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To the Class of 2029: Welcome to UChicago! It’s a feat just to have made it to your first days of university, and we warmly congratulate you.

It may feel like your first week, and perhaps even your first year, is the most important time in your life — the beginning of college and your future life. But really, it’s all a continuous process. Yes, that means you need to keep putting in effort. It also means it’s never too late to start something new.

We know college can feel overwhelming and scary. Here’s some things we think are worth doing, even if you’re scared while doing them.

Love things — your classes, your new friends, and the person you are working to become.

Separate yourself from the big groups. You might just meet a real friend in the large, aimlessly walking groups of freshmen you’ll be part of, and, if you do, don’t be afraid to branch off! If you don’t find

Editors’ Note

your people immediately, it’ll be okay. The beauty of college is that you can make new friends at any moment, if you stay open to it.

Let yourself change and grow. Change is always scary and hard, but growth is not possible without change.

Invest time in learning. Learning is exciting at UChicago, and doing your readings, p-sets, and essays can serve as a reprieve from the whirlwind of managing your “adult” life outside of class.

And — trust us — get off campus once in a while. Here are a couple of trips we recommend: the Indiana dunes, the 61st Street farmer’s market, Oak Woods Cemetery, Steelworker’s Park, and, of course, Chicago classics like the Art Institute and the Lakefront Trail.

As you’re looking for community on this campus, one place you might find it is with us — the Maroon! We are a 133-year-old student-run publication financially and editorially independent

from the University. We cover everything from University finances and student protests, to the Chicago arts scene and the latest scientific breakthroughs from UChicago’s brightest minds. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely picked up our biweekly print edition, which we love (cool kids read in print).

To the second-years, you’re a little more seasoned now. Be confident and be excited to know your way around and to know yourself a little better this year! To the third-years, you’re officially upperclassmen, moving onto more specialized courses and maybe even moving off campus. Be open to the growth this year will bring. To our fellow fourth-years, we’re so lucky to be cherishing this last year with you.

We’re also looking forward to an exciting year at the Maroon, which will feature more visual storytelling, more training for our staff, and seed grants to support longform and investigative

reporting projects thanks to the Parrhesia Public Thought and Discourse Program. And, as always, we’ll strive to expand our coverage areas, be in constant conversation with community members and fellow students, and break important stories.

You can be a part of all of it by joining the Maroon! We’ll be hosting this quarter’s recruiting events at 5 p.m. on September 30 and October 3 in our office in the basement of Ida Noyes. You can meet us there or at the center of the Quad at 4:45 p.m., where a staff member will walk with you over to the newsroom.

Tiffany Li, Editor-in-Chief

Elena Eisenstadt, Deputy

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Evgenia Anastasakos, Managing Editor

UChicago to Overhaul Undergraduate Writing Program

and Introduce New Core

By SOPHIA LIU | News Reporter

The University will begin a multi-year restructuring of the undergraduate Writing Program, which had previously run concurrently with the humanities Core sequence, in autumn quarter 2025.

First-years and transfer students will transition in phases to take a new Core writing course called Inquiry, Conversation, Argument (ICA) over the next three years. All incoming College students willtake the course by the 2027–28 academic year.

The pilot program for the new Writing Center will be tested on incoming first-year and transfer students enrolled in Human Being and Citizen (HBC) for their humanities Core, said Sophie McMillian-Myers, a current writing specialist. Those students—approximately 20 percent of the incoming class—will be on the “Maroon Track” and will fulfill their writing requirement by taking ICA.

Students taking non-HBC Core se -

quences will be on the “Grey Track” and will fulfill their writing requirement through the traditional writing seminar curriculum. The HBC sequence will no longer include writing seminars or a writing specialist; the other humanities sequences will undergo no changes.

By the 2026–27 academic year, 50 percent of incoming students will be on the Maroon Track, taking ICA instead of the traditional writing seminar. To reach that share, a still undetermined number of humanities sequences will transition out of the writing seminar model to make up the additional 30 percent of students set to be on the Maroon Track.

The rollout is scheduled to be complete by the 2027–28 academic year, at which point all incoming students will be on the Maroon Track, and the current Writing Program will be eliminated. The program will be replaced by the new Chicago Center for Writing, which will be led

Writing

Course

by Abigail Reardon, the current executive director of the Writing Program.

“Multiple internal UChicago committees have reviewed the efficacy of the Writing Program over the past decade and found that improvements are needed to support students’ development as academic writers throughout their time at UChicago, including in upper-level coursework,” Reardon wrote in an email to the Maroon

The Center will provide more “effective and sustained support” by implementing a comprehensive multi-year writing curriculum, Reardon explained. The changes are intended to improve student preparedness for advanced coursework and professional pursuits, foster more effective instructional collaboration across the Core, and enhance consistency in writing instruction, according to her. The Center will offer co-curricular support for all Core sequences, signaling plans to expand beyond humanities and social science courses, which are the only

courses supported by the current Writing Program.

Unlike traditional writing seminars, ICA is a one-quarter course that students take for a quality grade. ICA will feature its own reading list revolving around a central question, designed by Reardon and ICA instructors, Writing Specialist Elizabeth Fiedler said in an interview with the Maroon

Third-year transfer student Ishaan Verma took a version of the ICA pilot this summer and explained that his section asked students to consider the question, “Why tell stories of war?” Students explored the question through short readings on Canvas, an analytic essay, and a final research prospectus. Verma called the ICA an “effective” tool for easing the transition to university-level writing and introducing students to UChicago-specific expectations.

However, both Fiedler and Verma expressed concern about the compacted

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University Announces $100 Million Budget Cuts Amid Federal Policy Changes

By ISAIAH GLICK | Senior News Reporter

The University of Chicago announced plans to implement a series of changes intended to reduce spending by $100 million over the next several years, citing new financial challenges created by the Trump administration’s policies toward higher education.

The announced changes include reducing the hiring rate of tenure-track faculty by 30 percent, reducing the overall internally funded Ph.D. population by 30 percent by academic year 2030–31, pausing the majority of new capital projects, and reducing unrestricted center funding by 20 percent. Non-clinical staff will also be cut by between 100 and 150 employees, according to the annoucement.

“On the one hand, the profound federal policy changes of the last eight months have created multiple and significant new uncertainties and strong downward pressure on our finances. The University needs to be in a financial position to manage through a situation where even one or two of these risks comes to pass. On the other, despite important progress that all of you worked so hard to contribute to over the last two years, our annual income still falls short of our expenses,” University President Paul Alivisatos wrote in a statement announcing the changes this August. “That is not something that we can allow to persist.”

The University’s had increased its amount of tenure-track faculty members by over 20 percent in the last decade, Provost Katherine Baicker wrote in a letter this August. Although there are no plans to remove current faculty, the University is reducing its hiring rate to keep the total number of professors steady at its present level, she explained.

A faculty committee will also be convened to discuss options for faculty retirement.

The University indicated a goal of reducing its internally funded Ph.D. population. To that end, along with enrollment freezes in the Division of the Arts & Humanities, the Harris School of Public Policy, and the Crown School

of Social Work, Baicker wrote that other divisions—including those which receive significant federal grant funding—“will be reducing the number of PhD students without external funding by shrinking cohorts, requiring students to move onto grants more quickly, or shortening time to degree.”

Some master’s programs will also see admissions pauses, and smaller programs will be reviewed to determine potential enrollment floors.

According to Baicker, because of “limited capital funds and great uncertainty about future infrastructure support,” the New Engineering and Science Building will be scaled back in size, and, while it will still house quantum and teaching laboratories, there will be limited space for future expansion. In the future, capital projects will only begin construction once 75 percent of funding has been identified.

Baicker’s letter also introduced “systematic evaluations” going forward for the University’s institutes and centers, numbering more than 140, including the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics, the Institute of Politics, and the Chicago Forum, which she said would ensure that seed funding for new centers could become available once existing centers become self-sustaining or close.

The University is also undertaking reductions in its administration and may ask leaders to take on multiple responsibilities to facilitate this change. The administration is also collaborating with the divisions to assess leadership structures to ensure that faculty have more time to focus on teaching and research.

In fiscal year (FY) 2024, UChicago’s budget deficit hit $288 million against a $3.2 billion operating budget. In November 2024, Baicker and Enterprise Chief Financial Officer Ivan Samstein announced that increased revenue growth had narrowed the projected deficit for FY2025 to $221 million, along with plans to eliminate it completely by FY2028.

The University was on track to meet

that goal until January, when the financial picture began to look different due in large part to federal funding cuts and uncertainty surrounding future international student enrollment, Baicker told the Maroon in May.

“[W]e were largely able to stay on track with our financial plan in the fiscal year that just ended despite substantial erosion of key external resources,” Baicker wrote on Thursday. “But the increasing external financial pressures—including potential federal policy changes that could lead to fewer international students, reduced grant support, reduced Medicaid coverage, increased capital costs, and more—combined with the ongoing need to close our structural deficit, require additional measures.”

“This overall approach is designed to preserve and build on our university’s

exceptional culture and strengths, where dedication to free and rigorous inquiry has generated so many breakthroughs and trained future generations of exceptional scholars and thinkers,” she continued.

Baicker and Samstein have previously discussed pursuing sources of external support, such as nonprofits and foundations, beyond traditional federal grants. They also cautioned that the value of lost grant awards could double or triple over the next year as additional grants are cut and new grants are not awarded.

The changes will pose “real challenges for our faculty, students, and staff,” who will “need to work together during some difficult transitions” ahead, Baicker wrote in her letter.

Celeste Alcalay contributed reporting.

Tiffany Li, editor-in-chief

Elena Eisenstadt, deputy editor-in-chief

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“Learning to write is not just about academic preparation, but it is also a valuable approach to lifelong learning and discovery.”

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timeline of the course.

“I think two quarters would be ideal,” Fiedler said. “That would give students more of an opportunity to make mistakes and make revisions and revisit their work a bit more. The quarter system is already so compressed… and writing is a skill that just takes time to develop.”

This restructuring also has direct employment implications for current writing specialists, as ICA will be predominantly taught by instructional professors.

Reardon explained that the new instructional professors are being hired “through a competitive national search and selection process.” They represent “the best qualified and most effective writing instructors in the country,” she added. The University began hiring during the 2024—25 academic year, according to Reardon, and eight instructional professors have already been hired to staff the upcoming pilot.

The restructuring has also led to layoffs. Seven writing specialists were laid

off in July, with the remaining specialists expected to be let go in waves during the 2026 and 2027 spring quarters, according to Writing Specialist Sarah Osment. Osment estimated that 11 writing specialists applied to the new instructional professor position, but only two were ultimately hired in spring.

In an email to the Maroon, Writing Specialist Sophie McMillian-Myers explained that only writing specialists with doctorates were eligible to apply for the IP roles, excluding several specialists

with master’s degrees. She added that it remains unclear whether additional writing staff positions will be created before the 2026–27 academic year.

Despite these staffing changes, Reardon emphasized that “learning to write is not just about academic preparation, but it is also a valuable approach to lifelong learning and discovery,” Reardon said. “The Chicago Center for Writing will support students in this endeavor, which is something we’re really excited about at the College.”

UChicago Expands Early Admissions Round for Summer Session Students

By ANIKA KRISHNASWAMY | Head News Editor and ELIOT AGUERA Y ARCAS | News Reporter

The University introduced an exclusive new application round for the 2024–25 application cycle, giving high school students who participated in any of its Summer Session programs—some of which cost thousands of dollars—a head start on the admissions process.

Dubbed “Early Decision 0” (ED0) by some admissions counseling services, the Summer Session Early Notification (SSEN) option was first introduced for the Class of 2029. It allows students who attend a Summer Session to apply to the College under a model similar to the Early Decision 1 (ED1) plan. Summer Session students can apply between September 1 and October 15 and receive decisions on a rolling basis within three weeks. They can also apply by November 1, which is the deadline for traditional Early Action and ED1 applications.

For the Class of 2029, Summer Session students were only notified about SSEN once they were already accepted to the program. For the Class of 2030, however, the College had published the option on its website before the Summer Session 2025 application deadline—allowing students to consider SSEN as a part of their decision to enroll in the summer program.

Atiksh Sinha, a rising senior who completed a paid “2 Week Career Insight” program called Technology and Innovation during Summer Session 2025, said SSEN was “one of the biggest” reasons why he—and many of his peers—chose to attend a summer program at all.

“I met a couple students from my school [at the program]—from my grade itself—we saw each other, and we knew exactly why we were there,” Sinha said. “Everyone has that [SSEN option] subconsciously in the back of their mind.” He added that SSEN also appealed to him because it would allow him to complete the admissions process months ahead of most of his peers.

Some residential Summer Session programs can cost over $14,000, though there is need-based aid available on a “first-come, first-served basis.”

When asked for comment about the introduction of SSEN, an Office of Admissions representative directed the Maroon to a “Frequently Asked Questions” page on Summer Session website.

The website emphasizes the role Summer Session programming can take in shaping the college planning process.

“Over the years, our Summer Session students have shared with us at the end of their program how impactful their time on campus was for them both intellectually and as part of their college search process (and for many, it confirmed for them and their parents that UChicago was a fit for them).”

First-year SSEN-admit Thaddeus Loder, who participated in the Neubauer Phoenix STEM Summer Scholars program, said his Summer Session experience was one of the main reasons he applied to the University. “Before the Summer Session I had not considered UChicago,” he said. “During the Summer Session, I really enjoyed my time at UChicago and learning about SSEN made me want to come even more.”

Before SSEN, the University offered a functionally similar but unpublicized pathway known as “Rolling Early Decision,” available only to those participating in its “1 Week Enrichment Programs,” according to a student who told the Maroon they were admitted via Rolling ED to the Class of 2028 and asked to remain anonymous. This pathway was not publicly listed and was instead communicated to program participants directly by admissions officers. It was discontinued after the introduction of SSEN—which is open to all Summer Session partici-

pants—for the Class of 2029.

Many of the “1 Week Enrichment Programs”—such as Emerging Rural Leaders, Neubauer Family Adelante Summer Scholars, and Woodson Summer Scholars—are designed for students from underrepresented backgrounds, focusing on students from rural, Hispanic and Latino, and Black communities, respectively. These programs are also often offered at little or no cost to their participants: domestic students from households earning $120,000 or less have program fees fully waived, and those from households earning $65,000 or less also receive roundtrip travel coverage. By contrast, financial aid for multi-week programs is available only on a first-come, first-served basis and does not cover travel expenses.

The anonymous Rolling ED student noted that the existence of Rolling ED was not mentioned during the application process for “1 Week Enrichment Programs” and was only disclosed on “the very last day” of their summer session. The student speculated that this discretion may have been deliberate.

“I genuinely do think the summer program was meant to appeal to these underrepresented groups that didn’t always get the same chances as some of the overrepresented populations,” they said.

“...[T]here’s probably a stigma associated with [the new program], where, if you just pay a little extra money, you can guarantee getting in.”

“I don’t think they wanted people to apply for the ethos of trying to get into that early round—I think they just genuinely wanted people to take advantage of the program and to come because they’re interested in UChicago and interested in learning more about it.”

For at least the Class of 2027, the University also offered additional financial support to Rolling ED applicants. According to an email sent to Class of 2027 “1 Week Enrichment Program” participants reviewed by the Maroon, “[s]ince Rolling ED is only available before the FAFSA officially opens up, we have also given the students a 40k financial aid guarantee (this guarantee is only for Rolling ED).” Students requiring more than $40,000 in aid simply uploaded additional financial forms to receive the rest of their aid package; otherwise, the University guaranteed the full $40,000 as merit aid—a benefit not extended to SSEN applicants.

When asked for comment about Rolling ED, the University again referred the Maroon to the SSEN FAQ page, which contains no references to Rolling ED. The Maroon was unable to confirm how long the Rolling ED program was in use, but it existed in some capacity for at least the Classes of 2027 and 2028.

Although students from enrichment programs remain eligible for SSEN, the expansion of criteria for eligibility has raised concerns among students about equity and financial accessibility. The anonymous Rolling ED student reflected on how perceptions of the Summer Session programs may change now that paid programs are part of the admissions equation.

“I think there’s probably a stigma associated with [the new program], where, if you just pay a little extra money, you can guarantee getting in,” they said. “For my program… only the scholarship programs [had the early application option].”

Though the University has stated that SSEN’s only advantage is an earlier application decision, some students still have the impression that there may be an admissions benefit.

Frankity Wang, an incoming international student from Shanghai, completed the five-day online China Emerging Leaders program the summer after her sophomore year of high school. In a message to the Maroon, Wang wrote, “I was astonished to find out that three students from my six-person [Summer Session discussion] group were admitted through ED0 [SSEN].”

Loder noted, “I know three other people in my specific program that were admitted [out of] a group of 53 people. I suspect probably about a fifth of those [53]

is competitive, requiring students to submit materials similar to those needed for college applications—essays, standardized test scores, educational transcripts, and letters of recommendation.

Incoming first-year Laura Ramirez, who completed the Neubauer Family Adelante Summer Scholars program, had a similar view, suggesting that any potential increase in acceptance rate through SSEN may be tied to self-selection within the applicant pool—students who have already demonstrated strong academic qualifications and a clear interest in UChicago.

“My [college admissions] counselor in specific was like, ‘If you know what you want, go for it—you have a better chance of getting in through SSEN than Early

Best wishes this academic year from The Study, the hotel purpose-built for the Maroon community

Chicago and Illinois Government 101

By KATI LANGILLE | News Reporter and NATHANIEL RODWELL-SIMON | Deputy News Editor

For students coming to Chicago this fall, the following is a basic rundown of the city’s local and state government officials, how to register to vote, and upcoming elections.

Aldermen and City Council

On the last Tuesday in February of the year before a presidential election, Chicago residents elect an alderman to represent their district or city “ward” for a four-year term. Runoff elections between two tied candidates occur on the first Tuesday in April of the same year.

Chicago is divided into 50 wards, each with its own alderman. Aldermen serve as the members of Chicago’s city council, making decisions pertaining to public health, taxes, debt incursion, public safety, and welfare. City council meetings are open to the public and can be attended by concerned citizens virtually as well as in-person.

Hyde Park is located within Chicago’s Fifth Ward, represented by Alderman

Desmon Yancy. As the son of a Chicago police officer, Yancy is known for his position on crime, having helped create the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. This organization works to mend relations between the police and the public while holding the police accountable through oversight measures and systemic reforms.

The next aldermanic election for the Fifth Ward will take place in 2027.

Mayor Brandon Johnson

A former Chicago public school (CPS) teacher, union organizer, and Cook County commissioner, Brandon Johnson was elected mayor of Chicago in 2023, narrowly defeating former CPS chief executive Paul Vallas. His major campaign tenants included uniting with CPS Unions, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Chicago citizens, and developing a new approach to crime fighting.

Since then, Johnson has faced criticism over his handling of crime, public schools,

and the city budget. Only 26 percent of Chicago residents approve of Johnson’s job as mayor and 58 percent disapprove, according to recent polling by the University of Chicago Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation.

Education has been a defining issue of Johnson’s tenure as mayor. In 2025, he initiated the transition toward a fully elected school board after the previous board resigned amid clashes between Johnson and now former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez over how to address the deficit in CPS’s almost $10 billion budget.

By the end of 2025, CPS projects its budget deficit to be $1.2 billion after the school board denied Johnson’s proposal to take out a loan to reimburse the city for a $175 million pension payment for non-teaching school employees, forcing Chicago to end the fiscal year with a $146 million shortfall.

Although he was criticized for budget deficits, Johnson stands by his commitment to not cutting funding from school programming. Johnson recently expanded the number of schools included in the Sustainable Community Schools initiative

from 20 to 36. The program, part of the city’s contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, offers schools additional funding for after-school programming and family services.

Johnson is also a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump. He called plans for a National Guard takeover of the city “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound” in an August 22 press release. He has also signed an executive order barring Chicago police from aiding in any federal immigration or law enforcement actions in keeping with Chicago’s sanctuary city policies.

Crime in Chicago, the purported justification for a potential National Guard presence in the city and a key point of criticism against Johnson, is also down 13 percent compared to 2024, according to Chicago police data. Robberies and murders are down 33 and 31 percent, respectively. Johnson’s “People’s Plan for Community Safety,” aimed at cutting crime on the West Side, targets the prevention of violence and homelessness by focusing on neighborhoods that have historically

Illinois will hold its next primary elections... on March 17, 2026...

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been divested of government resources to give at-risk community members better opportunities by means of education, community programs, and affordable housing.

The next mayoral election will take place in 2027.

Upcoming Elections

Illinois will hold its next primary elections for state and federal elected offices on March 17, 2026, followed by the general election on November 3, 2026. Most upcoming elections concern the state government, and not Chicago city government. However, Chicago’s school board elections will take place in November 2026.

Governor J. B. Pritzker is up for reelection in 2026. He is slated to run against candidates such as Republican James

Mendrick, the DuPage County sheriff. Elections for the Illinois secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, and comptroller will also be held in 2026.

All 118 seats in the Illinois General Assembly’s House of Representatives are up for election in 2026. Democrats currently hold 78 seats, and Republicans hold 40. Hyde Park, which is split between the 25th and 26th legislative districts, is represented in the General Assembly by Curtis Tarver and Kam Buckner.

Thirty-nine state senate seats are also up for election this year. The Illinois Senate currently has 40 Democratic members and 19 Republican members. Candidates have been announced in districts nine, 21, 26, 29, 33, 36, 39, 41, and 47. Hyde Park, in Illinois’s 13th state senate district, is represented by Robert Peters, who is current-

ly running to represent Illinois’s second senate district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

All of Illinois’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one of its seats in the U.S. Senate will be up for election in 2026. Hyde Park is currently represented by Jonathan Jackson in the House, and Illinois is represented by Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin in the Senate.

Since Durbin announced in April that he would not seek reelection, 22 individuals, including current Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, have declared their intent to run for his senate seat.

How Do I Vote in Chicago and Illinois Elections?

Chicago residents who have lived in their precinct for at least 30 days prior

to the election are eligible to vote in city, state, and federal races, provided they are not registered to vote in any other state. Only U.S. citizens can vote in Chicago and Illinois elections.

Illinois offers same-day voter registration. To register to vote, you must bring two forms of identification to your polling place, one of which lists your current Chicago address. If you have an Illinois driver’s license or state ID, you can register to vote online up to 16 days before election day. Students living in on-campus housing can find proof-of-residency documents in the MyHousing portal.

Polling locations for UChicago students living in Hyde Park have not yet been announced for 2026 elections but can be found on the county clerk’s website closer to election day.

College Sees Small Drops in Black, Hispanic Enrollment After Affirmative Action Ban

By GABRIEL KRAEMER | Head News Editor

The percentages of incoming students in the College identifying as Black and Hispanic decreased slightly between the 2023–24 and 2024–25 academic years, while the percentages of white and Asian students increased, according to the first detailed enrollment data since the Supreme Court ruled affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional in 2023.

The University reports data on newly enrolled students annually in the Common Data Set (CDS), a comprehensive set of statistics that includes demographic data, high school academic performance, and financial aid that institutions across the country disclose. The CDS for the 2024–25 school year, which included data for the Class of 2028, was released last month.

Roughly 18 percent of domestic students in the Class of 2028 who reported their race and ethnicity were Hispanic—a drop of about four percentage points from the Class of 2027, the largest demographic shift reported in the data. Black enrollment decreased by about one percentage point, while white and Asian enrollment

increased by about two and three percentage points, respectively.

The Black and Hispanic shares of domestic students in the Class of 2028 were the smallest since the University began releasing the CDS after the 2021–22 school year, while the white and Asian shares were the largest.

The proportion of last year’s incoming students who were awarded financial aid—33 percent—was also the lowest since the University has released the CDS; the share was 37 percent for the Class of 2027.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that college admissions practices explicitly factoring in applicants’ race—typically affirmative action policies that favor historically disadvantaged groups—were unconstitutional. The University had submitted a brief in the case supporting Harvard’s arguments against an affirmative action ban.

However, the court left the door open for universities to continue considering how students’ experiences have been affected by their race. “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting uni-

Following the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action, the proportions of White and Asian students increased from the Class of 2027 to the Class of 2028, while shares of Black and Hispanic students decreased. gabriel kraemer .

versities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.

A University spokesperson told the Maroon after the Supreme Court decision that “the University will comply with all applicable laws while continuing efforts to engage with applicants of high ability from

all backgrounds in order to foster a diverse and welcoming environment.”

Unlike some other selective universities, UChicago did not change or modify its supplemental essay prompts in response to the ruling to offer applicants a chance to expand on their backgrounds.

On August 7, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Education

UChicago did not change or modify its supplemental essay prompts in response to the ruling to offer applicants a chance to expand on their backgrounds.

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to require that universities disclose race, gender, test score, and grade point average (GPA) data to the federal government to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court decision. Previous Trump administration directives have also claimed that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are in violation of Students for Fair Admissions

The impacts of the ban have varied

across institutions. Columbia University saw its freshman-year Black population drop by nearly half, for example, while Yale’s Black and Hispanic enrollment shares remained constant.

The University initially did not report any data on admitted students’ SAT and ACT scores or GPAs in the latest CDS, nor did it disclose the share of incoming firstyears who chose to submit their test scores in their applications. Those figures—which

were largely unchanged from last year— were posted online only after the Maroon sent the Office of Institutional Analysis questions about the omission.

The admission rate for male applicants—5.6 percent—was nearly 50 percent higher than the rate for female applicants, at less than 4 percent. That gender gap has widened every year since the University began releasing the CDS.

The number of transfer students that

came to UChicago in the 2024–25 academic year nearly doubled compared to 2023–24, from 124 to 231 enrolled students, the largest ever reported in the CDS. The share of international students also grew slightly to a high of over 18 percent.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions did not respond to questions about admissions policy changes’ effects on student demographics and other trends in the 2024–25 CDS.

How President Trump’s Second Term Has Affected UChicago

By NICOLE OCHOA | News Reporter

President Donald Trump and his administration have set out to reshape higher education through executive orders and research funding cuts since his inauguration in January. At the University of Chicago, these policies have had visible effects on grants, campus climate, and international students.

Funding and Grants

The administration’s reshaping of higher education began with sweeping reductions to federally funded research. The loss of grants is expected to cost the University over $40 million in 2026 alone.

The majority of the rescinded funding comes from cuts to the nation’s scientific agencies. Trump directed the Department of Government Efficiency to target what it viewed as wasteful spending within the government. He also directed the Office of Management and Budget to cut programs involved with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which has caused the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to be hit with federal freezes and overall budget cuts, leading to a stoppage in grants for the University.

In response to an initial funding freeze, University Provost Katherine Baicker ordered faculty researchers to pause non-personnel spending. Although the federal and University funding freezes were reversed within a week, Baicker and Enterprise Chief Financial Officer Ivan

Samstein told the Maroon in May that the University was still bracing for additional cuts.

By mid-July, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the NIH had terminated 10 University projects with an obligated total of over $9 million. This impact was especially severe in the Biological Sciences Division, which faced a loss of $1.7 million in unliquidated obligations including cuts to research related to COVID-19 and migrants. The Arts & Humanities Division also faced the termination of 10 active grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), worth $3.1 million.

The University has been able to push back against indirect funding caps, however. In February, the NIH released a directive to cap the percentage of grants used for indirect costs to 15 percent. These indirect costs include administrative function, building maintenance, utilities, and lab equipment, which typically make up between 50 and 65 percent of grant expenditures. Lowering this percentage could have cost the University an additional $52 million annually in funding.

In response to these indirect funding cuts, UChicago, along with 15 other plaintiffs, sued HHS and the NIH, leading to Massachusetts District Court Judge Angel Kelley granting a temporary restraining order, blocking the caps in the 22 states the plaintiffs were from. This was expanded nationwide after another lawsuit that

UChicago was a part of under the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The NSF had placed a similar 15 percent cap on indirect funding, placing 300 grants awarded to UChicago researchers, worth $14.5 million, at risk. The University, again, joined a coalition of universities and sued the NSF; in June, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sided with plaintiffs, blocking the cap.

International Students

In early April, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) learned that 10 students and new graduates— part of Optional Practical Training—had their F-1 visas revoked for “unlawful activity,” putting them at risk for deportation.

These revocations came after the Trump administration’s launch of deportation proceedings against students involved in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses. No specific reasons were given in either case, with the Department of State citing routine border measures. The federal government restored the visas within a month.

The University reports that international students comprise 24 percent of the total student population.

OIA also updated its travel guidelines, urging students, regardless of citizenship status, to be cautious when travelling out of the U.S. and to reconsider nonessential travel.

In July, the University disclosed to investors via bond issuance documents that the Department of Justice (DoJ) and

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had issued information requests concerning the University’s admissions practices and international students, though the specifics remain unclear.

Student Loans

On July 4, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The legislation placed strict caps on the federal Grad PLUS student loan program, which had historically covered tuition and living costs not met by Stafford Loans for graduate students.

Under OBBBA, annual borrowing limits were also reduced to $25,000 for master’s students and $50,000 for preprofessional students, while the previous structure allowed students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance. At UChicago, where annual graduate tuition regularly exceeds $60,000, this change could leave many students with substantial funding gaps.

Without these loans, many students are expected to turn to private loans with higher interest rates and fewer protections, or, in some cases, delay or abandon enrollment altogether. A decline in graduate enrollment would significantly impact tuition revenue and the University’s ability to maintain robust graduate-level programs, Samstein said.

Campus Climate

Just days after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order, titled CONTINUED ON PG. 9

The scrutiny of the University has not been limited to its academic sphere: UChicago Medicine has also faced pressure

“Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” instructing agencies to explore civil and criminal measures to address antisemitism on campuses, expand enforcement under civil rights and conspiracy statutes, and provide guidance to universities on grounds of inadmissibility for individuals linked to terrorist organizations. No action have been directed at UChicago yet, but the University could lose federal funding should events occur on campus that the Trump administration deems antisemitic.

In February, the Department of Education also issued new regulations claiming that the “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs” at many universities— including UChicago—violate the Civil Rights Act by enabling “discrimination” on the basis of race or gender; the Department of Education gave schools two weeks from the announcement to comply or risk losing federal funding.

Within a week, a federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction, blocking parts of the Trump administration’s actions targeting DEI programs, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit lifted the temporary injunction in March.

After the injunction was lifted, the DoJ announced that the University of Chicago

was among 45 universities under investigation by the Department of Education for alleged violations of Title VI, which prohibits race-based discrimination in federally funded programs. The probe focused on the University’s partnership with the PhD Project, which aims to expand diversity in business school Ph.D. programs. The Department of Education alleged the program limits eligibility based on race. The PhD Project has since “opened our membership application to anyone” who is interested.

UChicago confirmed it received notice of the investigation and stated it would cooperate with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, emphasizing its prohibition on unlawful discrimination.

The scrutiny of the University has not been limited to its academic sphere: UChicago Medicine (UCMed) has also faced pressure from the federal government. The hospital announced in July that it would discontinue all pediatric gender-affirming care, effective immediately, citing warnings from the Trump administration to withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide such services.

The hospital explained that in light of “continued federal actions,” continuing to provide such care could endanger the hospital’s ability to treat Medicare and

from the federal government.

Medicaid populations that make up over 70 percent of inpatient services at UCMed. The move follows a January executive or-

der directing agencies to prevent federally funded institutions from providing gender-affirming care to children “under 19.”

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor Among UChicago’s New Academic Offerings

By NAINA PURUSHOTHAMAN | Senior News Reporter

This fall, the University will launch a new entrepreneurship and innovation minor, giving undergraduates a structured academic pathway into the field.

The program combines interdisciplinary coursework with hands-on experience, drawing from fields such as economics, computer science, public policy, and the humanities. The minor will provide opportunities to test ideas and develop ventures, while also connecting with

existing programs and offerings within the Polsky Center and the Booth School of Business, such as the College New Venture Challenge.

“Undergraduate interest in entrepreneurship has grown dramatically over the past several years,” said Emanuele Colonnelli, the faculty director of the new minor and assistant professor of economics at Booth. “Until now, students haven’t had a formal academic path to pursue this inter-

est. The minor is designed to fill that gap.”

Colonnelli said, “The Polsky Center has long been the hub for entrepreneurship at UChicago. This minor creates an academic bridge into that ecosystem and enhances the entrepreneurial support available to undergraduates.”

The minor is open to students from all majors and is intentionally interdisciplinary. “We expect a diverse group of students to be interested in this minor,” Colonnelli said. “The possibilities are wide-ranging: computer science students

building software companies, chemistry majors exploring biotech, public policy students focused on social innovation, and humanities students launching creative ventures.”

The entrepreneurship and innovation minor is one of several new academic programs launching in the 2025–26 academic year. Other additions include a new Core writing course called Inquiry, Conversation, Argument, which is part of a broader redesign of the Writing Program, and a new major in archaeology.

I-House: The Good, the Bad, and the History

Grey City reporter Jack Rich explores the many masks worn by UChicago’s “worst” dorm.

By JACK RICH | Grey City Reporter

Upon telling other UChicago students about living in International House, otherwise known as “I-House,” one might be met with an “I’m sorry to hear that.” If not that, then a groan or expression of disbelief: “There’s no way.… So you do ‘The Walk’ every day?” Some might simply grimace and change the subject. I-House residency is treated like a diagnosis or even a prison sentence.

But, as any true I-House lover can tell you, there’s more to it than that. The building itself is beautiful, offering a variety of useful facilities and hosting countless events within its walls. It’s also one part of an international organization that is dedicated to building multinational connections between students. For many I-House residents, living in those hallowed halls is not a punishment but a genuine point of pride.

The History of I-House

In his memoir, Memoirs of Harry Edmonds, the eventual founder of I-House outlined the chance encounter that led to its conception. In 1909, Harry Edmonds, then a 26-year-old college graduate and YMCA worker, wished an offhanded “Good morning” to a Chinese student who was leaving Columbia University’s library as he was walking in.

To his surprise, the student stopped, thanked him, and remarked that it was the first time anyone had spoken to him since arriving in New York three weeks prior. Edmonds walked into the library, intent on continuing his business, only to realize the “tragedy” of what had just happened. He ran out to find the student, but he was already gone.

Edmonds told this story to his wife, prompting her to ask the question that

sparked the creation of International House: “Can’t we do something about it?”

Feeling inclined to “do something about it,” Edmonds did some investigating. He searched for international students and found many around the city. He and his wife “decided to invite a small group to [their] home in the country on a Sunday afternoon,” Edmonds wrote.

These gatherings, informal at first, grew weekly to become “Sunday Suppers,” a tradition that many International Houses, including UChicago’s, continue. At the time, these were simply student gatherings that focused on “the coming together of students from many lands.” At UChicago’s I-House, the custom is maintained through two “Candle Lighting Ceremonies,” which happen at the beginning and end of the academic year, according to Michael Kulma, the associate director of programs and communications at UChicago’s I-House.

“That’s where we bring together all of our fellows and all of our interns in that kind of spirit of building community,” Kulma said. “It’s an effort to bring [the] community together in the beginning of the year.”

As the number of attendees grew, the Edmonds had to rent increasingly larger spaces to accommodate them. By 1920, Edmonds became convinced that they needed a building specifically for this purpose. He searched around for suitable sponsors, all the while continuing to host students. It was by chance that, around Christmas in 1920, John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave a speech at a Sunday Supper and hosted some students at his house for a Christmas dinner.

Some time after, Rockefeller sat down with Edmonds and said, “I wish you would tell me all about your work, how it began, what you do, what your hopes and plans are.” Edmonds then told him everything,

and Rockefeller agreed to sponsor the building of the first International House in New York City. The building opened its doors in 1924 and was met with remarkable success, which led to the founding of an International House in Berkeley in 1930, followed by UChicago’s International House in 1932.

When they first opened, International Houses were intended to only serve graduate students, who were the ones “doing educational exchanges at the time,” said Shaun Carver, the CEO of the International House at the University of California, Berkeley. They didn’t even have to be affiliated with the associated university, according to a 2013 edition of the resident handbook for UChicago’s International House; they were open to any graduate or older students in the area. In fact, two of its most famous alumni, Langston Hughes and Enrico Fermi, didn’t attend UChicago.

Although International House was initially meant to be completely independent from UChicago, the University technical-

ly owned it for tax purposes, according to Denise Jorgens, the director of UChicago’s International House. However, over time, its relationship with the University shifted; it has exclusively housed UChicago undergraduates since 2016. At the time of the announcement, it was set to be that way “until the next major residence hall construction,” according to the International House website. It’s unclear if that still holds.

Programming

The programming at International House is split into two sections: the Global Voices Performing Arts & Lecture Series, open to the public, and the Graduate Commons Program, intended for graduate students only.

Global Voices is built on “internationally focused public programs,” Jorgens described. “We seek to engage, inspire, and steward a broad set of constituents to extend the reach of our programs… further[ing] the mission of International

Aerial photo of International House. courtesy of denise jorgens

...among all the bad, there’s a wealth of good in UChicago’s “worst dorm.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 10

House, while also playing a role in the greater global conversation on important issues.” They’ve had speakers like Nancy Pelosi in 2015; JD Vance in 2017; Nana Akufo-Addo in 2019; and Angela Davis in 2021, among many others.

Kulma described the process of developing Global Voices programming as looking at “what’s going on in the world” and trying to ideate around that. To get these speakers, he explained, International House often works with partner institutions on campus or across Chicago, like the Institute of Politics or the Logan Center. Kulma added that these partners sometimes actively “[help] to drive the content” and offer speakers and ideas to International House.

The Graduate Commons Program, on the other hand, plays a more auxiliary role in forming international bonds. The emphasis with this programming is on building connections among international graduate students through immersing them in shared spaces and events. These include carillon tours and group runs as well as language tables—set up so speakers of a certain language can find each other and those who wish to learn it can practice.

There are also many off-campus events. Within the Graduate Commons programming, there is a “Show Me Chicago” series, which focuses on exploring the city.

“You’re here as a student.… [It’s] great to get to know the place that you’re living in,” Kulma said.

International Worldwide Network

International Houses were established with the mission of creating international bonds. This has evolved into the International Houses Worldwide network, which Carver calls a “peer group.” This group meets quarterly to “[get] people’s thoughts on important topics of the time.” Their website counts 14 International Houses, though this does not include the International House of Japan or the University of Wollongong’s International House in Australia. Including the International House of Japan, the organization stretches across four continents.

According to Carver, the connection between all of them is very loose. “There’s no real agenda… or change that we’re driving at,” he explained. “It’s just a group of like-minded individuals.”

Carver then added that there’s “some sharing” of what each International House is doing about a particular topic. Kulma spoke separately about how the peer group is trying to do more virtual programming between the International Houses: “We’re all in different physical spaces. We can have greater collective impact by sitting there and saying, ‘Let’s do a program together.’”

According to Carver, there are still many differences between the International Houses. One difference he brought up between UChicago’s International House and UC Berkeley’s was in the application process. The residents at UC Berkeley apply and pay their room and board fees directly to International House; at UChicago, applications to live in International House are all done through Housing & Residence Life. Another difference: the International House at UC Berkeley accommodates all registered UC Berkeley students as well as visiting faculty, while UChicago’s admits only undergraduates of any year, excluding graduate students and faculty.

The process of starting an International House is so easy that it is almost surprising that more universities do not have one. Carver described it as simply as: “If you’re a university and you want to start an I-House, you can.”

“We’re working on trying to create an organization that can be the representative of I-Houses,” Carver said. This group would promote all International Houses and advertise “the benefit [they] bring to campuses.” Carver mentioned specifically that he would like to advocate for International Houses at “Harvard… [or the] University of Pennsylvania,” where they could “help bring people together.”

International Houses’ impact on the world is small but significant, according to Carver. He talked specifically about the history of the International House at UC Berkeley, detailing how it played a “big part” in ending the “very segregated” nature of Berkeley at the time of its opening in 1930. Not only was it the “first coeducational residence west of the Mississippi,” according to its history book, but it also housed students of color, and the director of UC Berkeley’s International House protested the racist policies of nearby barbers until they changed. In fact, Carver added, one of the first interracial marriages in the area was facilitated by that International House.

International House as a Dorm “We love it,” said Craig Futterman, one of International House’s resident deans, describing the dorm. He detailed, among other things, a sense of pride over the almost 10-minute commute to the dining hall and to classes.

According to Futterman, International House has many “traditional” study breaks, like one “that’s just all imaginable junk food possible.” The love for events like these is so strong that people have apparently “pitched tents” so that they could be first in line.

He also mentioned the pride residents have for their houses, noting a “little bit of competitiveness with one another and with other dorms.” The five houses that comprise International House are Booth, Breckenridge, Phoenix, Shorey, and Thompson.

Despite its relative recency in becoming a dorm exclusively for undergraduates (it began allowing undergraduates in 2010, and became exclusive to them in 2016), there was already an “existing community” by the time Futterman and his wife, Kenyatta Futterman, got there in 2016. Upon becoming the resident deans, they were immediately introduced to International House culture by the resident heads and students while also bringing a few of their own unique traditions and passions, like “just [having] good food.”

Craig Futterman spoke especially highly about the experience of “building [a] community, [and] really creating a space where people feel a lot of love, feel welcome.”

A love of International House has been constant throughout time. Graduate students who lived there in the past describe it as a remarkable experience. “There was so much going on,” Jennifer Milholland (A.M. ’97) remarked. “If you wanted to have something to do, you always had something… at your fingertips.”

Milholland recalled a “magical” gala she was invited to simply because she “took an interest in dancing and [was] fairly sociable.” She was “seated at this table of architects and… talking about the fact that they built some of the most famous buildings in the world.”

Anne Skove, who worked there from 1988 to 1992, also described many of the events International House had at the time: “Two or three movies a week, parties, festivals, everything. And then even smaller things [like]… a language table.”

One festival Skove remembered was the “Festival of Nations,” where everyone, including undergraduates, “had a booth from their country” that served as a place for people to showcase their different cultures. For example, she says, “the Belgians would have waffles and beer” for people to consume while walking around the venue.

Another festival Skove talked about was the Brazilian Carnaval, which she described as “city-wide, maybe more.” It was in February, and Skove recalled how it felt like “everyone in the world came to that. That was a huge party.”

There were less formal ways for International House residents to socialize, too. Michael Doherty (A.M. ’97) explained how “every Thursday night there would be just a crowd packed in the TV room watching [Seinfeld and Friends].” Milholland remembered how, during a presidential election, “there was a huge crowd of students watching the debates down in the main lounge area… you had people yell at the screen.”

Michael even met his wife, Natisha Doherty (A.M. ’97), while living in International House, and, according to Natisha, International House marriages were not uncommon. She described the many “I-House couples” that grew from the matchmaking hub, estimating the formation of around 10 new couples each year.

“[I-House was] kind of an intellectual incubator,” Milholland said. “I don’t know if there’s anything else at Chicago that would’ve functioned in that same way, where it would’ve been informal and cross-disciplinary.”

International House is a contradictory place to live. For much of the bad, there’s an equal good, at least in the view of its most loyal residents.

For the effort of “The Walk,” there’s beautiful architecture and views, much like any natural hike. For its lack of a nearby dining hall, it has Tiffin Café and countless other amenities, making it something of a self-contained ecosystem. This isn’t even taking into account the events hosted by International House or its history as a global institution. It seems that, among all the bad, there’s a wealth of good in UChicago’s “worst dorm.”

Editor’s note: Craig Futterman is a current member of the Maroon’s advisory board.

The Faces Behind the Face Cards

UChicago’s poker scene is alive and well.

By KACI SZIRAKI | Grey City Reporter

On quiet nights in Regenstein Library, sidelong glances, rapidly shuffling cards, and the soft clinking of poker chips cut through the typical A-level chatter. Amid scattered collections of people calculating grades and grinding out homework, some UChicago students turn their intense focus elsewhere: poker.

For almost as long as this campus has existed, so too has its poker culture. In Chicago Maroon articles dating back as far as 1926, students were voicing their interest in the game: “We don’t want to become educated next Friday.… We want to play a little poker.”

UChicago’s poker players persisted despite trouble from Ida Noyes: “[B]oys were caught playing for money and were sent little notices from the Dean’s Office,” a 1945 Maroon article documents.

On skiing trips in the ’70s, students, or at least “the truly dedicated… came prepared with marijuana, poker chips, and even a stereo.”

Poker’s legacy at UChicago is a longstanding one.

Today, players of all skill levels gather for matches held in dorm lounges, apartments, and library spaces—anywhere with a table, really. For those unfamiliar, the scale and influence of these games go mostly unnoticed. But beneath the surface of everyday student life, the poker community is an intricate social scene. From high-stakes buy-ins and intense corporate finance recruiting to casual, late-night camaraderie, it’s competitive, and maybe even a little seedy.

Poker Strategy and Betting

One factor behind the game’s complexity is the significant range between players’ skill levels. For serious players, success takes much more than just luck.

“It’s mathematically possible to, not exactly calculate your winnings, but [calculate] enough that you are able to reasonably win depending on how good of a player you are,” said H. H., an anonymous student who frequently hosts poker games on campus.

Many advanced players utilize poker theory, which uses foundational concepts from probability and game theory to improve long-term winnings. Between estimating risk-reward ratios and calculating a hand’s odds of winning, the math behind a truly successful poker player can get surprisingly technical. Countless resources, from online poker forums and guides to physical books, exist for any novice willing to put in the time.

According to H. H., knowledge of poker theory is essential for anyone trying to become an advanced player. At first, H. H. said that he “neglected to study poker theory at all.”

But, when sitting around a table of seasoned experts, simply guessing or bluffing through rounds didn’t lead to success.

“When I moved up to much higher stakes, when people legitimately studied, I couldn’t beat the mathematics,” he said.

Both third-year Aditi Loya and firstyear Daniel Ra, who view themselves as more casual players, echoed H. H.’s sentiment.

Loya described how the dynamics of poker at UChicago change when money is at stake: “I have seen people get stacked, and then their $1,000 becomes two and they double it,” Loya said. “They’re in a different place mentally [than casual players] when they make those calls. It’s a lot more rational—they know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”

For people aiming to become more serious players, H. H. finds that poker theory isn’t just an advantage, it’s a necessity.

“I think serious players are really playing for the money,” Ra explained. “They really want to make the most wins they can. They will also tend to play more aggressive buy-ins.” Though “aggressive[ness]” is in the eye of the beholder, H. H. noted that buy-ins can range from just five dollars to thousands; some of the highest-staked games that H. H. has hosted include buyins well over $2,000.

For students getting into poker, deciding how much money to risk can prove challenging. “If you’re buying in with $100,

you have to feel comfortable knowing that you may never see [that] $100 again,” Loya said. “[You can’t go] in with the mindset of, ‘Oh, my $100 is going to become $1000’ because, frankly, that’s probably not going to happen.” The likelihood of drawing a good hand is low, with the odds of drawing the best hand, a royal flush, being only 0.000154 percent.

According to H. H., because of this inherent uncertainty, many more serious players enter a game with a “bankroll” in mind, or how much money out of a players’ bank account that they are willing to risk during a game. “Usually [it’s] around maybe 20 to 30 times the amount of a… buy-in.”

As a competitive player, the most H. H. has ever won in one night is $4,900, an amount he’s reinvested back into his bankroll.

Unofficial Official Outlets

There are other, more structured ways that students can engage with poker at UChicago, too. Vincent Xu (A.B. ’25), who was president of the University of Chicago Undergraduate Poker Club, explained that his group provides members the opportunity to play in tournaments and attend seminars about poker strategy. Despite the group having an email list of around 80 students, it’s not officially recognized as an RSO. According to Xu, the University denied the club official status during the 2023–24 academic school year.

“I framed our poker club as an educational system, and I think that has been what it is,” Xu said. “But the school says it was too similar to quant[itative finance] recruiting.”

That comparison isn’t without merit: the logic and strategical methods behind poker are similar to those applied to quantitative finance, and students involved in one community are often drawn to the other. Many finance companies host tournaments of their own as a means of recruiting talent. Last April, for example, the Chicago Trading Company held its second annual poker tournament for UChicago students from programs including the Financial Math Program and the data science department. The poker club also often invites quantitative traders and

other industry professionals to watch its tournaments.

“[We] have professional quant traders come in and talk about their experience and then chop it up with people at the table,” Xu said. “A lot of these guys are interested in poker.”

Lacking official RSO funding and status hasn’t stopped the club from operating. According to Xu, his poker club functions under Maroon Capital, UChicago’s leading quantitative finance RSO, which helps organize meetings and more formal tournaments.

“Tournaments have a more serious air but also have more sense of community to them [than cash games],” Xu said. “I think cash games are… for most people, a nice way to socialize and just talk about the game.”

Unlike casual games with loose rules for buying in and betting, poker tournaments follow an elimination format. Players start with a certain amount of chips, then lose or gain chips over time until only one winner remains. For club members, these tournaments provide a competitive way to engage with poker and win without a significant fear of losing money.

“I think a big tournament is somewhat more exciting, mainly because you can’t come back,” Xu said.

Behind the Velvet Curtain

Home games, tournaments, player dynamics, and theory are in the spotlight of poker at UChicago. If you look past the faces huddled together at those little tables in Regenstein, you might find that a lot more goes on behind the scenes.

Running a poker club involves a lot more than just sending out mailing lists, according to Xu. “Tournaments are very hard to run,” Xu said. “It sucks. I would end a day and just be exhausted.” Xu added that tournaments can last upwards of eight hours and require meticulous planning; securing funding, finding a suitable venue, reaching out to potential sponsors, and managing blinds or mandatory bets players must contribute before any cards are dealt are all part of Xu’s role as club

Some see poker as a social activity at its core.

CONTINUED FROM PG. 12

president.

Even home games that involve money take a lot of work to organize. Students who choose to host home games among their peers need to keep track of, manage, and facilitate the transfer of earnings between players. “I’d say I manage $8,000 a night,” H. H said.

H. H. typically hosts two to three games per week and online games during the weekdays. He hosts mid- to highstakes games starting at the $100 to $500 buy-in range for 25 to 40 players. However, moving those large sums of money so frequently has become difficult for him. “When it’s, say, [a] $200 minimum buy-in, it becomes a little dicey because the IRS starts questioning, ‘Why are you moving so much money?’ [and] ‘Why is it going in and out so much?’”

In Illinois, the legality of cash games falls under a gray area. According to the 2025 Gambling Laws and Regulations in Illinois, gambling is generally prohibited non-commercially. However, the law does not explicitly mention games held among friends. Though enforcement against matches that are not officially recognized typically only happens when organizers take a rake—a fee taken from each participating player—high-stakes games can draw scrutiny.

Despite the challenges, H. H. continues to host games that last late into the night. For him, hosting acts as a social outlet and way to stay involved without always put-

ting money at risk. “I like talking to people, people like talking to me,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation. They get to play, and I get to talk to people and watch.”

Poker at Low Stakes

In an intense environment like UChicago, where people spend hours studying poker theory and bet hundreds of dollars per game, risk can seem inescapable. According to Ra, however, not all players are in it for the money. Some see poker as a social activity at its core.

For Ra, the competition part of the game matters far less than the connections he has made through it. “I really play mostly as a social activity with the group of friends that I have,” he said. “I play with the same group of people. We are all casual players.”

Loya also enjoys the casual aspect of poker, adding that she has even made some friends through the game. She described her experience discovering her current poker group as very communal and welcoming. “I think [my] group kind of formed very organically, and then we were very committed to keeping it going as a social thing.”

However, Loya also cautioned new players to pay attention to the people they play with and the money they choose to put at risk. “[If you’re new,] don’t go into a new environment with a bunch of sharks. Go into a chill environment with your friends, where it’s 10 bucks and you learn something.”

Women at the Table

As diversified as the poker community is in skill level, the ratio of male to female players reflects a distinct gender gap. Many students agree that men make up the vast majority of poker players at UChicago, both in club tournaments and in informal home games.

For Loya, the background of many poker players at UChicago reflects a preexisting female underrepresentation. “I think it’s uneven because quant is mostly male dominated, and that’s how most of these guys got introduced to poker,” she said. Quantitative finance—and STEM-related fields in general—reflect a female minority, with women making up just 26 percent of the U.S. quantitative finance workforce.

Xu estimated that only around 10 percent of the participants in his tournaments were women.

“It’s just very hard for girls to be interested in an event where it’s mostly males,” Xu said. “Everyone sticks with communities that they’re similar to, and this one just happened to start out as male-dominated.”

But some players are trying to create a more inclusive community. Third-year Miranda Thomson, a former member of the UChicago Poker Club, described her plans to start a women’s poker club next fall.

Thomson, who was the winner of one of the UChicago Poker Club tournaments, felt very aware of the tournament’s lack of gender diversity. “A lot of the time, it’s easy

to stereotype a female at the poker table,” she said. “I tried to just take advantage of that and surprise people [by] being aggressive.”

When the club officially starts meeting this fall, Thomson plans to start beginner lessons on poker theory and strategies. She hopes that her club, as a female-exclusive space, will help women feel more confident in picking up and playing the game in the future.

Even in unofficial spaces, players are striving to introduce more women to poker. “I’ve been trying on my own to get a female poker group going, and I hope to have more games in the future,” Loya said. Currently, only two of the friends she plays poker with are women, though she hopes to build a larger group over time.

Poker at UChicago may still reflect a female minority, but many, like Loya and Thomson, are actively working to reshape the culture and lay the groundwork for a more inclusive future.

Prospective students touring the school will not hear about the many home games hosted in dorm lounges and apartments; students looking up official RSOs will not even find poker clubs on the list. But for those with a keen eye or a knack for lingering around Regenstein late into the night, it’s hard not to notice that soft clinking of chips. Turn your attention to the source of the noise, and you might even get to catch a glimpse of the faces behind the face cards.

Is UChicago Really the “Last Bastion” of Reading?

Last fall, the Atlantic published an article claiming that elite college students are unable to read full books. The article describes UChicago as the “last bastion of people who do read things,” but how true is that statement really?

By LEAH TABAKH | Grey City Reporter

Adrian Johns, the Allan Grant Maclear Distinguished Service Professor of History, has taught history at the University of Chicago for over 20 years. Last fall, he was approached by a journalist from the Atlantic who, he explained, wanted to speak with him about how “college students don’t read anymore.” Johns seemed like a natural choice for such a topic—just the previous year, he had published The

Science of Reading: Information, Meaning, and Mind in Modern America, a book he described as exploring “what scientifically happens to people when they come across the written word.”

In the published article by Rose Horowitch, Johns was quoted describing

UChicago as “the last bastion” of reading. According to Johns, his encounter with Horowitch was just a brief phone call. “She said that students tend not to read books anymore, and I just had a[n] immediate reaction and thought, ‘As far

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“What I’ve noticed here is an excitement for reading, for discovery.…

I didn’t know it was that exceptional until I read the Atlantic piece.”

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as I know, the students I deal with read books… as much as you’d expect them to,’” he told the Maroon. “And so I ended up getting quoted as, I think she calls me, the ‘lone dissenter.’”

The exact quote from the Atlantic piece frames UChicago students as a foil to other elite college students. “Over and over, the professors I spoke with painted a grim picture of young people’s reading habits,” Horowitch wrote. “The historian Adrian Johns was one dissenter, but allowed, ‘My experience is a bit unusual because the University of Chicago is, like, the last bastion of people who do read things.’”

The quote—which Johns hadn’t even expected to be included in the article— drew notice both within and beyond the University community. “It was a weird thing that I got so much attention for an odd, off-the-cuff, one-line thing,” he said. “[But it] does go against the [current] conventional wisdom, which is that… we all suffer from distracted attention. And that, coupled with the eternally predicted end of the book, means that we infer that students don’t read books anymore.”

Johns added that he stands by what he said, even if it was off-the-cuff.

“It’s not that I have data that show that students at the University of Chicago actually read whole books. It’s just that my sense, from talking to them, is that they do,” Johns said. “I think… the same is true on the other side, for people who think that students don’t read books at all.… The real problem is not so much that students are not reading books, it’s [that] maybe the professors are not assigning books.”

At the University of Chicago, professors in the humanities core often assign full books rather than excerpts. The humanities sequence—taken by all firstyear students—includes courses such as Philosophical Perspectives and Human Being and Citizen. Based on a review of syllabi from these classes, full books are assigned in the majority of cases, with some courses in these sequences assigning them for nearly all quarters and sections, depending on the instructor.

For example, in the fall quarter of the

2024–25 school year in Human Being and Citizen, one section read The Epic of Gilgamesh in its entirety, most of the Iliad and Genesis, all of Antigone, and Plato’s Apology and Crito. Other sections were assigned a similar workload, with slight variations in which texts were read in full.

At UChicago, as at many other elite universities, professors are assigning complete works.

Harvard students are assigned “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in its entirety in English literature, history, political science, and other humanities-based courses. For Yale students, Plato’s Republic is a popular title in philosophy courses. At both Columbia and Princeton, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington is assigned in many political science and history classes.

But the question remains: Are students actually reading them?

The Never-Ending End of

Reading

“The luxury of teaching at UChicago, especially with creative writing, is that you recommend an author and students immediately read it, and the students end up being shaped by them,” said Vu Tran, the director of undergraduate studies in the program in creative writing. “You feel like your suggestions are of consequence. What I’ve noticed here is an excitement for reading, for discovery.… I didn’t know it was that exceptional until I read the Atlantic piece.”

According to Johns, this debate over how much students actually read is ageold; teachers have long lamented their students’ lack of reading, and students have been cutting corners for centuries.

“The part of [the debate] that I guess I’m most skeptical about is this notion that there was once a golden age where students read everything,” Johns said. He pointed out that in the 17th century, Degory Wheare, Oxford’s first Camden Professor of Ancient History, assigned to his students The method and order of reading both civil and ecclesiastical histories, a book he wrote that Johns described as teaching students how to summarize, skim, and cut corners when reading for

schoolwork.

“It’s not that, back in the 17th century, all these students were diligently reading all the way through Polybius or something,” he explained. “They were playing the game.”

Even at UChicago, these concerns have been persistent. One Maroon article published in 1897 described how students in Chicago schools, particularly younger children, were not reading enough. Another op-ed, written by a professor in 1925, claimed that students didn’t read enough “serious” books.

In 1937, the Maroon published an op-ed where the author gives examples of students avoiding readings for class. “The system… permits students who are adept at cramming to breeze through their academic work without getting much of lasting value,” the article reads. “Take the example of a Political Science student we know…. In his first year here he… took things fairly easy, doing only about onefifth of the ‘indispensable’ reading in Soc and one-third in the Humanities.”

And on October 12, 1982, an article was published about a lecture given by former Dean of the College Wayne Booth, where he described a “decline in quality of reading of educated people.”

To Skim or Not to Skim:

The Student Perspective

The Maroon spoke with 12 students sitting on the quad last spring. Some were chatting with their friends, others were working on their laptops, and a few were even—believe it or not—reading books.

One of the main claims in the Atlantic piece is that students not only don’t read entire books, but they don’t know how to read entire books on a shortened timeframe for class because they have never been required to before college.

When asked whether or not they had read full books in high school, all 12 students said yes; 11 even said they had read “many.” Among the titles they remembered reading, works like Fahrenheit 451, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, Jane Eyre, 1984, Huckleberry Finn, and the Odyssey were mentioned by 10 of the students.

Second-year Julia Volpp pushed back on the idea that undergraduates don’t know how to handle entire books. “In high school, I definitely read full books, usually at a slower pace,” she said. “But those skills are still transferable. Professors here often narrow down the scope of readings for us by assigning chapters instead of full books, but I don’t think that means students are becoming dumber— it’s just a more realistic adjustment to shorter quarters and heavier workloads.”

All 12 students said they had been assigned an entire book in at least one of their classes during their time in the College. Though some students had read fewer, or more, depending on their major, all had read at least one entire book for an assignment. Nine students were currently reading an entire book for class, and six cited core classes like their hum and sosc sequences as the last time they had been assigned an entire book.

When students were asked to name their favorite books, many struggled to choose just one, but, contrary to the fears expressed in the Atlantic article, classic names like Jane Austen and Agatha Christie weren’t missing.

Volpp explained that, due to the amount of reading she is assigned, the amount of reading she does for fun has wavered. “There’s so much reading that I need to do for school that… I do all my leisure reading during breaks now.”

When asked whether or not they read for fun, most students said that they did, but that they have less time to do so with the intense workload at UChicago, echoing Volpp’s experience. Fourth-year Nina Maxin added that she reads for fun, but “[I don’t] do it as often as I would like. I feel like I struggle with decisiveness and choosing and finding a book that I feel like I’ll really stick with.”

Other students shared that they felt like the amount of reading they are assigned in their classes makes them less eager to read for pleasure.

Tran explained that he had the same experience in college. “When I was in college, I stopped reading for leisure because I had so much to read first for school, and,

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Perhaps the better question, then, isn’t whether UChicago is the last bastion of reading but

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even in the summer, reading would feel like I was back at school.”

Tran’s story reflects a broader, long-standing pattern. Johns noted that, in the 1990s, faculty were already observing students turning away from longer works, a trend that sparked debate among his colleagues. A colleague “told me then that she’d been dismayed to find that her undergraduate students prefer poetry because, as they put it, ‘it’s shorter.’”

The Legend of the Last Bastion

According to data shared with the Maroon by the University, during the 2024 fiscal year, 8.1 million electronic articles and 650,253 electronic books were checked out from the Joseph Regenstein Library—UChicago’s largest collection of books. In terms of physical books, the volumes were circulated to 9,491 unique individuals, though not all of those indi-

whether that “last bastion” even exists.

viduals may be affiliated with the University, as the library is open to the public.

The Maroon also reviewed data regarding the Reg Reads collection, a “collection of recently published popular fiction and non-fiction” at the library designed for leisurely reading. Launched in 2022, the Reg Reads collection features more than 1,100 books intended for leisure reading. As of May 12, 2025, items from the collection have been checked out 3,675 times. Of these, 2,478 checkouts were by UChicago students, with 48 percent by undergraduates. The most checked out Reg Reads title is Babel by R.F. Kuang, a fantasy novel that reached first place on the New York Times bestseller list.

The checkout data seems to suggest that UChicago students still make time for books. Whether that makes the University the “last bastion” of reading—or just one of many—is less clear.

For Johns, though, there is something special about UChicago, even beyond the hard numbers, that attracts—or creates— readers. “When I go into classrooms here… [there is] this atmosphere where pretty much everybody in the classroom has read at least enough of the assignment that they’re able to comment critically, and they will go back and forth with each other and argue,” he said. “I don’t get the sense that it’s particularly weakened over the years… [even though] the College[’s] size has gone up substantially in that period.”

Tran echoed Johns, emphasizing that what makes UChicago distinctive is its culture. “People here don’t pursue what they pursue just for professional reasons, at least in the humanities—they pursue it for its own sake,” Tran said. “When you have that level of enthusiasm and curiosity about a subject, it can create an atmosphere where you have a feeling

like that—[that] this is the ‘last bastion of reading.’ So even if it’s not empirically true… I think the feeling is real.”

Perhaps the better question, then, isn’t whether UChicago is the last bastion of reading but whether that “last bastion” even exists. “Change is inevitable,” Volpp said. “Expecting students to read a sheer volume of words just because that used to be the norm isn’t the best way to measure the strength of a school.”

People have always worried that students weren’t reading enough, but students like Volpp continue to read Plato and Austen alongside their Kuang. What matters, she suggested, is not protecting a so-called golden age of reading that existed more in nostalgia than in truth.

“To me, a bastion is a silly thing,” Volpp said. “It’s more important to ask whether we’re moving in the right direction than to compare the present to an idealized past.”

‘The Whole Thing Came to a Halt’: Four UChicago Researchers Reflect on the Impacts of Federal Grant Terminations

The Maroon interviewed four researchers affected by the millions of dollars in research grants that were terminated at UChicago last spring as the Trump administration cut funding for universities nationwide.

By CELESTE ALCALAY | Grey City Editor and GABRIEL KRAEMER | Head News Editor

Last spring, the Trump administration made sweeping cuts to federal research funding for universities nationwide.

Now, some researchers have initiated lawsuits against the federal government, arguing that the terminations were illegal. Others are brainstorming ways to move forward by seeking alternative sources of funding, scaling back, or discontinuing projects altogether.

According to the University, approximately 65 grants have been terminated since January.

This summer, the Maroon asked four researchers who lost funding how the cuts have affected them, their projects, and the populations that they were studying—and what their plans are for moving forward in the aftermath.

This piece is part of an ongoing project to document the extent and impact of the grant terminations at the University. Future reporting will examine the monetary losses to the University and demonstrate the effects of the cuts on a wide range of research areas.

Researcher: Chris Blattman

Grant title: How is organized crime organized? Understanding the political economy, industrial organization, and recruitment into organized crime in Colombia

Chris Blattman, a professor of public policy who studies global conflict, was conducting a study on reducing gang recruitment and organized crime in Medellín, Colombia.

More than $2 million in funding to continue and expand that work was supposed to arrive in February and last for

three years but never came.

Medellín might be familiar to those who have heard of infamous drug kingpin and founder of the Medellín Cartel, Pablo Escobar. In the decades since the 1980s, when Escobar was growing the international drug trade, the operation has become more domestically concentrated, Blattman explained.

Blattman and his research team, partly based in Colombia, have spent years conducting interviews and developing relationships to “map out the economics and politics” of a network of roughly 400 local drug gangs, he said.

In addition to that qualitative work, researchers piloted a “new experimental counter-intervention program” to curb the recruitment of young boys into the gangs, by longitudinally tracking 10,000 13-year-old boys living in the city’s neighborhoods.

After the cuts, all of that work is continuing “at a much reduced scale and intensity,” Blattman said.

The researchers also had a new idea to tackle extortion, where local gangs provide security in a neighborhood and force stores and households to pay for it.

Blattman and his team wanted the local police to set up “zero extortion zones.” If gangs didn’t respect those guidelines, they would add police presence, without making arrests, in areas where the gangs conduct drug deals.

The hope was that the setup would act as a deterrent, as drug lords would lose more money from unmade drug deals than they had gained from extortion, Blattman said.

The experiment is now entirely on hold.

“[The grant] was going to support

us to work with the government to see whether [the idea] works,” he said. “Because nobody has answers to extortion.”

Blattman’s grant was cancelled, along with dozens of others, when the Trump administration gutted the Department of Defense’s Minerva Research Initiative (MRI). The flagship program began in 2008 and had been funding social science research on misinformation, violent extremism, and more until its website went dark last spring.

Blattman was relying on the grant to fund his project for the next few years. No one was fired in the short term, but he and his research team had to “scale down [on] staff and on our ambitions and didn’t get to grow the projects we wanted to start,” he said.

“We can keep the lights on for a year, but I would say we’re not in a position to keep going.”

Still, Blattman remains hopeful for the future.

“The U.S. government cares about organized crime in Latin America, because every single thing that they get upset about—from immigration to fentanyl deaths to the fact our avocados cost so much because they’re all controlled by Mexican cartels—it just affects every facet of everyday life.”

“So, there’s going to be money to go and try to do things intelligently, but there’s just not right now,” he said.

Researcher: Robert Pape

Grant title: Understanding the impact of domestic extremist organizations narratives of revolutionary patriotism on U.S. military audiences

Robert Pape, a professor of political science specializing in international security affairs, had roughly $200,000 of a $1 million grant left to spend.

Researchers were preparing to conduct “the most extensive survey ever done on support for political violence among U.S. military veterans,” Pape said.

Then, in March, “the whole thing came to a halt.”

Like Blattman, Pape, a professor of political science specializing in international security affairs, was receiving funding through the MRI.

Pape was inspired to study the topic due to the “prominent role” that veterans have played in political violence, including the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020.

Roughly 20 percent, or 1 in 5, of the defendants who have been prosecuted for January 6 were U.S. military veterans.

“It’s double the statistical weight you would be expecting if you just looked more narrowly at their demographics,” he said.

Pape and his research team had been preparing since January 2023 to launch the heart of the project—the survey—before the cancellation.

Pape said that in many studies like his, research builds. If a study is cancelled near its end date, it can mean that the preliminary work is wasted.

“You can’t say, ‘Oh, well, they already produced 90 percent of the value of the project,’” he said. “The problem is, 90 percent of the value of the project’s been denied by taking away the critical last phase.”

Characteristics of the veteran population, Pape said, have been largely unstudied. A typical structure for a research project for which little is known about the target demographic involves “a lot of preliminary and mid-level work,” like collecting information on the popu-

“We can keep the lights on for a year, but I would say we’re not in a position to keep going.”

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lation and developing survey methodology, “to get the real value out of the later parts of the project.”

The findings were beginning to show that PTSD and other related issues that prevent veterans from reintegrating into society after overseas deployments “were possibly some of the root issues” behind political violence.

“This is really something that will come at a potentially direct harm to our veteran community,” he said. “That’s the real sort of tragedy about stopping this research.”

A multiyear grant and an integrated research project have detailed expectations about how to make the findings public and submit to journals, which Pape said is now “all thrown up in the air.”

Furthermore, cancellations of studies conducted on a largely understudied population have practical implications, Pape explained. In his case, researchers were laying the groundwork for policies that could have improved the quality of life for veterans in the U.S.

Pape said that there have been no layoffs among his researchers. “This was essentially an all-hands-on-deck crisis, and I think we’ve weathered it really quite well,” he said, explaining that they found outside and private funding sources.

“But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to be able to instantly go back to that ambitious final stage of the research program here that we had,” Pape continued. “Maybe we can in the future.”

Researcher: Olivia Lutz

Grant title: Spatiotemporal models of neural coding in the vestibular periphery

Olivia Lutz, a sixth-year computational neuroscience Ph.D. candidate, studies the vestibular system—the inner-ear mechanisms that control our sense of balance.

Her work aimed to use data from previous experimental studies to put together models that could help researchers understand how to treat vertigo and

vestibular migraines.

Like many other Ph.D. students, Lutz applied for a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through its Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31) program in the second year of her degree. F31 grants support Ph.D. candidates working on health-related research. Lutz lost roughly $16,000 of a $48,974 grant.

The NIH offered two application tracks for F31 grants: the standard track and the diversity track, which is intended for candidates from groups underrepresented in health research fields.

“Once you’re in that [diversity] pool, the scoring and everything is the same for both grants,” Lutz said. “That’s where there’s a lot of confusion—[people] assume that grants that are funded through the diversity mechanism are the ‘diversity hire’ of grants.” In fact, she said, the proposal scoring process is identical.

On May 23, the NIH terminated Lutz’s grant, along with all other grants awarded through the diversity track. “The [termination] letter was so aggressive, and it assumed that my research was DEI-focused, and had this, like, secret DEI agenda,” she said.

The letter from the NIH, which Lutz provided to the Maroon, associates her grant with “so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion studies” that it says “are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics.”

Research programs based on “amorphous equity objectives,” the letter reads, “are antithetical to the scientific inquiry” and “ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness.”

Though Lutz could apply again for the same grant via the standard track, the timing of the termination, which comes the year before she will graduate, makes that nearly impossible.

“Best case scenario, if I applied, it would still be… eight months until the funding would start,” she said. “I’m planning on defending in a year, and you need to propose having funding for a minimum of two years.”

Other options, like funding from private foundations, are also infeasible given her timing.

Lutz herself will be mostly unaffected—the Department of Neurobiology is supporting her through the rest of her program and, because the F31 grants cover student costs rather than research costs, the budget for the project itself remains the same. But those student costs will ultimately fall on and “put more stress” on the department and her lab, Lutz said.

Researcher: Niall Atkinson

Grant title: Florence illuminated: Visualizing the history of art, architecture, and society

Niall Atkinson, an associate professor of art history and Romance languages and literatures, has been building a demographic map of Florence, Italy in 1427, the year of its first tax census.

Atkinson had received just $22,000 before the cuts and lost most of his grant, totaling roughly $350,000.

“It’s the first modern tax census in European history—the first time that citizens of a city were required to file their own tax form and to inform the government of all of their tax credits and liabilities, all their credits and debts and things like that,” Atkinson told the Maroon. The data allows a comprehensive “snapshot of the city” at a particularly important moment in Florentine history.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded Atkinson and four other Florentine history researchers across multiple institutions a grant for, as he described it, “an experiment in amalgamating digital humanities projects.”

“We came together with five separate projects, which had different agendas, different datasets, different research questions, but they’re all about Florence at a particular time,” he explained.

In digital humanities research, many projects have to be “built from the ground up,” Atkinson said. “Often these websites that are the result of these

kinds of projects end up being these dead-end places that don’t help you get anywhere else.”

He and his team wanted to build a digital model that would integrate the research into a “larger, multiform project that was online-based and was accessible to the public.”

Integrating the five researchers’ work would both connect closely related areas of Florentine history scholarship and allow the resulting resource to grow even after the project ends, he said.

The NEH—the staff of which has been reduced by more than 60 percent under the Trump administration—terminated nearly all of its grants to researchers at the University on April 3, including the one for Atkinson’s project.

The researchers can no longer pay their project manager, fund student assistants, or meet in person in Florence, Atkinson said.

“It’s kind of heartbreaking because these people had committed the next two years of their lives to this,” he said. “Now they’re scrambling to try and fill that funding gap in other ways, which means they have less and less time to devote to this project.”

The Division of Arts & Humanities has been able to fill in for some of the project’s funding—allowing Atkinson to go on a short research trip to Italy and covering some other critical expenses— but does not intend to fully substitute the award.

Other possible funding sources have been scarce. The group hopes to apply for a European research grant via a partner in Florence, but, beyond that, Atkinson said they had “basically exhausted” their options before they received the NEH award.

Reflecting on the cuts

The Trump administration has offered several justifications for its sweeping research funding cuts, arguing that terminations by the Department of Government Efficiency reduce wasteful spending bloat; that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)–focused research

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“That kind of collaboration over long periods of time across institutions is... in jeopardy in ways that the University of Chicago itself... cannot fund.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 17

is harmful and that existing grants were “lining grantees’ pocketbooks” rather than benefiting Americans. The administration has also used the cuts as leverage in its broader targeting of elite universities.

In Blattman’s view, the MRI was an easy line to cut because “there’s no big political constituency for university researchers” who could protest or fight back effectively.

The grant was terminated “in a moment when everyone’s looking to either make real or symbolic cuts with abroad assistance,” he said, referring to the administration’s rollback of federal international development programs.

Blattman said that the MRI had always received “bipartisan support.” The MRI has been commended by presidents on both sides of the aisle and was started by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates under the Bush administration.

Pape, too, emphasized the nonpartisanship of his project. “The University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats is probably the most bipartisan center in the entire country that studies political violence,” he said.

Lutz called her grant cancellation “ironic,” noting that the NIH under health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sought to reduce research involving live animals. Her project involved no living subjects and was unrelated to DEI efforts, she said. “I’m using pure computation… My work would have been perfect for this, and they would have loved it, but they didn’t even read it. It’s just super frustrating.”

What comes next?

Institutional support amid university financial strain

In the immediate aftermath of the terminations, some researchers were left scrambling to adapt to the sudden funding cuts, unsure of what it would mean for their staff and the work itself.

For Pape, the cancellation quickly became a “24/7 problem,” he said. “Disbelief is the very first thing. Then there’s the shock of what it could mean for peo -

ple’s immediate livelihoods. Then there’s the scramble to try to find additional types of research projects that could be put together in relatively short periods of time.”

In some cases, the University provided support in the short term, including by covering student researcher awards like Lutz’s. But some researchers are less optimistic that it can fight the federal actions or that it has the resources to bring back the lost research.

The University was already under financial strain before the federal funding cuts. In fiscal year 2024, its budget deficit hit $288 million against a $3.2 billion operating budget.

In August, the University announced $100 million in budget cuts to improve its financial situation amid new federal policies targeting higher education.

Provost Katherine Baicker said in a letter explaining the budget cuts that plans to close the deficit were complicated by “increasing external financial pressures,” citing “potential federal policy changes that could lead to fewer international students, reduced grant support, reduced Medicaid coverage, increased capital costs, and more.”

“The University is not exactly in a financial position to support people who have lost grants,” Blattman said.

Atkinson said he thought that the Division of the Arts & Humanities’s (AHD) capacity to support grantees was “all caught up in” efforts to restructure the AHD and reduce its costs. He was pessimistic about any possible recourse beyond legal action—which the University, as he sees it, has been conspicuously hesitant about.

“An appeal that goes to the NEH is probably not going to go anywhere, since there’s practically no one working there anymore. I think only a lawsuit in a court would actually make them respond,” he said. “But it’s a little bit dispiriting when you really don’t know if the University is [pursuing] the fight legally for the research agenda.”

“Unfortunately, there was no willingness to try to legislate this… that I’m aware of,” Blattman said. “I think this

University has a strategy to keep our heads down and try not to attract attention.”

This spring, University President Paul Alivisatos did not join peer institutions in signing an American Association of College and Universities letter publicly denouncing the initial flurry of federal policy changes targeting higher education, and some faculty members criticized the University’s relatively quiet response. In justifying its restraint, the University has often cited its commitment to institutional neutrality.

That strategy has its advantages, according to Blattman. “They’ve been doing very well compared to others,” he said, referencing how Trump has singled out presidents at universities such as MIT, Harvard, and Columbia. Looking forward, the researchers say that cuts will slow innovation and important progress in their fields.

Atkinson said his project was a new kind of opportunity for humanities research—one he worries now may be lost.

“This is the biggest grant I’d ever won—$350,000 is a lot for a humanities-based project,” he said. “The grant is helping you establish a whole team effort, which is kind of a novel thing for humanities research.… That kind of collaboration over long periods of time across institutions is really in jeopardy in ways that the University of Chicago itself, in the humanities, cannot fund.”

“It’s going to mean that there’s just not the same kind of innovation tackling problems like poverty and violence,” Blattman said. Still, he is optimistic in the long run and will find other routes forward.

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “[But you] get back up the next morning, and you do the work, and you find another way to keep it going.”

Siebel Scholars Class of 2026

The Siebel Scholars program was founded in 2000 to recognize the most talented graduate students in business, computer science, and bioengineering. Each year, over 80 outstanding graduate students are selected as Siebel Scholars based on academic excellence and leadership and join an active, lifelong community among an ever-growing group of leaders. We are pleased to recognize this year’s Siebel Scholars.

BIOENGINEERING

JOHNS

Akshaya

BUSINESS

COMPUTER SCIENCE

CARNEGIE

TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Leon M. Kornfeld Kanav Mittal

Ronit Nagarapu Alp Eren Ozdarendeli

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

OF COMPUTER SCIENCE Hilman Hanivan

ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE

Jane Castleman

Sayash Kapoor Abhishek Panigrahi

Han Jie (Austin) Wang

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

OF ENGINEERING Luciano Gonzalez Georgios Mikos

Irawadee (Ira) Thawornbut

Suzannah Wistreich

Zhenyu Zhang

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Jivrajani

VIEWPOINTS College Writing Is Fundamental to Deep Learning

Academic writing still matters despite growing incentives to use AI.

By CAMILLE CYPHER

The 2024–25 school year has demonstrated an increase in the use of AI, particularly in school settings. In some departments, professors and administrators are shifting from anti-AI to AI-disclosure policies included in their syllabi. OpenAI is partnering with the California State University (CalState) system to provide an education-specific model for over 500,000 students, faculty, and administrators across 23 campuses. Meanwhile, other universities and many creative disciplines are struggling to understand the ethical and practical implications of AI usage in academics.

In short, universities like UChicago are having an existential crisis about how to balance one of their core tenets—learning for learning’s sake—with “preparing” students for an AI-driven future. This is a future that could very well make higher education a less economically advantageous decision if the work done in high-paying jobs could be accomplished with AI. In the face of this dilemma, UChicago and many other institutions of higher education are leaving AI policy up to individual departments and professors, refusing to set concrete guidelines. Without clear policies or moral stances, and with no true way to detect AI usage in the classroom, students are left to decide for themselves how and when to use AI. But despite growing incentives to utilize large language models (LLMs), both incoming and returning UChicago students must resist efficiency in favor of inefficient but critical college writing that drives inquiry and is the

foundation for a life of the mind.

There are many incentives to utilize artificial intelligence in everything from essay-writing to RSO event planning thanks to insufficient AI policies, failure from professors to detect AI, and weakening arguments that AI produces mediocre slop—though it often does. Students are left entirely to their own devices to decide how they will interact with AI. Simultaneously, with AI checkers consistently delivering both false positives and false negatives, students risk little retribution from the University for using AI. Though punishments for plagiarism can go all the way up to expulsion, and many teachers are, according to multiple students, falsely overreporting cheating, there is still almost no reliable way to detect the use of AI.

Additionally, at a school like UChicago, where students learn at a breakneck pace, RSOs are a career necessity, and efficiency is the mindset of an economics-dominated campus, students might fear falling behind as they see their peers generate A-minus-level papers in seconds. AI poses an easy off-ramp for overexerted students and for incoming freshmen who must quickly adapt to UChicago’s academic rigor. And given that only 6 percent of students from the class of 2024 planned to enter the arts upon graduation, many at UChicago have reason to believe they’ll never have to write again. But even for those outside of the humanities, bypassing college essay writing sidesteps fundamental critical thinking and demonstrates a worrisome shift in values on a greater academic level. Writing is a mode of deep

learning across all disciplines. Just as with p-sets or presentations, writing prepares students for in-class discussions, helps them develop and articulate their thoughts, and forces them to complete (at least segments of) assigned readings. Offloading writing to LLMs simultaneously offloads the critical thinking that allows us to adapt our thesis given new evidence and analyze counterarguments as they arise. After spending three years at UChicago and writing over 80 essays and discussion posts—assignments ranging from 100 to 10,000 words—I know I’m most engaged with and knowledgeable of texts when I am forced to complete writing assignments about them.

And yes, at a school like UChicago, where we memorize one another’s GPAs and drop classes that will hurt our 4.0s, it can be daunting to see others glide through essays with just a few prompts. But as students acquire higher grades with less effort, they also risk losing the pride of making progress over a quarter or submitting that last assignment during finals week.

Even if our hard work falls short of our expectations, college is the only time we’re allowed and supposed to make mistakes. Some teachers now even suggest they don’t want perfect essays, noting that the introduction of LLMs is liberating as it allows students to break away from the 5-paragraph essay in favor of more experimental, analytical work. In other classes, where some teachers are returning to the blue book, AI writing is a crutch that quickly crumbles when professors decide to crack down on AI usage.

One still might argue that spending less time writing allows students to focus on the things they really care about, like extracurriculars or courses in their major. Immediately, one might ask, “Why did you come to UChicago, known for its Core Curriculum, if only to breeze through hum and sosc?” At a school that touts learning for learning’s sake and promotes dining hall conversations debating The Second Sex, offloading slow, intentional learning is not just a question of time but of values and educational aims. Which leads to a secondary question: Would we actually dedicate our time to “more important” matters? This summer, while painting with watercolors in a park with a friend, a woman stopped to comment on our paintings. In the conversation that followed, we learned that the woman worked at OpenAI, investigating

how students can utilize the service in their studies. When I told her about my class in which all students were tasked with using an LLM for homework, resulting in midterm and final exam grades so poor that the entire class received a letter from the program’s dean, she asked if those students were at least able to spend more time in their areas of interest. When I told her that this course was a public policy major requirement, she paused, and I felt I had overstepped. We moved on to the next topic.

So, while some individuals may use this extra time to pursue their passions or dive deeper into their majors, studies suggest that students at some elite schools may just be spending more time on preprofessional endeavors and extracurriculars. In 1961, full-time students spent about 24 hours per

sofia cavallone.

“Without concrete guidelines or moral standings, students are faced with the choice of how and when to use AI alone.”

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week on homework, according to a study by two economists. At the time of the study’s 2010 publication, that number was around 10–15. While less time spent on homework sounds positive to some, when students use that time not toward learning but career planning, it feeds into a greater shift in university culture from academia to pre-professionalism.

Of course, colleges are simply responding to an increasingly competitive job market, forced to emphasize job acquisition over learning broadly and deeply. Globally, just like CalState, colleges are partnering with tech giants and spending more money on career advancement. Here at UChicago, the Division of the Arts & Humanities has recently revealed that it plans to restructure its 15 departments into eight. In the face

of these larger decisions, students must deliberately choose to value the expansive and deep learning that has long characterized UChicago. When students choose efficiency and offload the often most laborious but also most critical and analytical tool universities provide—the college essay—they risk buying into a complete shift in values.

Coincidentally, despite this threat of consolidation, UChicago is simultaneously implementing a new credit-bearing writing course to the Core. Most of UChicago’s peer institutions have credit-bearing writing courses, said Executive Director of the Writing Program Abigail Reardon. “[UChicago] students deserve more time to develop fundamental writing skills and think about how writing in general is relevant for all disciplinary pur-

suits,” she said. The move to establish this course—Writing 101: Inquiry, Conversation, Argument (ICA)—is both meant to improve students’ writing capabilities and to “signal, as part of the College’s commitment to the Core, the important role that writing plays in thought discovery, in contributing to intellectual conversations, and in developing one’s voice.” Reardon later expanded, noting that the course aims to provide “a sustained occasion to play with the pleasures and the value of inefficiency.”

When I asked Reardon if there were discussions about implementing this course into a progressively AI-driven professional landscape, she acknowledged the dual importance of learning for learning’s sake as well as preparing students for careers that utilize AI. “There is a way to ac-

knowledge both goals and to help students see how attention to the slowness and messiness of learning via writing is going to put them in a better position to think about complex problems and enrich their professional work,” she said. The course is an exciting development for the College in asserting its commitment to the Core and to intellectual experimentation and growth. But thecourse is not yet in full swing. ICA is currently in its pilot phase, with only students in the Human Being and Citizen sequence taking ICA as their Core writing requirement this year. The Core writing requirement will not be entirely disentangled from hum and the new course fully established in the College for at least another year or two. And even then, ICA alone cannot resolutely establish a University-wide commitment to

You Get the Best of Both Worlds

writing as a mode of learning.

So, without concrete guidelines or moral standings, students are faced with the choice of how and when to use AI alone. And while utilizing AI may seem like a tantalizing off-ramp to the hyper-stressed UChicago culture, students must make this decision with care. Delegating college writing to a word generator might not just mean less time spent on an essay, but a loss of critical thinking, and maybe even a complete shift in values. College is a time to explore and learn before facing the rigidity and linearity of a career, so make mistakes, take your time, and write your sosc essay while you’re lucky enough to have peers and professors dedicated to helping you grow.

Camille Cypher is a fourth-year in the College.

In the face of indiscriminate threats against all facets of higher education, double majoring is your best bet.

By SOFIA CAVALLONE

When the college application process started, two distinct doors shot up in front of me. They loomed in every corner of life, immense and splintered and, above all, unbearably different from one another, accosting me with an academic crossroads: to the right, the hinges gave way to equations and rulers and technical gadgets. To the left, it was novels and archives and paint-crusted palettes. Standing at the navel of the STEM—humanities Y junction, I dug my heels into the ground, too frightened to move.

For as long as I can remember, I have been equally invested in both the sciences and the arts, left-brain and right-brain endeavors, numbers and letters, or however you choose to characterize this customary fissure. Naturally, I strove to maintain high levels of scholarly achievement across the board and reveled in any shape or form of academic esteem, but I genuinely enjoyed every single subject and did not feel a certain sway toward one “side,” unlike the majority of my peers. Even as I moved schools and cities and spaces, traversing oceans time and time again as I moved in

and out of a conservative British school, a congested California public school, and an arts-oriented, laissez-faire high school in Brooklyn, my pursuits remained ramified, and the thought of sacrificing one subject for another seemed unappealing and unnecessary. More importantly, it was never asked of me.

It was only when I clicked “create” on my College Board account that the whole world transfigured into one big, fat pointer finger beckoning me to pick. The two doors taunted me. Aware of my anxieties, my friends, family, and school counselors were eager

to remind me of the considerable time I had to actually declare a major, of the interdisciplinary approach to studies so many institutions championed, and of the ultimate lack of direct correlation between one’s undergraduate diploma and career path (“I majored in Spanish, and now I work in tech!”). But, scrolling through countless universities’ major offerings, I saw myself from above, looming over a list of ice cream flavors with last-meal conviction. When I filled in my “intended major” on applications, I went to sleep with crawling skin, unnerved by the sinking sensation

that I’d soon have to make the irrevocable choice between doing physics and writing essays for the first time in my life.

The solution of double majoring, naturally, was indisputable from the get-go; it was the only thing that placated me. In my college search, I honed in on UChicago immediately: the Core, the quarter system, the pledge to unrestrained intellectual and multidisciplinary curiosity. It evidently was the most promising place on the double majoring front. My intended programs of study were astrophysics and English lan-

“I see no point in picking a door anymore; I’m likely to brawl with a troll under the bridge on either trajectory.”

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guage and literature, the former a bulky course with rigid requirements, the latter an elective-driven exploration. When I received my UChicago acceptance letter, I envisioned (after much disbelief and much crying) a thrilling, secret double life. I’d be a “Hannah Montana” of UChicago, only with reading glasses instead of a blonde wig—cosmologist by day, writer by night.

But I still mulled over the choice of study—or, in truth, of the distinct path that would lead to a career.

To be candid, I did hope that taking Core classes would tip the balance. I thought that maybe bad grades and harsh professors would leave a sour taste in my mouth, and then I’d be forced to opt out of astrophysics or English entirely. And, in hindsight, many first-year “weed out” classes almost did the trick. Electricity and Magnetism made me nauseous, and my midterm grade begged me to run in the other direction. But, even in the face of all these woes, the idea of shutting down that chunk of my life felt to me as drastic as slicing off a limb.

That’s the snag: there was nothing motivating my decision to double major beyond the fact that it embodied my entire being. Contrary to many of my UChicago classmates who double majored in STEM or economics as well as the arts or humanities, I did not pick one program for fun and one for financial security. I did not intend to utilize English as a low-stakes fallback or filler, nor did I want it to be a siren song for recruiters desperate for eloquent engineers. And, on the contrary, I did not plan for astrophysics to be an employable crutch. In fact, in light of my first-year physics strife, it was more professionally precarious than its humanities counterpart.

Both majors are pure fun, ultimately, and both are mine.

The question of financial security can’t be ignored, sure, but it seems no path is really financially secure anymore. Sellout culture, careerism, anti-intellectualism— these trends, in light of political attacks on higher education and, even closer to home, efforts to shrink area studies, are atrophying our University’s “learning for learning’s sake,” “life of the mind” pedagogical approach, snapping its ideals like tendons in the name of fiscal damage control and the boring excuse that changing times bring such transformation in their wake. The University’s Division of the Arts & Humanities has taken a fly swatter to several Ph.D. and master’s programs. Biomedical and physical sciences are at risk across the nation. My near-and-dear fields of astrophysics and aerospace engineering in particular face significant blows as NASA undergoes drastic budget cuts. All the while, the prospect of an AI-driven future throws more confusion into the fire as even the most bulletproof jobs are vulnerable.

The academic maelstrom seems to have “checkmate!” written all over it. How can we engage in unbridled intellectual inquiry if several areas of inquiry are being bridled? How are we to choose a program of study in the face of such imminent threats—threats that appear to be thrown, at this point, indiscriminately at all facets and fields of higher education?

I see no point in picking a door anymore; I’m likely to brawl with a troll under the bridge on either trajectory. And frankly, though the hapless circumstances yield a whole different breed of worries, I am overcome by a peculiar sense of relief. My majors have become essentially indistinguishable in value, having suffered a reduction

to the fundamentals of what a major actually should be—a special set of courses, pursued out of pure interest, without the promise of a job at the end of either road. No more “for fun” or “for financial security” labels; the latter is too finicky, too precarious a judgment to make. So, for the first time, I feel free to pursue both of my majors for fun. Liberated from making the daunting either-or verdict, I can see clearly that there are two wonderful opportunities in front of me, and two is greater than one.

From a professional standpoint, double majoring also seems like the smartest move here. Not solely because you may earn more than a single major graduate, or because both STEM and the arts and humanities equip you with myriad skills that are transferable across industries, but because simple statistics are in your favor; with double the degrees, you have double the job opportunities. In a time where endless research opportunities, grants, and jobs are at risk, a STEM—humanities double major feels like a cheat code, like a trick up one’s sleeve. And I know that this sentiment is rife with pessimism, but the Office of Career Advancement will never cease to clutter our inboxes, so we may as well stack the deck.

I’d then be contradicting myself if I claimed that double majoring transcends careerism and anti-intellectualism entirely, but I do believe that equal dedication to and respect for all academic fields one loves make for the most personal, interdisciplinary, and inquisitive experience we as college students can get our hands on at this moment in time.

It’s been proclaimed time and time again, but STEM and the humanities do not exist as separate, antithetical entities. They consistently work in tandem as meticulous correspondents, informing

how this scientific notion may inform that cultural phenomenon. In high school, I quoted historical readings in last-period physics, utilized geometric rules in advanced painting, and incessantly (perhaps often insufferably, too) sought to discover new cross-disciplinary analogies and links, without which I believe I would have been left to create and submit one boring thing after another. This alliance between the sciences and the arts, for which I am a confident torchbearer, is a fundamental pillar of the innovative intellectual sphere our institution defends. As I enter my third year at UChicago, I fondly look forward to hearing my classmates mention their biological studies in a literature discussion section, furrowing my eyebrows momentarily, and then finally oohing and aahing at the unforeseen connection.

Going into the process of writing this column, I knew I did not want to offer a viewpoint strictly on the credentials and logistics of being a STEM—humanities double major; there already exist columns on the more quantitative benefits of pursuing such a course of study. I also do not intend to adopt a pitiful tone. I do not want to promise history majors that

they can become teachers, or publishers, or that they may even go to law school under particularly fruitless circumstances. I do not want to fearmonger to computer science majors about intelligent robots or tell them to pick up a book.

All I aim to convey is this: I fear so many current or prospective STEM—humanities double majors will falter under the maddening prospect of choice, thinking that a concession will ultimately save them time and hassle and deliberation, and get them that golden job. They can’t ignore the two doors, immense and splintered—but look; they aren’t so different. The doubts are one and the same.

I contemplate what lies further down the Y junction. But I pick up my heels and traverse a wonky bisection, heading somewhere, keeping my eyes peeled on both paths. My schedule will teeter with classes, and my career advisor will watch me bewildered, and my head will hurt from knowledge, but in a wonderful way. I promise it’s a good kind of pain that penetrates both sides of the brain instead of just one.

Sofia Cavallone is a third-year in the College.

sofia cavallone.

FREE WILL Truth or Illusion

ARTS

Hyde Park First Date Spots

Arts editors present a dozen options for dates— with budding romances, new friends or, in proper UChicago form, your course book.

By NOLAN SHAFFER | Head Arts Editor, SHAWN QUEK | Head Arts Editor, EMILY

SUN | Head Arts Editor, and ELIZABETH ECK | Associate Arts Editor

Nolan’s Recommendations

Court Theatre

Court Theatre won the Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre in the country in 2022, but it’s been putting on incredible productions (and serving as a great date spot) for much longer than that. It’s a packed upcoming season for Court Theatre, featuring four exciting shows, including the world premiere of a musical by UChicago’s own professor Leslie Buxbaum.

An hour prior to any weekday performance, show up with your UCID and pick up a free rush ticket. Then grab a quick bite at The Nile or Baker Dining Hall. After the show, head to Insomnia Cookies for dessert. Pro tip: Actors usually mingle in the lobby for a few minutes following performances. This unique opportunity is perfect if you want to fawn over the actors or ask them questions, and you can impress your date with this knowledge!

Logan Center

You happen to sign up for the Logan Center newsletter during an O-Week fair, and your inbox soon becomes inundated with messages. Temporary annoyance gives way to excitement: an abundance of weekly free concerts and events, perfect for a lively date, awaits.

Show up to the Logan Center an hour or so before the event and grab a drink or food at Café Logan. It’s the perfect spot for a first date: there’s plenty of seating, an interesting rotating exhibit on the walls, and it’s the only on-campus cafe that serves alcohol! For after the show, here are two wellknown secrets: a scintillating collection of Henri Matisse’s Jazz prints is displayed around the Logan Center’s basement, and

the Logan Center staff rarely kicks students out after hours. Explore the whole building (which has some of the best views of campus) with your date, then take a romantic walk along the Midway. Pro tip: Café Logan features free jazz shows on the third Tuesday of every month. Also, for those concerts that do cost money, UChicago Presents offers a limited number of free, donor-sponsored tickets to students.

Café 53

What’s better than a great first date? Maybe a great sandwich. Find both at Café 53, which serves up some of the best sandwiches around, as well as gelato, coffee, and excellent vegan options.

On the way to the café from campus, take a walk through Nichols Park. It’s a lovely community space that includes a garden. After your meal, walk around 53rd Street, Hyde Park’s most active retail corridor. Explore small businesses like Hyde Park Records, and check out the former Hyde Park–Kenwood National Bank Building, an almost 100-year-old Classical Revival beauty that is now a Chicago landmark. Pro tip: hidden in the back of Café 53 is a sizable patio, where you can find love and enjoy the fleeting Chicago fall weather.

Shawn’s Recommendations

Promontory Point

Summer and early fall in Chicago are like a fever dream. Chicago residents spend nine windy months in shades of grey, then suddenly the city reminds them that it can still clean up nicely when it wants to. Promontory Point is Hyde Park’s crown jewel during the warm weather reprieve. A park jutting into Lake Michigan, the Point is

accessible by a relaxing bike ride or a handin-hand walk east of campus.

By day, you can hurl yourself into the cold, fresh water of the lake, drying off on limestone blocks warmed by the sun. By night, it changes entirely. Enjoy bonfires, banter, and the skyline glowing across the water. It’s raw and elemental, a place where first meetings linger longer than you imagined and first kisses taste faintly of smoke and lake spray.

The Pub

Beneath the old gothic stone of Ida Noyes Hall lurks the Pub, a place you don’t and can’t (for the underaged) stumble into by accident. This is where you test your date’s character. Can they order a decent pint? Do they queue songs on the jukebox with reckless abandon? Can they laugh when you demolish them at foosball?

The Pub is dimly lit, slightly aged, and unpretentious in a way that makes you grateful for its existence. It has two dozen beers on tap, neon signs, and board games that still carry the memory of the unfinished matches of a thousand students before you. If hunger strikes, the food won’t win awards, but, like all the best bar grub, it’ll soak up whatever bad decisions you and your date will be making after a couple of drinks.

Harper Café

If the Pub is for the nights you might forget, Harper Café is for the mornings you hope to remember. Tucked on the third floor of Harper Memorial Library, the coffee shop is lined with shelves of old books that loom over your shoulder like late assignments pushed off for another day. Coffee here feels different, I promise: intimate and cloistered, a drink that insists on conversation.

There’s something picturesque about the place: study buddies bent over mugs, lulls in conversation punctuated by the turning of pages or the clacking of key-

boards, the shared warmth of caffeine and warm morning light. It’s the perfect venue for the academic first-date dance: study together, maybe flirt through the pretense of productivity if you’re brave, then, when the books are closed, drop the lingering question: “So… shall we do this again?”

Emily’s Recommendations

Powell’s Books

Scavenge for cheap coursebooks and test your date’s knowledge of 18th-century German philosophy (or whatever gets you going) at Powell’s Books. The oldest sibling of Hyde Park’s bookstore trifecta, it carries thousands of titles slotted in stuffed shelves, categorized and subcategorized by academic niche. Bonus: if the date is going well, add on brunch at Salonica, a Greek diner down the street with consummate French toast.

Renaissance Society

Cobb Hall isn’t just for drip coffee and language classes—on the fourth floor, you can find the Renaissance Society, a cavernous, whitewashed room home to a rotating cast of art installations and concerts. A film by Diego Marcon is on view this fall, along with several shows by current composers that will give you plenty to ruminate on. Should you both have an abiding interest in contemporary art, sign up for the Society’s Student Committee for behind-the-scenes invitations to artist talks, gallery walks, and forays into the Society’s century-old archives.

Rockefeller Chapel

Named after the University’s generous benefactor John D. Rockefeller Sr., Rockefeller Chapel is dedicated not to any one religion, but to the spiritual task of learning. After the Aims of Education address caps off O-Week under the Chapel’s vaulted ceiling, it keeps its doors open for weekly events:

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Scavenge for cheap coursebooks and

test your date’s knowledge of 18thcentury German philosophy (or whatever gets you going) at Powell’s Books.

CONTINUED FROM PG. 24

afternoon tea, yoga, and meditation. The pièce de résistance is its carillon tour, held Tuesday through Friday until November. Not for the faint of heart (or calves, for the tower boasts 271 steps), the tour takes you through the history of the building and its carillon. At the top, you’ll find a panoramic view of the campus’s red roofs and, northward, over the heads of saints perched atop the 207-foot tower, Chicago’s skyline.

Elizabeth’s Recommendations

Jackson Park

Nothing is more romantic than a walk around a beautiful garden—and none is more beautiful or historic than Jackson Park, located just east of campus. Designed in 1871 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of New York’s Central Park, it boasts more than 500 acres of stunningly designed gardens and parks, of which the most gorgeous is the Japanese Garden. If you prefer a more active first date, fear not: the park features basketball and tennis courts so you and your sweetheart can play your hearts out.

Strings Ramen

In a world that needs more mood lighting conducive to romance, Strings Ramen has it all—alongside delicious homemade noodles. An underrated spot in the heart of 53rd Street, Strings is an intimate first date spot. Share some appetizers with your partner: the vegetable gyoza, the wood ear salad, or the crispy pork skin. Or, if you and your date are feeling fiery, try the Hell Ramen, complete with chili oil and all sorts of hot peppers. For those who are not as adventurous, the tonkotsu ramen with pork belly is perfectly savory and delicious.

Jimmy’s

We’ve all been there: you aren’t sure whether your first date is actually a first date. Where do you take the object of your affection? Well, look no further than Jimmy’s (otherwise known as the Woodlawn Tap). A classic neighborhood haunt, it’s the perfect place to grab cocktails and some fries to share with your date-not-date. The small tables also make it easy to flirtingly touch the your date’s arm to signal interest. Many UChicago students have reported falling in love here—so could you!

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SPORTS A Deep Dive Into UChicago Wrestling and Its Intangible Path Toward Tangible Success

As the Maroons wrestle with expectations for a new season, the team’s leadership is targeting personal growth and team-building efforts off the mat as a key to continued success on the mat.

By JOSH GROSSMAN | Sports Editor

Going into the 2024–25 season, expectations for UChicago’s Varsity Wrestling team were uncertain. Beyond their exploits on the mat, the Maroons were wrestling with a new reality: competing without longtime head coach and reigning National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Coach of the Year winner Leo Kocher at the helm.

Kocher’s 45-year tenure produced tremendous team and individual successes, including one NCAA Division

III champion wrestler, 32 All-American wrestlers, and 18 University Athletic Association (UAA) team championships. While finding a successor with Kocher’s pedigree and extensive experience was an impossible task going into the 2024–25 season, the team struck gold with rookie head coach Matt Gentry

and continued to excel in Gentry’s debut season.

While the team’s numerous visible accomplishments throughout the season included a runner-up finish and All-American nod at the NCAA Division III national championships for CONTINUED ON PG. 26

“Keeping the team focused on our growth and process... helped them continue to improve throughout the year.”

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then third-year Sean Conway, national championship qualifications for then third-year Gunnar Garriques and then fourth-year Darian Estevez, and a UAA Most Outstanding Wrestler commendation for then second-year Jackson Rustad, perhaps their biggest achievement came from the intangibles. Specifically, the team’s sizable gains in confidence, experience, and directed focus as the season progressed.

Based on early indications from this offseason, it seems that UChicago’s Varsity Wrestling team is prepared to continue leaning on these intangibles as they reach for even greater heights in the 2025–26 season.

For no wrestler is this approach more pertinent than team captain Sean Conway. Coming off a season in which he became the Maroons’ first wrestler to reach the national championship bout in 33 years, Conway acknowledged that he would not have the same “luxury of being an underdog” in his senior season as the second-ranked wrestler in the nation, expecting other wrestlers to “strategically game-plan” against him. While this season’s goals include a shot at redemption in the national championship bout where he hopes to “make some noise,” having only narrowly missed out on a win last season, Conway is embracing a new approach as he looks to get his hands on the top prize.

With the input of the team’s new mindset coach Coyte Cooper, a former Division 1 NCAA All-American wrestler at Indiana University, Conway has adjusted his aims for the season, highlighting a strong commitment to find his “purpose and continue to be growth-oriented to take my game to the next level.” For Conway, this purpose will be found by emphasizing growth “as a wrestler and as a person” over any outcome; a guiding message he is hoping to impart on the rest of the team as captain. Luckily for Conway, this growth-oriented mindset is already being echoed by fellow teammates and coaches as the season nears.

For Rustad and Garriques, who are

returning to the mat with nationals and All-American bids in their sights after stellar 2024–25 seasons, narrowing their focus on consistent self-growth has also become a key feature of offseason preparations.

Ahead of his junior season, Rus tad described his incorporation of “an innovative mindset training and per formance program” into his offseason training, counting on this new approach “to improve preparation and execution during matches” as he seeks his first na tionals appearance with the team.

Similarly, for Garriques, the sixthranked wrestler in the nation, an ear ly exit from nationals did not detract from a season that fulfilled his lifelong goal of competing on the biggest stage of Division III Wrestling. Heading into the upcoming season, Garriques hopes to continue putting less emphasis on results and more emphasis on a nonnegotiable focus on self-growth and effort. “My expectations for myself are to leave the mat knowing I gave my all with no regrets,” Garriques told the Maroon.

improve throughout the year,” Gentry reflected.

Another key promoter of this program-wide, growth-oriented mentality is Gentry, whose own reliance on personal growth has fueled tremendous success across his decades-long career as a wrestler and coach. As a former Olympian and NCAA Division 1 national champion wrestler, Gentry has brought valuable lessons from his past mistakes to the Maroons, echoing those sentiments upon taking up the head coaching position last year.

“It is easy to get outside yourself and distracted by the events instead of continuing to stay focused within yourself on the things you can control in order to give yourself the best possible chance of a great outcome,” Gentry explained.

Accordingly, his decision to prioritize individual “ownership and responsibility” as a rookie head coach proved to be a fruitful one, yielding both team success and NWCA Rookie Coach of the Year honors. “Keeping the team focused on our growth and process without getting too high [or] low about any specific win or loss helped them continue to

Beyond improving as individuals and wrestlers under coach Gentry’s direction, the team’s senior leaders are also seeking to foster a strong team culture, with Garriques citing last season’s showing at nationals as a source of “confidence that [the team] are being led by a strong and experienced senior class, a powerful and brilliant coaching staff, and a unified team body.”

While Conway’s physical preparedness of staying in shape, practicing technical improvements, and prioritizing active recovery contributed greatly to last season’s championship bout appearance, perhaps his biggest asset was the support cast he had throughout his run.

With the input of three Maroon coaches including former coach Kocher, former All-American Maroon Ryan Fleck (A.B. ’23), and veteran training partner Cael Saxton (A.B. ’25), Conway fed off his team’s support to excel. “Nationals was the best I have ever felt mentally, and it was also the most relaxed I have felt at a competition,” Conway explained. “[My team’s] collective energy and advice put me in the best mindset to compete.”

Thus, continuing to foster trust and support throughout the team’s ranks

will be just as essential as physical preparedness for the Maroons in the season to come.

On the mat, Garriques expects his teammates “to elevate each other, being inspired by each other’s wins and spurred onward by each other’s losses.”

Off the mat, however, Conway expects the team to grow as a unit by competing for slightly different silverware, emphasizing collaboration in the team’s pursuit of Intramural Championships in Flag Football and Softball.

Most importantly, Conway is also hoping his teammates will zoom out from the pressure of competition and enjoy the season’s moments, allotting time at each event to “take a deep breath and smile.”

While UChicago’s Varsity Wrestling team will be tested throughout the 2025–26 season, no longer capable of flying under the radar in the wake of last season’s success, the Maroons remain unfazed. The program-wide adoption of a growth-oriented mindset, the guidance of veteran leadership and a star-studded surrounding cast of coaches, and the bonds uniting the team’s individual wrestlers seem set to power the Maroons in their pursuit of greater heights.

Team Captain Sean Conway (third from the left) and coach Matt Gentry (third from the right) at the 2024–25 NCAA Division III Wrestling Nationals. courtesy of uchicago athletics

CROSSWORD

93. Disorientation Week

By ELI LOWE | Head Crossword Editor