012021 by Chicago Maroon

RESEARCHERS GENERATE COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF COVID-19

JANUARY 20, 20201 SECOND WEEK VOL. 133, ISSUE 12

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Caroline Kubzansky

Vaccine Distribution Delayed by Changing Federal Guidelines

By TESS CHANG & CAROLINE KUBZANSKY Senior Reporter & Managing Editor A change in Chicago Department of Public Health guidelines means that most higher education employees will not be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the next phase of distribution, according to an email from Provost Ka Yee Lee sent Thursday afternoon. A lthough some University of Chicago employees may soon have access to the COVID-19 vaccine under altered guidelines for vaccine distribution, University employees who the institution thought may have soon been eligible for their doses will By RYAN OWYANG Senior Reporter

University Community Remembers Yiran Fan VIEWPOINTS: Engage Slate Looks forward to Selection of Next University President PAGE 5

VIEWPOINTS: UChicago Must Adapt Testing Programs with Winter’s Onset PAGE 6

Ryan Owyang

Mourners, masked a nd socially distanced, filled the main quadrangle on the afternoon of January 14 as they listened to the personal accounts of those who had known Yiran Fan, a University student who was killed on Saturday, January 9. Fan was a Ph.D. student in a joint program between the Booth School of Business and the Department of Economics. He joined the University in 2014 as a master’s student after earning his bachelor’s degree at Peking University and his first master’s degree at

ARTS: Rethinking MODA for an Online World

likely not be eligible until Phase 1c, which has no projected start date yet. “On Januar y 4, federal guidelines indicated that the education sector, including higher education employees, would likely have access to vaccinations as part of Phase 1b of vaccine distribution,” Lee wrote. “Updates made this week to the Illinois vaccination plan indicate that most higher education employees will not have access to vaccines in Phase 1b.” According to the email, “most teachers and staff at the Laboratory Schools and the University Charter School should have access to vaccines soon.” Earlier this week, state officials adjusted the guidelines CONTINUED ON PG. 2

the University of Cambridge. After Fan earned his A.M. at the University of Chicago in 2015, he worked at the Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance. In 2017, he was admitted to the joint Ph.D. program in financial economics. He was in his fourth year and was preparing to propose his dissertation later this year. Economics Ph.D. candidate Lun Li described meeting Fan. “In September of 2015, I walked into the Chinese Drama Club. I immediately noticed the new director [Fan]. He talked really fast and passionately, with a very recognizable voice and a great sense CONTINUED ON PG. 2

SPORTS: Overhauled 202021 Bulls Look Solid for the Season

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THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 20, 2021

“I was hit by a sudden wave of sadness when I realized I could not talk to my friend anymore.” CONTINUED FROM COVER

of humor.” Over the years, Li said, he often visited Fan at his office and their friendship grew. “One day, Yiran texted me and said he got an offer from the joint Ph.D. program,” Li said. “I knew how hard he had worked for it and I was sincerely excited for my friend.” Li recounted celebrating Chinese New Year 2018 with Fan and a group of their friends in his apartment. “Last night, I was sitting alone in that apartment, thinking about the great time we had,” said Li. “I was hit by a sudden wave of sadness when I realized I could not talk to my friend anymore. But then I said to myself, ‘I was fortunate to have known Yiran for six years of my life, and I’ll remember him for the rest of my lifetime.’ I hope you will remember him as well.” Zhiguo He, Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, was someone with whom Fan had worked closely. He spoke highly of Fan’s academic abilities. “There was no need to tell him how to do something. I just told him what I wanted to accomplish,” he said. He also described the first time he had taken Fan to dinner and recalled his drive, encapsulated in a saying of Fan’s: 一分耕耘不一定有一分收获，但是十分耕耘就一定有一分收获 (Translated, the saying means “some effort won’t necessarily yield some reward, but strong effort will definitely yield more than nothing.”) Fan “took my second-year Ph.D. class. He deserved an A-plus, but just because here we usually don’t give A-pluses, we decided to give him an A.”

Mourners gather at a vigil on the main quadrangles for Yiran Fan. RYan OWyang He paused. “Now I regret it.” Katie Tian (M.B.A. ’20) met Fan while she was president of the Chinese Drama Club. “Yiran had a romantic heart as well as a logical brain,” Tian said.“He once told the three actors to stand in a 150-degree isosceles triangle to evoke the tension between the characters.” After Fan was admitted as a Ph.D. student, “I texted him every semester

when we were considering a new show for him to direct,” Tian said. “He would politely reject me and chat about how he was stressed about this Ph.D. qualifying exam.” Fan still returned to the club as often as he could to help out with auditions or rehearsals, but he never came back as a full director, Tian said. “The last time I met him, it was at Winter Garden. I told him, ‘we need a director

again, we need you back!’ and he said ‘next time.’” The University has established a fund in Fan’s memory to support students in the joint program in which he was enrolled. Donations may be given here. The UChicago Beijing Alumni Association has organized a fundraiser for Fan’s family, as has Professor He.

Vaccine Rollout Delayed as Guidelines Change CONTINUED FROM COVER

for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine so that Phase 1b may begin as early as January 18. Under Phase 1b, people over 65, food and agriculture workers, postal workers, and certain education

and childcare workers would be eligible to receive the vaccine. As of yesterday, Chicago has administered 62,143 first doses of vaccine to healthcare workers. 19,426 people have received both shots. The University of

Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) has administered about a fifth of these doses. Vaccine distribution in the US has been sluggish so far, with only about 9 million people receiving vaccines out

of a goal of 20 million doses given by December 31, 2020. President-elect Joe Biden has said he will release nearly all currently available vaccines to jump-start the program. CONTINUED ON PG. 3

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 20, 2021

Phase 1b of Vaccine Rollout to Begin as Early as January 18th CONTINUED FROM PG. 2

Phase 1b, which includes those over 65 and certain categories of essential workers, may begin as early as January 18. CAROline KUbzanKsy

Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said the city’s top priority is preventing the doses of the vaccine it has received so far from expiring. This means that if healthcare workers are refusing the vaccine, providers should make those doses available to other high-risk populations or to remote healthcare workers. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that this is the case at UCMC, where only 55 percent of employees have agreed to be vaccinated. William Parker, a pulmonologist and medical ethicist at UCMC, believes that allowing non-healthcare workers to receive the vaccine will decrease vaccine hesitancy. “Direct person to person communication about [the vaccine] is quite powerful,” Parker said. “The people who really want it will get it. They can go out and be ambassadors to the larger community.” Parker believes that the most efficient and equitable vaccine distribution going forward will take the form of a lottery-based system, with excess doses of the vaccine being randomly assigned to those who qualify. This randomization would help to mitigate the effects of socioeconomic and racial inequities on vaccine distribution. “Unfortunately, there’s an island around Hyde Park with a decent amount of vaccination, but then it’s a desert just a zip code away.”

UChicago Researchers Create First Complete Computational Model for COVID-19 By TESS CHANG Senior Reporter The computational model, developed by researchers in the Department of Chemistry under the direction of Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor Dr. Gregory Voth, will be used to develop drugs and track mutations to fight the virus. The model has the potential to elucidate the mechanism in which healthy human

cells are invaded by SARS-COV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. “The model can help us understand how the virus fuses with our cells. After you breathe the virus in, spike proteins on the virus bind to ACE-2 receptors on cells in the respiratory tract,” Voth said. “This is the first key step, the infection step.” Voth’s team created the model using a technique called coarse-graining. “The

technique is called coarse-graining because an object like a virus has billions of atoms. Trying to solve that directly would be very difficult. This coarse-grained technique takes all of that complexity and folds it into simpler representations that still retain the essential properties,” Voth said. His lab has been at the forefront of developing coarse-graining methods and applying them to a range of applications.

Insights from the model could be a boon for vaccine development, especially when it comes to fighting new mutations of the virus. Vaccines are designed to help the body’s immune system recognize spike proteins on the surface of the virus and attack it. However, certain mutants of the virus may be resistant, and will still be able to reproduce and multiply. Voth noted that the high rates CONTINUED ON PG. 4

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 20, 2021

“In the new UK variant of the virus, certain amino acids were changed so the spike proteins are able to stick more strongly”

Mourners gather at a vigil on the main quadrangles for Yiran Fan. RYan OWyang CONTINUED FROM PG. 3

of COVID-19 infection worldwide have given the virus more opportunities to mutate. “In the new UK variant of the virus, certain amino acids were changed so the spike proteins are able to stick more strongly. In principle, we could model that on the computer to better understand it, and do the same for future mutations,” Voth said. He hopes that the computational model will help scientists stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new strains of the virus. The report was published in Biophysical Journal, and the model itself is available to the public to download. Voth believes that making the model widely accessible is crucial. “We wanted to provide this platform where people can download the model and improve it and add new data. Hopefully they also share their work so it can be a resource for others.”

58 New COVID-19 Cases Reported as Students Return to Campus for Winter Quarter By LUKIAN KLING Senior Reporter There were 58 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 close contacts in the University community between January 6 and 13, according to a UChicago Forward email sent out Friday afternoon. These cases include students and faculty working remotely as well as those on campus. Surveillance testing yielded 15 positive cases during the week, bringing the positivity rate to 0.4 percent. Students were instructed to observe stay-at-home protocol for seven

days as they moved back into dorms this week. After move-in last quarter, the University reported 14 new cases and nine positive tests the following week. The City of Chicago updated its Emergency Travel Order, effective January 15, to allow for what city officials have deemed improved testing capabilities. The city has eliminated the red classification level, which required travelers to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of a negative COVID-19 test. The two remaining classifications, orange and yellow, are less stringent. For

the 48 states and two territories under the orange classification, travelers need a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 72 hours before arriving in Chicago, or they must quarantine for 10 days. Travelers from yellow states do not need to test or quarantine before arrival. International air travel requirements have also been updated by the Center for Disease Control. Effective January 26, all international travelers must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result within three days before their flights depart for the U.S.

VIEWPOINTS Student Government Feels Optimistic About Search For Next University President If the Faculty Advisory Committee follows through on its goals, the next University President will be accessible, diverse, and open to change. By ENGAGE SLATE You are likely aware that the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees has tasked a Trustee Search Committee and Faculty Advisory Committee with conducting a far-reaching search for our 14th University president. As Student Government’s Executive Slate, we

recently met with Professors Robert Rosner, Erik Hurst, and Michael Franklin of the Faculty Advisory Committee to provide input on the presidential search. Unlike many of our meetings with administrators, we left this meeting optimistic that students have a unique chance to impact the direction of the University.

On our agenda were several matters that the University’s presidents have traditionally neglected, from cultural centers and South Side reparations to graduate student unionization and sustainability leadership. The faculty advisors seemed equal parts energized and intrigued. We pressed them on Greek life recognition. They suggested some

novel approaches, such as seeking pro bono legal advice to bolster activists’ interactions with the University. We emphasized the need to uplift marginalized faculty. Rosner, the committee chair, said he had already committed to meeting with #MoreThanDiversity faculty organizers. CONTINUED ON PG. 5

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 20, 2021

“The interests of students and faculty are often aligned, and it is clear that the faculty advisors want to hear our aspirations and our fears.” CONTINUED FROM PG. 4

The faculty advisors also voiced some priorities of their own. They are interested in a president that engages with the South Side community by departing from the University’s legacy of gentrification and over-policing. We reiterated that the University should address this by speaking with radical community members. They asked our thoughts on building a more diverse and equitable campus. We highlighted the dearth of Black students in the University; at just 4.7 percent of total students enrolled, it is an abysmal number compared to peer institutions. They agreed that this was un-

acceptable, especially in the sciences, where many Black students feel unrepresented and unsupported. We closed our meeting with three selection criteria for the Faculty Advisory Committee to relay to the Trustees. First, with only one woman president, no openly queer presidents, and zero presidents of color in its nearly 130-year history, the next University president cannot be another white, straight male. Whether it chooses a woman, a person of color, a queer person, or another marginalized individual, it is imperative that the University break with its tradition of visually and ideologically stale leadership.

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Second, the next president must be visible and accessible to students. For one hour in 2018, President Zimmer broke a roughly five-year hiatus from public student engagement to participate in a moderated town hall. Our community deserves better: a president that students can see, know, and understand. Finally, the next president must commit to engaging with student activists in a way that is honest, attentive, and responsive. Over the past four years, we have seen escalating tensions between students and administrators over Graduate Students United (GSU) recognition, student cultural centers, and University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) abolition. No matter the president’s position on these issues, they cannot continue to ignore

student voices. Levi Hall cannot remain an ivory tower. The faculty advisors who were present agreed that these criteria cannot go unconsidered. And although they could not comment on the exact details of the presidential search, we are confident that they are invested in addressing student concerns. To this end, we encourage readers to fill out our survey on the presidential search. We will be collecting responses through January 31. We plan to meet with the Faculty Advisory Committee in February to report our findings. We understand that a responsive Faculty Advisory Committee does not necessarily mean a responsive Board of Trustees. As the Maroon Editorial Board noted in November, the interests of wealthy

donors frequently grate against that of students’, while earlier Maroon reporting has unearthed the top-level erosion of faculty governance. Even so, the Faculty Advisory Committee’s wide-ranging engagement with the University community demonstrates a significant degree of faculty latitude and influence in the presidential search process. The interests of faculty and students are often aligned, and it is clear that the faculty advisors want to hear our aspirations and our fears. Our community is at an inflection point. We should seize this historic opportunity to set the University of Chicago on the right path. The authors are the members of the Student Government Executive Slate, ENGAGE.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 20, 2021

Winter is Coming. Will UChicago Adapt its Testing Infrastructure? To protect our community this quarter, the University must expand mandatory and voluntary testing. By KETAN SENGUPTA People tend to be ambivalent about the New Year for the same reasons they’re ambivalent about their own birthdays: As much fun as cake, candles, ball drops, and Brut are, they also usher in an oft-uncomfortable period of reflection; what did you do with your year? It’s a good question. And here we are, more than a year past the initial outbreak of COVID-19, and we’re no closer to managing it effectively than we were months ago. UChicago’s coronavirus testing and tracing policies have proved misguided and misleading in equal measure. Rather than maintaining the illusion of good policy by testing a limited group of students and faculty, the University needs to expand the mandatory testing program to include all members of the community expected to be on campus and reevaluate the voluntary surveillance program to prioritize the people that need it most. At first glance, the University’s GoForward program—which includes a health pact, weekly testing and case reporting, and large-scale contract tracing—looks comprehensive. It seems to have proved reasonably successful, too; unlike dozens of other colleges, UChicago remained open throughout its first quarter without being forced to send hundreds of students home, reported a comparatively low fall quarter positivity rate of 0.23 percent, and managed to offer students in-person classes from September through late November. Going by the data—or, at least, the data provided by the University itself—GoForward was a resounding “success.” Here’s the issue: We got very, very lucky. Because the University might as well have rolled a die and hoped for the best, and if we’re being totally honest with ourselves, that’s exactly what it did. I’m not trying to undermine the administration’s tireless efforts to maintain safety, but I’m entirely willing to call the success of GoForward what it is: aleatory. Testing policies throughout the first quarter were riddled with oversights

and miscalculations, and if the University maintains the current standards for testing and tracing throughout the next two quarters, we won’t be anywhere near as fortunate. Any self-respecting horror movie aficionado could tell you that in the event of a highly virulent global pandemic, the first thing you should do is check people at the doors. And the last thing you should do is place your faith in people’s best judgment. The University of Chicago flagrantly ignored both tenets, first making coronavirus testing for students and faculty living off-campus voluntary, and then permitting untested students and faculty to attend in-person events and classes on campus. It seems like a recipe for disaster; after all, it just takes one person to turn a seminar into a super-spreader event. It didn’t happen, but it could have, and that’s the point: The University willfully endangered its on-campus student population by promoting stringent COVID regulations, but failing to enforce them. It’s this type of hypocrisy that breeds catastrophe, lulling people into a false sense of security and ultimately hitting them with something they never saw coming. The University’s actions were reckless, irreverent, and had the capacity to become deadly—and in a pandemic, being rash is a crime. But, almost impossibly, it gets worse—because the only thing worse than misdeed is misrepresentation. (Feel free to refer to, among other things, Dante’s Inferno, which lists “fraud” and “treachery” as more egregious than “violence” and “wrath.”) The University’s weekly coronavirus reports constitute a massive mischaracterization that could prove fatal. The number of reported cases—alongside associated data, like positivity rate and R0—relies on students and faculty living on-campus, as well as those living off-campus who opted for voluntary testing. This neglects the significant portion of the University community that doesn’t get tested, including many students living in off-campus housing, rendering much of the data useless. The

way positive cases are presented on the GoForward dashboard makes it impossible to know the number of cases found among students living off-campus who attend in-person classes, even if those students are being tested. Even under ordinary circumstances, nearly half of the students at UChicago live off-campus, and this year, that percentage is likely even higher. Those off-campus students are under no testing mandate, even if they attend classes in person. The low number of students on campus may contribute to UChicago’s apparent success relative to its peer institutions, and any success that comes with a caveat attached can’t really be considered a success at all—not in the midst of a global crisis. Complacency is a dangerous thing, and GoForward encourages us to be complacent, boasting low contact rates and few confirmed-positive tests without addressing the gaping flaw that is the narrowness of its scope. If the University truly wants to implement a successful coronavirus management program, it needs to start with the twin virtues of common sense and integrity. As with most things, there’s both good news and bad here. We’re all in dire need of a little cheer, so I’ll lead with the good news: The vast majority of UChicago’s testing policy flaws are easily remedied. By broadening the mandatory testing program and creating a priority ranking system for people seeking voluntary testing, the University can get a little closer to keeping its students and faculty safe. The bad news, however, is this: Until the administration acknowledges the limitations of its existing testing policy and modifies its approach accordingly, that safety will continue to be as elusive as it is right now. As the days get shorter and the air gets colder, and as people spend more time indoors, often in close contact, winter quarter is a critical juncture in UChicago’s journey towards something resembling normalcy. If administrators handle it well, we could be looking at a coronavirus-free campus a few months from now; if they handle it badly, they could put our lives at risk.

There are a few steps the University can and should take immediately. I realize that testing each and every person in a college community this large is a logistical nightmare, and that testing resources are limited and often expensive, but it’s crucial that the University tests everyone expected to attend classes on campus. Students and faculty taking classes virtually and living off-campus should still be afforded the opportunity to enroll in voluntary testing—but those of us that are on campus in any capacity shouldn’t have a choice. The nations that beat the virus the quickest, including Belgium and South Korea, did so by testing as many of their residents as possible and as many times as necessary. Even if it’s impossible for the University to test the entirety of the college community, it’s critical that the voluntary testing program prioritizes those that need it the most, especially since an expansion of mandatory testing would probably necessitate reducing voluntary testing slightly. By factoring in students’ and faculty members’ relative risk with a point-based ranked system that determines risk by assessing pre-existing conditions, age, and frequency of contact with groups of people, UChicago can keep its most vulnerable safe. What’s arguably more important than testing policy itself is how it’s presented; by rejecting comfort for reality, however jarring it may be, and confronting the fact that there’s more to the data than meets the eye, the University can make sure that we as a community know what we’re getting into. We have no excuse for doing otherwise. I’ll leave you not with a sweeping statement or a plea, but with a request: imagine, just for an instant, what the New Year might look like next year. It could look as austere it did a few weeks ago, or it could look more like what we want it to: raucous. There’s only one way to get there, and it starts with a teaspoon of common sense. Ketan Sengupta is a first-year in the College.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — JANUARY 20, 2021

ARTS MODA Reimagined: How UChicago’s Premier Fashion Magazine Is Reinventing Itself in the Online World By NATALIE MANLEY Arts Reporter In the age of Zoom fashion, when outfits really only matter from the chest up, trading in sweats and slippers for some shoes and a nice pair of pants appears a big deal. Yet the students behind UChicago’s MODA Magazine haven’t let the constraints of COVID-19 stop them from diving headfirst into the fashion world in their newly released and notably reimagined online magazine and podcast. MODA Magazine was founded in 2003 as the first of the three MODA branches, which also include the MODA Fashion Show and MODA Blog. Since its inception, MODA Magazine has published more than 50 issues and has been recognized by Teen Vogue as one of the best college fashion magazines in the country. The student-run magazine aims to provide an opportunity for UChicago students to apply their talents to the world of fashion. Having previously published one print issue per quarter, the COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges for MODA Magazine: Their last print issue was published on February 28, 2020. Since then, the publication has worked toward undergoing a massive transformation, sensing a chance to change and grow as a magazine. In his “Letter from the Editor” located in MODA’s newest issue, editor-in-chief Louis Levin writes that there is one sentence that he has told his team all quarter long: “Let’s view these obstacles as opportunities.” It seems as though MODA Magazine has done exactly that. With a brand-new website coded by UChicago students Rachel Gagnon and Livia Miller, an up-andcoming podcast, and a team of 61 editors, photographers, stylists, designers, and writers that more than doubles the magazine’s former staff, MODA Magazine has certainly grown in terms of size. Yet this is not the only way the magazine has expanded its horizons this quarter. Whereas previous magazine issues

were about 50 pages long and contained around eight to ten articles, MODA’s most recent online issue clocked in at a whopping 84 pages and contained 25 articles written on a much wider and more diverse range of subjects than those covered in previous issues. Some articles resembled poetry and creative writing, both of which are new styles for MODA. Others covered subjects ranging from eating disorders to gender norms to Hyde Park business owners to the unique fashion-related stories and perspectives of the MODA staff themselves. Even the photography featured in the new issue signified a change for MODA: This year, photographers were encouraged to be as creative and experimental as they wanted in terms of their style. The end result? A refreshing and visually stunning online issue unlike any previously published by MODA Magazine. In reflecting on all that MODA has accomplished this quarter, Levin expressed how much this quarter’s issue meant to him. “I hadn’t really had a chance to fully read our issue until actually it was put up on our website,” Levin stated. “But then I sat down two days ago, and I was crying as I read through it. I say that in a non-boastful way because I didn’t write these articles, but some of them are really, really brilliant.” Levin attributed these changes in content to the reflecting and rethinking the magazine’s team did throughout the quarter. “When I think about where we were and where we’re going, the biggest shift has been a focus inwards rather than outwards,” Levin told The Maroon. “Some of that shift in focus has been pretty tough, it’s been asking challenging questions of ourselves and one another about what we find appealing in the fashion industry in the first place and how we [can] be within an industry and criticize that industry at the same time.” In the past, Levin explains, MODA Magazine focused on trying to emulate

Bethel Kifle poses for the cover of MODA Magazine’s newly released and notably reimagined online edition. COURTESY of ELizabeth LEe / MoDa. the most prominent publications in the fashion industry. However, this year, the MODA team came to terms with the fact that, considering the problematic nature of the industry, this may not have been the best approach. “The fashion industry is [known to be] filled with issues with regards to discrimination, exclusivity, and inequity, and I think for a lot of people, the fashion industry—especially high fashion—is kind

of symbolic of a lot of the problems in the world right now,” Levin continued. According to Levin, MODA hadn’t been doing enough to address these issues in the past. “We were kind of aspiring to be a college version of Vogue,” he said. “I think this year, a lot of our thinking, and my thinking, has been that the fashion industry is not somewhere we should look to for CONTINUED ON PG. 8

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“...[we’re] thinking really directly about what fashion means to us and leading by example...” CONTINUED FROM PG. 10

guidance and inspiration right now, and that actually, we need to actively think about how we can challenge and reconstruct it.” So how has the magazine gone about challenging and reconstructing industry norms? For MODA, the answer lies in shifting their focus toward their role within UChicago as an RSO but also toward their role in the surrounding South Side community and the larger fashion industry. For Levin, that meant a total reset of MODA’s mission and what the magazine is trying to be as well as considering all of this in the context of the various commu-

nities that surround MODA. “We’ve been taking on more diverse perspectives and thinking more thoughtfully about our place in our community. That community is the 61 of us, and then it’s UChicago and the South Side, it’s thinking really directly about what fashion means to us and leading by example rather than trying to follow industry leaders that exist right now.” A large part of the magazine’s effort to think more critically about their role in various communities will take place in the new MODA podcast. Hosted by second-years Grace Feeley and Arjun Kilaru as well as first-years Nicole Mateo and Stefan Aleksic, the podcast will tackle

issues such as conscious thrifting, media representation, global fashion, and cultural appropriation in a way that is more conversational and less formal than the articles in print. “The podcast is a great way to give MODA Magazine another way to talk about fashion and adjacent topics without the formalities of a magazine,” said Feeley. “We have a lot of talent on this project and a lot of people with interesting ideas and stuff to talk about. I’m excited to see where this will take us.” While Levin and the entire magazine team are proud of all the work MODA has done to face the challenges presented by COVID-19 and of the strides they have

made in reexamining their role in their communities and the larger fashion industry, Levin acknowledges that there is still room to grow. “When we talk about fashion, and art, we have a way of talking about it in a way that makes it incredibly inaccessible and also in many ways problematic, and I’m really trying not to do that with MODA,” Levin told The Maroon. “I want MODA to be a fun, inclusive space, and I think we’re on the path to getting there, and I have real faith that we will get there, so I’m really excited about the future of MODA.” Check out MODA’s new online magazine and podcast at www.moda-magazine.org.

Look Out for That New Yachty By TOMÁS MIRITI PACHECO Arts Reporter Despite bringing new sounds and features, Lil Yachty’s latest drop feels like the close of a chapter in his career. Opening up before him is not only his own future, but that of Michigan’s budding rap movement. More than five years ago, one day before his 18th birthday, Yachty released his debut EP Summer Songs. In December 2015, comedian Caleon Fox dropped a skit based around “One Night,” one of the tracks on Summer Songs, and Yachty gained overnight fame. Styling himself the “King of the Teens,” he next dropped his debut mixtape Lil Boat and followed it up with Summer Songs 2. Both projects seem to keep the success of “One Night” in mind, leaning into glossy anthems that alternate between cheery piano samples and laser-gun synths. The drawling verses on these tracks are by no means his only sound, but they outline the label which would go on to define the start of Yachty’s career: mumble rap. Yachty’s goofy attitude and beaded red braids made him a poster child for music that people were hesitant to even call music, but this controversy only spread the word. Before long, Yachty was added

to XXL magazine’s 2016 Freshman Class alongside Lil Uzi Vert, Denzel Curry, 21 Savage, and G Herbo. Everyone knows what happened next: The mainstream caught up. Yachty’s cyphermates became superstars and changed the face of rap music. Boat ate good too: In 2017 the monstrous Teenage Emotions cracked the top five of the Billboard 200 even though it was panned by critics, prompting further questions of his validity as a rapper. A year later, Lil Boat 2 debuted at number two. But even though his questionably earned reputation did not preclude his commercial success, it did limit his public image: Odd appearances in Sprite and Chef Boyardee commercials reinforced Yachty’s reputation as an autotune jingle mascot. His struggle to balance his varied musical styles is embedded within his multiple rap personas. Teenage Emotions opens with “Darnell Boat” praising both his nephews, “Yachty” and “Boat,” for their work on the album. In a Genius interview, Yachty says he’s the former in interviews and the latter while writing his raps. On Lil Boat 2, the contrast between the boastful, all-caps tracks (as in “FLEX”) and the all-lowercase love songs (as in “she ready” featuring PnB Rock) likewise evokes the difference between his alter egos.

Even as he accumulated albums, Yachty never really settled into any one of his many niches. On the Quality Control (QC) roster, Yachty continued to experiment with flows, hooks, and vocals on an array of songs with Atlanta rap heavyweights Migos, Lil Baby, and Gucci Mane. He also scored a spot on “A-Team (You Ain’t Safe)” with topshelf producer Zaytoven, rising YSL Records star Lil Keed and Keed’s younger brother, fellow rapper Lil Gotit, both with mixed success if consistent buzz. (He got another viral hit after Offset’s intro on “MICKEY” sparked the “Zoom challenge” on TikTok.) Lil Boat 3.5, Yachty’s latest release and the deluxe edition of Lil Boat 3, is the sum of these experimental and collaborative efforts. There’s a track on this album for everybody, by everybody. Lil Boat 3 was already impressive in this regard, sporting a Pi’erre Bourne–backed collaboration with Lil Keed, a cypher with A$AP Rocky; Tyler, the Creator; and Tierra Whack over the Tokyo Drift song, and a serenade from Young Thug and Lil Durk. 3.5 adds the bass-slapping “Flex Up” with Future and Playboi Carti, a collaboration with Vince Staples that could’ve been on the Long Beach rapper’s FM!, and the feel-good “Asshole” with Oliver Tree, writ-

ten in the vein of summer jams “iSpy” and “Broccoli” (and another TikTok hit with “Coffin”—maybe he is king of the teens). The list is as hefty as it looks. The plague of deluxe albums is that they devolve into playlists, updated at a whim. For many artists, this lowers the shooting rate of projects aiming for a specific sound. Yachty somewhat avoids this: The smorgasbord of sounds on Lil Boat 3 makes the mixed bag added on in 3.5 less detracting. At worst, the release does nothing but showboat his various styles and broad choice of features. And it’s true: Yachty’s skill as a jack-of-all-trades brought him success in an industry where many were convinced he occupied a small, temporary niche. Lil Boat 3.5 is a monument to that. But now, having made a career out of battling expectations, what comes next? His answer? Michigan, where the cities of Detroit and Flint are putting out rap music to challenge a new generation of unsuspecting ears. Over the past few months, the “Yacht Club” rapper has racked up features with the area’s rising stars, which isn’t too hard to do. The artists are partial to cyphers: hookless posse tracks that lend themselves to the brash, punchline-focused style that makes rappers immeCONTINUED ON PG. 9

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“Yacht’s back at the forefront of a new, reckless strain of music. Keep an open ear.” diately identifiable. “Flintana” brings Yachty in touch with the gravel-voiced RMC Mike, YN Jay, whose signature “Hold On” appears on Lil Boat 3 cut “Westside,” and Louie Ray, who toured the local sound around the Midwest. In this linkup of local legends, abetted by the production of frequent collaborator Pablo616, Boat sounds surprisingly at home. Well, not entirely surprising. Since before the release of Lil Boat, Yachty’s “Up Next” series featured a similar type of song with his own crew, the Sailing Team. On these tracks, Yachty raps like he’s got something to prove, and his dynamic flow leads him to more creative and ridiculous bragging. This style distinguishes alter ego “Boat” from the singing, more lighthearted “Yachty,” and, like his fiery persona, these high-octane tracks are spread throughout his discography. Lil Boat 3 has “Demon Time,” a grimy backand-forth with childhood friend Draft Day, which gives some maturity to the sound. Where the intensity of Boat’s lyricism usually comes with a parallel rush of aggression, on “Demon Time,” Yachty comfortably floats over the stripped-down instrumental. “I got like ten different watches I never wear/ My Louis mono, not no damier/ At the penthouse with three different concierge/ I know all of my haters cannot compare.” Yachty also shares a knack for the slanted, forced rhymes used by Michigan rappers to heighten the impact of their punchlines. The hard “r” he puts at

the end of “Bentayga” to make it rhyme with “Jäger” in “Range Rover Sports Truck” has the same disorienting effect as KrispyLife Kidd’s bar “Told Yachty I’m flyin’ out I gotta see somethin’/ Stick hanging out the FN, this b***h look like a cucumber” on their joint track “Krispy Boat.” Like early appearances of Yachty’s alter ego Boat, Kidd energetically yells his way through the line, but the humor of such moments—which are common by nature of the style—is not lost on either artist. Other techniques—long pauses in the verse (as in the one on “Run Down” after Veeze says “I’m rockin’ Chrome Hearts, shootin’ basketball just like I’m Drake”), “oops, I mean” bars (see “Up Next 3” for a great example in a hall of fame G Herbo feature), and their distant cousin “aw, ok,” false-start bars (Yachty gets a nice one off on the Drakeo the Ruler–hosted “John Madden”)—also add comedy and variation to what is already one of the rap game’s most entertaining and dynamic sounds. Yachty’s collaborations with Michigan rappers go back to “From the D to the A” with Tee Grizzley in 2017, but his pivot to cosigning local artists (to their gratitude; on “Run Down” RMC Mike raps “Yachty let me see the anchor chain,” but it’s Rio Da Yung OG who rocks it in the video) is a sharp turn in his career. Even 3.5’s full palette rests mostly on the production of Earl on the Beat, a longtime collaborator and QC affiliate.

Despite it all, he’s committed. Before 3.5 was even released, he announced a mixtape, Michigan Boy Boat, supposedly to be released before the end of 2020 (no update yet on a new relase date). It’s likely to see more of the bar-for-bar matchups with the state’s eclectic cast of emcees that the Georgia rapper has delivered so far. It’s worth noting that Yachty’s Michigan collaborations are all but free of autotune, and if this holds true throughout the tape, it will be his first project without it—a new day for his sound. Despite variations between Detroit and Flint, Michigan Boy Boat also promises to be the most cohesive Boat project since the lulling tunes

of his first mixtapes. In approaching the local style, he overcomes the central divide of his career by blending Yachty’s bright humor and Boat’s brazen lyricism. This growth is most obvious on “Not Regular,” with Sada Baby, the tape’s first single. Where Yachty’s flow was a nice, if brief, intro on “T.D,” he and Sada make a hit pushing it to the limit, peaking in Sada’s rhyme of “Roger Federer” with “my competitors.” It’s good for rap when everybody eats, and Yachty’s giving support to a scene on the rise to get a shot at redefining his image. Yachty’s back at the forefront of a new, reckless strain of music. Keep an open ear.

In Lil Boat 3.5, melodic mumbler Lil Yachty completes his transformation into the face of rap’s next outlandish scene. COURTESY of DAVID LEVENE / THE GUardian.

SPORTS New Look Chicago Bulls Show Promise By DYLAN ZHANG Sports Reporter

The 2020-21 Chicago Bulls aren’t poised to be championship contenders yet, but with new additions in the front office and in the draft, the new-look Chicago Bulls looked poised to improve on their 22-43 record in the 2019-20 NBA season. After a horrendous 39-84 record over the last two years under Coach Jim Boylen,

the Chicago Bulls decided to move on from the regime, firing Coach Boylen and General Manager Gar Forman. Replacing them are General Manager Marc Eversley and former Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan. The Donovan hire has especially been lauded, as the former OKC coach recorded a stellar 243-157 record with five postseason appearances while with the Thunder. Despite the front office overhaul, the

Chicago Bulls roster looks relatively unchanged. Surrounding star Zach Lavine is the fourth overall pick, Patrick Williams, along with former first-round lottery picks Coby White, Wendell Carter Jr., and Lauri Markkanen in the starting lineup. Other notable players are Otto Porter Jr., Tomas Satoransky, Thaddeus Young, Garrett Temple, and Daniel Gafford. While the Bull’s young roster doesn’t boast the star power needed to contend

for an NBA title, the Bulls still have one of the best young cores in the NBA. Couple that with a hopefully healthy season, and the Bulls could build enough chemistry among their young stars to field a competitive team. The Chicago Bulls’ main strengths lie in their offensive explosions and increased ball movement under coach Billy Donovan. With the 4th highest points per CONTINUED ON PG. 10

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game (117.4) and the 14th highest assist per game (25.4), the Bulls are significantly improved from last year’s averages of 106.8 points and 23.2 assists. Lavine has continued his offensive explosion, averaging 27.4 points per game, and White is contributing more as both a scorer and passer. Players like Markkanen and Carter Jr. are finally healthy for the first time in over a year, with Carter Jr. even developing a serviceable three-point shot throughout the offseason hiatus. Bull’s rookie Patrick Williams has also been a serviceable starter, scoring 10.2 points a game and providing much-needed wing defense. Isolation plays are also less fre-

quent on offense, allowing players besides Lavine and Coby White to get involved on offense and helping to reduce stagnation. This new-look pass-heavy offense has been incredible so far this season, pushing the Bulls to the third-fastest pace in the entire NBA. However, the Bull’s explosive offense is offset by its horrendous defense. The Bulls have allowed 120.0 points per game, ranking 28th out of 30 teams in the entire NBA. This porous defense doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon, with an atrocious defensive rating of 114.2 that ranks 25th out of all 30 teams. While the Bulls boast a potent offense, there are concerns that the Bulls are still searching for

an elite playmaker as both Lavine and White are score-first guards. Injuries have also derailed the development of young big men Carter Jr. and Markkanen, who missed 22 and 15 games respectively last season. Even the Eastern Conference has strengthened over the last few years and looks to be as competitive as ever with nearly every Eastern conference team carrying the potential to make it in the playoffs. Overall, ESPN predicts the Bulls will finish the season at 29.9 wins with only a 15% chance to make the playoffs. Currently, early in this shortened season, the Bulls sit at 6-8 and eleventh in the conference standings. The Bulls are unlikely to con-

tend for a championship soon, and their lackluster defense likely will keep them out of the postseason for the fourth year in a row. However, there is reason to hope for Bulls fans. The Bulls’ biggest goal for this season is to build chemistry for a young core that hasn’t been able to yet develop together due to injuries. So far, the team has looked significantly more engaged under Donovan’s leadership, and there seems to be legitimate reason for optimism within the organization and among fans. With an elite young core, an experienced head coach and front office, and with one of the biggest media markets in the NBA, the future looks bright for the Chicago Bulls.

UAA Cancels Spring Competition By THOMAS GORDON Sports Editor

On Tuesday, January 12, the University Athletic Association (UAA) announced that the UAA Presidents Council has unanimously approved a resolution to cancel all formal UAA spring sport competition for the 2020– 21 season. The UAA is one of the first conferences to cancel spring sports. This resolution applies only to those sports for which the UAA sponsors competition during the 2021 spring season: baseball, golf, softball, outdoor track and field, and tennis. Even though there are no conference games, member institutions will still be able to engage in practices and other non–UAA competition, including informal competition against other UAA

teams, as their respective institutions deem appropriate. This announcement follows the formal cancellation of the fall and winter UAA competition seasons. At UChicago, neither fall nor winter sports teams participated in non–UAA competition. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cancelled all DIII fall championships, and it is yet to be seen if the NCAA will host winter championships. UChicago Athletics has yet to make a decision about baseball competition in the Midwest Conference (MWC), women’s lacrosse competition in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW), and non-conference competition for all University of Chicago spring sport.

Alexander Scott ‘20 smashed the school shot-put record last year. UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

The Ballad of Mesut Özil By FINN HARTNETT Sports Reporter

13 January 2016, Arsenal are playing away at Liverpool. The game will eventually finish 3-3, a late Joe Allan equalizer ruining the Arsenal supporters’ hopes of going two points clear at the top of the table. But more than the

high score line, late drama, and implications for the rest of the season—Arsenal would eventually finish in second, losing the title to Leicester City. However, this game is remembered for something else. It’s remembered for a piece of magic so subtle that you could have blinked and missed it. But subtle is a word that sums Mesut Özil

up perfectly. In the 76th minute, with Arsenal leading 3-2 and Liverpool’s 40,000 fans screaming at the top of their lungs, a ball is kicked out to Özil with enough force that you half-expect it to go flying past him and out of bounds. But Özil turns so that he faces the direction that the ball is going, and with

one deft touch of his boot, captures the ball out of the sky. It somehow falls back across his body, all its momentum sucked out of it; he pivots again, takes the ball in perfect stride, and begins dribbling forward. The 40,000 Liverpool fans fall quiet. Mesut Özil has silenced them—not with a goal or CONTINUED ON PG. 11

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an assist, but with a touch. The 3-3 draw at Liverpool came during a season in which Özil was at the height of his game. That season he created 146 chances for his teammates—that is, he played 146 passes that led to attempted shots. It was more than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues and it was—and still is—more than anyone in Premier League history. Two years later, in January 2018, Arsenal extended Mesut Özil’s contract, with a deal that would entitle him to a staggering £350,000 per week and tie him to the club until the summer of 2021. He was one of the most creative forces in the world, assisting in predictably impressive numbers, and helping the club to a Football Association Challenge (FA) Cup win in 2017. Arsenal’s other real star, the Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez, had just been traded to Manchester United. Losing Özil in addition to Sanchez would have been unthinkable. In the summer of 2018, Özil released a lengthy statement on Twitter to announce his retirement from international soccer. Özil accused Reinhard Grindel, the president of The German Football Federation, and others in Germany, of discriminating against his Turkish and Muslim background. “I am German when we win but I am an immigrant when we lose,” he wrote. The feud had begun after Özil had been photographed with Turkish President Erdoğan earlier in the summer, a man known for, among other things, his anti-German policies. Özil stated that he visited Erdoğan out of obligation to his ancestral home, not because he supported the politician. It’s still unclear why Özil was pictured with Erdoğan, or whether Grindel was actually racially abusing Özil. In any case, Özil was done playing for Germany, and these off-field issues were just the start. Arsenal underwent a change of manager that summer, and new boss Unai Emery immediately faced a problem of what to do with Özil. Emery felt that the player didn’t “work”

hard enough—probably the most common criticism of Özil––and was happy to leave him on the sidelines for much of the 2018-19 season. However, disappointing results undermined Emery’s position, and he turned to the playmaker more as the season wore down. In December 2019, after Özil had again been sidelined for most of the beginning of the season, he took to Twitter to speak out against another injustice. He released a statement in the form of a poem that called on Muslims around the world to support the Uighur Turks, a Muslim minority who had been systematically detained and brainwashed en masse by the Chinese government. In the aftermath, Özil’s likeness was quickly banned from soccer video games in China, and the Chinese Communist Party pulled Arsenal’s next game from their state networks. Arsenal, aware of their business interests, publicly distanced themselves from the statement. “As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics,” the club wrote on a Chinese social media site—a cowardly and hypocritical move. Arsenal’s hasty words exemplified the irony of big corporations using social media to attach themselves to specific political movements. It also showed that they didn’t care much about standing up for their player. The same month, a new Arsenal manager was hired. Özil enjoyed a brief purple patch under head coach Mikel Arteta, putting in good displays until the 2019-20 season went into a pandemic-induced pause. But when the season resumed in June, Özil did not. He wasn’t picked for any of Arsenal’s final 13 games. When the 2020-21 season began, Özil wasn’t registered for Arsenal’s 25-man Premier League squad. Five years after one of the most creative league campaigns of all time, Mesut Özil had been written out of his team altogether. This time, it was for good. It can still be hard to see why a classy midfielder who gave up the security of ambivalence to speak out against injustice is not leaving as a

hero but a villain among most Arsenal fans. The easy explanation is that even when Özil has gotten game time over the last few years, he has often been disappointing. His salary is unjustifiable, and rather than alleviate the financial burden by leaving for another club, he refuses. Arsenal reportedly tried to sell him in the summers of 2019 and 2020, but both times he has said that he wants to stay at Arsenal, seemingly happy to capitalize off his bloated contract by sitting at home and being paid a fortune to do so. But the more difficult thing to realize is that Özil was divisive even when he was the best creator in Europe. It’s one of the things that make him so interesting: he doesn’t look like a good soccer player. When he has the ball, he plays incidentally, like he’s stumbled into a professional soccer match while on the way to the grocery store. And then he’ll skip past two defenders with one effortless touch of the ball. Or ping a pass past a line of outstretched defenders and into the feet of a striker in space. Or hit a cross so accurately that for a second the match has become a geometry problem: if he hits it there, at that speed, and it bounces off the striker at that angle, will the ball go in? (The answer would always be yes.) His lackadaisical attitude bewitched opposition teams. It never looked like he was making a run, then all of a sudden you’d find him with the ball, in acres of space, calmly scanning the pitch, preparing for the next killer pass. Some say Mesut Özil was erased because of his support of the Uighurs. Some say he simply doesn’t put in the effort that Mikel Arteta requires of his players. The most likely explanation seems to be that the club has decided the money Özil would gain from appearance bonuses is of greater value than the services he provides. Özil, for his part, has continually taken to Twitter to express his desire to play and his love of Arsenal. But he’s also cleverly seized opportunities to undermine the club. In October, he publicly offered to pay the salary of Jerry Quy, a man who had worn a green di-

nosaur costume as the official mascot of Arsenal for 27 years, and who had recently and ill-advisedly been made redundant by the club. But all of the drama seems slightly laughable now. On Monday, Mesut Özil signed for the Turkish club Fenerbahçe. He’s gone, gone from the highest tier of world soccer, gone slightly symbolically back to his ancestral home. Özil never even knew his final game was his last. That final game in question was a home game against West Ham. It’s late in the game, the 77th minute or so. Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang turns on the edge of the box and angrily fires a shot towards goal. The ball takes a wicked deflection off a West Ham defender, which sends it hard into the ground and then up high into the night, lazily arcing towards the center of the box. No one really reacts except Özil, who gets underneath the ball and prepares to head it. Though the ball is falling in at a strange trajectory, nothing stands between Özil and the goal at this moment except the goalkeeper, Łukasz Fabiański. He can aim his header towards either side of Fabiański, and the ball will go in. Humans are inherently selfish beings—it’s not too much of a cliché to say that, right? Professional players get notoriously angry after learning that a deflected finish will be credited to the defender as an own goal, rather than to them. We want the goal to be our goal. Mesut Özil, in the few seconds as the ball rises and then falls onto his forehead, never so much as looks at the goal. Instead, he heads the ball sideways, to Alexandre Lacazette. The few defenders who have been running to catch up with him are taken out of the equation. The striker calmly slots the ball into the bottom corner of the goal. It’s the only goal scored that night. Özil, who could have had it for himself, has opted for one final assist. Perhaps this says something about Özil’s stubbornness—that he has never tried to change his style of play at CONTINUED ON PG. 12

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Arsenal, even as the entire sport was changing underneath him. He has never tried to take more than a paltry number of shots towards goal, nor did he ever want to track back and do

more than a symbolic amount of defensive work. He is a puritan who devotes himself to creating chances for others to score from, and little else. In a way, it’s surprising that he even lasted so long.

In the last three or four years, the Premier League has become faster and more physical than ever. Pure technicians like Özil have always found it hard to flourish, but now, thanks to organized pressing and more congested

defenses, they’re all but extinct. You can take that to mean that the sport changed and moved past Özil, or you can take it to mean that Özil, with his ethereal, shadowy brilliance, forced everyone in the sport to change. Up

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