activist Al Gore spoke on
topics ranging from Common Sense
to Citizens United on Monday evening at a talk sponsored by the Institute of Politics (IOP) and hosted by
the Chicago Theological Seminary.
The event took place in the Seminary chapel. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) gold-certified environmentally friendly building was a fitting
location for Gore’s message calling
for citizens to join the fight against
the money tainting politics and the
fight against climate change. The
event started with a speech by Gore
and ended with a Q&A session led
by IOP Executive Director David
Axelrod (A.B. ’76), who read from
preselected questions posed by people on Twitter.
With the stained glass of the chapel windows in view, at times Gore’s
voice took on the tone of a preacher,
warning against the perils of global
warming, but more so about the
consequences that may come if
nothing is done to prevent it.
“If…you were somehow magically
able to consult with 10,000 leading
heart specialists in the world and
9,999 of them said, ‘Oh my god,
you’ve got to take this medicine,
change your diet, get some exercise,
and make these other changes,’ but
out of the 10,000 of them you found
one that said, ‘Well I don’t know yet,
the jury’s still out—what would you
do?” Gore asked. “That is what some
people are doing on climate now.”
He pointed to recent events in
the weather as evidence for these
findings, including Hurricane Sandy that hit the East Coast in 2012.
“The waters over which [Sandy]
passed were nine degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal. That’s
where the energy came from,” he
said. “The single most criticized passage in [An Inconvenient Truth] was
an animation about how the World
Trade Center memorial site would
be invaded by ocean water….But
it happened with Sandy, ahead of
GORE continued on page 2
Former Vice President, 2000 presidential candidate, and environmental activist Al Gore speaks about the dangers of political
inaction in the face of climate change at the Seminary chapel on
Monday.
COURTESY OF CHRISTINE SCHMIDT
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
Confucius contusion » Page 5
BJ claims victory in Scav Hunt
Maroons halt Bears’ playoffs hopes
Hot Doug’s closing » Page 9
I think, therefore I run » Page 10
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 13, 2014
2
Gore: “When the future is at risk to the extent we are Faculty agency, University goals shift over the years
a lot of things right, but their sity’s larger goals and visions,
CI continued from front
now placing it, our politics must come to the rescue”
GORE continued from front
schedule.”
Though the main focus of
his talk was climate change,
Gore highlighted the political climate as a roadblock to
confronting change in the
environmental climate. He
criticized the Citizens United decision of the Supreme
Court—“with whose decisions I don’t always agree,”
he noted—as an “obscene”
transgression against the
United States’s democracy.
Gore said that money in
politics can prevent ordinary people from impacting
democracy as the founding
fathers intended. “If Thomas
Paine walked out his front
door in Philadelphia today
and went down to the nearest TV station…and said ‘I’ve
got this 90-minute video
called Common Sense, it’s going to change history, when
do I go on the air?’ [he would
be told] ‘You don’t go on the
air,’” Gore said to laughter
from the audience. “You get
very wealthy people who can
pay the gatekeepers – who
can pay the rent to get access
to the public discourse.”
Though he listed statistics
about the drastic ways in
which climate change is already affecting life on Earth,
Gore maintained optimism.
“I don’t want to sound cynical—I’m not cynical, I’m
hopeful, I think we have an
opportunity to change this,”
he said. “When the future is
at risk to the extent we are
now placing it, our politics
must come to the rescue,
must empower us to make
intelligent, forceful decisions
to protect the public interest,
and we’re not doing it. I don’t
want to talk to you…I want to
recruit you. I want to ask you
to get involved.”
Gore pointed out several
solutions on the local and
national level, including steps
the Environmental Protection Agency is taking in its
coal policy and the decision
by Stanford University to divest from its investments in
coal.
He encouraged young
people in particular to get
involved in the fight against
climate change. “I hope that
those experiencing [a renewed, more efficient Earth]
will look back at us and ask,
‘How did you find the courage to make the changes that
were necessary?’ Well, part of
the answer will be young people who believe in the political system and were willing to
do what’s necessary to make it
work for the public interest….
Political will is, in that sense,
a renewable resource.”
Let’s get involved.
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UNDERSTANDING WISDOM
sense of the good leads them
to pursue financial advantage,
which can come into conflict
with considerations of intellectual integrity,” Lincoln said.
“There is a managerial class in
the administration who are
willing to develop programs,
centers, etc., that appeal to
people outside the University
who write big checks.”
Robert Topel, a Booth
School professor who led a
2012 faculty committee that
examined questions of faculty jurisdiction, disagreed
with Lincoln’s view of faculty
agency. He said the committee decided that the Faculty
Council has legislative authority over degree programs, but
that ultimate authority over
the establishment of institutes
and research centers lies with
the President and the Board of
Trustees.
“The question is whether the
Senate or Council has legislative authority over something
that a particular entity on campus, such as the Humanities
Division or the Department
of Far Eastern languages [sic],
might do. That can come to the
Council for a vote, but it need
not come to the Council for a
vote. It depends on whether
the action of the Humanities
Division implicates…the general interest of the University,
and the persons who decide
that are the President and the
Trustees.”
University spokesperson Jeremy Manier added that faculty
should be able to “decide on
academic aspects of implementation of educational programs
without the oversight of the
faculty from outside their areas.”
Mel Rothenberg, a retired
mathematics professor, emphasized the shift in the Univer-
and said that the establishment
of the CI reflects this shift.
He said that during the Robert Hutchins Administration
(1929—51) and shortly afterward, the University was “a
little more sensitive about who
it took money from,” pointing
out that it rejected money from
the Shah of Iran, who wanted
to start an institute for Middle
Eastern studies.
Rothenberg traced the
growing emphasis on the University’s fundraising efforts
back to the late ‘70s and early
‘80s. He attributed the shift to
a need for funding from private
sources due to a decrease in
government funds under the
Reagan Administration.
“[The University administrators] were encouraged
by politicians to go to private
sources for donations, and to
not look to the government….
If you’re raising money from
large corporations, then when
they look at the structure of
your University, they’re very
concerned about that, so you
have to conform to their model of how to use the money,
which you didn’t have to do
before,” he said.
Lincoln said that during the
Hanna Gray Administration
(1978–93), the faculty and
administration had a more robust relationship, and that the
erosion of faculty governance
and increased focus on raising
funds began in the ‘90s during the Hugo Sonnenschein
Administration (1993–2000),
and has continued to the present.
“In cases like the Confucius
Institute, I worry about the
University’s willingness to sell
control over pieces of its academic operation to extra-academic forces in exchange for
their financial support,” he said.
Michelle Obama established first advisory board
ENERGY AND ENERGY POLICY
Stephen Berry (Chemistry),
George Tolley (Economics)
BPRO 29000, ECON 26800, ENST 29000, PBPL 29000
in line with Canadian law, and
thereafter did not renew its
contract with the Confucius
Institute.
Retired anthropology professor Marshall Sahlins, a main
proponent of the Confucius
Institute petition, said that in
addition to the ethical concerns
with the Confucius Institute,
the petition is also a response
to eroding faculty involvement
in University decisions. The
decision to establish the CI in
2009 was not brought before
the Council of the University
Senate. The Council is composed of 51 faculty members
who serve three-year terms.
“[Faculty] is being denied
the rights given to it by the statutes of the University, and that
means there is a progressive
erosion of faculty governance
and control of the education
process…. With the Confucius Institute, I think there is
going to be an erosion of the
last power of the faculty, and
nothing will be left of faculty
governance.”
Sahlins said the creation and
naming of the Becker Friedman Institute was another example of a situation in which
the faculty was not consulted
or engaged.
Divinity School professor
Bruce Lincoln, another main
proponent of the petition, said
that the naming of the Becker
Friedman Institute was a move
to attract wealthy donors who
“enjoyed the ideas of Milton
Friedman.”
Lincoln said the naming of
the Becker Friedman Institute
was what made some faculty
aware of the erosion of their
power. He also expressed frustration with what he called the
“growing corporatization of
the University.”
“The administration does
UCSC continued from front
board was recommended by
the Student Government
(SG) assembly in light of
opposition to the changes
considered for the Summer
Links program and the controversial staff overhaul in
the fall.
“The UCSC has recently
undergone many major organizational and managerial shifts that have caused
concerns amongst students,
faculty, alumni, and some
community members,” said
second-year Emma Almon,
who was recently chosen as
one of the four undergraduate affiliates of the board.
“Since a large portion of
the SG is in some way connected to the UCSC, they
really wanted to help enact
a board that would serve as
an intermediary for any new
changes.”
However, on November 7,
the same day that SG passed
the resolution to recommend
a UCSC advisory board,
Chan said she was planning to establish an advisory board in the spring, according to an e-mail sent to
UCSC participants, alumni,
and Community Service
RSO (CSRSO) leaders. This
advisory board was to be
formed independently of the
resolution passed by the SG.
According to Almon, SG
was also looking to resurrect
the first UCSC Student Advisory Board after one was
implemented by Michelle
Obama in 1996, when she
served as the UCSC Director. The 1996 Board faded
out gradually over the years,
until the new board’s recent
implementation.
“This advisory board was
very needed,” Dillan Siegler,
director of Partnerships and
Engagement at the Institute
of Politics (IOP) and one
of the campus colleague affiliates of the board, said. “It
brings together a group of
people with diverse perspectives and allows us to hold
meetings that will serve as
a place for insight and suggestions into how we can all
help serve the community
and the people within it.”
Members of the board
were selected through a
nomination process, followed by a written application and an interview in the
style of a focus group.
New members will be required to attend two board
meetings per quarter in order
to help advocate for the priorities of key constituencies
of the UCSC. They will also
provide feedback and evaluations for new programs,
events, and services being offered.
“Part of the board’s goal is
to help get word out about
all of the initiatives the
UCSC has to offer so that
we can better bridge the gap
between students willing to
volunteer and the programs
available to them,” said firstyear and undergraduate affiliate to the board Peggy Xu.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 13, 2014
Vic Mensa headlines Summer Breeze
Harini Jaganathan
News Editor
Vic Mensa will replace Jeremih in
this year’s Summer Breeze lineup.
According to a press release from
the Major Activities Board (MAB),
Jeremih will not be able to appear
due to an unanticipated scheduling
conflict.
Mensa is a 20-year-old rapper
from the South Side of Chicago.
He released his first solo project,
Straight Up, in 2010. Mensa is
part of the SaveMoney collective,
which is group of musicians including Chance the Rapper and several
other Chicago artists. Mensa was
featured in Chance’s mixtape Acid
Rap.
“Despite the unfortunate circumstance of having Jeremih no longer
able to perform at Summer Breeze,
we are excited to welcome Vic Mensa to Hutch Courtyard for what
will be a fantastic opening set,” said
fourth-year MAB chair Jack Friedman in the press release. “His appearance will allow us to continue a
year-long trend of featuring leading
Chicago performers like Chance
the Rapper and Hannibal Buress,
which was part of the calculus in
initially selecting Jeremih, a Chicago native himself.”
MAB will be offering refunds
due to the lineup change. Interested
students can receive their refunds
on Thursday in the Reynolds Club
between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Friedman said that MAB does not anticipate that many students will seek
refunds.
“Given our hope that refunds
will be relatively limited, we will
determine the most efficient way
to distribute that number of tickets
to students who [have] not yet had
the chance to purchase one,” Friedman said in an e-mail. “We will announce those plans on Thursday
after the refund window has closed.”
Mensa joins Flying Lotus, Baauer,
and Pusha T as a headliner.
3
Professor honored in
Napoleonic style
Isaac Stein
Associate News Editor
Robert Morrissey, Benjamin Franklin professor of French literature at
the University, was decorated with
the Légion d’Honneur by the French
government in a ceremony held at the
Quadrangle Club on Sunday evening.
The award was issued to Morrissey by
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
The Légion d’Honneur is an Order
of Merit that was created by Napoleon
Bonaparte in 1802, and recognizes
those who have provided outstanding
service to France in either a civil or military capacity. Fabius said that Morrissey
received the award due to a combination of his scholarship in French literature and leadership of programs that facilitate cross-cultural exchange between
France and the United States.
In addition to teaching, Morrissey is
also the director of the France Chicago
Center and the Project for American
and French Research on the Treasury
of the French Language (ARTFL). The
France Chicago Center is a University
LEGION continued on page 4
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | May 13, 2014
UCMC contacted the deans-on-call, who asked the group to pray outside
UCMC continued from front
ing by the Youth (FLY), Kenwood
Oakland Community Organization
(KOCO), SHE, and the Coalition for
Community Benefits. The faith-based
wing of the advocacy group began
about a year ago, according to Johnny
Kline, minister for social justice at University Church.
The faith-based wing represents
the churches that have formally supported the TCC. Kline said that the
official collaboration of the University
Church and Kenwood United Church
of Christ (UCC) began after conversations between himself, Alice Harper of
Kenwood UCC, SHE, and FLY.
“We invited FLY and SHE to come
into our congregations, so they made
a presentation at University Church,
they made a presentation at Kenwood
UCC, and those presentations led to
the board at each of those churches
making a decision to offer the Church’s
resources, the Church’s support, to the
campaign in an official way,” he said.
Since those churches committed to
TCC, another one, Good Shepherd
in Englewood, has followed, and the
coalition is in conversations with other
churches as well. The coalition has also
received support from well-known
priests Senior Pastor Michael L. Pfleger
of Saint Sabrina’s Church on 78th Place
and Reverend Doctor Otis Moss III at
Trinity Church on West 95th Street.
The group was first asked to leave on
April 26, according to Ahmad. He said
the group usually tells people in the
lobby they are going to form a prayer
circle and carries flyers to inform people that they are praying for a trauma
center. On that date, he said, a security
officer joined the prayer circle and saw
the group’s flyers.
“He was standing there with us, and
he looked down and saw that it said,
‘Prayers for a trauma center,’ and my
impression of it was that was when he
made the decision of, ‘Oh, you guys
need to get out of here,’’” Ahmad said.
On May 3, the group returned with
more people and was told to leave and
threatened with arrest, according to
Ahmad. On May 9, Deans-on-Call
Lynda Dahler and Vicki Sides met the
group as it entered the DCAM entryway and asked them to leave and pray
outside.
UCMC contacted the deans-oncall, according to University News Director Jeremy Manier.
“Hospital security staff formally requested to have Deans-on-Call present on Friday, and at other vigils going
forward,” he wrote in an e-mail. “This
approach to protest activity is a result
of years of thoughtful dialogue on
campus, including the January 2014
Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on
Protest and Dissent, which emphasized
the role of Deans-on-Call,” he added.
Because the hospital is private
property, only individuals with “official business” have the right to enter,
Dahler said during the conversation
with TCC.
“We just want this to be as successful
as possible, and the best way to ensure
that success would be if you would pray
outside by the planters,” she told the
group.
The group said a quick prayer inside
the vestibule after debating with the
deans-on-call and security, then left
and said a longer prayer outside. Several
group members had remained outside
the entire time, not wanting to risk the
possibility of arrest. A group member
who tried to film the encounter was
told to stop by hospital security.
The deans-on-call and UCMC
spokeswoman both emphasized the
importance of keeping space clear for
patient care.
“Any action, protest, or dissent on
medical center property cannot, even
potentially, interfere with patient care
or hospital operations. In addition, videotaping or photographing on hospital
premises poses a threat to patient privacy,” Wong wrote in an e-mail.
Ahmad said that the political dimension of the prayer circle has changed in
recent weeks.
“I’d say at this point [the prayer
circle] has been forced into a political sphere just because of how aggressively they’re shutting it down and why
they’re shutting it down,” he said.
“[Morrissey’s] work has facilitated a remarkable... connection between French and American scholarship”
LEGION continued from page 3
program that networks University faculty with French academics; ARTFL is
a joint project between the French government and the University that digitizes French-language printed material.
University President Robert Zimmer, who spoke before Morrissey’s
decoration, characterized Morrissey’s
career as a boon for both the University and relations between French and
American academia at large.
“Robert was…instrumental in developing the [University] Center in
Paris, the success of which gave us the
confidence to create Centers in other
countries,” Zimmer said during the
ceremony. “His work has facilitated
a remarkable, flourishing connection
between French and American scholarship.”
Fabius, who identified as Morrissey’s
personal friend as well as fellow scholar,
formally presented the award with a
short official speech in French, but preceded this with a lighthearted speech in
English.
“It is with Napoleonic glory that I
have the honor of bestowing an award
created by Napoleon upon a scholar of
Napoleon and a great friend of France,”
Fabius said.
Upon receiving the Légion Morrissey spoke of the unconventional
path he took to become a professor of
French literature. “I graduated from college with a degree in economics. I took
one French literature class; we read the
English translation of ‘Swann’s Way,’ the
first volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost
Time, and it was a conversion experience. I realized that if I was going to follow models, it was not going to be those
of homo economicus, it was going to be
models put forth by great literature,”
Morrissey said.
But Morrissey said that it was a visit
to France in the summer of 1970 that
left him with inextricable ties to the
country.
“It was post graduation, and my adviser gave me a check for $500. It was
just enough for one plane ticket to
France via Icelandic air. I ended up in
the student quarters.... They had a sovereign disdain for Americans, so the challenge was to go underground, and the
first step was with language. Configurations of words in the French language
became of serious interest to me. Words
carry the weight of tradition and the
power of innovation,” Morrissey said.
After the formal conclusion of the
event, Fabius spoke with the Maroon
regarding the future of relations between French and American citizens.
“Relations [between the peoples]
have always been positive; despite recent political developments, such as the
war in Iraq, this never really changed,
and that dispute belongs to the past.
The fact that France and the U.S. have
not engaged each other in war in over
200 years of co-existence is an indicator
of these good relations,” Fabius said.
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed
MAY 13, 2014
Constitutional but still disputable
Affirmative action mistakenly combats one form of preferential treatment with another
Nathan Howe
Maroon Contributor
In light of the Supreme Court’s
recent decision on affirmative action
in Schuette v. Coalition, many articles
on the issue have appeared in the maroon. These articles have argued everything from the need for affirmative
action based upon vacuous assertions
about institutionalized racism to complaints about public participation in
public universities (see “Diversity, not
Democracy” [5/9/14] by Elizabeth
Aditeba).
First, I think it is important to consider the catalyst of all of the articles:
the Supreme Court’s decision in
Schuette and an apparent fundamental
misunderstanding of the purpose of
the Supreme Court by the authors of
those articles. The 13 colonies united
and wrote the Constitution to allow
states vast leeway in deciding what
their governance and society would
look like and specifically reserved certain “inalienable rights” to be protected from a simple majority democratic
process. The Supreme Court’s job was
codified to decide the constitutionality of legislation, not whether or not
the justices think it is a good law (see
Justice Robert’s opinion on Obamacare).
Upon reading David Grossman’s article, “A Poor Constitution” (5/9/14),
I was floored by his claim that the Supreme Court justices should willfully
impress their views on legislation—
instead of determining its constitutional validity—because they are “on
average” smarter and more “forwardthinking” than everyone else. I believe
our Constitution and consequently
our Supreme Court was founded to
prevent this kind of monarchism.
In the case of Schuette v. Coalition,
the Supreme Court decided that the
State of Michigan was not in violation of constitutional rights when it
passed legislation specifically barring
racial preferences in admissions decisions for publicly-funded universities.
Was Michigan’s law a good one? That
is certainly debatable. Was it constitutional? Yes. And people who disagree with the law should level their
complaints with the legislature and
people of Michigan, not complain
that the Supreme Court wasn’t activist enough.
So then, was the law a good one? I
don’t think so, but not because I think
we need affirmative action. Public universities’ admission decisions currently
involve various forms of favoritism or
preferential treatment (aside from affirmative action), including donations
and legacy appointments. One of the
problems is that many of the affluent
“name-on-the-building” mega-donors
can and oftentimes do buy their chil-
dren’s way into school. Yet this problem was not addressed by Michigan’s
law, which was primarily aimed at
eliminating racial preferences.
Perhaps we should concentrate
more broadly on the fact that public
universities base their admissions on
criteria other than merit, but the solution to this unequal treatment of
college applicants is not affirmative
action. As a response to the issue of
preferred classes, affirmative action
only creates further preferred classes
and disadvantages Americans who do
not belong to any of those groups. We
need to resist the temptation to balance one form of favoritism with another. Instead we should collaborate
to create objective admissions standards that do not include points for
belonging to the “good ol’ boys’ club”
or having a certain skin color.
This solution would still allow for
diversity in the student body, which
does not simply mean, “having more
[insert any racial category here]’s
around makes me learn more.”
The most critical aspect of diversity in a college classroom need not be
based on a person’s race, but rather on
the worldview she brings to that class.
If we want to live in a truly postracial society, we need to start looking at
things differently. Rather than letting
racial differences color our worldview,
we should stop assuming that race
is a primary factor in all problems
and fitting our facts to those assumptions. Policies should be completely
race-neutral, so that we do not unintentionally disadvantage any group.
In order to move toward a postracial
society, we need a more postracial response to issues—not trite condemnations.
(CI) on this campus. We feel that
terminating the contract is consistent with the University’s absolute
commitment to academic integrity
and free and open inquiry.
Confucius Institutes are Chinese
government-funded organizations
embedded in foreign campuses,
which provide Chinese language
instruction in addition to funding
research and putting on programming that promotes the study of
Chinese language and culture. They
are widely accepted to be an exercise of “soft power” on the part of
the Chinese government, teaching
Mandarin using non-traditional,
government-promulgated characters and highlighting certain aspects
of Chinese history and culture. At
the same time, the curricula and
programming put on by CIs avoid
any discussion of more controversial
cultural, social, and human rights
issues, and it is known that instructors at some universities are trained
to change the topic of discussion
if and when such issues come up.
The staff that works for the CI (and
thus that provide Chinese language
instruction at the host university)
CONFUCIUS continued on page 6
Nathan Howe is a third-year in
the College.
Confucius contusion
Student Government president-elect urges closure of Confucius Institute
Tyler Kissinger & Max Samels
Maroon Contributors
“At its inception, the University of Chicago purposefully distinguished itself within the landscape
of higher education in the United
States. It was intended from the
start to be, and it remains today, an
institution where the culture supports open, rigorous, and intense
inquiry as the highest value, where
education and research are embedded in this culture of inquiry, where
intellectual freedom is viewed as essential to open inquiry, and where
we are open to all people and all
perspectives that can stand the scrutiny of argument. Over the years,
most of the universities on the east
coast gradually moved toward aspects of this model themselves, but
resonance of the distinctiveness of
UChicago remains both in culture
and in policies reflecting that culture.”
The above is an excerpt from an
address made by University President Robert Zimmer at a conference
titled “What is Academic Freedom
For?” As students concerned that
the distinctiveness of this Universi-
ty’s uncompromising commitment
to academic freedom is threatened,
we believe these words are a good
place to start.
As was reported by the Maroon
(“Confucius Institute Protested by
Faculty” [5/02/14]), over 100 faculty members have signed a petition calling on the Committee of
the Council of the Faculty Senate to
terminate the University’s contract
with the Head Office of the Confucius Institutes (part of the Office
of Chinese Language Council International, colloquially known as
Hanban) for a Confucius Institute
Net(flix) Neutrality
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Chicago, IL 60637
New FCC open internet proposal opens door for corporate strong-arming
and consumer exploitation
Anastasia Golovashkina
Not Impressed
If you live off-campus, you probably pay a monthly Internet bill—
right now, probably just a flat
monthly fee. Imagine instead having
to pay a premium surcharge for access to specific services like Netflix,
Skype, or Facebook. Thanks to a
new set of regulations put forth by
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), this could all too
soon become reality.
Back in 2010, the FCC announced an Open Internet Order
that, though flawed, introduced
some semblance of a reasonably regulatory framework by banning content blocking and “unreasonable”
discrimination by Internet service
providers (ISPs). In particular, the
order warned extensively against the
type of “fast lane” arrangements that
would allow companies to further
exploit their monopoly power, taking advantage of Internet companies
and consumers alike.
In 2013, Verizon took these rules
to court, won, and the Open Internet Order was struck down. This
left the FCC—now chaired by Tom
Wheeler—with a couple of options.
“We will consider all available options,” Wheeler said, “including
those for appeal.” Needless to say,
the FCC didn’t appeal, announcing in February that they would
instead aim to regulate ISPs “on a
case-by-case basis.” They proceeded
not to do that either, opting instead
to issue a set of proposals that put
blind faith in monopolistic ISPs to
provide honest and quality service
to their consumers.
Though the media has repeatedly
described these proposals as “net
neutrality,” they’re really anything
but. Net neutrality is the idea that
ISPs should treat all online traffic
equally—that, for example, AT&T
shouldn’t be able to offer faster connections to certain types of websites and slower ones to others. It’s
the idea that the Internet should
be equally accessible to everyone—
nothing like cable, and everything
like the low-barrier-to-entry “information service” (FCC’s own words,
as of 1996–2010) it was originally
designed to be.
Instead, the FCC now proposes
to classify the Internet as a “telecommunications service.” Though
these new regulations would ban
providers from blocking specific
websites, they’d still allow ISPs
to set aside special “fast lanes” for
preferred websites, ensuring that
some sites load faster for customers as others load slower—or, more
likely, not at all. Notably, these are
the same exact “fast lanes” the FCC
so adamantly warned about in 2010.
Permitting them is an absurdly terFCC continued on page 6
6
THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | May 13, 2014
The Confucius Institute program compromises our commitment to free inquiry
CONFUCIUS continued from page 5
are, while ultimately selected by the
University, initially recommended
by Hanban. However, Hanban has
been known in the past to adhere to
a hiring policy illegal under American law, by prohibiting members of
the spiritual movement Falun Gong
“and other illegal organizations”
from being candidates for a position
with a CI abroad. By yielding to
Hanban’s hiring policy, the University is complicit in discrimination
both religious and political. In 2012,
such a case resulted in McMaster
University being brought before the
Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario,
and McMaster ultimately terminated the contract for their CI.
This is not the only incident having to do with CIs that has been
problematic with regards to academic freedom. From impacting
North Carolina State University officials’ decision to cancel a planned
visit to that campus by the Dalai
Lama, to a case where officials at Tel
Aviv University shut down a student
art exhibition regarding the oppression of the Falun Gong out of fear
of damaging the University’s relationship with China and Hanban,
elements of censorship and internal
pressure to stifle the expression of
certain views have manifested themselves in ways incompatible with the
intellectual aims of this University.
More than 400 Confucius Institutes exist worldwide, primarily
at smaller colleges and universities
which otherwise would not be able
to provide language instruction
without outside support. Increasingly, however, prominent universities with large endowments are signing onto the program. Incidentally,
the University signed its contract
with Hanban just under a year prior
to the establishment of the University Center in Beijing. Regardless
of the exact political circumstances
that led to the University signing
a contract for a CI with Hanban,
we feel that by subcontracting out
control over academic programs to
an entity shown to be biased, and
which participates in both passive
and active censorship, is a grave
breach of the tradition of academic
freedom we seek to uphold at this
university. By lending our name to
the Confucius Institute program,
we compromise our commitment
to free inquiry and risk doing irreparable harm to our reputation
as a university with an unparalleled
commitment to academic freedom.
Administration can step in and—as
they did before—support a Chinese
language program run entirely by
the University, and continue to support the research done by faculty
in the Department of East Asian
languages and civilization, both of
which are of profound value to this
institution. However, of the utmost
value to our University is our commitment to academic integrity, and
for this reason we support the faculty petition and urge the termination
of the contract for the CI.
Tyler Kissinger and Max
Samels are second-years in the
College.
Net neutrality is still only a band-aid solution for the blurred lines between the regulators and the regulated
FCC continued from page 5
rible idea, and not at all what net
neutrality is about.
In the vein of negotiations that
currently take place between television channels and cable companies
(recall last year’s infamous showdown between CBS and Time Warner), fast lanes would likely entail
websites being strong-armed into
paying providers to ensure that their
users have adequate access to their
services. This is an especially real
threat for sites like Netflix, Skype,
and YouTube, whose content generally calls for a faster connection
and competes directly with providers’ own cable and phone services. If
customers are already getting their
calls through Skype and their TV
shows through Netflix, what incentive do they have to pay for a cable
company’s overpriced alternatives?
The biggest problem with the
FCC’s proposal is that it places trust
in companies that have earned anything but—companies that habitually exploit their monopoly power
to sell mediocre if not downright
infuriating standards of service at
highly inflated prices. These are
companies that are routinely dishonest about the products they sell,
providing users with Internet speeds
up to 46 percent slower than advertised—a laughable 3.5 times slower
than our friends in Hong Kong. In
fact, the United States ranks a pathetic 31st in the world’s consumer
download speeds, behind Latvia,
Estonia, and Uruguay.
It’s not that the United States
lacks the technology to provide
faster service (think Google Fiber).
It does, however, lack the infrastructure. That’s why, according to
the FCC’s own data, two-thirds of
households have access to just two
or fewer broadband providers, 28
percent of households, to one or
fewer.
But so do most other countries.
There’s no real reason to construct
twenty different private Internet infrastructures. If the industry is regulated properly, there isn’t even a real
reason to lay out more than one. The
problem here is regulation, and even
more so who’s doing the regulating.
So, who is doing the regulating?
FCC’s current chairman Tom
Wheeler, for example, was formerly
president and CEO of the National
Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), which spends
over $20 million annually lobbying
for the interests of cable companies
including Comcast and Time Warner. He’s also served as CEO of the
CTIA, the nation’s largest cell and
wireless trade group. Prior to him,
the regulatory lobby—excuse me,
body—has been chaired by both
current CTIA CEO Meredith
Attwell Baker and current NCTA
CEO Michael Powell. From Vice
President Dick Cheney’s military
contracting gig to Representative
Richard Gephardt’s lobbying firm,
the FCC isn’t the only place where
high-level executives float between
governing the regulated and the
regulators.
The issue of net neutrality is of
paramount importance. Even if the
FCC does move forward with classifying the Internet as a telecommunications service, specifying it as
a Title II telecommunications service—a “common carrier” like the
telephone, which must be open to
all users at a uniform rate—would
be a crucial way to help prevent
“fast lane” company abuse. Especially now that the FCC has expressed
some interest in revising its propos-
als, I strongly encourage anyone
who cares even remotely about not
seeing their Internet bill segmented
into an (even more) overpriced,
cable-esque collage to share their
thoughts with the FCC at [email protected].
But until we address the problem of the revolving door between
federal agencies and top lobbying
firms—until we regulate the regulators—any fix on individual topics like this will only be a Band-Aid
on what amounts to a very broken
bone.
The revolving door never seems to
hit people hard enough (or at all) on
their way out…or, for that matter,
back in. Let’s give it another push.
not it was temporary, I did live at
that old address.
We’re taught that everything we
choose to present needs to be as perfect as possible. That’s how we all got
here, isn’t it? By meticulously putting together a representation of our
best academic selves and submitting
it to be scrutinized by the admissions
office. But that’s only the beginning of our self-representations. In
a way, everything, from comments
we make in class to articles we write,
and even down to the way that we
introduce ourselves, is part of these
representations. Instead of fretting
about whether or not how we present ourselves is how we want to be
permanently, what if we accepted
them as accurate reflections of who
we are at the time?
If I’m going to end up with grimy
hands anyway, I’d rather have it be
from ink rubbing off from the newspaper residue now than from digging
through old cardboard boxes later.
Anastasia Golovashkina is
a third-year in the College
majoring in economics and
public policy.
Come as you are
Why fret over past imperfections when they make up who we are?
Grace Koh
No Airs and Graces
There’s something so odd about
reading my own clumsy words in
print. The newspaper residue blackening my fingertips seems to signal
a legitimacy that my words don’t deserve. I make out a better way something could have been phrased, an
unclear transition in the next paragraph. All these imperfections represent thoughts and a self, both subject to change and yet permanently
etched onto this newspaper, rubbing
onto my fingertips.
My ink-dusted fingers remind me
of how my hands feel after digging
through old boxes in my garage—
musty cardboard leaving an invisible
layer of grime on my hands. I moved
around as a kid, so oftentimes I had
to dig through old boxes to find
things that I had neglected to unpack.
I remember a notepad that I
owned and loved in elementary
school. It came with a pen and had
a little section on the back where
you could fill in all of your personal
information. I easily wrote in my
name and my birthday, but got stuck
when I reached the line for “address.”
I knew that my parents were only
renting the apartment where we
were living at the time; I knew this
wasn’t the house that I was going
to be in a few years down the line;
I couldn’t really say this was my address. So I tucked the notebook away
in my desk drawer and decided that I
would start using it when we moved
to our permanent house and I could
write in an accurate address.
The funny thing is that after we
moved, I was digging through our
boxes and couldn’t even find the
notepad. I guess it had gotten lost
between all the packing and unpacking. All I could do was clap the dust
off my hands and trudge back upstairs.
Today, I toss the newspaper in the
recycling and run my hands under
the sink water. I don’t even feel the
residue washing off because phrases from my article keep trickling
through my mind.
The sentences from my past columns sound too…something. Too
wordy? Too awkward? Maybe it
sounds too “me.” Too untouched,
too raw. It’s like the feeling I get
when I say something in class and
realize how mediocre my comment
is even as the words are slipping out
of my mouth, and before I know it
someone else is pointing out the flaw
in my argument.
It’s not simply the fact that I
wasn’t perfect, but more like I know
I could’ve done better and that others will see me as less than I can be.
It’s not embarrassment so much as
a sense of injustice that others are
left with an inaccurate picture of my
abilities.
But is it really inaccurate?
At some point I consciously did
choose to write that awkward phrase,
and it’s not like anyone was holding
me at gunpoint when I uttered those
mediocre words. If I actually were
something other than that, I would
not have written it or said it.
When watching a trivia game,
everyone hates the kid that shouts
out the wrong answer to a question
and then, after the right answer is revealed, proceeds to comment, “Oh,
that’s what I meant.” But I guess
that’s what I’m doing now when I
disown those awkward phrases or
mediocre arguments.
Similarly, I think I was wrong in
believing that my address didn’t belong in a page of information about
me just because it was temporary.
Just like I would rather spend the
time that I spend fretting about the
great injustice that I have accrued
upon myself instead just taking steps
to improve, I think I would’ve rather
just written my address in and used
the crap out of that notepad. Because
the fact is, regardless of whether or
Grace Koh is a second-year in
the College majoring in political
science.
SUBMISSIONS
The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses
from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to:
The Chicago Maroon
attn: Viewpoints
1212 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
E-mail: [email protected]
The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and
space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words.
Op-ed submissions, 800 words.
ARTS
Heartlandia
MAY 13, 2014
Burton-Judson claims victory in Scav Hunt
Evangeline Reid
Arts Staff
The famous student-run
University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, more familiarly
referred to as “Scav,” takes
over campus each year during the four days leading up
to Mother’s Day. Scav is the
world’s largest —and arguably
quirkiest—scavenger hunt,
and this year’s event was no
exception. Burton-Judson’s
team reigned supreme in 2014
with 3198.02 points. SnellHitchcock with 3153.71 and
BroStoMP with 2883.33
(the joint Broadview–Stony
Island–New Grad–Shorey
House coalition) took second
and third place, respectively.
Breckinridge (2715.04) came
in fourth, and Max Palevsky
(2656) followed in fifth.
“The first emotion I had…
was just that I was thrilled at
how excited everyone else was.
The entire team was screaming, shouting, and hugging,”
said Emma Goehler, a thirdyear captain from B-J’s triumphant team. “I wasn’t expecting that we would win.” But
victorious or not, the students
started a chant, yelling, “We
had fun!” One of the creators
of the first Scav Hunt in 1987,
Diane Kelly, was in town on
Sunday and decided to stop by
to help judge. Jeremy Ziring,
the fourth-year head judge,
shared the story of her speak-
ing to the students. “She said,
‘Clearly after 28 years, people
are still having fun with this.’”
But everything was still up
for grabs when this year’s 308item long list was released on
Wednesday at midnight in
Ida Noyes. The list included
the rules; the event lineup
for the Scav Olympics on
Saturday (which included a
videogame triathlon); and
the items to be located, created, or accomplished. Items
ranged from donating blood
to creating a massive pop-up
book or a door that opens automatically after the correct
sequence of knocks. As for
events throughout the fourday period, this year included
a team full-body shadow
puppet competition at night
on the quad, an air-guitar
championship in Hutch, and
an event called “Pillowtown
and Blanketsburg” perhaps
best explained as a pillow fort
battle concluding with an
epic pillow fight. Most of the
curious things happening on
campus last week—the quotes
and thought-bubbles attached
to buildings, the girl crowdsurfing between classes, the
strange contraptions being
hauled across the midway—
could be attributed to the
Hunt and its sleep-deprived
“scavvies.”
One of Scav’s traditional
events is a road trip within a
1,000-mile radius from cam-
pus. Excitement had been
building with the prospect
of an international road trip,
and no one was disappointed.
Item number 173 sent carloads of costumed students
toward Canada with teammate created itineraries in
hand, starting at 8 a.m. Thursday morning with the goal of
accomplishing a number of
items along the way and returning in time for judgment
on Sunday morning. While
two whole days of class get the
axe for this adventure, fourthyear Breckinridge scavvie Jason McCreery explained his
thoughts on the road trip, sentiments that reflect a greater
spirit among the participants:
“Especially at UChicago, it’s
so easy to just be like, ‘Oh I
can’t do this, I have class. I’m
busy. I have homework’…. The
road trip forced me to just
stop doing that—to stop making excuses—and just go have
an experience. So even though
I am sort of dealing with the
collateral and catching up
with everything, I’m so happy
that I went through with it.”
As he put it, “There’s never
going to be another time that
I’m going to be in Niagara
Falls, Toronto, Detroit, and
Chicago in one day.”
The process to create this
large-scale event begins in
the fall when hopeful judges
apply by creating a list of
potential Scav items. Once
A vocal poet experiments
with silence in new collection
Angela Qian
Associate Arts Editor
In the titular poem of her
Pulitzer-winning collection,
The Wild Iris, Louise Glück
takes on the voice of a flower
and proclaims: “You who do
not remember/passage from
the other world/I tell you
I could speak again: whatever/returns from oblivion
returns/ to find a voice.” As
a poet, Glück of all people
would know about voices—her ability to inhabit
the personas of everything
and everyone from flowers
to characters such as Persephone, Penelope, and Dido
are part of her claim to poetic fame. But speaking at the
Logan Center last Thursday,
May 8, Glück said her newest book is centered on a new
type of expression: silence.
Grey-haired, slight, with
sharp black eyes and wearing a dramatic cut-out black
shirt, Glück looked like the
kind of sharp-witted, shrewd
professor who doesn’t let any
BS pass in class. If you’re at all
in step with the poetry world,
Glück is a giant, her poetic
presence almost akin to the
mythological figures that
populate her work—which
has been described over and
over again as fierce, focused,
and intense. She’s the recipient of innumerable poetry
prizes, has served as U.S. Poet
Laureate, has taught poetry
at Williams College and is
now at Yale. Her clinically
detached, razor-honed poetic style is difficult to match
anywhere.
The accessibility of Glück’s
poems belies their subtle,
profound insights, their humor, and the feats of creative
genius which have her speakPOET continued on page 9
Louise Glück read works from her latest collection, Faithful
and Virtuous Night, at the Logan Center last Thursday.
COURTESY OF GASPER TRINGALE
they’re chosen, the group—
comprised of about 15 judges,
including graduate students
and alumni—begins in earnest in January as they start
the long process of composing
the official list, which is then
workshopped and eventually
finalized. “We try to have a
mix of things that are challenging and funny and…really
interesting when you look at
them,” said Ziring. “We’ve just
gotten a lot of positive feedback…. Overall, I think it was
a really good year.”
Of course Scav—like all
things strange and distracting—has its critics. The phrases “annoying” and “nerdy”
have been tossed around in
reference to the event on nu-
merous occasions. McCreery
summed up what most supporters see in it: “It’s almost
the quintessential UChicago thing to do. It’s not just
about some items hidden on
the quad or something—it’s
about using your creativity
to make something new and
make something interesting
and unique.”
ALICE XIAO
| CHICAGO MAROON
NORTH SIDE WEEKLY
ARTS, CULTURE & OVERPRICED BEER ਂ SINCE 2014
Miller High Life and checkerboard fedoras in Wicker Park
Rohan Sharma
maroon Contributor
Super Orgy Porno Party:
words I found myself chanting at
10:30 p.m. on a Friday night in a
small venue packed full of people
(read: sweaty shirtless dudes). To
clarify, I was not at a steamy sex
party bonanza, but rather at a ska
show in Wicker Park. I’ve been
all hip-hopped out lately, coming
off a string of concerts that most
recently included DJ Mustard &
YG. I figured it was about time to
hit up a show for the pure nostalgia and save any rap juice I have
left for MAB’s Summer Breeze.
As a result, I dropped something
short of two sawbucks for a ska
show; you know, ska, the music you used to listen to when
you were around 15 to justify
your participation in your high
school’s brass band and kick your
legs vigorously to an upbeat tempo and a trombone solo. I have
no idea if its hip now to like ska,
or if pop-punk took over the ska
crowd, but I like to think of myself as a ska OG, bumping Mustard Plug in the car on summer
days while speeding on suburban
roads because it’s impossible to
go the speed limit when your
music is flying by at 135 BPM.
Although my night ended
with excessive perspiration, thoroughly stomped toes, and aching
knees, it didn’t begin that way.
In fact, it began with what is effectively a margherita pizza from
Dimo’s Pizza on Damen Avenue
and a chocolate malt from Potbelly, because sometimes I want
to relive the carefree and sugary
days of my childhood digestive
system. Dimo’s is pretty solid
and a great drunk food choice
since they are open late and offer
pizza by the slice as well as a variety of beer options. However, I
imagine having Flash Taco across
the street from you steals a lot of
precious drunk dinero. The show
was at the Subterranean, an intimate venue just off the Damen
Blue Line stop that features two
levels of viewing space and charges you $2.50 for a very classy-concert-sipping experience courtesy
of Miller High Life.
The first opener, a local band
by the name of Run and Punch
did about as well as an opening act slated for 8 p.m. can do,
which is to say that they provided high-quality music to stand
and drink to. Having only been
to rap shows for a while, I was
ill-prepared for the headwear
culture shock that I experienced,
by which I mean trading out
5-panel hats for mohawks and
checkerboard fedoras.
Following Run and Punch was
Los Vicios De Papá, a name that
Google insists translates to “Vices of Santa,” which I will choose
to believe is accurate. Referring
to themselves as LVDP Sound
System, the band provided a cool
fusion of spacey reggae and Latin
ska complete with a conga player
and three different woodblocks.
LVDP claims to be “born out
of a crumbling public education
system and failing immigration
policy in Chicago’s Back of the
Yards neighborhood” so there’s
probably something serious to
discuss and think about there,
but I’m gonna avoid that because
this is about a fun ska concert
and not structural inequalities
on the South Side.
At around 10 p.m., as Planet
Smashers began to take the stage,
NSW continued on page 9
8
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ADVERTISMENT | May 13, 2014
University of Chicago, Computation Institute and
Digital Science presents:
Information, Interaction
and Influence Workshop
May 19-20, Ida Noyes Hall
Lunch provided!
How are academic research information technologies – research
profiling, management, and networking systems – driving scientific
collaboration and academic influence today?
Registration closing today! - Space is limited. www.ci.anl.gov/events
Hear from:
Victoria Stodden
Department of Statistics, Columbia University
Griffin Weber
Head of the Knowledge Discovery & Management Group,
Center for Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical
School
Rebecca Bryant
Director of Community at ORCID
Leslie Yuan
Director, Virtual Home, UCSF School of Medicine
Klara Jelinkova
Chief Information Technology Officer, University of
Chicago
The founders of figshare, Altmetric, Symplectic,
UberResearch, ReadCube and other start-ups
Oren Sreebny
Senior Director for Emerging Technologies &
Communications, University of Chicago Information
Technology Services
Simon Porter
University Administration and Support,
University of Melbourne
Mitra Dutta
Vice-Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois at
Chicago
Kristi Holmes
Director of Galter Health Sciences Library and Associate
Professor of Preventive Medicine-Health and Biomedical
Informatics, Northwestern University
Elisabeth Long
Associate University Librarian for for Digital Services
University of Chicago
Ian Foster
Director, Computation Institute, University of Chicago
and Argonne National Laboratory
Jeremy Manier
Director of the News Office, University of Chicago
David Beiser
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago,
and Co-Founder of Qualia Health
Samuel Volchenboum
Director and Associate Chief Research Informatics Officer
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Bill Barnett
Director, Science Community Tools, Indiana University
Alison Brizius
Executive Director for the Center on Robust Decision
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Bart Trawick
Literature Resources Lead, National Center for
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Robert Rosenberg
Director of Entrepreneurship Program, Polsky Center for
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James A. Evans
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Michael Wilde
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Kyle Chard
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…and more!
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | May 13, 2014
9
theSketch
Arts, Briefly.
WHPK commemorates longtime DJ
Like many student-led radio stations, University of Chicago’s WHPK is known for its
quirky offerings. In what may be a first, however, WHPK will broadcast a memorial service
Monday, May 26, 12–3 p.m., for opera DJ Hedy
Staskus.
Staskus passed away at the age of 80 on April 3
after a short illness, as reported in the Hyde Park
Herald. A retired nurse and longtime student,
Staskus was working on a masters at the University of Chicago upon her death. She shared her
love of opera through the Lyric Opera’s Lecture
Corps and her decade-long WHPK program
“Chicago Tessitura: Music and Musings from the
Opera Canon,” broadcasting under the handle
“Stacey Staskus.”
The memorial service will be broadcasted
during her regular timeslot and will feature personal reminiscences and music requests made in
Staskus’s honor. Current requesters include the
South Shore Opera Company, which Staskus
supported. Listeners are also invited to gather at
the studio during the service.
Cameron Day, a WHPK DJ and second-year
in the College, is gathering reminiscences and
requests by e-mail ([email protected]), although he did not personally know Staskus.
“She was with the station for a long time,” Day
said. “As the station manager I would like to pay
tribute to a DJ who worked with the station for
10 years and who ran our classical schedule.”
“Hedy was just a sweetheart,” said co-organizer
David Mihalyfy, a Ph.D. student in the Divinity
School and an instructor at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago. “She knew people in a lot
of places, and hopefully this will open up a space
where everyone who wants to can show their appreciation of her.”
Currently, the service is also slated to be recorded and made available on WHPK’s website.
—Tori Borengässer
California and Roscoe. It has since been featured
on shows like No Reservations and as one of Bon
Appetit’s 50 Best Restaurants on the Planet.
Even so, Hot Doug’s could not survive the vacillations of its mercurial owner, wiener wunderkind and sausage savant Sohn. "There really is no
overwhelming reason other than it’s time to go
do something else,” Sohn told DNAinfo Chicago.
“The plan is not to own a restaurant anymore.”
The restaurant, known for its bangin’ bangers
and specials named after an ever-rotating gallery
of female celebrities (based largely on Doug’s current tastes), will go on “permanent vacation” on
Saturday, October 4.
You have until then to run, walk, or crawl the
14 long miles from Hyde Park to North California avenue for what are—until October at
least—the best rabbit, duck, beef, pork, lamb
and alligator dogs in the whole damn world. If
only Doug’s buns could soak up tears as well as
mustard.
—Arts Editors
Hot Doug's closing
Chicago’s dog days are almost over.
Yes, Armageddon has come for lovers of encased meats from Wisconsin to 61st street: Hot
Doug's, famed provider of bratwurst and sausages of all types since 2001, is closing its doors.
Doug's, which on busy days can serve up to 800
of the world’s best hot dogs, gained notoriety for
owner Doug Sohn’s refusal to comply with a citywide foie gras ban in 2006, when he continued to
serve duck fat fries and foie gras dogs (the latter
named in honor of Alderman Joe Moore, who
spearheaded the ban) despite incurring the wrath
of Chicago culinary legend Charlie Trotter. The
restaurant burned down in 2004, after which it
rose, phoenix-like, from the flames of its destruction to hot dog glory at its current location on
Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's, is shutting down his beloved stand after 13 years on the
North Side. His "permanent vacation" will begin in October. Say it ain't so, Doug!
COURTESY OF NEWCITY.COM
High budget, low quality: Penny Dreadful gets it half right
James Mackenzie
Associate Arts Editor
“Penny dreadful” was a term coined in the late
19th century to describe extremely cheap “literature” which would appeal to the masses on the
basest possible levels. Scandalously raunchy sexual
content, prolific violence, and the most simplistic
of plots were par for the course. Those first two
types share a lot with the modern cable dramas
which have grown so popular that they are now
pushing the limits of what was once considered
decent to air on television. Some approach their
material with an air of class and high storytelling
craft (Breaking Bad, Mad Men), others toe the line
between intellect and smut with varying degrees of
success (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead), and
some merely hide behind the façade of drama while
being little different from those old one-cent novels. Enter the appropriately titled Penny Dreadful,
which premiered Sunday on Showtime.
Set in London during the 1890s, the show follows a group of individuals attempting to tackle a
who’s who of 19th-century gothic horror lurking in
the city’s underworld. And that’s about all the show
cares to tell before plunging the viewer straight into
that underworld. Within 15 minutes, we follow
American gun-for-hire Ethan Chandler (Josh
Hartnett) as he’s dragged by his mysterious benefactors into fistfights with vampires with only the
cryptic warning: “Do not be amazed at anything
you see, and don’t hesitate.” This may as well be the
show runners’ final message to the audience before
taking the plunge. In other words, “just go with it.”
Sure enough, mere minutes later we’re treated to
Dr. Victor Frankenstein (yes, that Dr. Frankenstein,
played here by Harry Treadaway) performing an
autopsy on a recently killed vampire, which reveals
a layer of tattoos beneath the skin bearing Egyptian
hieroglyphics transcribing a spell designed to bring
about the end of the world. It’s that kind of show.
Don’t get me wrong—it can all be great fun. It
becomes very clear within the first two episodes
that the show is not taking itself terribly seriously.
There are as many cheap thrills to be had as in any
of those original penny dreadfuls, from the supernatural horrors to the perverse sex which has survived on television to this day. Surprisingly, in spite
of these sex scenes, Penny Dreadful shies away from
nudity far more than most of its contemporary
cable dramas, but more than makes up for it with
an extra helping of that other staple of basic TV
viewer-bait: copious blood and gore.
We are treated to vampire stabbings, bloodied
bodies heaped upon one another, vampire dissections, the disemboweled remains of serial killer victims, other kinds of dissections, and a tuberculosisthemed sex scene. Don’t think too hard about that
last one.
There is plenty of interesting source material to
draw upon for this show’s future, of course. The
aforementioned Dr. Frankenstein and his famous
monster look to feature prominently in the show,
and the writers have also resurrected the less famous but no less interesting Dorian Gray (Reeve
Carney) from Oscar Wilde’s well-regarded novel.
These two inclusions set a precedent that allows the
show to introduce any figure from 19th-century
gothic horror that happens to be in the public domain. Online cast listings mention Mina Harker,
the lead character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It
wouldn’t be a surprise to see werewolves, Van Helsing, the ghost of Jack the Ripper, or even Abraham
Lincoln as a vampire hunter.
In spite of all this dressing, Penny Dreadful ultimately wants the audience to be connected to its
cast of original characters, a tall order in an already
overpopulated Edwardian London. In addition
At 71, Glück's sparse poetic style still speaks volumes
POET continued from page 7
ing from the voices of so many various objects and characters—and
yet also in her own, surprisingly
empathetic voice. It is perhaps this
creative empathy, which may, despite or because of its unyielding
quality, enable the depth of imagination required for her book-length
sequences of poems and give them
their widespread popularity.
She read from Faithful and Virtuous Night, her new collection which
will be published this September by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The book
centers around an artist who can no
longer paint. Following on the heels
of Glück’s first large volume of collected poetry last November (the
publication of which she at first
resisted, thinking it would be too
“valedictory”), this collection will
take on the questions of old age and
artistic work about which Glück,
71, says she now feels allowed to
write.
Glück acknowledged that her usage of parables and allegories within the book helped to create its narrative, and it is the mixture of these
poems with those from the painter’s
voice that she hopes will give the
book a “billowy” quality. Yet Glück,
in the (paradoxically) straightforward-yet-oblique manner that creates such intensity in her poetry,
did not read from the artist’s point
of view. Her reading style, clear, focused, and dry, did not prepare me
for the kindly humor with which
she met the audience’s questions:
She spoke frankly on her love of
teaching, her tarot-reading sessions,
her hatred of poetry readings, and
her pleasure in traveling.
Her selections included “Par-
able,” from the point of view of a
group of wanderers—or are they
pilgrims? —questioning the purpose of their journey; “A Sharply
Worded Silence”; and “Aboriginal Landscape,” which memorably
opens with "'You’re stepping on
your father,’ my mother said.” Her
poetry, frequently taking the form
of a casual narrative, occasionally
shocks with such hidden gems as, “I
was like you once, he said, in love
with turbulence.”
Despite Glück’s fears, the collections of her works are far from being
valedictory. Instead they are opening up her work to larger audiences.
Her own distinctive voice shines
through even in her poems on silence. And her reception among
poetry-lovers proves that whatever
the future holds in store for Glück,
it will be anything but silent.
to Chandler, the show is headlined by Vanessa
Ives and Sir Malcolm Murray, played by the talented but underemployed Eva Green and Timothy Dalton, respectively. Sir Murray’s motives are
fairly clear; he wants to rescue his missing daughter
from vampires by any means necessary. Ives’s are
less clear-cut; her highlight of the series so far was
a bizarre 10-minute-long (at least it felt that long)
possession scene at a séance gone wrong, where she
lambasts Dalton in the most over-the-top manner
imaginable. It was very fitting with the tone of the
show thus far.
These two actors share an odd connection with
show creator, John Logan, through the James Bond
franchise: Logan penned the most recent installment Skyfall, Green played one of the more memorable love interests in Casino Royale, and Dalton
took a turn as one the least memorable men to play
Bond himself before Pierce Brosnan took over. The
result is a group of underappreciated talents attempting to carve out featured roles in careers that
have frequently seen them fall just outside the edge
of the brightest spotlights. Based on what we’ve
seen so far, it doesn’t look like a good bet that they’ll
get anything other than cheap thrills out of it. And
nor will the viewers.
"Why did we as a society limit
skanking to only ska?"
NSW continued from page 7
the pit was packed and even the balcony
level was at shoulder-to-shoulder capacity. Planet Smashers is a bread-and-butter ska band in terms of sound, but their
energy, stage presence, and crowd-work
made them a highlight of the evening
for me. With songs such as “You Guys
Are Assholes, Let’s Party,” “Pee In The
Elevator,” and the earlier alluded to “Super Orgy Porno Party,” there was plenty
of moshing to be had and skanking to
be done. It is to be noted that this crowd
was one of the best in terms of moshing etiquette and general awareness of
other concert attendees, which was very
refreshing. Also, why did we as a society
limit skanking to only ska? It’s a fantastic and fun dance that even I, someone
with two left feet, can do; it should be
a staple of every genre, we could skank
to everything from “Wagon Wheel” to
“Get Low”!
Mustard Plug, the headliner for
the evening, finally came out to a very
sweaty crowd and opened with classics
like “Box” and “You” off their 1997 album Evildoers Beware before transitioning into more recent songs that I haven’t
really kept up with. The highlights of the
set included a guy getting launched face
first onto the stage via crowd surfing,
me getting pinballed around by people
much larger than myself, and a tripleencore from Mustard Plug. Overall, it
was a great show, and it’s nice to know
that Wicker Park can be a destination
for those who aren’t interested in thrifting or Big Star, not that there’s anything
wrong with old clothes and fancy tacos.
But to end on a serious note, please
make skanking mainstream, guys.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 13, 2014
10
I think, therefore I run
Sarah Langs
Senior Sports Editor
It still sounds funny as it
rolls off my tongue, but I’m
a runner. This is new for me,
so my identification with the
noun itself hasn’t quite sunk
in. What’s the difference between being somebody who
runs and being a runner?
Well, we learned about a term
called lexicalization last week
in a psychology course I’m
taking called Development
of Social Cognition. Lexicalization in the form of a noun
means to make a noun label
into a descriptive factor. The
study we read set up a contrast between telling children
that others are “carrot-eaters”
versus just saying “that person eats a lot of carrots.” The
children in the study judged
the lexicalized nouns to refer
to longer-lasting traits, while
the verb descriptions, such as
“eats a lot of carrots,” weren’t
seen to be as stable over time
That was a lot of psychology jargon for the Sports
section, and I’m not sure you
could get a lede like that in
any paper other than one here
at the University of Chicago.
Where else does social cognition class overlap with one’s
athletic tendencies? But I
bring it up to show the distinction of calling myself a
runner, when I used to be a
person who runs. By choosing to now subscribe to the
lexicalized noun, I’m conveying that I see this to be a part
of me. And trust me, running
has not always been a key
component in my life.
I was never much of an
athlete—I used to fake injuries and stomachaches to get
out of P.E. (yes, Dalton P.E.
department, those were pretty
much all lies). I tried some
of the team sports, playing
three years of middle school
softball and one uneventful year on the high school
team’s “development squad.”
I swam, too. That was my
sport from a pretty young age,
once I finally learned to put
my head underwater, which I
did about five years later than
most kids. I loved to swim,
and only stopped as a junior
in high school when extracurricular activities impeded the
time commitment.
The thing with swimming
was, I liked it, but I really
wasn’t that great. I was definitely “good” at points, but
I had reached my ceiling. I
wasn’t going to improve. I
didn’t quit because I couldn’t
do better (I’ve heard Jimmy
Valvano’s “don’t ever give up”
speech far too many times to
do that), but my just-decentness was certainly a thought
that put my mind at ease when
I stopped swimming. My P.R.
times for my best event had
leveled off about a year before
I quit, and I knew I couldn’t
swim any faster unless I dedicated a huge amount of time
that I just didn’t have.
Despite my relatively unathletic history, though, I am
inordinately competitive. I
can’t even begin to explain
how most things in my mind
end up playing out as competitions, but they do.
Two years ago, in early Feb-
ruary, an e-mail popped into
my inbox. I was on some San
Francisco Giants e-mail list,
and this installment was reminding me that sign-up was
now open for The Giant Race.
I had no idea what that was,
but I saw the words “set foot
on the field at AT&T Park,”
so I figured I should read the
email. Turned out, this was
a 5K race that ended on the
field. My mother and grandmother are huge lifetime Giants fans, and I decided that
we had to get that chance to
step on the field. Plus, they
advertised an exciting bobblehead as part of the race goodies, and we’re bobblehead
fanatics. So I forwarded the
e-mail to my mother, with the
note, “Want to do the race?
We could walk it.” She wrote
back 20 minutes later with,
“Yes.”
And with that, our fates
were sealed. I signed us up,
and we planned a trip to
California for the summer to
participate in the race. From
then until about July, I was
determined to walk this 5K
with my mother and set foot
on the field.
But something changed. I
can’t remember what it was
exactly, but I realized that I
should try to run this thing.
I’d never run in my life, with a
few (notable) exceptions: running down Lake Shore Drive
with my friend Amanda early
first year, completely unaware
she’d been a cross-country
runner. I spent the next five
hours gasping for breath. I
also did a few New York Road
Runners races before the age
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Have you read Quantum Venus & The Magic Theatre?
Check your kindle!
of 10, when my father was still
a runner—the Mother’s Day
race, the Father’s Day race, etc.
When we did the President’s
Challenge in fourth grade, I
had the second-slowest mile
time in my entire grade, and,
to put it nicely, the person
who was slower than me was
about four times my size. But
I had never run more than a
mile at once outdoors or indoors.
I started running on a
treadmill at the gym, and
quickly realized my utter hatred for the machines. I consider myself to run at a pretty
steady pace now, but early in
my running career, when I was
still figuring out my body’s
limits, the constancy of the
treadmill’s movement made
five seconds feel like five minutes and 10 minutes feel like
an eternity. And even now, it
makes the entire process lose
all of its fun for me.
With treadmill animosity deeply ingrained into my
head, I tried running outside.
I think I ran a half-mile once
or twice, and a mile maybe
once. And with that, it was
time to head to California for
the race.
I ran outside a few times
there, too, prior to the day of
the race. The day before, I set
foot outside my grandmother’s house and decided I needed to run a 5K, just to know
I could. So I ran for about
35 minutes, and finished
those 3.12 miles. In between
breaths, I was the proudest I’d
been of myself in a long time.
The next morning was the
race. Somewhere along the
way, my mother had also decided she would run this race
after all, taking her time and
going at her own pace.
The experience of being in
a race, surrounded by other
people who were alternately
talking, listening to music,
or tripping, was something
I hadn’t prepared myself for.
So I put in my headphones,
opened up my WFAN app
(New York sports radio, for
you non-New Yorkers out
there), and listened to New
York Giants Pregame Live. I’d
learned somewhere along the
way that music doesn’t motivate me to run faster the way it
does for most people. Instead,
it makes me anxious, because
I finish the lines of the songs
in my head and then am impatient for the songs themselves
to end. The race was on the
first Sunday of the football
season, so there was certainly
enough football chatter to occupy my racing time.
Thirty-three minutes and
31 seconds later, I was standing on the field at AT&T
Park. I’d never been on the
field at a Major League ballpark, and still haven’t been on
any other one, and the experience was surreal.
About 10 minutes later, I
got the joy of seeing my mother finish the race, too. I think
she was more tired than I was,
but I was more proud of her
than I was of myself. To take
up running at the age of 19
having never done it before is
one thing. To do the same at
the age of 57 is a whole other
animal.
Since then, I’ve run in 11
other races, and have at least
three more on my agenda for
the rest of 2014. My times
have improved, though not
steadily. But I feel when I run,
I can run faster and can train
my lungs to make me feel less
sick. Unlike when I bottomed
out in swimming, I still feel
room to grow here. Maybe
after I’ve been running as long
as I’d been swimming, I won’t
feel that way. But hopefully,
I’ll be at a point in terms of
times that I’ll be glad to stay
at.
Why should you care? Why
did I just spend 1,000-plus
words talking about my personal running story?
Here’s my pitch: I run because it makes me feel like I’m
accomplishing
something.
Even if all I have time for in
my day is a mile, getting that
mile done is the most productive eight minutes of the
day. And at a school like this,
it’s hard to think in terms of
anything other than productivity. This is part of another
psychology point, from Social Psych: running facilitates
high self-complexity. Selfcomplexity is the phenomenon of having different selfconcepts for different roles,
and having multiple roles in
general. High self-complexity
mitigates stress, because even
if you fail in one domain,
you still have others to prop
yourself up on. No matter
how badly a day goes—assignments, grades, presentations,
anything—if I can run a mile
or two, I can remind myself of
that accomplishment.
This brings me to my next
point: Running is for thinking. I don’t run with music,
and I don’t run with talk radio anymore, either. Sometimes I run with friends, like
my best friend with whom I
tackled my first, and her first,
10K this past Sunday. It was
the farthest each of us had
ever run, but we got through
it together. But most of the
time, it’s just me and a pair of
sneakers—and twenty other
layers over this past winter,
at least—and the sidewalks.
My mind flits in and out of
conscious thoughts and more
cerebral things, but I’ve never
had a bad set of thoughts
while running. Sometimes
it’s planning out assignments,
homework, and to-do lists.
But sometimes it’s broader
than that, thinking about the
people I know and am surrounded by.
Believe it or not, I wrote the
lede to this article in my head
as I ran just the other day. I
find that tuning one’s brain
out and letting it just do what
it will—a modified form of
stream of consciousness, perhaps—encourages my creativity in multiple realms.
Unlike other sports, all running really truly requires is a
pair of sneakers. That versatility means it’s something I can
see as being a part of me for
the rest of my life. I’m a runner.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | May 13, 2014
11
At penultimate qualifying meet, athletes tear up track once more
Track & Field
Zachary Themer
Marooon Contributor
With the final meet
of the regular season approaching and the NCAA
DIII Outdoor Championships looming on the horizon, the Maroons hit their
stride last week at the Dr.
Keeler Invite at North Central College.
Following a scorching
hot Thursday afternoon,
where fourth-year Sarah
Peluse in the 10,000-meter
and first-year Gareth Jones
in the 5,000-meter turned
in strong times and high
finishes, the rest of the Maroons embraced a cooler
Friday afternoon, where
several individuals sought
to put themselves in position for not only personal
records and high finishes,
but also qualifying times for
Nationals.
“This weekend was about
individuals trying to qualify
for Nationals or accomplish an unsatisfied goal,”
second-year Ben Clark said.
“We were hoping for optimal weather conditions
for the short sprints, which
is something we haven’t
had all year. The track was
too soft to yield fast times,
and there ended up being a
slight headwind.”
Regardless of the conditions, Clark was still able
to turn in an impressive
time of 11.09 seconds in
the 100-meter dash, good
enough for a top-20 finish
in a field of over 50 competitors. Other Maroons
contributed
impressive
performances on the day
as well, including first-year
Michelle Dobbs, who took
second in the 800-meter,
second-year Ryan Manzuk,
who placed 13th in the
400-meter hurdles, first-year
Olivia Clink, who turned in
a distance of 10.87m in the
triple jump for sixth place,
and the women’s 4x400meter relay team of Dobbs,
second-year Alison Pildner,
first-year Eleanor Kang, and
third-year Francesca Tomasi, which continued its impressive season with a time
of 3:53:50, good enough for
first place that afternoon.
“There is still definitely
some room for improvement. One area I’m especially focused on is our
4x400 relay,” Dobbs said.
“We broke the school record on Friday, but I don’t
think any of us are completely satisfied, especially
as a couple more seconds off
would probably qualify our
team for Nationals.”
For the women’s 4x400
meter relay and the rest of
the Maroons, there does
remain one opportunity
to qualify for Nationals:
the Last Chance Meet this
Thursday and Friday, again
at North Central. With
several Maroons only mere
seconds, centimeters, and
splits away from qualifying
for the NCAA Championships in Delaware, OH, Friday will prove to be a pivotal moment in the season
for the men’s and women’s
Maroons.
“Now that we’re onto the
Nationals part of the season,
there’s still a small group
who’s looking to Nationals, and for us, there’s still
definitely work to be done,
but it varies much more on
In the Chatter’s Box
with Sarah Langs
Nikki DelZenero is a fourth-year setter on the volleyball team from Willowbrook, IL.
We chatted with her to get some insider info on the life of a Maroon athlete.
Kim: “I will definitely miss...receiving the ball
from my coach when the game is on the line”
BASEBALL continued from back
ers slid into third base, knocking the ball
into the dugout, and [that] allowed us to
take the lead,” said fourth-year pitcher Ray
Kim.
Massey hit a sacrifice fly to center field to
bring in Prescott, topping off the Maroons’
7–5 victory.
In game three, the Maroons were caught
in a similar situation as game one and lost
11–1. Wash U’s pitchers were on point, and
there were hits coming from all over the
Bears’ lineup.
“They got a strong pitching performance
from their starter, and their relievers continued to shut us down. They hit and
knocked runners in from top to bottom of
their lineup, battling every at-bat and making it exhausting for our pitchers,” Wagner
said.
Despite a rough season, in which Chicago ended 10–27, the Maroons were able to
finish with some memorable moments on
Senior Day.
“Massey went 4-for-5 in his last collegiate
game,” VanWazer said. “It was great to have
Ray Kim come in to pitch in the seventh inning of game two and pick up the final win
of his college career.”
The most memorable moment of all for
the Maroons was spoiling the Bears’ postseason opportunity.
“It felt great to knock off our rival and be
the reason why Wash U lost its chance at
the tournament,” Wagner said.
“Our motto for the weekend was, ‘If we’re
not going to the tournament, they’re not either,’” VanWazer said.
As what happens after any team’s season
ends, emotions and memories bubble to the
surface.
“I will never forget getting ready for a
baseball game or going to a game far away
early in the morning, only to return late
at night, or even just sitting in the bullpen
with my fellow pitchers,” Kim said. “I will
definitely miss coming into a game and receiving the ball from my coach when the
game is on the line.”
Along with Kim, fourth-years Massey,
Bartelman, pitcher Alex Terry, infielder
Will Katzka, first baseman Ricky Troncelliti, outfielder Brett Huff, and pitchers
Claude Lockhart and Chris Warren were
honored on Senior Day.
“I’m going to miss their presence a lot,
not only on the field but off as well,” VanWazer said.
The University of Chicago Program in the
History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine
presents a lecture by
Gregg Mitman
"A Film Never Made: History, Science, and Memory
in Liberia"
Wednesday, May 14
4:30-6:00pm
Harper Memorial Library, Room 103
1116 E. 59th Street
Gregg Mitman is the Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History of Science, Medical
History, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Reaching across the
fields of environmental history, the history of science and medicine, and the visual culture of
science, his research seeks to understand the ways in which political economy, cultural values and beliefs, and scientific knowledge
intersect in shaping the interactions between people and environments over time.
Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance are requested to call (773)-702-8391 in advance.
an athlete-to-athlete basis,”
Dobbs said.
The Maroons hit the
track this Thursday at
North Central at 12:15 p.m.
and once again on Friday at
3 p.m. before select athletes
head to Nationals next week
in Ohio.
COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
Chicago Maroon: When did you
start playing volleyball?
Nikki DelZenero: I started playing volleyball when I was in seventh grade, so I was
12.
CM: Did you play other sports beforehand, or at the same time?
ND: I played softball from ages eight to
16. During my freshman and sophomore
year of high school I played both softball
and volleyball, and then had to give up softball because I was playing volleyball yearround, and it got to be way too much to try
and balance.
CM: When did you know you’d play in
college?
ND: I knew that I wanted to play in college my sophomore year of high school. It
was kind of the first year that it occurred to
me as being a thing, when I was on the varsity team as a sophomore. I switched clubs
into a more competitive one that could help
me with recruiting, and so that was when I
first kind of made the move towards that direction.
CM: You’ve been playing since you were
young, and you’ve played here now. How do
you think you’re going to continue with volleyball after you graduate?
ND: I definitely think that coaching is going to be a part of my life in some capacity.
Right now I am a setter’s coach—a positional coach—for a travel club team in the area.
They’re nice because a lot of the travel teams
in the area are in the suburbs, and they take
a lot of the city kids. And I’m hoping that if
I end up in the city after graduation at some
point, I will be able to have my own team,
instead of just being a positional coach. And
then coach every weekend, or every other
weekend, with my own team instead of just
once a week for random girls who play my
position specifically. I’ve definitely given
thought to going to graduate school and be-
ing a graduate assistant at a program, be it
at Emory in our own UAA, because I think
I have a lot of good DIII knowledge, or going somewhere that’s a big DI school where
I can learn even more from a coach who has
had a fantastic DI team in the Sweet Sixteen
or the Elite Eight a few years. So, I’ve given
thought to that, but I think that I want to
look into that more in a couple years. That’s
kind of the coaching route. The other route
is the playing route: There is opportunity to
play volleyball professionally in Europe, but
the information about how to do that and
how to get there and how to get coaches to
see you—there are just a few people in the
United States who are the gatekeepers of
that information, so I’ve been doing research
and trying to figure out if it’s plausible.
Those tryouts are in September, or in the
early fall, so it’s something that’s a bit on the
back burner for now, because I try to get the
rest of my life figured out. But it’s something
that’s occurred to me and that I would really
like to do.
CM: The same way that you realized in
your sophomore year of high school that you
wanted to play in college, was there a point
in the last four years when you realized that
this was something you wanted to interact
with after graduating?
ND: I think sophomore or junior year of
college, when I realized that there is an end
point on my saying, “What can I work on
for next season?” That number of seasons I
have left playing competitively with a jersey
on my back, with a group of people who are
willing to come into the gym and work towards the same goals every single day, that
was dwindling.
CM: What’s on your mind when you’re
playing?
ND: I got really lucky that in seventh
grade, my coach decided to put me in the
setter’s position, because I think 100 miles a
minute. And I talk that fast, oftentimes. And
my position is one of few where that’s not
only allowed, but kind of encouraged. And
the best players who set are able to think and
do a lot of things at one time. Because I’ve
had so much practice in real life, I’m able
to do it without feeling or looking frazzled,
just my mind can be running around a lot.
I, especially in the last couple of years, tried
to improve at both thinking about what was
happening on my side of the net and the
other side of the net, too, which is kind of a
dual-minded thing to be thinking about. I’m
always thinking about what I need to do to
continue the game and to focus on my skill.
But I also need to think about how each of
my teammates is reacting and performing
and how what I do to them or in what way
I give them the ball, or what I say to them
after I give them the ball, affects them individually. And then at the same time, I have to
be thinking about what patterns are happening on the other end of the net and how my
decisions are affecting their decisions and
their actions and their movements.
SPORTS
IN QUOTES
“He was excited where he was hitting today. He asked me how much I had to drink last night.”
–S.F. Giants manager Bruce Bochy describes third baseman Pablo Sandoval’s
reaction to his spot in the lineup against the Dodgers on May 11.
South Siders’ impressive year concludes after NCAA losses
Softball
Jenna Harris
Sports Staff
Finishing with a 25–10 record, the Maroons completed
their 2014 play this Saturday
with losses in the NCAA Regional Championship against
Thomas More College (31–
12) and University of Wisconsin–Whitewater (35–10).
However, these losses do not
detract from the remarkable
season the Maroons have had.
“Our team continually rose
to every occasion and highpressure situation,” said second-year first baseman Kathleen Kohm. “We embraced
hitting with two outs, and
our defense continually shut
down opponents’ attacks. This
definitely all came from the
top down, starting with our
seniors and their leadership
and relentless desire to win, all
the way to our freshmen that
stepped up to the high level
of collegiate softball. The past
weekend certainly was not a re-
flection on our team or on our
ability to play and win softball
games. Our success this season
absolutely overshadows this
past weekend.”
Last Friday afternoon, the
South Siders faced Thomas
More, resulting in an 8–0 loss.
All of Thomas More’s runs
came in the top of the third
inning. The first five runners
reached base, and the team
would go on to score eight runs
en route to an insurmountable
advantage. After the fifth inning, the game ended because
of the run rule.
Chicago was eliminated
from the tournament on Saturday after its game against
UW–Whitewater ended in a
4–0 loss. It was a battle of the
pitchers with second-year Jordan Poole and third-year Tabbetha Bohac leading the way,
but the game finished at 4–0,
with all four runs coming in
the sixth inning.
“So yes, this weekend was
frustrating, as we didn’t do
as well as we had hoped to,”
Bohac said. “We played well
but had two bad innings
that we weren’t able to come
back from. Making regionals,
though, was always a goal for
our team, so to be able to do
that and to host them for the
first time in school history was
awesome!”
Poole agrees.
“Clearly, regionals didn’t
end the way we wanted it to,
but the biggest takeaway is
that this was an amazing season with an amazing group of
girls… I don’t think anyone is
quite ready to admit it is over,”
Poole said.
Indeed, the Maroons definitely proved themselves contenders this year.
“I think our team went
through a lot of tough situations on and off the field during the winter, and that made
us incredibly strong and resilient as a team together,” Kohm
said. “We had always believed
that our team was the best
Fourth-year Julia Covello makes a play in a game against Wesleyan in April of
last year.
WILLIAM YEE | CHICAGO MAROON
out there…and once we got to
Florida, we just had the chance
to show that to the world…
our team continued to believe
throughout the season, and
our resilience showed every
day.”
1–1 performance ends Nationals run
Women’s Tennis
Helen Petersen
Maroon Contributor
The Maroons hosted the
NCAA regional tournament
this weekend.
After easily making it
through the first day of the
tournament with a 5–0 win
over Principia on Thursday,
the No. 12 South Siders
were met with hard-fought
challenges in the following
days.
On Friday, Chicago defeated No. 28 Carleton 5–2
in its first match.
Chicago began the matches against Carleton with two
decisive doubles wins. In
No. 2 doubles, second-years
Helen Sdvizhkov and Sruthi
Ramaswami defeated Grace
Davis and Mikayla Becich,
8–3. No. 3 doubles partners
third-year Kelsey McGillis
and second-year Stephanie
Lee followed with a victory
over Katherine Greenberg
and Molly Hemes, 8–2.
Third-year Megan Tang
and first-year Tiffany Chen
dropped the No. 1 doubles
match to Joyce Yu and Anne
Lombardi, 8–5.
The duo, which recently
qualified for the NCAA
Championships,
battled
hard but could not seem to
put the ball away at critical
points.
“In doubles, it was just
a matter of who made less
errors, and unfortunately
Tiff [Chen] and I made a
few too many, which likely
cost us both of the doubles
matches we lost,” Tang said.
“The Carleton team was
able to deal with the wind
a little better than us and
make fewer errors, while also
executing more shots at the
net.”
Third-year Kelsey McGillis returns a ball in a game
against Rochester two seasons ago.
COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS
Both Chen and Tang
bounced back from their
doubles losses to earn wins
in singles. At No. 1 singles,
Tang had a convincing win
over Anne Lombardi, 6–4,
6–1.
Chen, on the other hand,
had a hard-fought, three-set
match victory over Claire
Spencer at No. 2 singles. After a solid 6–0 first set, Chen
dropped the second set, 6–4.
“My singles match against
Carleton was a test of mental toughness,” Chen said.
“Because the sun and wind
were difficult to deal with, I
had to play smart, especially
in tight moments in the
third set.”
Chicago dominated the
singles matches, dropping
only one of the six played. At
Regionals, teams only need
to win five total matches in
order to defeat an opposing team. With two doubles
matches under their belt,
the Maroons needed to win
three singles matches to win
the whole thing.
At No. 6 singles, Lee won
two close sets to set Chicago
up for the win. Chen and
Tang’s wins secured the victory for the Maroons. Ramaswami, at No. 5 singles,
and Sdvizhkov, at No. 4,
were both ahead in the third
set of their respective matches when play ceased.
This win sent Chicago
to the finals of the regional
tournament, where it met
up with Carnegie, a fellow
UAA team.
The day did not begin as
the Maroons had hoped,
as dropping two of the
first three doubles matches
proved to be too much to
come back from, and the
Maroons dropped three singles matches, giving Carnegie the win. McGillis was
the lone Maroon to pull out
a singles win. She defeated
Nicholle Torres, 6–4, 6–3.
The loss ended the season
for Chicago.
“As a whole, I felt like we
all competed really well,”
Tang said. “Because NCAAs
were the last matches we had
as a team this season, we
definitely wanted to implement all the strategies we’ve
been working hard on in
practice.”
Tang and Chen will continue on through individuals and doubles postseason
competition. Tang was one
of 32 women selected for the
NCAA Championships.
“I’m really looking forward to NCAAs,” Tang said.
“In doubles, Tiff and I will
definitely work on being
more aggressive together at
the net, hitting our spots
for serves, and hitting our
ground strokes more heavily so the net person can get
easy volleys. For singles, I’ll
be focusing on playing more
offensive tennis by hitting
my ground strokes deeper
and out of the middle of the
court.”
The individual Championships begin on Thursday,
May 22 in Claremont, CA.
Chicago’s
season-ending
games reminded the team how
important the fourth-years
were to this year’s success.
“We had a great senior class
this year, and after having the
privilege to play with them for
the last three years, it’s hard to
imagine a team without them
next year,” Bohac said. “As far
as goals for next year, we are
going to feed off the energy
from this year and make it back
to the tournament.”
Maroons halt Bears’
playoff hopes
Baseball
Eirene Kim
Maroon Contributor
Chicago spoiled longtime
rival Wash U’s chances at
an NCAA tournament bid
with its game two win in
this past weekend’s threegame series, which included
Senior Day.
The Maroons wrapped up
their season by going 1–2
this past weekend against
the Bears. Chicago had a
rough start in its final UAA
matchup against the Bears
on Friday afternoon. In
game one, the Maroons were
unable to defend against
a Wash U lineup that was
constantly producing hits
throughout the game.
“Wash U jumped all over
our pitching with tons of
extra base hits, including
two home runs,” said thirdyear second baseman Nate
Wagner.
Wash U was constantly
on the attack, and the Maroons’ defense allowed a
couple of runs in each inning. Fourth-year second
baseman Dylan Massey hit
a home run in the bottom
of the eighth inning, but by
that time the Maroons were
already far behind.
“We seemed to lack a
sense of urgency the entire
game until we were in holes
too big to climb out of,” said
second-year pitcher Pat McManus.
The Maroons struggled
to perform offensively
against the Bears’ pitching,
as they tallied only five hits
by the end of the game.
“We faced their best
pitcher and couldn’t get
much going at the plate,”
said third-year third baseman Andrew VanWazer.
Chicago ended game one
with a 13–1 loss.
Despite the tough loss,
the Maroons bounced back
the next afternoon and beat
Wash U. Chicago was led by
fourth-year outfielder Connor Bartelman and thirdyear shortstop Kyle Engel,
both of whom singled up
the middle to bring in two
runs each in back-to-back
innings. Bartelman and
Engel’s hits would not have
been as effective without a
strong performance from
the entire lineup, though.
“What helped was the
bottom and the top of our
order produc[ing ] big hits
for us,” said Wagner.
Wash U fought back and
was up 5–4 by the top of the
eighth inning, but the Maroons forced a Bears’ throwing error that drove in two
runs.
“We fought back after
Wash U took the lead with
a key single by [first-year]
Tom Prescott to take the
lead for good,” said Wagner.
“[Third-year] Eddie AkBASEBALL cont. on page 11