John Kuhns (MFA `75), author, artist, entrepreneur

TUESDAY • APRIL 10, 2012
Hillel firing leaves
Jewish students anxious
Sarah Miller
News Staff
Jewish students are bewildered over the sudden
firing late last month of the
campus Hillel’s executive
director, Dan Libenson,
and the dismissal of his
board, which left uncertain
the future of Jewish life at
the University and struck
many as unjust treatment
of an accomplished administrator.
The Jewish United Fund
of Chicago ( JUF), which
Residents of Broadview
Hall are raising alarms over
the false fire drills that have
wrenched them from bed
in the middle of the night
eight times in the past two
weeks.
The first of the false
alarms rang March 27
around 3 a.m., when one of
the building’s heat sensors
malfunctioned. The sensors detect sudden sharp
changes in temperature.
As students filed out
onto the sidewalk, fire-
University students flock to Occupy after winter hiatus
owns the building, its endowment, and the Hillel
name, notified Libenson of
his firing in a letter March
29. The firing comes at
the end of two years of financial and philosophical
tensions between the Newberger Hillel and the JUF.
Libenson, who became
executive director in 2006
and is a recipient of an AVI
CHAI fellowship, is seen
as responsible for many
of the organization’s most
successful efforts in recent
HILLEL continued on page 2
At Broadview, faulty fire
alarms ring, then ring again
Lina Li
News Staff
ISSUE 36 • VOLUME 123
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
fighters entered the building to investigate the source
of the alarm, eventually
turning it off and allowing
residents to return to their
rooms. However, the alarm
went off once more an hour
later, causing residents to
evacuate again and the fire
department to come.
Wick House resident
Mido Aly expressed frustration that the University
had expediently dealt with
facilities problems in Pierce
Tower earlier this month
but were slow to resolve the
problems in Broadview.
ALARMS continued on page 2
Lab School graduate David Orlikoff (center) sounds a call to action among other Occupy Chicago
protesters shortly after Saturday’s march from the Financial District to Grant Park.
SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Linda Qiu
Associate News Editor
University students gathered
alongside more than 1,000 activists at Saturday’s kickoff of Chicago Spring, marking the return
of the Occupy movement to its
roots in street activism.
After a winter hibernation
spent organizing indoors,
Occupiers at neighborhood
events convened at the movement’s first base at Jackson
Street and LaSalle Street and
marched to Grant Park.
There, hundreds participated
in an afternoon festival of workshops and discussions to mobilize against the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO)
summit on May 19–21, which
Occupy views as a symbol of the
one percent’s power.
“What we face in Chicago
is serious. They’re stealing our
schools. They’re stealing our
clinics. They’re stealing our free
speech,” Occupy Labor Committee member Andy Manos said in
an opening speech. “These are
revolutionary times. We must
move forward by moving towards each other. Welcome to
the Chicago Spring.”
Hyde Park demonstrations
earlier in the day included Occupy the Southside’s Stop the
American Genocide (StAG)
campaign, a panel discussion led
by Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.
at Rainbow PUSH Coalition
headquarters in Kenwood, and
a rally at the impending Becker
Friedman Institute on East 58th
Street and South University Avenue against the free market philosophy of Milton Friedman.
Sociology graduate student
and UChicago Occupy member
Peter Fugiel said that the Univer-
sity’s mistreatment of facilities
workers, shown in its decision to
cut workers’ hours rather than cut
costs elsewhere, demonstrated
the detrimental effects of Friedman’s ideology.
“The University models itself
as a private corporation, in the
legacy of ‘the market knows best.’
This ideology is very contagious,
and it gets into the avenues of
society that are supposedly not
about profits,” he said.
Though the movement previously objected to the naming of
the Becker Friedman Institute,
OCCUPY continued on page 3
Uncommon Interview: John Kuhns (M.F.A. ’75), author, artist, entrepreneur
John Kuhns (M.F.A. ’75), a former sculptor and MAROON staffer, is a leading
investment banker and venture capitalist in the alternative energy market. He
lectured on April 5 about his new novel, China Fortunes, and talked with the
MAROON about creativity in investing, Chinese business culture, and his future
endeavors.
John Kuhns (M.F.A. ‘75), CEO of China Hydroelectric Corp. and author of China Fortunes,
discusses his business experience and how his artistic background shaped it.
JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON
TUES
WED
48°
34°
52°
35°
THURS
FRI
56°
42°
63°
55°
Temperatures in Fahrenheit - Courtesy of The Weather Channel
Chicago Maroon: How has your artistic
background and time on the Maroon influenced your later experiences?
John Kuhns: I would say the practical utilization of writing skills was very important for
me—something I didn’t have when I arrived,
but happily I improved by the time I left. Really,
writing and speaking as one writes in any aspect
of business is critically important because in the
end, all business is about getting someone to buy
your product, whatever it is, a widget or a service.
I was being interviewed when I was at Harvard Business School for a permanent position
at First Boston, and the person who was interviewing me was a little stiff. [He] said to me,
“What did you do before you got to Harvard?
I’m looking at your résumé. This can’t possibly
be right. It says you’re a Master of Fine Arts from
University of Chicago.” I said, “That’s right.” He
said, “What in God’s name would give you the
idea that you could go from something like that
to working at First Boston?” I said, “Well, I was
told that investment banking relies on creativity,
and so I thought my arts background, which obviously depends on creativity, would be helpful.”
He says, “Investment banking is evolutionary,
not revolutionary.”
Well, tell that to Steve Jobs.
CM: What has motivated your career changes?
JK: Well, let me just say this about anyone looking at a career or changes in their career: Don’t
ever make a decision based on money. It’s the
worst possible thing one can do. What one reUNCOMMON continued on page 2
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
Prospective ideas
» Page 4
Iceberg straight ahead: Iconic ship hits new
dimension » Page 7
Funder pressure
Artist and RH bursts out of housing bubble
» Page 4
» Page 9
2
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 10, 2012
Business, Kuhns says, like In light of Pierce, Broadview residents urge action from administration
“carving a piece of wood” ALARM continued from front
should now function as expected. As a pre- residents to send e-mails requesting immeUNCOMMON continued from front
ally has to do, and I had an opportunity to think
a lot in Midway Studios with my headphones
on. I was a sculptor pounding away on a rock
there, so I had a lot of time to think about what I
wanted to do and what I concluded was the best
thing I could do is do something that I was good
at. Why? Because that would make the day more
pleasurable. What I’ve also found as I’ve winded
my way through my career is that if I’m doing
something that I’m good at, the success comes.
Now, furthermore, in terms of business plans,
you always have to pay attention to the world
around you, just like an artist. I was a reductive
sculptor, so I would take a block of stone and
reduce it to an image, whereas, say, someone
working with clay is an additive. But either way,
you have to adjust to changes going on. So with
wood, if you’re carving a piece of wood, if you
get to a knot and that was where the face was
supposed to be, you’re gonna have to change that
figuration. And business is the same way.
CM: What are the differences between business
dealings in China and in the U.S.?
JK: The assumption that most organizations
that we’re familiar with here stateside are what
we call triangular. In other words, there’s a hierarchy. The CEO is on the top; coming down the
pyramid you have a technology officer, the CFO,
etc. If the people at [a] bank ask a financial question, they don’t want the CEO to answer that
question. They want the CFO to answer that
question. As a matter of fact, if the CEO starts
to answer a financial question, people start to get
nervous.
Now let’s go to China. What’s employed over
there is a system where there’s a guy, a person,
called a dalaban. The dalaban makes all the decisions, provides all the information to outsiders,
so the system is neither transparent nor diversified. So you haven’t got a lot of people contributing to the value of a whole. Unfortunately,
you’ve only got one person. And no investor in,
let’s say, international money centers [in] New
York, Switzerland, London, even Hong Kong
or Singapore, is going to give that organization
money if that person’s investor has a choice. That
is the biggest thing to try and get across to my
clients and my opportunities that I invest in in
China.
So the biggest challenge is not just [to] go
to China, figure out where out in the hinterlands the best deals are—they’re not in Beijing
or Shanghai. But once you get there, and make
your deal, you’ve got to reorganize the way they
think about themselves and the business.
CM: What do you see yourself doing in the future?
JK: Little sales pitch: I’m almost finished with
my second novel. It’s about smuggling over the
Burmese-China border in South Yunnan. Like
my first novel, it’s developed from personal experience. I bought a business down there. It’s a
silicon smelter, and my drivers of the charcoal
trucks, who—you know, silicon smoke, you
need to use charcoal in the smelting process—
looked a little too affluent, and I asked the translator why that was. And it turns out they’re all
smuggling on the weekends. So I obviously did
a little more investigation, and it’s a fascinating
thing and a fascinating topic for a novel.
If I would ever have the opportunity that John
Grisham has, to sell hundreds of thousands or
even millions of hardback books at 25, 35 dollars, I’d rather [do] nothing else than that. Nietzsche said the best thing a person can do is create.
He also said the best creation that me or you can
do is to dream. But if you can’t do that, then the
arts, writing, are useful surrogates. Most of us
don’t have that luxury, and so I’m in business in
China because it pays the bills and enables me to
live the lifestyle I want.
I would swap all that to simply continue to
write about China and other places, Burma, absolutely. On the other hand, the publishing business is very difficult—it’s unbelievably competitive. It’s not something that someone can just
dive into and succeed at.
“We understand that the University has
been under pressure to deal with other
dorms, specifically Pierce, but, at the same
time, there are some pretty serious problems with the building here that have to be
addressed. It’s a shame that they aren’t being addressed as seriously,” Aly, a secondyear, said in an April 3 e-mail to Ana Campos, the interim director of Undergraduate
Student Housing.
Similar incidents occurred throughout
the next week, the most recent at 12:45
a.m. last Tuesday. That afternoon, Facilities Services staff consulted with the fire
alarm service company to develop a plan
to resolve the faulty sensor problem, and
Facilities Services located and replaced an
additional defective device on the fifth
floor of the dormitory.
Facilities Services and the company that
supplies the alarms believe that the system
caution, an engineer has been stationed to
monitor the fire alarm systems overnight.
University spokesperson Steve Koppes
said in an e-mail that Facilities Services
will also continue to replace all alarms on
the fifth and sixth floors throughout this
week.
The day after Aly’s message, Campos
responded to Broadview residents via email.
“After each instance in which the fire
alarms have sounded, Facilities Services
conducted an inspection of the heat detectors in the zone indicated on the fire panel
and has replaced several faulty sensors,”
Campos wrote.
Even though administrators reassured
residents that the problem was being resolved, two more false alarms went off that
week after they made that claim.
Frustrated, Aly encouraged Broadview
diate action to Campos and Vice President
for Campus Life and Dean of Students
Kimberly Goff-Crews.
In his letter to administrators, Aly said
he had become mistrustful of the fire detection system, that students no longer had
“peace of mind,” and that these problems
would hurt the University’s reputation in
the long run.
“You get the sense that the building is
nearing its end,” Aly said.
Third-year Wick House Resident Assistant Samantha Ngooi supported the
residents’ efforts to push for action. “It’s
upsetting that housing didn’t address the
students until after students had sent letters,” she said.
“The administration doesn’t do anything
until pushed. Housing is not preemptive
in addressing student concerns: Students
always have to demand.”
Jewish organizations uncertain about fate after sudden firing
Following the controversial firing of Hillel’s executive director, Dan Libenson, Jewish students convened in the
McCormick Tribune Lounge last night to discuss the future of Jewish life on campus and voice their concerns.
JULIA REINITZ | THE CHICAGO MAROON
HILLEL continued from front
years, including the widely attended Mega
Shabbat program, an increase in Jewish internships, and the popularization of Birthright Israel.
The suddenness of the firing has been a
source of misgiving for students, who are
divided over how the change might impact
them.
“His job was not lost in honor and not in
respect for the work that he has done,” said
third-year and Hillel participant Dory Fox
at a general assembly last night in the McCormick Tribune Lounge. She called the
firing “a stain on the Jewish community.”
Relations between the Hillel and the
JUF have been strained for years, according to Doni Bloomfield, who delivered the
introduction to the assembly.
The JUF bought the building 10 years
ago and promptly renovated it, agreeing to
absorb most costs from the resulting deficit.
However, two years ago, the JUF notified the Hillel that it would no longer be
shouldering the deficit and required that
the organization take out a six-year loan,
which cut $25,000 into the Hillel’s operating budget, according to graduate student
Adam Levine-Weinberg, who also spoke at
the assembly.
Since then, institutional divisions have
emerged. Because the JUF owns the Hillel’s building, many believed that it should
have continued paying down the deficit,
according to Bloomfield. Libenson suggested alternatives to staff cuts as a way
to offset its budget shortfall, including
changes to employee compensation and
building use, but the JUF was not receptive.
Finally, the Hillel’s board of directors
sent a letter to the JUF on March 27 indicating that they planned to resign along
with Libenson. In response, two days later
they were informed by the JUF that Libenson had been fired and that the board
would be dismissed presently.
Libenson’s organizational approach,
which Jewish students praised for allowing them greater autonomy in leading their
own organizations, might also have clashed
with the JUF’s vision, Bloomfield said.
“When I first heard about the situation,
I was shocked,” said second-year Jessica
Green, who as president of the Jewish Students Association ( JewSA) benefited under Libenson’s tenure.
Students also are concerned about how
Jewish organizations that rely on the Hil-
lel, which is financially independent from
the University, will continue operating.
A few of these organizations, such as
Orthodox group Yavneh, have sought out
support for next year from JewSA, an RSO
with access to ORCSA funding. Yavneh
members, including Bloomfield, met last
Wednesday to discuss the impact of Libenson’s firing and whether to take action.
However, no budget changes are foreseen this year, and the Hillel’s interim director, Paul Saiger, said in a note published
to the Hillel Web site that “any suggestion
that funding for the Newberger Hillel has
or will decrease is simply misleading and
false.”
For all of the uncertainty, not all students view Libenson’s departure as a total
loss.
“Most of the strife and concern comes
from whether or not the firing was unjustified. But a lot of other students feel
that this is an opportunity to revolutionize Jewish life on campus,” first-year and
Yavneh member Jonathan Nathan said.
Still, he said, “I’m worried the political
turmoil will factionalize the Jewish community on campus.”
Another meeting on the issue will take
place Wednesday.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | April 10, 2012
Polzik: Chicago Spring about local community as much as global issues
OCCUPY continued from front
University of Chicago students and affiliates march against the ideas of Milton Friedman
at the future site of his namesake institute as part of Saturday’s Occupy the Southside.
SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Fundamentals: Issues and Texts
Announces a Public Colloquium
The
Power of Books:
Some Personal Accounts
Nathan Tarcov
Professor of Social Thought and Political Science
Christopher Wild
Professor of Germanic Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies
Wednesday, April 11
4:30 P.M.
Stuart 101
Reception to follow
This event is recommended for students considering a major in Fundamentals.
More information about Fundamentals will be available at the event.
Persons needing assistance should contact Jonny Thakkar
([email protected]).
Saturday’s Hyde Park rally was more a protest of
Friedman’s economic theories, according to Occupy
organizer David Orlikoff.
“All morning actions in Chicago are protesting
Milton Friedman, whether they say so directly or
not, because his ideologies have become the best
excuse for the terrible direction we’ve been going,”
he said.
Orlikoff, a U of C lab school graduate and Hyde
Park resident, emphasized that solidarity was the
larger purpose behind Chicago Spring and the Hyde
Park rally, where community activists presented local
movements, such as that surrounding the University
of Chicago Medical Center’s trauma center.
“The whole point of Occupy is taking back your
community and taking back how you’re governed,”
philosophy graduate student and Occupier Dasha
Polzik said.
Occupy’s main movement vacated the streets this
winter for an office building in Pilsen. However,
neighborhood occupations at Piccolo Elementary
School, a foreclosed home on the South Side, and
other locations kept protesters active.
A set of city ordinances, which critics call “Sit
Down and Shut Up” laws, will tighten protest regulations, and law enforcement has purchased face
shields and surveillance equipment in preparation
for Occupy’s protests.
“I’m hoping that the police don’t think that this
is a nuisance, that they know it’s on their behalf because they can’t come down here,” said Polzik. “There
hasn’t been that much talk about arrests but, at the
same time, with the new regulations that the mayor
has imposed, it’s not precisely clear to me when I am
and when I’m not following the law.”
Demonstrators also hosted teach-ins on civil disobedience and NATO organizing. Chicago Spring
will include action on Mayday, a People’s Summit a
week before NATO convenes, and demonstrations
during the summits.
“We’re in the streets again,” first-year Occupier
Brendan Leonard said. “Occupy’s back.”
3
Service-minded
med student dies at 24
Rebecca Guterman
News Editor
Abhinav Kapur, a third-year medical student
who dedicated his life and his studies to the service
of others, died March 25 in Hyde Park. He was 24.
Kapur, who grew up in Prospect, Kentucky, graduated from Duke University in 2009 with a B.S. in
Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
He was offered a spot in the class of 2013 at the
Pritzker School of Medicine, where the admissions
committee was particularly glad to hear of his acceptance, according to Assistant Dean for Admissions
and Financial Aid Sylvia Robertson.
“I remember how excited and pleased admissions
was when he chose us,” she said. “It’d been a real privilege to watch him grow here.”
Before and after matriculating at the U of C,
Kapur strove to improve others’ lives, regardless of
borders. “He came to us from Duke and had been
involved in global health initiatives, and continued
that here,” Robertson said. “He had a remarkable
heart of service.”
Kapur also assisted free clinics through the Pritzker School, which places student volunteers at locations all over the city, often in collaboration with
other Chicago-area medical schools.
Even with his accomplishments, Robertson said
that Kapur always had a modesty about him that
belied his talent. “He was remarkably bright. He
always spoke with such energy about his leadership
in the quiz bowl at Duke,” she said. “But what I remember most is his humility. He had no need for
recognition.”
As with many third-year medical students, Robertson was unsure where Kapur’s education would
take him. However, she is confident that he would
have made a difference.
“It has been a profound loss and our community
is grieving,” she said.
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed
APRIL 10, 2012
Prospective ideas
Some of the many ways to show your prospie a good, insightful time in the coming weeks
The student newspaper of the
University of Chicago since 1892
JORDAN LARSON Editor-in-Chief
SHARAN SHETTY Editor-in-Chief
COLIN BRADLEY Managing Editor
MAHMOUD BAHRANI Senior Editor
DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Senior Editor
SAM LEVINE Senior Editor
HARUNOBU CORYNE News Editor
REBECCA GUTERMAN News Editor
GIOVANNI WROBEL News Editor
EMILY WANG Viewpoints Editor
AJAY BATRA Viewpoints Editor
CHARNA ALBERT Arts Editor
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DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor
VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor
BELLA WU Head Designer
Spring quarter at the U of C is
the time when students first emerge
from the libraries after months of
continuous studying—just in time to
greet fresh-faced prospies arriving on
campus. This week and next week in
particular, hundreds of prospies will
invade campus for Admitted Student
Overnights. For them, these visits will
be crucial to their final decisions to
matriculate here or take their talents
elsewhere. So what does this time
mean for the rest of us? Students
shouldn’t simply view the next couple
of weeks as a time of mild inconveniences like extra long lines in the dining halls; rather, it should be seen as
an opportunity to show prospies what
life at the U of C is really like. That being said, the Maroon has a few tips
for students playing host to prospective students in the coming weeks.
some of the events going on around
campus. Whether it’s an a capella concert, a movie at Doc, or an art exhibit
at SHoP, show them that Hyde Park
can culturally compete with any other
neighborhood in the city. You could
also walk them through the Logan
Arts Center, which is not yet a part of
the official admissions tour.
1. Paint them an honest picture: In order to hold on to the
best and the brightest, it’s key that
students provide a personal perspective rather than the canned
image of the U of C crafted by
the admissions office. Answer any
questions they may have about life
here honestly, but try not to overdo the self-deprecation.
3. Take them to a frat party: It’s practically a foregone conclusion, and prospies get in for free anyway. But have a
better alternative ready for you both to
escape to afterward. Make sure to keep
a close eye on your prospie; a trip to the
emergency room would be an inauspicious start and may even result in a rescission. Or maybe just consider having
a night in. Settlers of Catan, anyone?
2. Walk to the Point: For many,
the idea of going to school in a
big city seems daunting, but one
of the unique things about Hyde
Park is how verdant it is for an urban neighborhood. Take a pleasant walk through Hyde Park’s
quaint residential areas to the
Point, and enjoy an unparalleled
view of the lakefront and the
downtown skyline.
4. Bring them to your favorite discussion or class: Prospies are allowed
full license to sit in on any class, but
they have a bad habit of choosing the
most yawn-inducing courses available.
Let them sit in on a class you know is
worth their time.
6. Eat somewhere outside the dining
halls: They’ll have hundreds of meals at
South, Bartlett, or Pierce in the years
ahead. Instead, explore solid and cheap
options like Leona’s, Z&H, and the
Snail. And for an authentic, if greasy,
taste of the neighborhood, bring them
to Valois or Harold’s.
5. Expose them to some Hyde Park
culture: If they’re true pseudo-intellectuals like the rest of us, they’ll love
The Editorial Board consists of
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Hating the player
Funder pressure
Being an adult requires some mischievous
dishonesty, but it’s not as fun as Mario
Universities too often end up in compromising
positions in the search for donations
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By Ajay Batra
Viewpoints Editor
Super Mario 64 is the greatest
video game ever made.
Yeah, I said it. And if you disagree, you’re wrong. If you just
spat out your Froot Loops and
emitted some angry sounds vaguely resembling the words “ocarina”
or “portal,” I humbly request
that you grant my statement as
fact for the remaining 700–900
words. This can’t be that much
of a stretch; who among us really
dislikes Mario’s first foray into
the third dimension, into a world
full of Power Stars and permeable
paintings?
Now that that’s out of the way,
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I,
someone pushing 20 years old,
still play Super Mario 64 from
time to time. “Time to time” usually lasts about three hours and
comes every couple of weeks.
I’ve been playing this game since
I was little, so racking up stars
and showing Bowser what’s up is
nothing new for me, and there’s
no longer anything new for me
to discover about the gameplay
itself.
Why do I continue to play it
then? I asked myself this question
recently after about 15 people
asked me the same, their obvious
confused frustration increasing
with each query as they watched
me throw both my and Mario’s
lives away. The first conclusion I
reached is no less nerdy and pathetic than you’d expect.
Every now and again on a
weekday, when I need a brief
break from unending responsibility and being outsmarted repeatedly by pieces of paper, one of the
best ways for me to unfetter my
mind and un-furrow my brow is
to answer the distressed call of
Princess Peach. Simply put, I enjoy the immersive, dishonest diversion—the feeling that, when I
become the chubby yet freakishly
spry plumber, I can escape the
often trying realities of my life at
the U of C and just be in another
world where everything (myself
included) kicks ass. Koopa ass, to
be precise.
But it’s not quite a mindless
diversion. Because I’m so, shall
we say, experienced (read: forever
alone), I admittedly don’t have to
try all that hard anymore to get
all 120 stars. What keeps things
engaging, though, is merely experiencing the world that the act
of playing the game opens up to
me. The Mushroom Kingdom
and the diverse microcosms its
paintings contain are unbelievably deep and nuanced, with its
intricate landscapes and seamless
interactivity, along with a childish absurdity that sets it apart.
It’s an easy universe to get lost
in, and I escape to it with some
frequency. Lots of games have a
similar appeal.
I figured this much out after a
recent Mario sesh, when reality
set back in: I was a little upset
with myself for playing when I
could’ve been working, a feeling
I imagine is not uncommon in
these parts. As much as chemistry
can fascinate me, when I moved
on to this particular problem set,
it didn’t exactly move me in return. It didn’t at all, in fact. Transitioning from the mechanical yet
consuming task of chasing down
stars one by one to the more unfamiliar endeavor of answering
questions about rovibrational
spectroscopy (whatever that is)
MARIO continued on page 6
By Jane Huang
Viewpoints Columnist
One of the things that troubles
me about the higher education
system in the U.S. is that the interests of alumni seem to be at odds
with those of undergraduates.
Consider the admissions process:
Every year, a lot of hand-wringing
goes on over college admissions
rates. When they rise, the administration gets called to task. For
instance, The Daily Princetonian
reported in 2009 that students
and alumni were upset that their
university’s admissions rate rose
from 9.25 to 9.79 percent.
Practically speaking, I really
don’t understand what the hullabaloo is about. How many people
remember their class’s admissions
rate down to the 10th’s place? I
also doubt that an employer’s decision to hire you, or a graduate
program’s decision to admit you,
hinges on that small of a change
in the admissions rate. Like the
livestock in George Orwell’s Animal Farm who are told, “Four legs
good, two legs bad!” we have been
conditioned to think, “Lower admissions rate good, higher admissions rate bad!” For those who
have graduated or are graduating
soon, a lower admissions rate is
usually viewed positively because
it seems to validate their decision
to attend their school.
For the incoming classes, a lower admissions rate is a good sign
if it is a reflection of expanded
outreach to groups that have been
overlooked in the past, improvements to quality of education and
student life, and better financial
aid. It is not such a good sign if it
is a product of aggressive efforts to
expand the applicant pool merely
to one-up other universities.
In the wake of March Madness,
now is also a good time to think
about the place of sports in college. One of the justifications for
devoting so many resources to college sports is that it strengthens
alumni loyalty, which is often a
euphemistic way of saying that
it convinces graduates to donate
more money. To a certain extent,
I accept the reasoning that sports
have a positive effect by providing
entertainment as well as encouraging personal development and
healthy habits.
However, I think it’s antithetical to a college’s mission to recruit students who don’t plan to
graduate. The NCAA championship–winning Kentucky team
was criticized recently in the media because several of its players
are so-called “one-and-dones”
who intend to leave college after
completing only their first year.
From an educational standpoint,
it would be frustrating to be in
classes with people who have little stake in what they’re learning.
Perhaps more importantly, from a
resources standpoint, the NCAA
reported in 2011 that 98 out of
the 120 largest athletic programs
in the country lost money the
previous year, with half of those
schools losing more than $10 million each.
While the goal of college sports
should not be to turn a profit, at
least a few of those millions of
dollars would be much better
spent keeping the total cost of
college down for other students.
Of course, not everyone attends a
school with sports teams that attract athletic prodigies and massive amounts of media attention.
However, a lot of schools that are
DONORS continued on page 6
THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 10, 2012
5
Money matters
Our generation’s tendency to downplay money’s importance could have serious ramifications in the future
By Anastasia Golovashkina
Viewpoints Columnist
“I don’t want to make money,” Marilyn
Monroe once famously said. “I just want to
be wonderful.” Not a chance, Marilyn. Not a
chance.
Many a student on many a campus has ventured to make a similar assertion. Time and
time again, it’s the same kind of claim—that
money just “doesn’t matter” because money
“can’t make someone happy.”
There are two major problems with this
kind of thinking. First, only those who
have money can even begin to make these
kinds of value judgments. Second, it’s almost always wrong.
Indeed, to claim “money doesn’t matter” is
perhaps the most ignorant and most groundless of judgments someone could make, especially when that someone happens to be a
U of C student, many of whom have affluent
parents able to finance a college tuition at the
nation’s second most expensive school, plus
housing, utilities, and food.
Here’s the thing: You need to make money.
Thus, to an extent, you want to make money.
It’s unsupportable to argue otherwise, particularly from the typical privileged student’s
vantage point of relative wealth and substance.
It’s true that money can’t always buy happiness, acceptance, or success. Studies have
shown that money stops having a significant
impact on one’s happiness past a yearly salary of $75,000 (at which point an individual
becomes able not only to live relatively well,
but also to save up for the future) and that
life satisfaction does not correlate with income. Lottery winners, for example, hardly
have the happiest of endings; an overnight
thrust into fame and fortune is seldom a
pleasant endeavor.
But—and this is a big “but”—in each of
these examples, money still has a significant
impact. Though happiness can’t be bought,
happiness can be substantially enhanced,
at least up to that $75,000 mark. Likewise,
though some lottery winners have descended
into bankruptcy or depression, many others
have used the jackpot to escape poverty or pay
for their kids’ college.
So if there’s anything lending Ms. Monroe’s claim some credence, it’s that happiness
can’t be bought. But that’s still light years
away from implying that monetary concerns
should simply be dismissed, or that striving
to be “wonderful” is simply all there is to
leading a good life.
Why? Because almost nothing is “wonderful” without a dependable source of
ample income.
Money can buy a house, a car, a cat, a
computer. In part because of the United
States’ continued, inexplicable aversion to
universal health care, it can also buy a longer life in the form of health insurance. It
can buy a better education, relaxing vacations, and the freedom to live a life without
having to budget every cent.
More importantly, that $75,000 mark is
still quite a bit of money, particularly for the
three-fourths of Americans who fall below
this lucrative bracket. Median household in-
knowledge”—and, in more extreme cases,
as “savages”—and their demands as “cosmology.” It made it easy to think that welfare programs have no impact, to disparage
their recipients as “welfare queens,” and, as
the federal government did in the ’80s and
’90s, to strive to “end welfare as we know
it.” But these efforts all ran counter to the
findings of studies which have shown that
people tend to be the happiest when economic inequities are minimized.
However, perhaps the most dangerous
consequence of this kind of thinking lies
in its breeding of dismissive attitudes for
future generations. Today’s 20-somethings
are tomorrow’s leaders. Our ideas and attitudes won’t simply color tomorrow’s
legislation; largely, they’ll define them. If
we are to even try to present ourselves as
an important generation, we should begin
by recognizing and researching the problems that actually need to be solved—the
correlations that we aren’t quite sure we
support. Importantly, we need to stop subscribing to the reckless belief that our experiences hold true for others.
In the ideal world, it’s true—money
shouldn’t, and almost certainly wouldn’t,
matter. In the ideal world, earnings would
correspond to talent, labor, time, and determination. There is also no doubt that the relationship between wealth and well-being is a
complex labyrinth of socioeconomic hiccups
and inconsistencies. Money isn’t the only answer to our problems.
But to even suggest that money isn’t an important part of the answer is narrow-minded,
reckless, and wrong.
come in the United States is just $46,000.
These kinds of statistics have major consequences for government. Though the Illinois
State Senate has introduced several pieces of
legislation to raise the minimum wage since its
last increase in 2010, they’ve all been rejected,
largely on the grounds that our state already
has the third-highest minimum wage. At Illinois’ minimum wage of $8.25, a full-time
worker can expect to earn $17,160 per year. To
put that into perspective, the national poverty
line is $11,170 and $15,130 for households of
one and two, respectively, putting minimum
wage earners somewhere between 130 and
150 percent of the national poverty line. They
fall right in the middle of that unfortunate
Census-recognized category of “near poverty.”
It’s true that both sides of the minimum
wage argument have comparable merit,
and both sides agree that the ultimate goal
is to move most workers away from depending on “minimum wages” altogether.
But to completely dismiss a perspective
simply because it doesn’t align with those
of other states is foolish.
This mindset also prevents the politically powerful upper-middle and upper
classes from empathizing with those who
struggle on low wages. Take, for example, the Great Recession of 2008–2012.
Though the downturn made a major dent
in the earnings of households worldwide,
it barely touched the lives of the upper
economic echelon.
This approach made it easy to criticize
anti-recession legislation like the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or to put
off implementing them until it’s too late
for them to have a major impact. It made
it easy to dismiss Occupy Wall Street protestors as aimless “noise” or “lack[ing ] in
Anastasia Golovashkina is a first-year in the
College majoring in economics.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | April 10, 2012
6
Growing up means admiring your
childhood enjoyments from afar
MARIO continued from page 4
had an upper-then-downer effect on my
mind that was too much to bear. Where
the game drew me in, my work pushed me
away.
This brought me to the other conclusion I reached, one which is, mercifully,
not as geekish. Ultimately, I don’t play the
game exclusively because I find its world
fascinating, but rather because it is fascinating thanks to minimal effort on my
part. After all, can I seriously claim in
good conscience that some video game has
more sheer potential to intrigue me than
the field of chemistry? It’s not as if I was
forced to take the class. Really, my repeated decisions to play Mario amount to me
lying to myself—choosing, in moments of
weakness, not to have my mind blown, but
instead to have my mind blown as easily
as I could.
All of a sudden I found myself saying,
“Ajay, if you put half as much into your
chemistry assignments as you did into that
video game, why, you’d be a regular Einstein.”
The moment I thought this, I sat down
and ploughed through my problem set,
found the material more accessible and interesting than usual, and I think I became
an adult.
The next time I picked up a controller, I really tried, but I couldn’t convince myself that enjoying the game
alone was enough to warrant playing it. I felt guilty and quit in a few
minutes. I can’t remember the last
time that happened, but odds are the
alternative I chose then was
Alumni at some schools have placed their
influence in the way of student progress
learning how to tie my shoes or watching
the latest episode of Barney. The next time
I picked up my chemistry book, on the
other hand, I somehow convinced myself
not that I had to read it, but that I wanted
to read it—that it would interest me—and
I think I enjoyed it. Here I was, not only
eating my broccoli, but savoring it.
While I will always maintain that Super
Mario 64 is the greatest game ever made,
I don’t think I’ll be admiring it anymore
except from afar. You see, I’m a grown-up
now, and I like making responsible decisions—staying on top of my shizz, looking
for a job, sleeping early.
Sure, maybe this whole acting like an
adult thing will be helpful in the long
term (and even now), but I don’t necessarily recommend it. It’s the lamest form
of dishonesty. The longer you can swindle
yourself into doing whatever you want,
the better. I’ll save you some broccoli in
the meantime; it’s just as good as mushrooms, really.
Ajay Batra is a first-year in the College.
DONORS continued from page 4
like this also happen to be flagship state
universities that heavily influence the
way people think about higher education.
What happens at those schools matters to
everyone.
Too often, it seems that colleges suffer a
dilemma between doing what’s fair and doing what will garner more donations. D. H.
Lawrence once wrote a short story called
“The Rocking Horse Winner” about a
fairly well-to-do family that was so anxious
about status and money that it constantly
heard the whisper, “There must be more
money! There must be more money!” Perhaps administrators hear the same whisper.
A critical source of money is alumni donations, which fund scholarships, buildings,
student activities, and more. However, certain kinds of projects tend to attract more
interest than others. It’s a lot more appealing to help raise a building with your name
on it than to quietly fund pedagogical development or, say, pay to keep the plumbing
in good working order.
In the mid-20th century, alumni at elite
institutions tried to use their influence to
stand in the way of progress. The composition of such universities has changed
dramatically from the ’60s and ’70s; more
women, public school graduates, lowerincome students, and racial minorities are
now admitted. However, the changes did
not always come smoothly. In the 1960s,
Yale University began to accept more public school–attending and Jewish applicants,
which led to lower admission rates for
legacy applicants and for students from its
traditional feeder private schools. Many
alumni protested these changes, but, fortunately, the president of the University did
not back down. While universities ought
to cultivate ties with their alumni, it seems
that Yale’s president knew where to draw
the line. However, other schools might not
always demonstrate the same foresight.
You may be wondering how the issues I
have raised are relevant to our school. After all, we have yet to panic about—or even
really experience—incremental changes
in admissions rates and yields. We’re the
school that once got rid of its football team
to focus on academics. However, at the risk
of sounding like a hipster, I’ve noticed that
a lot of people nowadays want to make the
U of C more mainstream. While I’m not
the kind of person who thinks that is intrinsically condemnable, I am concerned
that the University might make itself more
susceptible to the same kinds of pressure
currently exerted on its peer institutions.
Jane Huang is a second-year in the College.
SUBMISSIONS
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Rockefeller Memorial Chapel presents...
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| CHICAGO MAROON
Simply put, Viewpoints has a blog.
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John Wesley and
His 18th Century Context
dinner & conversation with
Kyle Rader
Is religious fervor fundamentally at odds with rationality? The socalled Age of Reason would seem to suggest as much, but some of the
same people who explored the possibilities and limits of reason and
experience were also part of great revivals whose effects linger to this
day. Come learn about one such person, and see if his way of
reconciling seeming opposites offers us a lesson for today.
Wednesday, April 11, 6:00 pm
A vegetarian meal is served. Bring your friends! Your RSVP is helpful:
offi[email protected], 773-947-8744 or the Facebook event.
BRENT House:
Third annual recital in the
Brian Gerrish Organ Performance Series
CAMERON
CARPENTER
SUNDAY
APRIL 15, 5 PM
$10 general
students free w/ID
Tickets at door or online at
`]QYSTSZZS`cQVWQOU]SRc
The incomparable Cameron
Carpenter brings his prodigious
virtuosity to Rockefeller’s E.M.
Skinner organ, with a program
including selections from his own
Visions of the Organ from Space
(Science Fiction Series) and
dazzling and unconventional
arrangements of classics.
The Episcopal Center at the University of Chicago
5540 South Woodlawn Avenue • Chicago, IL 60637
www.brenthouse.org • www.facebook.com/brent.house.chicago • 773/947-8744
#&#AE]]RZOe\/dS’%%!% ’3ZWhOPSbV8:2OdS\^]`b2SO\
ARTS
Trivial Pursuits
APRIL 10, 2012
Beats & Pieces creates Legacies of sight and sound
Alice Bucknell
Associate Arts Editor
Cables and wires coiled around
bare feet, bright lights of glittering
machinery, and rows of a mesmerized
audience, wooed into a silent sway by
hypnotic wailing vocals, graced the
first floor of the Southside Hub of
Production on Thursday night as part
of Beats & Pieces’ Legacies exhibition.
Electroacoustic artist K. Serra
opened the evening lineup with a
moody, ethereal style that fused her
classical training as an opera-singer-to-be with her later interests in
electronic sound. The lights quickly
dimmed as a ghostly background
beat filled the room. The artist created loops one after the next using
unconventional “instruments” such
as towel racks and other household
items, integrating these beats into the
final song, the effect being an improvised, highly personal performance
that both shaped and encouraged audience engagement.
Legacies also featured a performance by SHoP regulars Fuzzy
Moon, a jazz and alt-fusion band
made up of alums from Northwestern; Dastardly, a band that puts a Chicago spin on bluegrass and jazz; and
Eigenfunk, a soul and jazz group with
Hyde Park roots. However, K. Serra
truly captured the crowd.
As the music intensified with piercing vocals that mirrored the spiritual
wailing of a church choir, any sort of
audience noise faded out in awed admiration. Audience participation was
still there of course, but it consisted
of gentle corporeal swaying and gazes
fixed unblinkingly towards the source
of the music. And K. Serra did not hesitate to elicit laughs or whoops of approval through lighthearted and lively
banter uttered between tracks. But as
the audience resettled with each new
song and let the hypnotic sound take
its full effect once more, the room’s activity quickly fell into a cyclical pattern
of silent, growing appreciation punctuated with energetic bursts of claps and
cheers between songs.
Sitting in the front row, no more
than a couple feet from K. Serra’s
massed assortment of equipment,
I had a hard time pulling my gaze
from another source of artistic entertainment that required arguably
as much talent as the sound echoing
throughout the room. With each
new instrumental loop recorded and
introduced into the music, every
change of tempo and different background beat, K. Serra was flipping a
sea of switches on and off with her
bare toes. This she did mechanically,
intuitively, while the rest of her focused on strumming tunes on the
electric keyboard and producing
enchanting vocals. K. Serra’s performance was as stunning visually as it
was aurally and, through its appeal
of both sight and sound, served as
an excellent representation of the
theme of Legacies.
Beats & Pieces concerns itself with
the integration of performance and
visual arts, ultimately treating the
two fields not as two separate entities, but rather two parts of a whole.
Each brings its own sensual delight—the former sound and the latter sight—but, as K. Serra and other
artists demonstrated that night, it is
rare that these two areas do not overlap. While musical artists awed the
crowd with aural delights, spoken
word artists painted stunning images with their voices; meanwhile,
visual arts pieces collected especially
for this exhibition from both U of C
students and members of the larger
Hyde Park community filled the
walls and rooms of SHoP’s first floor.
The artwork and performance pieces
themselves drew from a wide variety
of origins, with many artists drawing
from their own personal, ethnic, and
religious identities to create a collection of artistic expression mindful of
its worldliness. Guests were invited
to amble about the gallery space
while keeping an ear open to the lush
sounds produced by live bands.
During fall quarter, Beats & Pieces
put on a similar exhibit at the SHoP
entitled Origins. Like Legacies, Origins promoted the idea of visual and
performance-based art as a symbiotic
pairing, with each art form enhancing the other. Likewise, both shows
made use of the SHoP’s homey interior and function as a space of communal gathering and sharing of artistic creation. However, as their titles
might suggest, each annual exhibition comes with its own distinctive
meaning. While Origins is presented
in the beginning of the academic
year, Legacies is held toward its end,
and is mindful of the changes and
BEATS continued on page 9
Iceberg straight ahead: Iconic ship hits new dimension
Daniel Rivera
Associate Arts Editor
If you’d asked me at any point in my life how
I felt about James Cameron’s Titanic, I would’ve
told you about when I was eight and my sister 10,
and we’d together sneak into the living room and
grab the second of the movie’s two video cassettes.
Popping it into the VCR of our playroom, my sister and I would eagerly (and sadistically) fast-forward to the part where the ship sank, munching
on our popcorn with wide eyes. Sometimes we’d
stop for the boobs first and giggle, because in the
movie’s exhaustive three-hour runtime, not much
else stood out to us.
I can’t say my perverse, eight-year-old self is
vastly different from my first-year-at-college
self. I definitely haven’t grown up, and not
many things have changed. One of the few
things that has though is my appreciation for
Cameron’s sweeping epic, thanks largely to its
re-release last week in 3D.
Titanic was a success from the moment its title
card lit up silver screens around the world. Not
only did it top the box office its opening weekend, but it held that spot for the next 14 weeks as
well. It still holds the record for most consecutive
weeks at number one. Leonardo DiCaprio and
Kate Winslet, who had been at best Hollywood
notables pre-shipwreck, became veritable superstars. DiCaprio’s bright and winning smile, captured almost as effectively as in Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, broke hearts and gave us one of the
most iconic American suitors in cinema history.
Titanic landed Winslet her second Oscar nod.
TITANIC 3D
James Cameron
AMC River East
For the few unfamiliar with the plotline: At
its core a love story, Titanic follows Jack Dawson
and Rose Bukater as they connect fatally amid
blurring socioeconomic lines. Jack is reckless and
charming—a rope ladder dropped from the sky
into the claustrophobic, high-browed trap that
is Rose’s life. Yet should she choose to love Jack,
despite his lack of resources, and leave her dull fiancé, her family would be financially ruined. It’s
not a historically unprecedented plot, but played
against the backdrop of the Titanic’s early 20th
century opulence, it works.
Cameron’s meticulously wrought 3D enhances the movie in every respect. Only at one point
does anything fly out towards the audience; for
the film’s bulk, the extra dimension is used tastefully to add depth to the ship’s gorgeous interiors
or height to its exterior. The movie’s high definition is crisper, and smartly employed to blur backgrounds and otherwise isolate its leads when the
moment is appropriate. Winslet’s young Rose is
heartbreakingly torn, the camera closing in on her
face as she’s surrounded by a family to whom she
knows she’ll never be able to relate. As the ornate
first-class lounge sinks away from her and fades
out of focus, Rose’s indecision about how things
should go with Jack is absolutely dominating and
more real than ever. Two things I thought I’d never be a fan of – 3D and Cameron’s dialogue—are
here not only endurable but moving.
Only one scene of the movie bears changes
from the original. Apparently, famed astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson saw the movie its
opening weekend and was annoyed by its
stellar inaccuracy. Word on the street is that
he dogged Cameron repeatedly to change
the star-scape on the night of the ship’s sinking, because new technology made it possible to see exactly how the stars had aligned
back in 1912, and the movie’s depiction was
way off. Ever the perfectionist, Cameron
purportedly had Tyson send him a rendering
of the stars’ alignment on that fateful night,
and dealt the heavens their long overdue justice in the re-release.
I was a little peeved about paying to see Titanic 3D. I felt certain that my money was feeding a machine that had long since eaten its fill.
The only movie to ever outperform Titanic
cumulatively at the box office is 2009’s Avatar,
also directed by Cameron. Why drop cash on
an ever-pricier movie ticket for a flick that’ll just
help turn the Hollywood blockbuster wheel, instead of taking the Red Line to the Landmark
Cinema to support an indie?
Leaving the theater, I felt I had an answer. It’s
true that Cameron’s work represents cinematic
monetary success, but Titanic also boasts its share
of cinematic artistry. I once read an interview
with Cameron saying that Avatar was infinitely
easier to film than Titanic because the latter was
made during a time when technology didn’t exist
to supplant real life. Pandora, the magical world
of the Na'vi, was rendered entirely via CGI (albeit
astoundingly well), but it took Cameron weeks
just to film Titanic’s famous “I’m flying, Jack!”
scene, because his team needed to capture the
perfect sunset. Titanic, helped along by its mas-
Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio: “I’ll never let go.”
COURTESY OF MERIE WEISMILLER WALLACE
sive budget, is a lesson in not cutting corners and
in creating a cinematic world so well-built that
camera tricks aren’t necessary.
My eight-year-old self wasn’t captivated by that
ship-sinking scene for its gore (there isn’t much)
or its flashy tricks. Even back then, I was wowed
by the cinematographic scope, by the panning
camera’s power to show in unflinching detail an
unforgettable slice of human tragedy. To make
cinematic history, to imprint even a frame of your
film forever on the collective American memory,
is no small feat. Cameron managed it in Titanic,
and his 3D rendering etches those lines of memory deeper still.
8
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 10, 2012
Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert showcases Strauss
John Lisovsky
Arts Contributor
Last Saturday evening, I had the
pleasure of listening to our own
Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform two late-Romantic products
of the fin-de-siècle: Richard Strauss’s
1897 tone poem Don Quixote and
Rachmaninoff ’s third piano concerto
(1909). Both composers were then in
their 30s, the prime of their careers,
and both pieces were written at least
in part out of financial ambition, if
not need, and for very large orchestras
of 80 instrumentalists or more.
The tone poem, like Also Sprach
Zarathustra (written a year prior), Don Juan (1888), and An Alpine
Symphony (1915), is a work of program music, in that it seeks to evoke
a specific series of events or images. It
takes Cervantes’s text as its program
and seeks to illustrate a few of the ad-
ventures in which the deluded wouldbe exemplar of chivalry partakes. Of
these, perhaps the most colorful is
the second that Strauss selects, the
siegreiche Kampf gegen das Heer des
großen Kaisers Alifanfaron, or “victorious fight against the great emperor
Alifanfaron.” In this episode, the
Don does battle with what he realizes
only after the fact is actually a flock
of sheep (the baaah-ing of which
is created by brass instrumentalists
“flutter-tonguing,” an effect more
common in jazz). The work is replete
with unusual but effective instrument
combinations, most prominently the
introduction of Sancho Panza’s theme
by the tuba and bass clarinet, a pairing perhaps without precedent. The
work features a solo cellist and violist,
with some violin solos granted to the
concertmaster, the cello representing
the Knight, and the viola representing
Sancho Panza.
The thick, heavy orchestrations that
characterize Strauss and Rachmaninoff
(and others such as Mahler and Wagner) match perfectly the strengths of
the CSO and its legendary brass section. Dutoit was certainly aware of this,
and made effective use of it orchestrally,
though his conducting at times verged
on being heavy-handed.
DUTOIT CONDUCTS
STRAUSS
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Through April 10
Neither John Sharp nor Charles
Pikler, the respective principal cellist
and violist in the orchestra, was particularly loud, and thus they were at
times somewhat overwhelmed by the
force that Maestro Dutoit elicited
from their colleagues.
It is rather surreal to listen to a
maestro conduct a work when that
man’s ex-wife is its definitive interpreter. Such was the experience of
listening to Charles Dutoit conduct
Rachmaninoff ’s third piano concerto (known sometimes simply as
“Rach 3”). The third piano concerto
is among the most demanding works
in the concerto repertory, so technically exigent as to inspire the Oscarwinning Shine, which tells the story
of schizoaffective pianist David Helfgott attempting to learn to play the
piece. (The film was a success; however, Helfgott’s actual performances
cannot be recommended.) The piece’s
most celebrated interpretations are
Vladimir Horowitz’s 1930 and Martha Argerich’s 1982 recordings. The
problem, for both the pianist and
enthusiast, is that the piece has such
tough demands (technical, but also
interpretive) that it is almost impos-
sible not to come up short in at least
some significant part.
The soloist, 39-year-old Nikolai Lugansky, is a Russian prodigy
and ’94 silver-medal laureate of the
International Tchaikovsky Competition. He was certainly technically impressive, and he hit the
ethos of the piece on the head—
John van Rhein for the Chicago
Tribune commented on his “long
and fleet” fingers, and I heard only
two very small errors in the entire
45 minutes. Furthermore, excluding Horowitz and Argerich, the
interpretation was strong. Dutoit
overwhelmed Lugansky as he did
the previous soloists, though the
conducting was lush and the final
strains quite as admirably evocative
of Rachmaninoff ’s Russian nostalgia as any—possibly even to the
point of melodrama, though not
distastefully so.
String awakening: this season’s musical high notes
Scotty Campbell
Associate Arts Editor
There’s no better way to welcome the spring than to set up
on the quad, take a nap (but not
during class: I’m looking at you,
Global Warming students), and
listen to some good music. This
season offers tunes old and new
to escape the busy outside world,
and—for those who don’t mind a
trip on the CTA—plenty of concerts to escape Hyde Park.
Want to blend in with the
hipsters? Get off Pitchfork and
download Chicago-based band
Maps & Atlases’ new album, Beware and Be Grateful, released
for online streaming now and
officially out on the 17th. Shedding their minimalistic mathrock sound, the group adds in
vaguely folk, vaguely worldmusic references. This can be
heard most prominently in “Old
and Grey,” the album’s opener.
Muddy synths, calm drums, and
monophonic chanting replace
the high-speed guitar exchanges
from their earlier EPs and add a
welcome contrast to their usually rigorous rhythms. Despite
this glimmer of originality, the
rest of the album’s tracks tread
the much-trodden paths of modern indie rock, with ballads like
“Winter” that use standard vocal hooks and percussion lines.
Despite their “reinvention,” the
album stomps their old grounds
firmly.
If you prefer your indie rock
live, check out British band The
Wombats’ concert April 30th
at the Metro in Wrigleyville.
Known for rousing performances at festivals like Glastonbury,
their bright sound is sure to be a
crowd-pleaser. Speaking of music
festivals, the lineup of Chicago’s
own Lollapalooza was recently “leaked” online; bands like
the perennial favorite Red Hot
Chili Peppers, as well as famed
performers like Jack White, are
among the suspected roster of
musicians, but the public won’t
know for sure until the official
list is posted this Wednesday.
Whether the rumors are true
or not, tickets tend to sell out
quickly, so be sure to pick one up
soon. Who doesn’t love mingling
with thousands of other bodies in
the oppressively hot and humid
Chicago summer?
If this all sounds too plebeian for your tastes, there’s always
classier fare to be had in the
warmer months. Downtown’s
Symphony Center (home of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra) is
hosting the Australian Chamber
Orchestra on April 15. Included
in their intriguing program is
a hodgepodge of 20th-century
pieces, among them American
composer George Crumb’s Black
Angels, a harsh work for strings.
Even more promising is a performance of Anton Webern’s suite
Five Pieces for Strings, a work
that dates from 1909 but nevertheless makes a bold statement in
the German composer’s intense,
atonal style. Reigning opera diva
Dawn Upshaw will be present to
lend her soprano talents to songs
by Schumann and Schubert.
Looking for other springtime
sounds? Here’s a short playlist for
those in want of some music to
read Freud by on a lazy weekday.
1. Steve Reich, Music for Eighteen Musicians (written in 1976).
The American minimalist composer’s classic work for chamber
ensemble is perfect to chill out
to; marimbas and woodwinds
join percussion for an hour-long
ambient daydream.
2. Nujabes, Spiritual State
(2012). This final, posthumous
release by the Japanese hip-hop
producer offers plenty of ethereal percussion and jazz samples.
Float away on the title track or
on “Sky is Tumbling,” in which
a rousing kick drum rhythm and
saxophone melody joins the spoken verses of Cise Star.
3. Francisco López, La Selva
(1998). The Spanish phonographer and sound artist’s classic release is more than just an environmental field recording. Take that
tropical spring break vacation you
missed by immersing yourself in
this mass of sounds recorded in the
Costa Rican rainforest, from earsplitting waterfalls to calm birdsong.
Top left: Lollapalooza is an annual, three-day music festival held in Grant Park early August.
COURTESY OF MUSICOLOGY
Top right: Maps & Atlases, Beware and Be Grateful
COURTESY OF BARSUK RECORDS
Bottom: Jack White, former lead vocalist for The White Stripes, will release his debut album
Blunderbuss later this month.
COURTESY OF THIRD MAN RECORDS COLUMBIA
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | April 10, 2012
9
Artist and RH bursts out of housing bubble
Emma Broder
Associate Arts Editor
Have you ever suspected that
your RH has a secret identity?
While Charles McGhee-Hassrick
might seem like a typical
Resident Head who makes chocolate-banana milkshakes for study
break and turns up to cheer for
the house broomball team, he’s
far from typical. In addition to
his job in Crown House in South
Campus, McGhee-Hassrick is a
sculpture and installation artist
who also does freelance exhibit
design. He has worked at the
Museum of Science and Industry
and occasionally teaches at the
Art Institute. He sat down to
chat with Maroon Arts about
some of his “crazy ideas.” Read
on, dorm-dwellers, for giant bubbles, tiny woodshops, and the
search for the perfect arborist.
Chicago Maroon: You have
a studio at SHoP. What’s it like to
hang out there all the time? How
did you end up there?
Charles McGhee-Hassrick:
There’s always been a huge need
for studio space in Hyde Park.
Thank goodness for the SHoP!
When it opened, I was so relieved
because I had been looking for
ages for studio space, and at
that point I was willing to work
in people’s basements, with no
electricity or water. The greatest thing about SHoP is that it’s
not just a single gallery: There’s
a library for poetry readings, a
kitchen, a living room for gallery
space. On the third floor, there’s
a huge open room for yoga and
meditation. I’m one of three or
four people with studio space
there. I built a little workshop
for kids with a ton of wood,
hammers and other tools, nails,
and cardboard. Someone’s always
doing something crazy there. It’s
a fantastic vortex of cultural and
artistic activity, and there’s not
many places in Hyde Park where
you can just make stuff.
drawn out of the tub. Eventually,
of course, the bubble bursts.
I kept trying to project video
onto the bubble, but it wasn’t
working. I was getting really
frustrated until I realized that
I was seeing my own reflection
in the giant sheet of bubble. So
what I’m going to do is project
video from the wall opposite the
bubble, video that tells the story
of an economic, technological,
scientific, or real estate bubble—
we have tons of cultural bubbles.
And you’ll be able to watch the
video for a little while before the
bubble bursts.
CM: What projects are you working on now ? Could you share one
with us?
CMH: I’m working on a public
outdoor sculpture, which I used
a computer program to design.
On the midway there’s this huge,
gorgeous oak tree, and I want
to put scaffolding around it. It
could give scientists and other
artists a chance to access the tree
in a way they usually can’t, to
do whatever: take pictures, or
draw, or make observations. The
contrast between the organic and
inorganic material is so cool. The
designs actually looked beautiful
on the program, and I was sort
of surprised! I have a long-term
idea to buy a set of scaffolding
CMH: I just finished a prototype
for a kinetic sculpture. I have four
bicycle wheels set up, and they’re
acting as a pulley system to pull
a rope up horizontally from the
floor to the ceiling. The thing is,
the rope starts out submerged in
a shallow tub of bubbles. I looked
up the recipe for the bubble mix
that made the world’s largest bubble, and that’s the formula I’m
using. As the rope goes to the
ceiling, a large sheet of bubble is
CM: What else do you have in
the works?
and do this with historically significant trees around the world,
but I need to find a biologist, an
arborist, and an entomologist to
develop the scientific side of the
project. Like, what month would
be best to study this tree? I think
it’ll mean different things to the
scientific and artistic communities.
CM: How do you feel about the
Logan Center and the difference
it could make for the arts in Hyde
Park?
CMH: Since SHoP is right in the
middle of Hyde Park, it’s one of
the key arts organizations in the
area, and I feel like it really serves
Hyde Park well. I hope that the
Logan can help fill the void for
an arts center in the area. It seems
like the Logan is as much about
getting people to go see what’s
going on there as it’s about what’s
actually going on there, but I’m
hoping it will generate a lot of
good energ y for the arts, and I
can’t imagine it won’t. For me,
it’s kinda cool because it’s two
blocks from where I live. It’ll be
easy for us to take students there
from South Campus, almost like
pick-up culture instead of a pickup soccer game. Like, “There’s
a concert going on tonight, let’s
go!”
Arts RSO
ensures its
continuation
BEATS continued from page 7
developments Beats & Pieces has undergone every school year.
This year, Legacies was particularly
significant as it marked the culmination of another year of Beats & Pieces’
productions: “Much of the board is
graduating from the college at the
end of this year, and many of the artists featured within the exhibition are
also fourth-years of the college,” said
Thomas George, co-president of the
RSO. “Legacies was intended to sort
of double as a collection of what the
graduating members of the RSO and
the artists involved wanted to leave
behind as a legacy all of their own.”
But Beats & Pieces is far from
curtain’s close: in its five-year standing, such instances of change are endemic. And with each generation’s
exit, another rises up to take center
stage, resulting in a club whose basic
aesthetic ambitions remain the same
but whose nuances are constantly developing in flavor, which is as much
determined by club members themselves as by the natural changes of
artwork submitted from year to year.
Despite Beats & Pieces’ own internal
shifts, the show must go on—and it
will. Look out for next autumn’s Origins exhibition among other events
no doubt rife with art, food, music,
and, of course, change.
At Max Palevsky Cinema, Girls gone mild
Hannah Gold
Arts Editor
Last night Max Palevsky Cinema was
filled with dozens of viewers eager to watch
Doc Film’s preview screening of HBO’s
newest original series Girls, a coming-ofage comedy about four girls in their early
20s living either together or in close proximity to each other in New York City. The
show—directed, created, written, and
starred in by 25-year-old Lena Dunham—
has already garnered its fair share of grief
and gossip from overanxious critics who
have prematurely touted the show, which
will premiere on April 15, as a younger,
less-employable Sex and the City.
The fact that three of the four leading
ladies ( Jemima Kirke, Allison Williams,
and Zosia Mamet) all have famous fathers
(Simon, Brian, and David) has only served
to lend the show an up-and-coming, sexy
mystique. Lena Dunham herself has plenty
of indie cred to spare after writing, directing, and starring in 2010’s Tiny Furniture, which won Best Narrative Feature at
South by Southwest that same year. Throw
a couple of hit-making executive producers into the mix—Jenni Kroner (of the TV
series Help Me Help You and In the Motherhood) and Judd Apatow who is well-accustomed to turning out successes like Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), and
Bridesmaids (2011)—and you’ve officially
got yourself an unaired, but much buzzedabout show. And if that wasn’t enough, everyone is aware that HBO knows good sex
(and isn’t afraid to ask).
However, what I saw, as I laughed and
cringed through the first two episodes of
Girls, was anything but Sex and the City,
minus 10 years and a few cosmos. What I
got was a bleak look into my own future.
Okay, many college graduates’ possible futures. Lena Dunham plays Hannah Horvath, a 25-year-old unpaid intern who is
four essays into writing her first book of
nine essays. The next five essays are immi-
Doc Films premiered HBO’s new comedy series Girls last night. The show is scheduled to premiere Sunday the 15th.
COURTESY OF HBO
nent, but she’s writing a memoir, so she has
to live them first. Hannah rooms with her
best friend Marnie (Allison Williams) who
is hell-bent on ending things with her insufferably nice and gentle boyfriend of four
years who says things like, “I just blew up
a kiss on you.” This is couple number one
that has terrible, graphic, hilarious sex on
Dunham’s show. There is much more of this
sort of thing to come.
In the opening scene of the first episode,
Hannah is out to dinner with her conservative, well-meaning parents who are in
town to tell her that they’re cutting her off
financially for good. “We can’t keep bankrolling your groovy lifestyle,” says her concerned and embittered mother. Later that
day, Hannah has sex with her fuck buddy
(come on, this is HBO) Adam and can’t
stop talking about her resume the whole
time. In this regard she is less Carrie Bradshaw, more Larry David. (She also does
things like make rape jokes during a job
interview. As previously stated, she is currently unemployed.)
Sometimes the comedy can undermine
the “real world” feel of the show. Hannah’s
British, Francophile friend Jessa ( Jemima
Kirke) is a free spirit who just finished a
pearl-shucking gig and a brief romance
with a surfer, but her antics are way too
predictably random to be actually entertaining. Shoshanna, Jessa’s cousin and another one of the leads, is such a hyperbolic
caricature of a young woman in a pink
jumpsuit who talks really quickly about
nothing at all because she’s just that insecure, that she barely seems human: certainly not interesting.
It’s those quirky little moments though,
which effortlessly blend outlandish situations with poignant, everyday emotion,
that make this show worth watching, despite the noticeable dearth of Manolo
Blahniks. Like the time that Adam, after
having fantasy-fueled sex with Hannah in
which he pretends that he is a junkie and
she an 11-year-old girl, offers her a Gatorade. Or like the moment you realize that
Hannah majored in English in college,
Adam in comp lit.
10
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 10, 2012
Fourpeat: South Siders capture Midwest Invitational title, move to 13–4
Women’s Tennis
Shayan Karbassi
Sports Staff
The Maroons had a dominating
performance this weekend in
Madison, Wisconsin, winning
all four of their matches
and sweeping the Midwest
Invitational. The sixth-ranked
Maroons improved to 11–1
against DIII opponents and 13–4
overall.
En route to its fourth
consecutive Midwest Invite title,
the team defeated Luther College,
Gustavus Adolphus College,
Washington University in St.
Louis, and DePauw University.
“I am very proud of each and
every one of my teammates. We’ve
grown a lot throughout the year,
and I feel like this tournament
turned our hard work into
results. It was nothing surprising,
it is just a matter of execution,
and this weekend every player
executed their part,” said thirdyear Linden Li.
Fourth-year Jennifer Kung, a
co-captain, thought that the team
played well overall at the invite.
“I thought we did a good job
of finding ways to win, even
when we weren’t playing our
best or things weren’t going our
way,” said Kung. “Being able
to compete well under those
circumstances will be important
during our matches later on at
UAAs and NCAAs.”
On Friday, the ladies faced off
against Luther College and began
their weekend with a 9–0 victory.
Friday evening the #20 women
from Gustavus Adolphus were
subject to the same treatment, as
the Chicago women swept them
9–0.
The women knew that Saturday
would be crucial for their success
and as a gauge of their abilities,
since they would play Wash U
and DePauw.
Chicago began Saturday with
another impressive performance,
defeating #13 Wash U 5–0. Kung
and first-year Kelsey McGillis
both won their singles matches
in two sets: 6–1, 6–2 and 6–1,
6–3, respectively. Fourth-years
Kendra Higgins and Carmen
Vaca Guzman led the way in
doubles play, defeating Wash U
8–4. Their win was followed by
victories from two other Chicago
doubles pairs.
Saturday evening the South
Siders faced the 10th-ranked
DePauw Tigers for the third
time this year. The Maroons had
defeated the Tigers in their first
encounter this year but lost to
them in the second, making this
an important match between
the two schools. The Maroons
avenged their previous loss to
the Tigers with a 5–2 victory on
Saturday.
Vaca Guzman led the way
for the Maroons, winning in
two sets: 6–1, 6–3. Li followed
suit. McGillis fell to Caroline
Emhardt of DePauw in two sets,
marking the first loss for Chicago
all weekend. But Tang made sure
the team finished singles play
strong with a 6–4, 6–1 victory
over DePauw’s Julie Wittwer. In
doubles play, Higgins and Vaca
Guzman emulated their earlier
successes, defeating the Tigers
8–5, and Kung and Li were
almost flawless as they cruised to
victory 8–1.
Coming off of a successful
weekend, the Maroons will
continue to work hard as they
finish their season.
“Now we will be working more
than ever on our fitness, while
sustaining our focus on doubles
play. Every point counts, every
point matters, and every point is
one step closer to the big prize: the
national championship,” said Li.
“We did well this weekend, but
we don’t want to lose focus. We’ll
face much tougher competition
at UAAs and NCAAs. We need
to remain dedicated to working
hard and putting in the time and
effort needed to prepare for those
tournaments,” said Kung.
“UAAs will be really tough this
year since Emory and Carnegie
both have very strong teams, but
I believe that if we play to our
potential and keep working hard,
we are capable of recapturing the
UAA title this year. For now,
we’re just focusing on preparing
for UAAs and we don’t want to
look too far ahead. However,
at NCAA’s, we’ll be looking to
improve on our performances
over the last three years and
hopefully win the national title,”
she said.
On Wednesday, Chicago travels
to Wheaton College for dual
matches as it looks to continue
its dominance heading into the
UAA and NCAA tournaments.
As offense freezes, Maroons swept for first time this season
SOFTBALL continued from back
Chicago’s offense was humming
top to bottom, but Bohac shined in
particular, getting four RBIs on a 3–3
performance at the plate to cap an
impressive pair of games by the team’s
three first-years: Cloud, Bohac, and
Ashbridge.
“Our first-years have done a very
nice job…. All three have solid work
ethics and great attitudes,” said Kmak,
praising Cloud’s consistency on offense
and defense, Bohac’s versatility on
defense, and Ashbridge’s development
on the mound.
The Maroons had their best scoring
chance in their doubleheader against
UW–Oshkosh in the second inning
of the first game, getting Cloud and
Payonk in scoring position with two
outs but leaving them stranded.
“We didn’t finish when we had
runners on early…and that set the tone
for us psychologically,” said Kmak.
The Titans scored both of their runs
in the bottom of the third, breaking
Cygan’s 21.1 scoreless innings streak
and handing her the loss, even as she
pitched a complete game five-hitter
with both runs unearned. Cygan has
now allowed only one earned run in
her past 45 innings.
Neuhaus performed similarly well,
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going the distance and allowing the
nightcap’s only run on a solo home
run by UW–Oshkosh’s Emily Mallek
in the third inning. The Maroons
mustered only five hits between the
two games; only Payonk had more
than one. In the first game, the Titans’
Courtney Wautier (9–3) pitched the
full seven innings, and in the second,
Julia Sweeney (4–4) allowed only two
base runners to earn the complete
game win.
The Maroons are in action at Stagg
Field today at 3 p.m. for a doubleheader
against North Park (17–5). In their first
home game in 15 days, the Maroons
will look to shake off their malaise at
the plate and regain Friday’s form in
what may prove to be a shootout: The
Vikings have won 10 of their last 11
games and have scored just under 10
runs a game in their past six.
11
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | April 10, 2012
A frustrating loss to Aurora—and then redemption through Hope
Baseball
Sarah Langs
Associate Sports Editor
There’s still a lot of baseball
left. Those words are perhaps the
best comfort that can be offered
to Chicago (12–7), who dropped
yet another disappointing game
to Aurora (14–4) on Friday by a
final of 14–7. However, the way
in which the game played out
was more of a frustration than it
was a demonstration of Aurora’s
dominance.
Chicago played Aurora close
for most of the game. It jumped
on the board in the top of the
first, taking advantage of thirdyear outfielder Ben Bullock’s
leadoff walk. The Maroons
would score three runs in the
first. Though third-year starter
Matt O’Connor yielded a run
to Aurora in the bottom of the
frame, the Maroons maintained a
steady lead throughout the early
innings, leading 6–1 at the end
of two.
Things got interesting in the
bottom of the fourth when Aurora
took advantage of three Chicago
errors, two by Bullock and one
by first-year infielder Kyle Engel.
The Spartans scored four runs in
the inning, cutting the Maroons’
lead to one.
The South Siders padded their
lead in the seventh on an RBI
groundout from third-year infielder Steven Schwabe. But the
wheels really began to fall off in the
bottom half of the inning, when
the Maroons gave up two runs
in an inning that featured a hit
batsman, meaning one of the runs
was unearned. However, at that
point, the score was still tied.
“We let the game slip away in the
bottom of the eighth inning,” said
Schwabe.
Here’s what he was referring
to: With the score tied headed
into the eighth, Chicago lost any
momentum it might have had. As
the pinnacle of the collapse, it gave
up seven runs in the bottom of the
eighth, one of which was unearned,
en route to a 14–7 loss.
“Our game against Aurora was a
major letdown,” said Schwabe. “We
did not play up to our expectations.
It was very frustrating.”
There certainly are a number
of games left, but the schedule
will only get tougher from here.
The game against Aurora was the
Maroons’ first road game of the
season. Through May 21, when the
season ends, the team will play in
11 more road contests.
“We play [Aurora] again on
Wednesday,” said Schwabe, “and
hopefully we can redeem ourselves.”
The
Maroons
redeemed
themselves somewhat on Monday,
coming from behind to beat
Hope 10–9. “We won because of
strong performances by our relief
pitchers, Andrew VanWazer and
Drew Nicholson,” said Engel.
“They were able to keep us in the
game and give us the opportunity
to come back and win.”
The Maroons were down 1–0
early, but came back in the bottom
of the first with two runs. From
Fourth-year Alex Garcia pitches to fourth-year catcher Stephen Williams in last Wednesday’s
game against Benedictine University.
SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
then on, the game went back and
forth a few times, with Chicago
ultimately heading to the bottom
of the ninth down 9–7.
“It was an exciting finish. Jack
Cinoman came through with a
walk-off triple with the bases loaded
to end the game,” said Engel.
Given the disappointment that
accompanied the South Siders’ loss
to Aurora, it is hard to conceive of a
better turnaround game than theirs
against Hope.
The South Siders needed to
rebound quickly and they did.
They play three games in three
straight days this week: yesterday’s
contest against Hope, Tuesday on
the road against Domincan, and
a Wednesday rematch at home
against Aurora.
Against Chicago’s finest, cohesive cast grabs sixth-place finish
Women’s Track and Field
Katie Burkhart
Sports Contributor
The Maroons finished sixth
on home turf this weekend at the
Chicagoland Women’s Outdoor
Track and Field Championships.
Northern Illinois took the
championship
(174),
while
Chicago followed Lewis (74) with
an overall score of 60.50.
A sixth-place finish is certainly
an impressive feat for the Maroons,
who competed among 18 teams
representing schools from all
divisions, DI to DIII.
“We didn’t walk onto the
track this past Friday expecting
to win, but to make important
improvements for upcoming
meets,” said fourth–year sprinter
Jalessa Akuoko. “The top scoring
teams were DI/DII schools, so
finishing sixth shows that we’re
right in the fray with high-caliber
teams.”
Team captains, including Akuoko as
well as fourth-years Maddie Allen, Paige
Peltzer, Rachel Ohman, and Sonia
Khan, have led the team thus far with
particular emphasis on support and
cohesion among teammates. The focus
is not just on individual performance on
the track—an approach that, Maroon
leadership admits, has not always been
taken in the past.
“It’s a different dynamic that
this year’s captains are creating,
and it will hopefully result in
us being the strongest team at
Conference,” said Akuoko.
Whether or not this new
atmosphere is the driving force
behind the team’s progress, the
team’s successes at Chicagolands
cannot be ignored.
Several standout performances
and personal bests, while not firstplace finishes, have left the South
Siders in a position to be serious
contenders at the Conference
Championships.
“There
were
tons
of
performances that would put
[the team] in scoring position at
Conference…. We had three 5k
runners go under 18:10, which
is great this time of the season,”
Khan said. T
hose runners were secondyears Elise Wummer, fourth-year
Ohman, and third-year Julia Sizek,
with times of 18:09.76, 17:52.76,
and 17:32.38, respectively.
Khan, the fourth-year cocaptain, placed fourth in the 10k
run (37:12.37).
“I had a lot of help from my
teammate, [fourth–year] Jane
Simpson, who led me through 5k
at a pace I normally wouldn’t have
been comfortable with,” she said.
“We had such a good rhythm going
that I was able to negative split the
second half of the race by quite
a bit.” Simpson went on to take
seventh in the same race with a
time of 37:56.37.
Other top point earners
included second-year Michaela
Whitelaw with a third place finish
in the 1,500m run (4:45.01),
high-jumpers Peltzer (1.57m,
third place) and third–year Emily
Hren (1.52m, fourth place),
third-year
Kayla
McDonald
with an impressive 58.87 in the
400m dash (fourth place), and
both the 4x400m (4:07.95) and
4x800m (9:54.47) relay teams each
finishing fourth.
Despite an impressive performance
at Chicagolands, the team remains
focused on making further
improvements for the long haul. “It
looks like we have a lot of momentum
going…Coach [Aaron] Carley and
Coach [Chris] Hall were very pleased
with how the meet went for us,”
Whitelaw said.
Chicago will next compete at
the Wheaton Invite at 1 p.m. this
Saturday in Wheaton, Illinois.
Sharma: “Hopefully we can turn that [loss of interest] around and
have a different perspective on the tennis club by being more serious”
CLUBS continued from back
proposal was denied. However,
the club has received funding
from the Student Government
Finance Committee (SGFC).
With a lack of funds and
low participation, Estaver and
Sharma came up with the idea of
having a team within the club.
Members of the team would
fundraise
together,
attend
tournaments together, and be
more committed as a whole.
While the idea for the team
actually originated last year, it
was unable to come to fruition.
“They tried to do it last year,
but there was no incentive to
actually be on the team,” said
Estaver.
Team members now have
the added incentive of possibly
getting uniforms and priority to
all tournaments.
While all team members have
to pay $30 every quarter, Sharma
said that the 15 people that have
shown interest thus far are very
receptive to the idea.
To give members added
incentive, the tennis club is
aggressively pursuing funds
outside of campus.
Already, the Maroons have
raised $5,500 for traveling
through Zipcar. They have also
applied for a grant through
the United States Tennis
Association’s (USTA) Tennis on
Campus program.
The Tennis on Campus
program has also led to a greater
number of tournaments. This
school year, the Maroons have
been actively involved in five
team tournaments. They will
attend a new tournament at
Northwestern this May and will
host their own tournament later
in the year.
Sharma said that a lot of
the credit for the improved
organization of the club has to go
to current club president, fourthyear Elizabeth Beitler.
“Elizabeth is the one that has
the spirit,” said Sharma. “She
makes everyone feel motivated.”
The club looks toward having
more active members and
thriving in the future.
“[Currently]
people
lose
interest throughout the year,” said
Sharma. “Hopefully we can turn
that around and have a different
perspective on the tennis club by
being more serious.”
Students interested in joining
the tennis club should e-mail
[email protected]. SPORTS
IN QUOTES
“I love Fidel Castro.... I respect Fidel Castro. You know why?
A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that son of a bitch is still there.”
—Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen, on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Squad falters, but third-years shine at Chicagolands
Second-years Griffin Brunk (left) and Sam Butler run hurdles at the Chicagolands track meet
on Saturday.
BENJAMIN TRNKA | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Men’s Track and Field
Jake Walerius
Associate Sports Editor
Like any sport, track and field
can often be hard to make sense
of, and the Maroons’ performance
at the Chicagoland championship
last Saturday was, more than
anything, a little strange.
Chicago finished ninth out
of 16 at a meet in which it had
hoped to finish in the top six, but
its performance was characterized
as much by that disappointment
as it was by several outstanding
Maroon performances.
“Overall,
we
are
rather
disappointed with our team’s
placing,” fourth-year distance
runner Brian Schlick said. “We
were stretched rather thin due
to injuries, and the other teams
at the meet were very good, but
we are pleased with how many
of our individuals, especially Bill
Whitmore, performed.”
Third-year Whitmore ran the
second fastest 10k time in U
of C history (30:18.56s) for a
second-place finish that leaves
him in the top 10 in the country
at the D-III level. Third-year
Isaac Dalke finished fourth in the
5,000m (15:11.72s) and is now
ranked fifth in the conference,
and fellow third-year Anthony
Farias-Eisner’s leg of the 4x400m
relay placed in the top 10 all-time
in the U of C honor rolls.
“I thought there were some
things we did really well,” head
coach Chris Hall said. “We ran
well in the steeple, the 5k, the 10k
and I thought on the whole we
competed very well. I would like
to have placed higher. I feel like we
were kind of right there, we just let
a few points slip here and there.”
The Maroons finished with 46
points, nine points behind sixthplace DuPage and a massive 158
points behind the winner, North
Central. Notably, 32 of Chicago’s
46 points were scored in distance
and middle-distance events, and
their highest-placed individual
finish outside of those events was
fourth-year Daniel Heck’s fourthplace performance in the hammer
throw (47.85m).
“We struggled in the sprints a
little, not just with regards to how
we placed but our times as well,”
third-year Dee Brizzolara said. “I
was not very happy with my own
performance, but it’s a long season.
Hopefully I’ll improve.”
What was strange about the
Maroons’ performance, and
maybe a bit of a relief, was
that it doesn’t seem to have
had any significant impact on
the conference picture. It was
disappointing, yes, but it didn’t
really change anything. However,
not getting worse is hardly a step
in the right direction.
“I don’t think we did [move
forward]. I looked at the
results afterward and we didn’t
accomplish what we set out to
do,” Hall said. “But this morning
I sat down and looked at the
conference honor rolls and I said,
‘We’re doing ok.’”
“We were capable of doing more
this past weekend, but I think the
entire UAA conference is having
some struggles in the same areas
we are right now. So I can’t say it
was a step in the right direction.
Maybe it was lateral movement.
I can’t say we moved forward,
but looking at the conference, we
didn’t move backwards either.”
The Maroons will continue to
examine their performance. They will
look at the success of the distance
runners, the disappointment of
the sprinters, their injuries, and the
strength—and they were strong—
of the opposition, but it’s hard to
draw an obvious conclusion from
any of it. It was just a strange day.
A lot of encouragement, a lot of
disappointment, but, it seems, very
few lessons to be learned.
Tennis club restructures, looks for funding
Feast or famine in weekend outing
Clubs
Softball
Alexander Sotiropoulos
Senior Sports Staff
In a school where varsity
athletic programs rarely receive
attention, it comes as no surprise
that many athletic clubs have low
levels of participation as well.
In spite of this fact, one club—
the tennis club—is undergoing a
restructuring process so that it can
become more widely recognized
and, more importantly, have
success at the tournament level.
Contrary to popular belief,
the tennis club does not only
participate
in
intra-school
activities. While there are
practices every Tuesday, Friday,
and Sunday, the club’s goal is
to build a successful squad in
those practices in preparation for
tournaments outside the U of C.
Unfortunately, while there are
upwards of 20 people at practices,
only about five of them are
actively involved in tournaments.
In the past, the administrators
of the club allowed anybody
interested to participate in
tournaments.
But most members would
drop out, forcing students like
second-year James Estaver to play
over eight matches at a given
tournament.
“It was hard to get people to
play at tournaments previously
because people came on a
volunteer basis,” said Estaver. “So
people dropped out at the last
minute.”
This was the case at the
University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign tournament fall
quarter, where only five members
participated from the U of C.
The large number of Chicago
dropouts created problems off
the court as well, as the club
was forced to pay the costs for
overbooked hotel rooms.
On top of that, with Estaver
being the only male participating,
Chicago had to forfeit all men’s
doubles matches and ended up
with only one win in the entire
tournament.
Tournament after tournament,
Chicago continued to have
stagnant participation.
To make matters worse, because
there is already a varsity tennis
team, the tennis club is not an
officially recognized sports club.
Therefore, it is unable to receive
annual funds from the pool of
money that is designated for
sports clubs.
Instead, the group has to apply
for annual allocations through
a fund that is available to every
RSO at the school.
“We get less funding than we
would receive if we were a sports
club,” second-year Gaelle Sharma
said. “We have a small number of
committed members, so we don’t
get a lot of money.”
Last year, the tennis club only
received funding for indoor
tennis courts through annual
allocations while every other
CLUBS continued on page 11
Derek Tsang
Associate Sports Editor
What a difference a day makes.
The Maroons put together two of
their best overall performances in a
doubleheader at Lawrence (5–11)
last Friday, with their 11–1 and 14–3
victories both so dominant that they
were cut short by the mercy rule.
The next day, the Maroons (15–7)
couldn’t buy a run as they fell 0–2
and 0–1 at UW–Oshkosh (15–9),
marking their first consecutive losses
of the season.
“[On Friday,] we played well in all
facets of the game, and…played at the
level we are capable of,” said head coach
Ruth Kmak. “On Saturday, we had the
opposite of Friday…. We did not play
with the confidence that allows us to
compete at our level.”
Chicago found its hitting form
in the second half of their first game
against Lawrence, blowing open the
game with three runs in the top of
the fourth to stretch their lead to
five. Fourth-year Liz Payonk led the
charge with four RBIs on three of the
Maroons’ 16 hits. First-year Raechel
Cloud and fourth-year Julia Schneider
contributed another three hits each to
help fourth-year Sarah Neuhaus (5–3)
earn the win for four innings of threehit ball. First-year Tabbetha Bohac
pitched a scoreless final two frames.
The Maroons piled on the runs late
in their first fixture with Lawrence,
plating five in the sixth and final
inning, and their impressive offense
carried over into the nightcap. The
South Siders scored three in the first
inning,and didn’t have a single scoreless
frame. First-year Emily Ashbridge (1–
1) picked up her first career win for her
three innings of work, after third-year
Kim Cygan (8–2) started the game
off throwing a pair of scoreless innings.
SOFTBALL continued on page 10
First-year Raechel Cloud stands at bat during a home game against Lake Forest last quarter.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVE HILBERT