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POLITICAL INTERNS ADAPT TO COVID-19 AS ELECTION APPROACHES

MAY 13, 2020 SIXTH WEEK VOL. 132, ISSUE 25

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UChicago’s Investments are Tied to Fossil Fuels, Deforestation, and Weapons Manufacturers

By ATMAN MEHTA News Reporter In April of last year, CareNotCops rallied outside Levi Hall, demanding that the University release its budget and information about funds allocated to the University of Chicago Police Department. In February, IfNotNow called for information about the endowment’s investments. For years, Fair Budget UChicago has pressed for the budget to be made public. These demonstrations are part of the rising tide of student demands that the University increase its financial transparency.

Based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 201820 and documents compiled by Preqin, an independent database for research on financial markets, The Maroon found that the University’s finances have exposure to fossil fuels, deforestation, and weapons manufacturers through its investments in hedge funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and private equities.

ETFs are funds traded on the stock market which themselves hold a range of assets, allowing investors access to certain industries without directly holding assets in them.

This is known as holding “indirect equities.”

The University has more than $33 million invested in three ETFs managed by BlackRock, an investment management firm, the University’s February 2020 SEC filings show. In the past, the University had invested more in the funds: Altogether, it had $355 million in them in April 2018.

The University invests in three BlackRock funds: iShares Core S&P 500, iShares Core MSCI EAFE, and iShares Core MSCI

EMKT. These funds primarily hold investments in the 500 largest companies listed on stock exchanges in the U.S., in European and Asian companies, and in companies in developing countries, respectively.

At least 29 percent of the portfolio of Core S&P 500, 26 percent of Core MSCI

EAFE, and 14 percent of Core MSCI EMKT has exposure to deforestation, fossil fuels, and weapons manufacturers, according to reports sponsored by As You Sow, a nonprofit promoting corporate accountability.

“The University’s investment goal is to supply a steady source of income to help

support University programs over the long term, to safeguard the future of the University. University investments are diversified to offer the potential for gains while mitigating investment risks,” Gerald McSwiggan, assistant director for public affairs at UChicago, CONTINUED ON PG. 4

Miles Burton

Graduating Seniors Express Mixed Feelings Over Postponed Convocation

By YIWEN LU Senior News Reporter On Tuesday, an email sent to fourthyears graduating from the College announced that there would be an in-person celebration for the Class of 2020 during June 3–6, 2021. The festivities will take place during Alumni Weekend and the Class of 2020 will have the chance to participate in events such as Senior Prom.

On June 5, 2021, a full graduation cere-

VIEWPOINTS: Our Student Government System Has Wilted PAGE 10

mony for the Class of 2020 will be held.

On April 7, a campus-wide email confirmed that a virtual convocation would be held in place of the in-person event for the Class of 2020—which had been planned for June 13, 2020—due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the email, fourth-years were also invited to participate in the convocation of the Class of 2021. Now, both a virtual convocation and in-person graduation ceremony in 2021 will be held.

GREY CITY: Campus Sustainability on Paper and in Practice

Fourth-years expressed mixed feelings when they first learned about the convocation turning virtual. “[That] is not the best outcome, but it’s not the worst possible,” fourth-year Claire Schultz said. “The fact that they’re still trying to give us something was kind of heartening.”

Schultz told The Maroon that she sent emails to the administration to ask to delay the convocation to the fall. SimiCONTINUED ON PG. 2

VIEWPOINTS: Professor Kimberly Hoang’s Partial Portrait of A Jobs Crisis

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Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/chicagomaroon and follow @chicagomaroon on Instagram and Twitter to get the latest updates on campus news.

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University of Chicago to Continue to Provide Funding for DACA Students Despite Department of Education Edict

By NICK TARR News Reporter On April 21, the U.S. Department of Education said that participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and undocumented immigrants would not be eligible for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), which is part of the stimulus package that Congress provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. According to the Department of Education in early April, half of the $12.56 billion in federal funding is supposed to be directed to students dealing with emergencies during the pandemic, including paying for daily needs, buying

tickets home amid campus closures, and technical support. The University of Chicago was awarded $6,207,010 from the HEERF. Congress’s decision to exclude DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants from accessing the emergency aid means that these students have to rely on their personal finances despite the legal challenges that they are already facing. The status of DACA students is pending upon an upcoming Supreme Court decision on the legality of the program.

Despite the Department of Education’s order, the University of Chicago has resolved to continue meeting the financial aid needs of DACA students, according to a University spokesperson.

“The University will continue to support DACA and undocumented students during the COVID-19 pandemic by continuing to meet the full demonstrated financial aid needs of DACA and undocumented students in the College, and through University financial aid programs for students in professional, PhD, and master’s programs,” University spokesman Gerald McSwiggan wrote in an email to The Maroon in response to Congress’s decision.

The University expressed their support for DACA recipients in January with respect to the upcoming Supreme Court decision. Vice Provost Melissa Gilliam and Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen wrote in a campus-wide email to “reaffirm

the University’s unwavering support for all members of our community who may be affected by changes to the DACA program,” noting that the University is “committed to helping students successfully continue in their academic program and complete their degree.”

“In addition, the University continues to provide resources to undocumented students such as legal issues workshops, specialized counseling, and emergency financial assistance for undocumented students,” McSwiggan wrote in the email.

McSwiggan further noted that the University has yet to receive funds awarded per the CARES Act and is continuing to evaluate the impact of the issue.

“I know that typically you graduate with your first-year dorm, which I was actually really looking forward to.”

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larly, fourth-year economics and political science major Rohan Gandhi said that it was not a good idea for the University to hold a convocation for two classes on the same day in 2021.

“Instead, [they can] acknowledge that plans are going to be up in the air and do what some other universities have done, which is that they will have an in-person but not specify a time,” Gandhi explained.

To many students, an in-person convocation is important because it is a chance to connect with the people they have known for their four years at the University.

“I know that typically you graduate with your first-year dorm, which I was actually really looking forward to,” fourthyear Raina Vishwanath said. “I’d like to have a space to be able to connect and celebrate with those friends, but don’t know what that would look like online, if that’s even something the administration is trying to recreate.”

The cancellation of the in-person convocation led many families to cancel

plans that were made in advance. Many students have family members who have been looking forward to attending the convocation for months, buying tickets to Chicago, booking hotel rooms and having family discussions about their travel plans.

“I think my mom was more excited about the actual convocation ceremony than I was, [so] I think they were bummed about that,” said fourth-year medieval studies major Daniel Steinberg. Originally, Steinberg was hoping to have a family gathering in Chicago, for which his grandparents have already booked the hotel rooms.

For international students like Vishwanath, the situation was more disappointing for their families overseas. “My parents had already booked their tickets from Mumbai to Chicago, though obviously it doesn’t look like they’re going to be able to use them. Even if Convocation were happening, they wouldn’t be able to leave and reenter India because of the national lockdown. We’re all definitely disappointed, but weren’t too shocked

when it was announced,” she said.

Meanwhile, the virtual convocation poses challenges to some religious communities in the student body. For some Jewish households, the use of technology is prohibited from Friday sunset through Saturday night. If the University holds the virtual convocation through an online platform on Saturday per its tradition, it excludes a number of religiously observant students.

“If it’s, like, a Zoom call on Saturday, there is not really much appeal to do [it],” said Steinberg, who could be personally affected by the conflict. “I guess it would be pretty weird watching a recorded Zoom video of graduation.”

Some also expressed the concern that a virtual convocation could expose inequality, as certain low-income students might not have stable access to technology and the Internet. Just like how students are experiencing uncertainty from a lack of campus resources during the spring quarter, they might lose the chance to fully enjoy a special experience like Convocation due to economic factors.

Students graduating in 2017. COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

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Political Interns Adapt to COVID-19 as Election Approaches

By OLIVIA CHILKOTI News Reporter Students who secured internships before the pandemic had led to social distancing find themselves facing delays, cancellations, or, more commonly, a shift to remote working. Pandemic-related cancellations pose a unique challenge to political campaigns, which rely heavily on face time.

Rafael Levy Diner, a second-year political science major, has witnessed these challenges firsthand. Since March, Levy Diner has been working in Colorado on John Hickenlooper’s Senate campaign and Alexis King’s campaign for Jefferson County district attorney. While Levy Diner is still working for the campaigns, all his work is now done remotely.

“Campaigns are such a personal and interactive experience that I would prefer to do in person work,” Levy Din-

er said. “The feeling and motivation when talking to voters is completely different in person than over a virtual rally.”

Levy Diner said that the Hickenlooper campaign “invite[s] people twice a week from different counties to participate in a Zoom call where he talks for a little and then constituents get to ask questions. The goal is to hit all 64 counties in Colorado.” So far, the campaign has hosted seven rallies of this sort.

There are some upsides to shifting to remote campaigning. For instance, people who were previously unable to get politically involved now have virtual access to campaign events. “Whereas there may have been distinct barriers for people to be engaged in certain things before, this is also presenting new opportunities for the way that we engage with people, when where we physically are may not be a challenge

in some cases,” Melissa Navas, director of career development at the Institute of Politics, told The Maroon.

As have campaigns, campus voting outreach group UChiVotes has had to rethink their approach. Communications Director Julianna Rossi said, “We had to shift most everything, because so much of what we do is tabling and passing out pledge to vote cards.… So after we all got home, we started developing a pledge to vote challenge that’s online and digital, so…that’s an Instagram story now.”

Joshua McKie, a co-coordinator at UChiVotes, echoed Navas’s statement about increased engagement, noting that “having [Pledge to Vote] as a social media challenge just does wonders for how much it spreads.”

Navas added that many of the workplace changes introduced during the pandemic may not be temporary. “The way that we are all going to live is not

just temporary, it is not just the next couple of months. More people will work remotely into next year.… [Some organizations] probably are not going to have people come back into their office[s] for 12 months.”

This news may come as a disappointment to students like Levy Diner.

“Personally, I would not choose to keep distancing…if officials say it is safe to [return to work],” he said.

Nevertheless, Navas emphasized that even amid the instability of a pandemic, there are still professional learning opportunities for students.

“While it may not be in the office that you want or the sector that you want, a lot of the work that everyone will be doing is going to be centered on the virus, and there’s value in understanding how organizations work and are dealing with this unprecedented time.”

Talklet: A Mental Health Start-Up

By GABBY BAYNESS News Reporter As students pushed for reform from Student Health and Counseling Services, six university students, four of whom are UChicago students, created Talklet, a mental health platform that offers conversations with graduate students of social work to discuss a specific problem.

“During my summer internships when I was away from campus…I realized the mental health resources in the adult world are just so hard to use,” CEO Amy Ma told The Maroon.

Talklet is a web app designed as an informal space for users to discuss problems and stressors in their life. It was specifically made to address stress that users would not normally be able to alleviate in a traditional therapy session.

The start-up began in fall of 2019 and placed third in the 2020 College New Venture Challenge (CNVC). As a result of its placement in the competition, Talklet had the opportunity to work with the Chicago Booth School

of Business. “We were able to work with some amazing faculty at Chicago Booth, and their coaching has been really helpful for us to pull our start-up together,” Ma told The Maroon.

Because the CNVC has partnered with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Talklet was also able to collaborate with two students outside UChicago, Mike Tu and Yan Miao.

“I think what makes our team very special is that we come from so many different backgrounds.… Our team was really created by people who care about mental health, and we range from public policy, economics, and biology,” Kristen Lam, a Talklet cofounder who oversees the marketing and business aspects, said.

The company also reached out to graduate students at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration to partner with students pursuing careers in social work or therapy to work as mental health providers for Talklet. “These are people who are kind of already providing Talklet services on a daily basis,” Ma said.

Currently, sessions are priced at $30, but there is a sliding scale to adjust for the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Traditional therapy sessions are usually priced by monthly packages ranging from $260 to $400 a month, and individual sessions can be anywhere from $75 to $150 with insurance. Without insurance, traditional therapy can climb up to rates of $450 per hour. “[Reducing cost barriers] was one of the motivations to make this [web app].… How do you expect us to pay $450 per hour to talk to someone?”

Lam said.

The founders also hoped to increase accessibility by providing their services through video call rather than in-person sessions. Lam said, “We wanted to provide the flexibility to more people, and I think this move was particularly important now with this pandemic.”

To ensure confidentiality, a video call feature was built specifically for Talklet to avoid using less secure third-party applications. Talklet does not store any user video or data, so it remains Health Insurance Portabili-

ty and Accountability Act–compliant.

Providers also follow strict confidentiality guidelines.

In addition to their main service, the Talklet team is working on building a list of crisis hotlines that people in immediate distress can refer to. Since they are not looking to be a long-term provider, Talklet is also creating a referral system to therapists. Ma said, “We just want to be able to refer people if they do realize that’s what they want, so that there’s a seamless transition when they come to Talklet and we pass them onto the more robust providers they want to talk to.”

“Ultimately, we want to help people…and that will always be in the forefront of any decision we make,” Lam said. Even though Talklet is not therapy, they hope to provide young adults who do not have any other access to, or need for, clinical therapy with coping skills and conversations.

Ma said, “Talklet is a mission-driven business.… Our overall mission is to make mental health services accessible so people can live their best lives.”

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“[Taking political stances] through investments or other means would only diminish the University’s distinctive contribution.”

CONTINUED FROM COVER

tant director for public affairs at UChicago, told The Maroon in an emailed statement.

The University has no long-term plans for divestment from these industries, he added, stating that it has decided against taking social or political stances on issues outside its core mission, referring to the 1967 Kalven Report.

“Doing this [taking political stances] through investments or other means would only diminish the University’s distinctive contribution — providing a home for faculty and students to espouse and challenge the widest range of social practices and beliefs,” he wrote.

Exchange-Traded Funds Deforestation The three ETFs the University invests in have over $40 billion invested in companies involved in deforestation, including food processors and retailers, according to the group Deforestation Free Funds, a platform that grades mutual funds and ETFs based on their investments in companies and industries that drive deforestation.

The ETFs have investments in companies involved with cattle ranching and soy cultivation, which are sectors responsible for

80 percent of the deforestation in the Amazon, according to a study by the Yale School of Forestry.

Two Brazilian food processing companies—JBS and Marfrig—accounted for the deforestation of over 34,000 hectares, an area equivalent to 80 Hyde Parks, in 2017, according to a 2019 investigation by Trase, a supply-chain transparency organization.

Core MSCI EMKT, in which the University invests $3.9 million, has holdings worth over $35 million in JBS and more than $7 million in Marfrig, as of April 2020.

JBS was found to have sourced cattle from deforested land in Brazil as recently as December 2018 by O Eco, a Brazilian non-profit, as was Marfrig in October 2019.

Core S&P 500, in which the University invests more than $18 million, has $1.3 billion in Walmart stock as of April 2020. According to Chain Reaction Risk, Walmart conducted business worth $1.86 billion with JBS in 2018.

Core S&P 500 also has $157 million worth of holdings in the Chicago-based Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) as of April 2020, which sources soy from deforested areas in South American countries as Brazil and Argentina, Mongabay, a US-based environmental news outlet reported in August

2018.

Private-sector companies like retailers or fast -ood producers also enable deforestation by purchasing goods produced via deforestation, hence providing a market for the same, according to Amazon Watch, a U.S.-based environmental non-profit.

Core MSCI EAFE, in which the University invests more than $11 million, has holdings worth $1.4 billion in Nestle, the largest food company in the world, which sources material from Cargill for its pet food subsidiary, Nestle Purina Petcare. Cargill is an American firm that has obtained soy from deforested land in Brazil, according to Mighty Earth, an environmental nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Core S&P 500 invests in McDonald’s Corporation, Coca-Cola, and Pepsico—firms with supply chains that include products from deforested areas according to Greenpeace, an international environmental NGO headquartered in Amsterdam.

The three ETFs also have over $12 billion invested in banks which finance companies involved in deforestation, according to Deforestation Free Funds. These include American and European banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and BNP Paribas.

Students decorated banners at a #CareNotCops event outside Levi Hall in 2019. SOPHIA CORNING

Fossil Fuels The three ETFs the University invests in also have over $20 billion in total invested in fossil fuel companies, according to the group Fossil Free Funds, a project of As You Sow. Core S&P 500 had more than $12 billion invested in fossil fuel companies as of April 2020, including investments in Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips.

It invests $2.8 billion in Berkshire Hathaway, for example, the multinational conglomerate which owns Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), a holding company that owns several utilities that operate on fossil fuels, including MidAmerican Energy, which operates 13,420 miles of natural gas pipelines.

Core MSCI EAFE invests $5 billion in fossil fuel companies as of January 2020, including Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum (BP), and Total SA, a French petroleum refining company.

Core MSCI EMKT invests in fossil fuel firms including Vale, a Brazilian mining company that has coal mines in Mozambique and China; PTT, a Thai state-owned oil and gas company; and China Petroleum.

Weapons Manufacturers The ETFs that the University invests in have $6 billion invested in the manufactures of both conventional and nuclear weapons, according to the group Weapons Free Funds, another As You Sow project.

Core S&P 500 holds $4.9 billion in American manufacturers of conventional weapons, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon, according to its website.

Core S&P 500 also invests in companies that manufacture components of nuclear weapons, including Honeywell International, an American conglomerate that is a leading manufacturer of nuclear weapons.

Among other operations, it manufactures plutonium pits, which are explosives that trigger the detonation of thermonuclear weapons.

The fund also invests in United Technologies, an American conglomerate whose subsidiary, Rockwell Collins, manufactures airborne launch systems for nuclear missiles.

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“All in all, at least 15 out of 62 total Private Equity funds the University contributes to have had investments in fossil fuels” CONTINUED FROM PG. 4

Core MSCI EAFE has over $880 million invested in weapons manufacturers, including Airbus and Safran SA, a French defense company.

Core MSCI EMKT invests $78 million in weapons companies outside the U.S., including Korea Aerospace and Hanwha Aerospace, both South Korean companies, and Embraer SA, a Brazilian weapons manufacturer.

Private Equities and Hedge Funds: The University also invests in private equity funds (P.E.s) and hedge funds that hold assets in fossil fuels.

While the exact amount the University invests in each hedge fund and P.E. remains

undisclosed, Preqin estimates that the University invests nearly $2.6 billion in hedge funds and about $1.2 billion in P.E.s in total.

All in all, at least 15 out of 62 total P.E. funds the University contributes to have had investments in fossil fuels, according to Preqin.

The University has also invested in at least one fund of the Boston-based hedgefund Baupost for over five years, according to Preqin. Baupost’s SEC filings indicate that its holdings in fossil fuels accounted for around 10 percent of all its equity holdings as of February 2020.

Baupost invests $619 million in Cheniere Energy, an exporter of natural gas based in Texas. It also currently invests at least $48 million in Vista Oil & Gas—the fifth largest

oil producer in Argentina, which produced 24,500 barrels of oil per day through 2018— according to its February 2020 SEC filing.

When asked whether the University’s investments in other hedge-funds have exposure to fossil fuels, deforestation, or weapons manufacturers, McSwiggan did not respond.

The University also invests in Fund V of Baring Vostok Capital Partners, Russia’s biggest private equity, which paid $36.2 million to acquire a dominant stake in Tigers Realm Coal in 2014.

Other funds the University invests in include Fund V of Baring Private Equity Asia, one of Asia’s largest private equity firms, which held a 25 percent stake in AAG Energy, a coal and gas exploration company based in China, as of July 2018.

The University further invests in a fund of Centerbridge Partners, which acquired a majority of Seitel Holdings in 2018, a company that provides the largest database of onshore seismic data for the oil and gas industry in North America.

A fund of TDR Capital, a British P.E. the University invests in, invested in Euro Garages in October 2015 in a deal worth 1.3 billion pounds, and acquired the Netherlands-based European Forecourt Retail Group in October 2016. Both Euro Garages and Forecourt Retail Group are primarily engaged in the marketing and distribution of petroleum products.

Campus Sustainability on Paper and in Practice A look at UChicago’s track record on sustainability complicates the narrative on its recent climate goals.

By LAURA GERSONY and CARL SACKLEN Grey City Reporters

[This is the second article in a series about campus sustainability. The first article, published on April 21, can be found online.]

“Together the UChicago community can continue to make strides towards a brighter future.”

So reads the University’s 2016 Sustainability Plan, the most comprehensive set of environmental goals released

by UChicago to date. With goals rang-

ing from building energy use, to waste diversion, to water use, the 2016 Plan and other announcements have laid out a range of prescriptions for the University’s climate action in coming years.

While many view these new goals as promising signs of an increasing commitment to sustainability, others see a lingering gap between the University’s plans on paper and in practice.

This installment examines UChicago’s sustainability targets and the extent to which they are being met.

LEED Certification According to the University’s 2019

Sustainability Update, energy consumption in campus buildings accounts for 70 percent of UChicago’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, decreasing building energy use through “high performance buildings” has been a primary focus of campus emissions reduction efforts.

The 2019 Update boasts that 19 buildings on campus are certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program (LEED-certified). Four of these buildings are “LEED-silver,” 13 “-gold,” and two “-platinum,” labels re-

flecting how many “points” a building’s design accumulates on the certification rubric.

But, in practice, LEED certification does not necessarily correspond to a building’s actual energy efficiency—a gap found on UChicago’s campus.

Data displayed at a presentation launching the University’s new Environmental Frontiers (E.F.) program, which will offer campus sustainability internships to UChicago undergraduates during the summer of 2020, revealed that several LEED-certified CONTINUED ON PG. 6

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“LEED certification is based on a ‘predictive energy model’ of a building’s performance, rather than its actual energy efficiency.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 5

buildings, including the Searle Chemistry Laboratory and the Logan Center, have not met their certification goals.

She added that Searle is a high outlier in terms of energy usage not only among other buildings on campus, but also as compared with chemistry labs in comparable climate zones nationwide.

Arathi Gowda, an Associate Director at the architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm Sidmore, Owings & Merrill, explained possible reasons for this disconnect in an interview with The Maroon.

While 30 percent of all LEED points are related to a building’s energy efficiency, it is possible to gain points from aspects unrelated to energy use—such as rainwater management, proximity to public transport, and installing bike facilities—to gain certification.

“One thing that often happens is, to get a rating, people don’t buy in towards high efficiency and energy,” Gowda explained. Instead, “they’re able to meet the prerequisites or get a few points” in other ways.

Additionally, LEED certification is based on a “predictive energy model” of a building’s performance, rather than its actual energy efficiency; in other words, the certification is a one-time designation of a building’s predicted performance, rather than a continual assessment.

UChicago spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan wrote in an email to The Maroon that “the University has completed a building-by-building energy use assessment for each building on campus.” However, Senior Director of Energy Management Adam D’Ambrosio said at the E.F. meeting that the University’s Facilities Services Department staff “haven’t looked in a focused way on the performance of LEED-certified buildings.”

Evaluating LEED buildings’ performance will be one of the four main research projects available to students in the upcoming E.F. summer internship program. McSwiggan told The Maroon that the interns’ project will be “to determine the effect of LEED

certification on energy use and enable the University to make additional building-specific site improvements.”

Woodlawn: LEED-Designed, Not LEED-Certified The University has pledged that “new construction or major renovation projects over $5 million must be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council with at least LEED silver.” So the recent announcement that Woodlawn Residential Commons, the new megadorm under construction on 61st Street, will not be LEED-certified has raised eyebrows among campus sustainability activists.

McSwiggan wrote in an email to The Maroon that this is because a new prerequisite for certification regarding air circulation was introduced partway through Woodlawn’s construction process.

“The building meets all other requirements of LEED Silver and aligns with the evaluation standard by which the Campus North Residential Commons achieved its LEED certification,” McSwiggan wrote.

Gowda explained that there have in the past been disparities between LEED and city-mandated ventilation requirements. However, she said, given the complex and collaborative nature of LEED building design, oversights such as Woodlawn’s often occur due to a lack of communication among team members working on the construction project.

“Sustainability, and specifically LEED, is not just a checklist. It’s really about an integrated design process, where every single team member contributing to the project knows how they’re doing that,” she said. “Typically, those [issues] happen when the integrative process breaks down a little bit.”

Publicly available documents from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds show that the new dorm is being constructed under a Ground Lease arrangement with Capstone Development Partners, meaning the University does not own the building itself, but only the land below it, for the 65-year duration

of the lease.

According to a 2018 UChicago news article, the purpose of this arrangement was “to allow the University to develop the commons without taking on new capital investment”—but a by-product of it is that, because the University does not own the building itself, it is not breaking its own LEED-Silver pledge.

Emissions Reduction Another one of the University’s main sustainability goals involves carbon emissions. The University announced in April that it is increasing its emissions reduction goal from 20 percent by 2025 to 50 percent by 2030.

These goals are in terms of reduction since baseline, defined as its average emissions in 2012 through 2014.

According to the announcement, one reason for this change was that the University was ahead of its initial goal, stating that UChicago has reduced its carbon emissions per square foot of campus building space, a metric also known as “carbon intensity,” by 11 percent since baseline. “Given the early success, UChicago is prepared to take on more aggressive targets,” Assistant Vice President of Campus Planning and Sustainability Alicia Berg was quoted saying in the UChicago News announcement.

But this progress, too, is complicated by another aspect of the new goal: a change in the metric which the University uses for their emissions goals.

Where the previous goal was in terms of “carbon intensity,” it will now use absolute, or total, carbon emissions. Many student environmental advocates welcomed this change on the basis that carbon intensity can decrease simply due to an increase in campus area, rather than a decrease in emissions. Such a trend is reflected in the University’s past emissions data: Had UChicago’s absolute emissions stayed the same from baseline until 2018, it would have seen just over an 8 percent reduction in carbon intensity simply due to an increase in campus square footage.

But the new metric also necessitates a significantly more ambitious plan for

emissions reduction. University data published in 2019 shows that absolute emissions have decreased by just over one percent from baseline until 2018— which it will need to multiply by a factor of 40 in order to meet the 2030 goal.

McSwiggan wrote in an email to The Maroon that the primary pillar of this plan is to increase its reliance on sustainably sourced energy. “Because emissions from electricity account for nearly half of the total emissions from University operations, moving to renewable electricity sources will help us meet a large portion of our 2030 goal,” he wrote.

Gowda explained that, in order to meet the emissions goal, the University may be focusing on electricity sourcing as an alternative to decarbonizing the central utility plant.

“A lot of the central utility plants from older universities, such as [UChicago’s], were built during a time of coal or natural gas,” she said. “It is quite expensive to update a central utility plant. To decarbonize that is a longterm goal for a university, so that may be why they’re focusing on electricity.”

The University has not released a quantitative breakdown of what factors are expected to contribute to the 50 percent emissions reduction.

“Shutting the Sash” to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Labs Sometimes, factors which contribute to reducing emissions can be as simple as an informative and wellplaced poster. This was the case in a past campaign in UChicago research labs, which consume roughly ten times more energy than non-lab buildings.

In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, the University enlisted the help of student interns like Briana Moore, who researched what other universities have done to decrease energy consumption in labs. Moore and her research partners recommended that the University implement a “Shut the Sash” program, based on Harvard’s program of the same name. The sash is the front-facing window on fume hoods that can be raised and lowered.

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“Making researchers aware of shutting the sash resulted in a 43 percent reduction in fume hood airflow.

According to the PSD, participating labs saw a 6.5 percent drop in energy consumption.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 6

“The main idea is that the sash on a fume hood can be lowered so you get less air flow coming through the hood.

That’s both safer for researchers and saves on energy costs,” Moore told The Maroon.

While in use, fume hoods cycle air out of the lab building for the safety of those working there, but there are significant energy costs if the sashes remain open when the hoods are not being used.

“The idea was to encourage behavioral change by putting up posters or informing researchers about the energy they could save by lowering their sashes,” Moore said.

And it worked; the University’s 2019 Sustainability Update reported that simply making researchers aware of shutting the sash resulted in a 43 percent reduction in fume hood airflow.

According to the Physical Sciences Division, participating labs saw a 6.5-percent drop in energy consumption.

Gowda echoed that these individual changes can be significant in reducing energy use. She said that behavioral factors such as the “plug load,” the energy used by appliances plugged into a building’s outlet, can account for a significant fraction of energy consumption.

“Plug load and the fume hoods in labs—those are really big takes. In a typical office building in Chicago, that could be 20 to 30 percent,” she said.

In fact, she said, her own office building in downtown Chicago was able to reduce its energy consumption through strictly behavioral changes, such as turning off computer monitors at night and turning off the lights in the lobby on weekends.

“Within a year, we cut our floor’s electrical consumption by 20 percent by changing our behavior,” she said.

“That was a very simple thing to cut our electricity.”

Food Waste Another one of the University’s sustainability goals has been to divert waste from landfills. In its 2016 Sustainability Plan, UChicago boasted a

41 percent waste diversion rate, largely accomplished through recycling. However, the University does not currently engage in one common form of waste diversion: composting, a process in which organic waste is decomposed into a nutrient-rich substance often used to condition soil.

According to McSwiggan, all food waste at UChicago dining halls is disposed of through an “Eco Digester,” which liquefies the food and releases it into the wastewater system. This includes both “pre-consumer” food waste, or food that was never served, and “post-consumer” food, such as scraps left on students’ plates following a meal.

Sust a inabi lit y advocates li ke fourth-year Alana Koscove argue that composting food would be a major step forward in the University’s approach to sustainability. Koscove has been pushing for composting at UChicago for four years as a member and leader of the Campus Cafe Club, now known as the Composting Club, a branch of Phoenix Sustainability Initiative.

Koscove said that, while the University’s Eco Digester system is “better than a landfill,” a strong composting system is ideal, as it could generate no waste whatsoever. “[Food waste] is not being turned into any usable product which can be used for soil fertilization,” she said.

“Composting is better than using Eco Digesters because if you have a good composting system set up…where you’re producing rich compost, you can have a closed-loop system.”

Koscove acknowledged that landfill is significantly cheaper than composting in Chicago for two main reasons.

First, the spaciousness of the Midwest—different from her home state of California—means that landfill space is in lower demand and less expensive.

But in addition, she said, the city of Chicago lacks composting infrastructure as a whole.

“There isn’t a strong developed framework. There aren’t a lot of, say, anaerobic digesters around the city of Chicago for us to utilize,” she said.

“Chicago is not set up, currently, for widespread, successful, commercially available, cheap composting. It’s just cheaper to throw things in the trash.”

Chicago has no citywide infrastructure for composting food scraps, and data published by the city in 2018 revealed that it diverts less than 10 percent of its waste from landfills, far less than in surrounding cities and nationwide. San Francisco claims a nearly 80 percent diversion rate, and Seattle just shy of 60 percent.

Koscove said that, had spring quarter classes not been held remotely, two student-run cafes at UChicago would have begun composting pre-consumer food in spring quarter—but her main hope is that dining halls, given their large volume of food waste, will begin to compost as well While she has seen improvement over her four years at UChicago, Koscove told The Maroon that she sees UChicago environmental students as filling gaps created by the administration’s resistance to composting.

“There’s no one in the administration right now who’s putting in any kind of effort, or attempt, to get this off the ground, which is why student groups have had to do that work,” she said. “[Sustainability] is just not a priority for this institution. And so students have to make it a priority.”

Other institutions nationwide, including the Chicago-area Loyola University and Northwestern University, engage in large-scale composting—approaches without parallel at UChicago, Koscove said.

“We’re not a little bit behind; we are massively behind,” she said.

Koscove said that while a handful of places on campus compost—Hillel, the UChicago Law School and Lab Schools, Grounds of Being, and the Keller Center among them—there is no campus-wide composting infrastructure.

Leah Song (A.B. ’16, J.D. ’19) started the composting program at the UChicago Law School while a co-president of the Environmental Law Society (ELS) in 2018. She told The Maroon that she was pleased with how supportive the

Law School was of the idea; the school administration agreed to a student-run test trial within a year of ELS’s initial proposal, and it has since taken over the program, absorbing composting into its regular management operations.

But this wasn’t Song’s first attempt to promote composting at UChicago. As an undergraduate in the College, she took the course “Food and Environment Practicum: Research on Campus Cafés,” in which students produced a proposal recommending composting in campus cafes. Unlike at the Law School, this proposal fell flat; she told The Maroon that it ran out of steam when her supervisor, practicum lecturer and supervisor Sabina Shaikh, raised it with the school administration.

“I feel like the College is reluctant to even try, which is disappointing,” Song said.

McSwiggan wrote in an email to The Maroon that UChicago’s decision not to compost is based in part on safety and sanitation considerations.

“Composting has historically led to issues such as pests and other related challenges that could compromise the quality and safety of our services. Eco Digesters have proven to be a safe and sustainable approach to waste diversion,” he wrote.

W hile Song acknowledged that there might be obstacles to large-scale composting at the undergraduate level, she believes that a gradual transition is possible.

“At the undergraduate level, I could see where it would be more difficult to implement,” Song said, “but then again, I do think it would be feasible if it was rolled out in phases. For example, starting with just the campus-run cafés.”

Ultimately, as Gowda told The Maroon, there is a common thread among all advocates involved in environmentalism: that ambitious sustainability measures are paramount.

“I do think that having a goal that is more aggressive is hugely, hugely important right now—especially if we strive to get there, and if we fall a little bit short.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — MAY 13, 2020

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VIEWPOINTS Professor Kimberly Hoang’s Partial Portrait of A Jobs Crisis

By JORDAN COOPER Like professor Kimberly Hoang, who recently penned a controversial op-ed about the academic job market in relation to COVID-19, I’ve been thinking a fair amount about academic career paths in the wake of the pandemic. As Hoang helpfully points out, about 30 million Americans, and upwards of 195 million globally, have either lost their jobs or can expect to as a result of the crisis. Less helpfully, she fails to point out many other, much more relevant facts which pose rather fatal contradictions to her forecast for what is likely to be an economic crisis simi-

lar in magnitude to the Great Depression. Consequently, her advice for graduate students is condescending at best. Rather than acknowledging how present crises are revealing long-standing institutional rot, Hoang says we must all “share in the sacrifices made” as if students and junior scholars aren’t the ones being sacrificed en masse for problems they didn’t create.

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month in decades.” The tone of Hoang’s advice rings precisely the same, condescending note: Your job prospects are terrible, but at least I have tenure. But crucially, 70 percent of professors in the United States do not. Three out of every four newly hired faculty are not on the tenure track.

Hoang says that graduate students should simply work harder on their dissertations if they want a job, as if the difficult employment market isn’t the consequence of decades of universities expropriating resources from academia for self-gain, while sticking us with the bill. How hard must one work on their dissertation to get a job when universities like ours are freezing hiring?

Fascinatingly, this is justified by an anticipated post-COVID loss of $220 million, curiously not mentioning the more significant losses to high-risk investments and intense costcutting since 2016.

The overwhelming trend in American academia since the 1970s has been the devaluation of academia as such, with universit y administrators pursuing policies to consolidate or discontinue a plethora of programs and departments while enacting draconia n budget cuts that never seem to affect their own salaries.

Consequently, the overwhelming majority of academics occupy the academy only very precariously. Beyond general distortions are those that have always been part of it: only five universities had a Black faculty of at least five percent in 2007. The consequences are, naturally, regressive: Faculty, adjuncts, and overworked grad students are hence expected to

navigate a publish-or-perish environment while simultaneously being burdened with increasing teaching and administrative responsibilities.

These burdens fall hardest on scholars of color, and especially women of color, who’ve swelled academia’s increasingly precarious ranks, yet are cited in publications at rates entirely incommensurate with those of their white and male colleagues. The kicker is that all of this has occurred at the same time as undergraduate tuition rates and administrators’ salaries have skyrocketed all over the country. We at UChicago are all too familiar with this. We have the country’s highest tuition and one of its highest-paid university presidents (Robert Zimmer, whose salary belies an uncaring, deliberate detachment from student affairs).

The number of non-academic administrative employees at U.S. universities has more than doubled since the 1990s.

Vanishing funds and opportunities for departments, graduate students, and early-career scholars have been appropriated to line the pockets of a vestigial university bureaucracy sustaining itself on this underpaid labor and the exorbitant tuition undergraduates pay for it. The stratospheric rise in administrator pay tracks perfectly with the casualization of academic labor: The new model is to pay adjuncts and grad students a pittance to teach what tenured faculty used to.

When some universities cite economic reasons while cutting only humanities departments, and others receive $130 million donations to their economics departments, we need

to realize it was never actually about economics, but instead enriching a select few while kicking down the ladder for the rest.

Again, I don’t deny that an acute crisis is coming which will make it a hard time to be a graduate student. But if Hoang had, for instance, thought to talk to Graduate Students United (GSU) members here, she’d know that GSU’s first petition point notes that closures of libraries, labs, and field sites has made most dissertation work impossible in the first place. Read GSU’s petition and compare it to Hoang’s article.

I will offer solidarity rather than speaking for them: Take it as a point-by-point rebuttal of Hoang.

Hoang argues, in effect, that those starting with the most significant structural disadvantages must push themselves ever harder to enrich a university which enriches itself by undervaluing them. She also says that such a crisis as this calls for all of our scholarly attention; sure, but the rhetorical flourish calls to mind how the most precarious workers among us went from being imminently replaceable to essential, all without so much as personal protective equipment, let alone hazard pay. We cannot afford to let universities weaponize this crisis to further justify academic shock therapy. This advice, then, is that you should work harder and expect less. A tenured professor like Hoang need not worry, much less an elite university administrator. COVID-19 is merely highlighting the structural failings of the American academy that the rest of us knew all along.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — MAY 13, 2020

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Lessons From Zoom Students should take the time to recognize unexpected benefits of distance learning

By KETAKI KAVEN The University’s transition to distance learning has posed unprecedented challenges. As we continue to honor our academic and extracurricular commitments remotely, both students and teachers face new obstacles in the form of communication barriers, technical difficulties, and questions of how to simulate experiential learning. While it may seem that spring quarter is a nonstarter, a dejected attitude will only prevent us from finding unique opportunities to learn. Instead, we should do our best to recognize the lessons we can gather from this experience and how they may continue to be relevant even once we return to campus.

When the reality of a completely remote spring quarter set in for me, I found myself adopting an overly pessimistic outlook. My instinct was to switch into courses that I didn’t think would truly excite or challenge me, because, in my head at least, “all of my classes were going to suck anyways.” While I recognized that my school work still needed to be done in order to maintain academic continuity, the quarter was dead before it had even begun. I just wanted to get my courses over with because I felt like nothing worthwhile could be achieved in these conditions.

I’ll admit that the actual start of spring quarter did confirm a lot of my fears. It certainly is difficult to connect with professors and classmates over Zoom. For many of us now back in our

childhood homes, the new environment comes with several distractions. And of course, the curriculum itself has been impacted; many courses have been greatly modified to compensate for the infeasibility of most experiential learning opportunities we expect from a typical UChicago quarter. For example, we can no longer conduct experiments to collect our own data during labs, and instead have to accept the numbers we are given and skip to the analysis steps. But now that we’re almost halfway through the quarter, I realized that I was wrong to be so negative about remote learning. This is a reality during which we should all just try to do what we can, and my pessimism was getting in the way of making the most out of the education that I do still have. There are bright sides to the unexpected and unwanted transformation of our learning environment, and it’s worth reflecting on them, especially because we’re not certain how long this disruption will last.

First, this quarter has offered an opportunity to consider how course material may be relevant to the real world, and specifically to the current coronavirus pandemic. My statistics class, for example, is using data related to COVID-19 to teach the concepts normally covered.

My public speaking class is incorporating greater discussion of remote communication and how certain elements of discourse are influenced by technology, which are important considerations in today’s tech-driven world. The College is even offering a course specifically in

dialogue with the pandemic, Pandemics, Urban Space, and Public Life, which explores how we can cope with the present crisis.

And lastly, our online classroom environments can provide a sense of community and an escape from the other stresses that come with the current pandemic. In a time where social distancing is of the utmost importance and where we have all been displaced from many of the communities through which we would normally seek support, it’s valuable to have our classes as a means to remain connected to each other.

With the excitement and anticipation many of us feel about eventually returning to campus, it will be easy and perhaps instinctual to want to leave the challeng-

es of this experience behind. However, I believe that we can make use of these lessons in a way that transforms even our on-campus education for the better. We can approach our classes with a greater sensitivity for what they imply about our current and future situations in society, whether they be coronavirus-related or with regard to another issue. We can carry with us a greater appreciation for the in-person classroom dynamics and built-in support systems that we previously took for granted or may not have noticed. The coronavirus pandemic has been a wake-up call regarding many aspects of our world—among them are the environment, health-care disparities, and many more. Our educational experience is no exception.

JAD DAHSHAN

Student Government Elections Need an Overhaul A better Student Government starts with a better election process

By SYLVIA EBENBACH The past two weeks have been an absolute headache for many obvious reasons (the pandemic, keeping up with coursework, stress over the political and

economic state of our nation), but the Student Government election should not be one of those reasons. Every time I opened my Facebook feed, I was overwhelmed by the chaos that was Student Government election. Last year was by no stretch easy-

going, but this year has been even more of a monstrosity. Aside from the issues directly caused by the pandemic that likely exacerbated the disorder, the election showed that there are glaring concerns with the system as a whole. This year’s

disappointing, confusing, and discouraging Student Government election cycle is evidence of why the way Student Government conducts elections must change.

First of all, it is clear that everyone CONTINUED ON PG. 10

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“Ultimately, this system of voting would allow for the most people to end up with representatives who they are the happiest with.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 9

would benefit from a more thorough vetting process. This year, the slates were not required to get signatures due to COVID-19. The signature process is a way to float the idea that they’re running and is another window of time for people to voice their concerns about a particular slate, whether that be due to lack of experience, organization, or past unacceptable behavior. Normally, 300 signatures are required for a slate to run in the election, which is almost double the number of votes the Amplify slate received. Although the signatures do not necessarily correspond with the number of votes received, it is not only an important way of vetting a candidate, but it is a helpful marker of support. There is not enough evidence to attribute all of the chaos of this election to the omission of that step, but it is noteworthy. In other elections, there are primaries that serve as a form of early vetting. Since UChicago elections are much shorter and with fewer candidates, the other measures in place to accomplish this important task are essential. Although the signatures are helpful, however, they are not sufficient in vetting candidates.

There should be a committee that is unaffiliated with any candidate to perform a background check on the people running for various positions, while maintaining the privacy of individuals not directly involved in the election. This committee could be similar to or a branch of the Election and Rules Committee that is already in place. The point of this would not be to limit who could run, but to bet-

ter hold candidates accountable. However, there is no organized way to discover and share information about candidates in place. In actual government elections, there are news organizations dedicated to researching potential candidates with resources for that task much greater than any organization currently on campus. It sometimes seems like as a student body, we rely on the UChicago Secrets page to float information about candidates, which ends up being triggering, fear-mongering, and confusing. On one hand, the Secrets page allows people to anonymously share information, but it can also lead to harmful language in the comments section and contradicting information in later posts.

The creation of an accessible way for people to anonymously share information and a responsible group of people to investigate and report on it could prevent a lot of the unnecessary confusion, speculation, and pain that may potentially result when the only clear way to speak out is on social media. That needs to change, because UChicago’s undergraduate population deserves both representatives who are forthcoming about their past actions and the establishment of a better system for holding them to that standard.

Secondly, the election cycle should be longer by at least one week. Personally, it has felt like this election has flown by, with new information being released after voting had already opened. This year, there were only two and a half weeks from the date the petitions were submitted until voting opened, which was insufficient time for people to decide on a candidate as new information was released through-

out. Although there is normally an additional week for slates to gather signatures before petitions must be submitted, the length of time after the choices have been confirmed is the same. There is no reason not to extend the period of time during which voters can learn about the different platforms and slates and compare the options when the benefit of more informed voters is so great. After a student has submitted their ballot, they have no option to retract or change it, so it is difficult to avoid making a decision that is not based on incomplete information unless the voter waits until the last moment to vote.

Naturally, this occurs to some extent in every election, but it can be mitigated in ours if the election cycle begins earlier.

The release of information is in part limited by the unavoidable time constraints of getting in touch with people behind the scenes, performing many rounds of interviews, and giving slates time to respond to criticism and correct what they can. Considering that Student Government has the opportunity to have a massive impact on the day-to-day lives of students, an issue this important deserves more time to be considered by voters.

Finally, voting at UChicago should use the instant-runoff voting system, also called “ranked-choice voting.” In this system, if the election has more than two candidates, voters rank the options according to their preference. In the initial round of tallying the votes, if no candidate wins a majority, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and the process repeats itself until there is a winner. In this year’s election, the Engage

slate won by a margin of only 16 votes, and nowhere near a majority. Changing the voting system would allow for more widespread satisfaction of the student body in the election results. Many of the comments about our Student Government election that I have seen online and heard through friends are concerns that they are unsure who to vote for and that they do not want to waste their vote on a party that may not win. In elections where more than two slates are running, this is why a different system of voting would make sense. It would allow for students to vote for candidates that they actually believe are the best option without worrying about sacrificing votes. Furthermore, in an election like this year’s where one slate withdrew after voting began, ballots would not lose their value. The recent statement from the Election and Rules Committee regarding the technical capabilities of Blueprint, the program used to count votes, shows that the committee is open to discussing ways to make it more effective. However, if Blueprint is not able to use an instant-runoff voting system, there are other programs that can. Ultimately, this system of voting would allow for the most people to end up with representatives who they are the happiest with.

Student Government elections should not be so hectic, and there are steps that can be taken to organize and better the process for the future. As members of the student body, we should be confident that we are in good hands with our representatives, and that trust begins during the election.

Our Student Government System Has Wilted It’s time for an overhaul of elections at UChicago: We must consider houses as a viable electoral unit

By MATTHEW PINNA After three long years at the University of Chicago, I’ve finally come to the most important conclusion of my

student career: Elections at the University of Chicago and the house salad at Shinju on 53rd are one and the same.

In other words, you forget from the other times you’ve had it that, instead of

being delicious and exciting, it’s always utterly disappointing and an absolute disgrace to house salads and elections everywhere.

What comes to mind when you

think of a house salad on the menu of an establishment described on Google as a “casual spot for raw & cooked Japanese fare”? I, for one, immediateCONTINUED ON PG. 11

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“What does changing the game consist of, then? In a few words, it’s about making elections familiar and relatable, done by changing the electoral unit from classes to houses.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 10

ly think of a lovely little bowl of salad greens, smothered in a generous helping of that oh-so-delicious orange ginger dressing. At the very least, I would accept anything remotely resembling “salad greens” and “dressing.” Shinju, however, has chosen to abuse my generosity and the culinary conscience of billions—their “house salad” is a bowl of shredded cabbage topped with spicy mayonnaise, and I eat it anyway like the filthy animal I am.

Now, what comes to mind when you think of an election at an academic institution described on Google as a school that “ranks among the world’s top ten universities”? I, for one, immediately think of a reasoned, intellectual debate on policy issues that matter to the student body. At the very least, I would accept anything remotely resembling “coherent thought” and “decorum.” The University of Chicago, however, has chosen to abuse my generosity and the political conscience of thousands of students—its “elections” are hollow excuses to make fun of and attack classmates, and I vote anyway like the filthy animal I am.

Unlike at Shinju though, where failing to finish your food is punishable by additional fees, our Student Government situation isn’t one without alternatives. Simply put, we don’t have to accept whatever it is that we call “elections” as a finality. We, as students, can change the toxic culture around Student Government and its elections, a situation that will persist so long as we allow it to.

It would be naïve to assume that just telling people to be nice would solve this problem. Just as there are people who think spicy mayonnaise is a dressing, there are also those who fervently believe that those opposed to them aren’t just wrong, but fundamentally bad.

I’ve been on the receiving end of both misconceptions, and they are equally terrible.

It would also be wrong to assume that such behavior could be prevented by the Elections and Rules Committee.

We can be as hopeful about Student Government as we want, but no matter

how many water fountains they put in the Reg (one so far, with a plaque announcing that it was them who put it there), a Student Government committee cannot best human nature.

The reality of elections is that you can regulate some of what a campaign itself does, but you cannot feasibly regulate the behavior of the rest of the student body, especially when they go after students they don’t know. That “unknown” factor is extremely powerful here. It’s much easier to demean a profile picture than it is a person, a lesson on 21st-century human nature that we know all too well. Instead, rather than trying to change the rules to accomplish the Sisyphean task of getting people to be nice to each other, why don’t we try to change the game?

Changing the game, so to speak, would kill two birds with one stone, the second unfortunate pigeon being that, elections aside, Student Government itself is broken. Research from the Campus Policy Research Institute proved what we all already knew—that most students think Student Government does nothing. Even worse, most students don’t even know who their class representatives are, let alone believe that their class reps understand their issues. That’s right: The elected official who is supposed to know them best, according to students themselves, doesn’t even know what their constituents are dealing with.

What does changing the game consist of, then? In a few words, it’s about making elections familiar and relatable, done by changing the electoral unit from classes to houses. More precisely, rather than electing representatives from each class year, students would elect Student Government representatives from within their own house, the number differing based upon house size. For students who live off-campus like I do, they would vote—if they choose to participate—as members of their first-year house.

Changing the electoral unit won’t get rid of the human fact that people can be mean to one another, but this minimizes that possibility to the fullest extent possible. It’s easy to tear into Joe

Schmoe who lives all the way in Stony Island, but it’s a lot harder to say the same things to a housemate, a person whom you’ll run into at house meetings, in the lounge, at the dining halls, and on the quad as you walk back to your dorm.

Perhaps most importantly, that person, by virtue of being elected by their house—and thus someone who is active at their house meetings—knows exactly what the people they’re with really want from the greater, institutional body.

This, in turn, would lead to more substantive debates come election time— fewer promises and more reality, as the participants would have an actual stake in what’s being spoken about. I wouldn’t be surprised if, as a result of these changes, we would also see a major increase in voter turnout.

Finally, these reforms call into question the necessity of a broadly elected executive slate, whose elections are usually the fiercest. And for what? To see who’s best equipped to promise the most and follow up the least? It would make more sense to have them elected from within the College Council, similar to how the College Council already elects a chair from its ranks. This change, to the best of our ability, would keep campaigns as realistic and grounded as possible, since no representative can be sure that they would be in an elevated position; after all, ambitious and challenging initiatives are best reserved for RSOs, whose structures allow for a greater capacity for institutional memory and quick action.

Is all of that even achievable? The answer, as history itself shows, is a confident yes. After digging through nearly every issue of The Maroon in the online archives, I was personally surprised at how much Student Government at the University of Chicago has changed throughout its over-a-century-long existence and how, just as quickly as each iteration came and went, its predecessors were forgotten.

Student Government at the University of Chicago has existed since at least the first issues of the The Maroon—then known as The Daily Maroon—in 1902.

Throughout the 20th century, Student Government at the University of Chi-

cago, like a phoenix, underwent a consistent pattern of death and rebirth.

Its rebirth, often led by a small group of impassioned students and opposed by those who questioned the need for a student government in the first place, was always accompanied by changes to what constituted an electoral unit.

Reformers were quite creative with what they fiddled with on that end.

Iterations ranged from familiar classbased units to more creative ones, like majors, departments, and dormitories.

Some might be startled to learn that in some of the earlier versions of dormitory-based electoral politics, fraternities were included.

Despite these changes, an astute observer could point out, student governments still figured out ways to die.

This is a crucial argument to bring up—what would make any solution we propose long-lasting and effective? Our change would last because of our X factor: social media. Student governments in the past died because, as they focused on issues of lesser importance, The Maroon stopped covering them and people stopped voting. Now, with the internet, The Maroon no longer has the monopoly on information on campus; a tweet or Facebook post from a concerned student or Student Government itself can garner more reach than a reporting piece or even this Viewpoint.

The internet is a positive for the reformer, but also a clear negative; to be blunt, it has kept a dying Student Government on life support, when, in previous generations, it would have already been forcibly reformed. This puts the question of natural selection firmly into the hands of the student body, and it can be answered with another simple question: If Student Government disappeared tomorrow, would I notice anything? A few LinkedIn profiles would be harmed, but for the rest of us, life at the University of Chicago would go on.

To the careerists upset by that last sentence, don’t take it as an insult. I’m sure there’s much glory in being able to say you made a new student government on your résumé. I just wish I could say the same about being able to change Shinju’s house salad.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — MAY 13, 2020

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ARTS The Rolling Stones: Living in a Ghost Town

By TIMOTHY LEE Arts Reporter It’s been about two months since people in the United States were first ordered to quarantine themselves in their homes and practice social distancing. With no clear idea as to when the pandemic will end, many are beginning to worry about what their futures will look like. One thing that is helping people like myself cope with COVID-19 is music. With a proliferation of trends like the 30-Day Music Challenge on social media, many people are looking to music to help them get through the next day. Along with these social media challenges, many musicians are also releasing new songs to hopefully help people get through the pandemic, such as Bob Dylan’s “Murder Most Foul.” However, out of all these new songs, there has only been one whose title, instrumentation, and lyrics perfectly capture the tone of the coronavirus pandemic: the Rolling Stones’ newest single, “Living in a Ghost Town.”

“Living in a Ghost Town” was released on the Rolling Stones’s YouTube channel on April 23. The release is a welcome surprise for Stones fans like me, as it marks their first original composition since “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot,” from their 2012 compilation album, GRRR!. Rolling Stones lead singer and sex god Mick Jagger said that he wrote the song over a year ago with lead guitarist Keith Richards in about 10 minutes.

“It wasn’t written for now, but it was just one of those odd things,” he said. “It was written about being in a place which

was full of life but is now bereft of life so to speak….I was just jamming on the guitar and wrote it really quickly in like 10 minutes.” While Jagger changed some of the lyrics of the song to better reflect the times, the essence of the song remains unchanged.

Jagger and Richards had a desire to release a new song for both their longtime fans and casual listeners, and from the way they see it, they could not have picked a better time than now to release it.

At first listen, “Living in a Ghost Town” sounds like any other Stones song: Mick Jagger’s voice and lyrics are great as usual, Keith Richards shreds his guitar as always, Charlie Watts builds a solid foundation for yet another Stones classic, and Ronnie Wood is Ronnie Wood. However, when examining the song within the context of the current coronavirus pandemic, it reminded me of some of my favorite Stones songs, “Gimme Shelter” and “Paint It Black,” and how they reflected a strong relationship with real-world issues and politics.

Both songs contain numerous references and allusions to the Vietnam War, which both Jagger and Richards highly criticized.

In fact, primarily why Jagger and Richards had written the music in this manner was because they wanted their listeners to grasp the horrors of war from the point of view of both a soldier fighting in the war and a civilian caught in the crossfires. Although this runs the risk of making the record sound dated, the Stones’ clever writing and instrumentation wildly succeeds. The two songs heavily reference the Vietnam War, and the style of their vocals and instrumentation transcends “Gimme Shelter” and “Paint

Jagger, Richards, and Co. still rolling on after all these years.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

It Black” beyond the specific context of Vietnam, as the songs become more about the horrors of war and the kind of evil they bring both to the civilian and the soldier.

But what does this have to do with “Living in a Ghost Town”? Like “Gimme Shelter” and “Paint It Black,” “Living in a Ghost Town” may at first simply be a song about the coronavirus pandemic that will most likely feel dated after the pandemic is over. However, if you listen again and pay close attention to the lyrics, the song takes on additional meaning beyond just how empty the world has become because

of the coronavirus and evolves into something greater. The exact meaning is up to the audience’s interpretation. For me, it may be about loneliness and trying to find one’s place in the world. Considering the career Jagger has had for the past 50 years, I would not be surprised if that was the hidden message behind the song. Either way, regardless of what Jagger and Richards’s true intentions behind the song were, all that matters is that this song will be looked back on fondly for years to come, even after the pandemic is over and nothing but a bad dream for most Americans.

Purple Corporation: Gaps in Time

By CONNOR TREE Arts Reporter With global lockdowns forcing me to stay inside and learn how to make stronger margaritas, it has only become more difficult to keep track of the current date and remember how I’ve spent the previous five weeks. But in an effort to get into the

spirit of things, I recently listened through Purple Corporation’s newest project, the aptly titled Gaps in Time EP Bar Night.

Sacrificed on the altar of Alpha, the group began in 2018 as a musical duo between fourth-years Miles Donnelly and Matt Williams performing original songs at UChicago parties and Hyde Park venues.

Now with two more members, drummer

Sam Jacobson (A.B. ’21) and guitarist Nick Olosky, and a wider range of instruments, the group’s debut EP is a tribute to its psychedelic rock roots, with an added undertone of electronica, or as they describe it, “psychedelectric.”

One of Purple Corporation’s strengths has always been their level of energy when performing in front of a live audience,

which they have certainly attempted to replicate in the EP. As Olosky remarked to The Maroon, “Gaps in Time is probably our best attempt at a live album, since it was recorded entirely within a single day.”

This may be true to the band’s roots, but is somewhat of a double-edged sword—even with the “increased freedom provided by a CONTINUED ON PG. 13

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studio,” as Jacobson said, it’s generally impossible for a studio recording to inspire the same emotion as that of a concert.

Gaps in Time is no exception, especially on tracks such as “We Can No Longer Take It” and fan-favorite “Fish Out of Water.”

The songs demand a bombed-out audience to wave lighters like signal flares, but the dramatic choruses tend to aim for a climax that doesn’t always feel earned. This may be partially due to the singing style changing as often as I go to the gym, which makes the EP feel a bit more one-note than was probably intended. Having unique vocal style is important, but without pushing for a range of emotional peaks, it turns the laid-back, wistful style into a trope.

While tropes can be useful for establishing consistency, the worst offense in Gaps in Time is the way in which the unchanging tone makes the lyrics even more reminiscent of Rupi Kaur poetry. The group purports to touch on subjects such as “love, climate change, and the story of how we found our sound,” and may genuinely have done so. But because the lyrics are mainly bits of imagery and “sadboi” posturing, they’re difficult to relate to. It’s like if Herman Melville just wrote vague philosophical descriptions of humanity and nature in Moby Dick, rather than a jaunty tale about a whale and a sailor with

a grudge. The complexity within lyrical work comes from the layers of theme and wordplay that engage the listener both on a surface level and in deeper considerations. If the majority of the writing is the deeper thoughts, it’s like serving us a layer cake but forgetting to add more than rich chocolate and a spoonful of frosting—definitely satisfying, but a bit too much to get through all at once.

Not that I want to sound down on Purple Corporation, though—going back to their strength in performance, the band’s soundscape and instrumentation very much comes alive on Gaps in Time.

The band emphasizes that “the sound of each song on the EP is designed to carry a unique feeling,” which infuses the tracks with a range of sensory experiences. By and large, each song revolves around the lead guitar line and vocals, but the magic builds from these core elements with riffs and instrumental improvisation.

The finale song, “Electrical Connection,” is perhaps the best example of this, and is certainly the song where every element clicked. There’s a sense of joyfulness running through the track’s vocals, and the solos provide an enjoyable musical exploration during the midpoint and denouement of the song which complements the vocals without feeling overwhelming.

Ultimately, the Gaps in Time EP is a

Listen to Purple Corporations maiden EP — it’s worth the “psychedelic” ride.

COURTESY OF PURPLE CORPORATION

short but sweet experience. With only six songs and 25 minutes of runtime, it throws both the highlights and the strains of Purple Corporation into sharper relief. If you’re a fan of the influences that the band draws upon, Gaps in Time will feel like slipping into a familiar sweater smelling of philosophy and Woodstock. Even if you’re not, Purple Corporation is worth checking out if you want a decent example of an indie college band beginning to shake off the

trappings of its origins. Personally, after our interview, I’ll be interested to see their next project, which is set for a “tentative release in 2020” and an intent to “pulling on new sounds from house, hip-hop, and club while refining the lyrics.” I’m hopeful that Purple Corporation will sharpen its skills with time, or rather gaps in time (yes, I do think I’m hilarious).

Gaps in Time is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.

Never Have I Ever Gets Representation Right

By MANYA BHARADWAJ Arts Reporter Warning: This review contains spoilers.

The narrative of the second-generation South Asian American is a compelling one; we’ve somehow all shared the unique benefits and challenges of growing up bicultural.

Now, Netflix and Mindy Kaling’s new sitcom Never Have I Ever brings some much needed representation of that multicultural phenomenon into the world of American television, right to your screen.

Where this show deviates from South Asian–American literature, such as Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, is that, while South Asian–led, the ethnicity of Never Have I Ever’s characters is not the epicenter of their journey on the show.

Rather, the show’s premise is the coming-of-age journey of Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a high school sophomore, as she struggles to accept her father’s death while navigating school. It’s a heartwarming story, filled with emotional, warm, and funny moments. And while it develops its characters, ethnicity is only a part of their storylines; it does not define their personalities. And I think that’s something minority representation in Western media could take notes on.

Still, Never Have I Ever nails the Indian-American experience.

Representation of Indian culture extends beyond food, clothes, and religion; it’s about reflecting cultural norms and development as well. That’s something I saw particularly through Devi’s mother

Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan), and how her behavior reminded me of my own mother, reflecting how the first generation of Indians moving to America raised their children. Culture resonates through the Tamil phrases blended with English when Nalini speaks at home, her emphasis on bringing hosts a gift when visiting them in the evening, her insistence on “no sexual contact” and absolute fury at finding out her daughter kissed a boy, and her warning that “smacking is still a perfectly acceptable punishment in many minority cultures.” It’s also there, more subtly, in the contrast between the salwar kameez–wearing, long-haired Nalini who first moved to America, and the short-haired, pant-suited professional she had developed into by the present day.

But what spoke to me the most in terms of identity was a particular episode, “… felt super Indian.” The episode explores Devi’s reluctance to show the Indian aspect of her identity. “Am I gonna be this insecure Indian guy who hates doing Indian things?

Cause that’s its own identity. It’s just a shitty one,” her friend tells her. And I think a lot of Indian Americans can relate, even if subconsciously. Personally, while I’ve never hated “doing Indian things,” and while I’m definitely proud of my culture, I’ve noticed little moments of hesitation too. Like Devi, I’ll admit I found it “dorky” to see people my age unironically watch Hindi movies and join traditional Indian dance groups. Sometimes I’ve had a bit of my own hesitation.

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“Ethnicity is only a part of their storylines; it does not define their personalities.”

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when she forced me to play Indian classical violin in front of my entire high school at an event a couple of years ago—and that was in India. It’s taken me a while to get over these feelings, but it’s refreshing to see that struggle displayed so candidly on screen.

Ironically, the show grapples with its relatability in the portrayal of its main character. While Devi has her fair share of nuanced emotional scenes and funny moments, she came across to me as a fundamentally unlikable character. I don’t think this was unintentional; some moments were intended to build toward the climax of character development—like when she drops her friend, whose mother has just abandoned her, to go take part in a fashion shoot at the house of a boy she finds cute.

But the show never gives Devi a redemption

arc. Instead, it forgives her for every screwup (and there are many), and banks on our sympathy for her father’s passing. While this is understandable, it eventually dries up as an excuse.

Still, as a show, Never Have I Ever does a good job of blending in culture, storyline, and character development. At the end of the day, it stands alone as the coming-ofage show of a teenager. The selling point is not diversity, but the portrayal of one girl who just happens to be from an ethnic minority. And it doesn’t try too hard to represent every aspect of Indian culture—the rich, the poor, the light-skinned, the darkskinned, the North, the South. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its clunky qualities, but they’re redeemable enough that the show has enormous potential to do even better in future seasons.

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi in Netflix’s latest teen rom-com COURTESY OF NETFLIX

SPORTS Athletic Director McDermott Named A.D. at Harvard

By ALISON GILL Sports Editor

University Athletic Director Erin McDermott will be departing the University to become the newest John D. Nichols ’53 Family Director of Athletics at Harvard University, as announced May 7. She will assume the post in July of this year. An interim athletic director for the 2020–21 academic year will be announced in the coming days before a national search commences in the fall.

In an email sent to all Maroon student-athletes, McDermott shared her excitement “to take on adventure and lean into new experiences” while expressing her sadness “that doing so requires leaving a place and people we feel deep affection for and know we will miss tremendously.”

During her time at UChicago, McDermott transformed the University into one of the premier Division III athletic departments in the country. Since arriving in Hyde Park in 2013, McDermott has overseen a program which has accumulated seven NCAA individual

championships, 10 team appearances in the NCAA semifinals, 19 UAA team championships, and 48 NCAA team postseason qualifiers in her tenure. The athletic department finished among the Division III top 20 six times in her seven years, including its highest every finish (ninth) in 2018–19. Additionally, 15 Maroon student-athletes were selected as Collegiate Sports Information Directors Association Academic All-Americans, among the highest honors in collegiate athletics. For her efforts, McDermott was named one of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Athletic Directors of the Year in 2019.

Beyond the competitive success, McDermott guided the program through several significant milestones. McDermott has worked to raise national awareness and campus-wide engagement for the varsity athletic program.

As she told The Maroon in May 2019, she strove to “use all these moments that I can to promote our teams but really most importantly promote our student athletes and who they are.”

McDermott established the Friends of Maroon Athletics giving society to improve student-athlete experiences and led the first ever Athletics & Recreation Strategic Space Planning study.

UChicago entered into its first ever department-wide apparel agreement with Adidas and rebranded its identity with official logos, including recent facility upgrades in Ratner Athletic Center.

McDermott spearheaded the addition of the women’s lacrosse team, which began play in spring 2019 and brought the varsity team count to 20. Her most recent visions for the athletic department included the construction of greater stadium atmospheres and individual training spaces for football, soccer, softball, and baseball.

McDermott will become the eighth athletic director in Harvard history— and first woman to take the role. She will lead the nation’s largest Division I athletic program, overseeing 1,200 athletes across 42 varsity sports. The appointment marks a return to the Ivy League for the Massachusetts native.

Before coming to UChicago, McDermott

has served in athletic administration at Columbia University and, more recently, Princeton. In her email, McDermott said, “Harvard is an amazing institution with a strong athletic identity in the Ivy League” made even “more meaningful” by its proximity to family.

In the announcement of her hire, Harvard Dean Claudine Gay called McDermott “the leader that Harvard needs for its next century of success in athletics. Steeped in Ivy League principles, fundamentally committed to student-athlete success, and driven by her values, Erin is someone who has formed a deep appreciation of Harvard and its place in the Ivy League, as well as the things that make the experience we create for our student-athletes unique.”

In the closing lines of her email, McDermott addressed student-athletes: “Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for having been given the privilege to serve you and those who came before you for seven years….You are what drives me to be the best leader and champion that I can be….I will forever remain a Maroons fan!”

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Fourth-Year Turns a Lost Season into a Chance to Give Back

By THOMAS GORDON Sports Editor

“This was not how it was supposed to end” has been a common sentiment among athletes whose seasons were cut short amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Most seniors would be distraught about losing their last chance to make a difference for their team, and last chance to compete for a championship. However, fourth-year outfielder Payton Jancsy was more focused on the effects on others than on himself.

The University of Chicago baseball team has hosted an autism-awareness game in partnership with the Twin Hearts Autism foundation located in Frankfort, Illinois, for the last three

years. As Payton stated, “This game always coincided with senior day and as a result, everyone looked forward to it. I always loved having the chance to warm-up with our buddies and seeing the smile it put on their faces.” Instead of sulking from his own senior season being cancelled, Payton started a fundraiser for the charity to make up for the lack of a sponsored game. “When our season got canceled, I knew that I wanted to make a difference for the charity and so I decided to start a fundraiser. Since I started the fundraiser, I’ve been able to raise about $3,000 to support the organization. I always felt extremely lucky to attend the University of Chicago and wanted to make one last positive impact on behalf of our baseball program.” The

Fourth-year baseball player Payton Jancsy. COURTESY OF UCHICAGO ATHLETICS

focus on the team and others instead of individuals was a constant theme of Payton’s career.

This selflessness is evident in Payton’s response when asked about the main lesson he learned while playing at UChicago: “Coach Fitzgerald brought the team together and said that no one will remember your individual statistics, but they will remember if you were a good teammate or not. Going into my final season, this shifted my focus away from trying to achieve anything as an individual and focusing all my attention on what we could do as a team. I think this mindset is extremely applicable to everyday life and working with others.” The common saying goes that “there is no I in team,” and Payton embodied that as a

teammate. His favorite memory with the team was not one big hit that he made, or an incredible play to save an important run in a vital game. Instead, he said it was the “uninterrupted time with your teammates. On the bus, no one is worried about classes, homework, tests—only about enjoying our time with each other.”

These are the memories and camaraderie that stick with athletes long after the end of their career. More specifically, Payton said, “My favorite memories are the sunsets on our road trips. I remember specifically during our final trip to Kentucky, I jumped around the bus telling everybody to check out the sunset and mentioned how these sunsets are what we will miss most once we graduate.”

Even in the decision to attend the University of Chicago, the team aspect was a vital one for Payton. While the academics did initially pique his interest, as they do for many high school students, it was the program that Fitzgerald has been building that made Payton excited for this opportunity. “One of my best friends in high school, Sam Zager, came to UChicago to play as a part of the Class of 2019 and he spoke very highly of the rest of his recruiting class. The Class of 2019 was the winningest class in UChicago history and having the chance to learn from and play with those guys for three years was something that excited me. I knew that Coach Fitzgerald and Coach Stevens would give me the necessary tools to be successful and the upperclassmen players would put our team in a position to compete for a championship.”

While this season was shaping up to be an exciting season that might even have ended with their first baseball conference championship, it sadly was not to be under these extraordinary circumstances. However, as one might expect, Payton was more focused on his teammates than the loss of a swan-song ending: “While I’ll miss the opportunity of chasing that title, I’ll miss having the chance to spend an extra couple of months with my teammates more. Adversity can either drive people apart or bring them closer together, and I think having our season cut short actually brought our program closer together. My hope is that the guys coming back next year never take a pitch for granted.”