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ELECTION 2024: What to Know About Chicago’s First-Ever Board of Education Election PAGE 13

OCTOBER 24, 2024 FOURTH WEEK VOL. 137, ISSUE 3

SOFIA CAVALLONE.

NEWS: Protesters Lock Cobb Gate, Police Arrest Three

NEWS: Chabad, Hillel Host Events Commemorating Anniversary of October 7 Attacks

ELECTION 2024: UChiVotes Promotes Early Voting on Campus

ARTS: Sit Down. Sturgill Simpson Has Things That You Need to Hear.

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NEWS Protesters Lock Cobb Gate, Police Arrest Three

By MAROON STAFF

UCPD officers attempt to prevent protesters from locking Cobb Gate with a bike lock but are ultimately unsuccessful. nathaniel rodwell-simon.

proximately 2:15 p.m. that the University had “zero tolerance” for excessive noise before attempting to hand out warning cards to protest leaders using bullhorns to lead chants on the quad at 2:45 p.m. The cards read, “FINAL WARNING: This card serves to inform you or your student organization that your conduct is violating policies outlined in the Student Manual.” The cards also contained four QR codes linked to relevant University policies, which were updated in advance of the beginning of the academic year. Protesters refused to accept the cards.

Chants at the rally included, “We know where your money goes, bombing Gaza schools and homes” and “resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

A protest leader said that the University “claims that they care about our safety and our wellbeing, but in the last year, these two-faced administrators have shown their true faces.”

At approximately 3 p.m., protesters marched from the center of the quad and proceeded through the Hull and Cobb Gates on the north end. Once all protesters had passed through Cobb Gate, protesters pushed the gate closed and secured it with a bike lock despite police attempts to stop them. They also hung a banner on the gate that read “Free Palestine” and “Hands Off

After locking Cobb Gate, protesters hang a banner reading “Free Palestine” and “Hands Off Lebanon.” nathaniel rodwell-simon.

Protesters gather at the Nuclear Energy sculpture, where some have used spray paint and thrown paint-filled balloons on the surrounding area. Graffiti includes “Free Gaza,” “Save Lebonan [sic]”, and “Fuck the Bombs.” nathaniel rodwell-simon.

On Friday, October 11, a UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) rally saw three protesters arrested and physical altercations between protesters and officers.

Earlier, protesters locked Cobb Gate using a bike lock despite UCPD’s efforts to keep the gate open. During the rally, multiple police officers used pepper spray and batons. Protesters damaged UCPD vehicles

and kicked at least one officer.

The rally, which began with a walkout at 2:30 p.m., morphed into a brawl that involved at least 200 University- and community-affiliated protesters, 20 University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers, and 30 Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers.

Deans-on-Call informed UCPD at ap-

Lebanon.”

By this point, the protest had grown to include over 150 people, spilling out onto East 57th Street. Protesters allowed space for cars to pass through, but UCPD patrol cars blocked the street on both ends.

Protesters told police officers, “Pigs go home,” and chanted, “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada.”

At 3:15 p.m., protesters left Cobb Gate and proceeded north on South Ellis Avenue. They stopped in front of the Nuclear Energy sculpture next to the Regenstein Library, at which point some protesters threw paint on the statue and wrote graffiti in the surrounding area that read, “Free Gaza,” “hands off Lebonan” [sic], and “fuck the bombs.” CPD officers arrived on scene, joining at least 20 UCPD officers. Some were in riot gear and carried batons and zip-ties.

At approximately 3:30 p.m., the protest moved further north along the street, stopping between Ratner Athletics Center and the Court Theater. Police searched for and then tackled and detained one protester, whom they put into a patrol car. Protesters attempted to prevent the detainment, physically confronting officers. The Maroon was unable to confirm why that protester was detained.

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Other protesters began chanting “Let him go!” and surrounded the patrol car that held the detained protester.

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Other protesters began chanting, “Let him go!” and surrounded the patrol car that held the detained protester. An officer attempted to drive the UCPD patrol car away from the scene but was blocked by the crowd of protesters. Officers and protesters continued to push against each other.

Another protester struck the side mir-

ror of a separate police car several times with what appeared to be a rock and then rejoined the crowd.

As tensions escalated, a third protester kicked a CPD officer in the back of his leg.

Officers attempted to detain the protester, hitting him with a baton. They chased him briefly and tackled him halfway down the block, at which point they detained him and placed him into a patrol car.

UCPD officers walk alongside the marchers, looking for an individual in the crowd. The detainment of this individual would spark the physical confrontations between officers and protesters, leading to two other arrests. nathaniel rodwell-simon.

Officers used pepper-spray on protesters, who were seen afterward rubbing and washing their eyes with water. One student told the Maroon that he was pepper sprayed by an officer who had “harassed students at the encampment.” A Maroon reporter witnessed a UCPD officer inadvertently pepper spraying a CPD captain, an incident which the UCPD officer later apologized for.

At approximately 3:45 p.m., protesters began dispersing north along South Ellis Avenue, south towards the quad, and through the Smart Museum courtyard.

One CPD officer remarked to gathered officers, “That was fun for a little while.”

Shortly after, CPD and UCPD officers also dispersed. By 4 p.m., the lock on Cobb Gate was removed and the gate was reopened.

By 5 p.m., Facility Services had begun using pressure washers to remove the graffiti surrounding the Nuclear Energy

sculpture.

Eman Abdelhadi, assistant professor of comparative human development and a member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (formerly Faculty for Justice in Palestine), was present at the protest and spoke to the Maroon in an interview after the protesters had dispersed.

“It was an enormous escalation,” Abdelhadi said of police officers’ response to the protest. “This was a relatively small rally and march. I understand that… there was a little bit of spray painting or that kind of thing, but the University escalated it to bodily harm. The police were extremely brutal. … I will never forget having to pour water into a student’s eyes as the student said, ‘I can’t see, I can’t see, I can’t see’ after having been pepper-sprayed.”

In a statement to the Maroon, the University confirmed the arrests of three CONTINUED ON PG. 4

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UCPD officers surround a detained protester while others watch. nathaniel rodwell-simon.

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“I understand that… there was a little bit of spray painting or that kind of thing, but the University escalated it to bodily harm.”

UCPD officers and protesters surround a police car where a protester had been detained. nathaniel rodwell-simon.

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protesters after protesters locked Cobb Gate, vandalized University property, and pushed officers. “At approximately 3:20 p.m. Friday, a group of protesters who had marched from a rally on campus used locks to block access to campus through a gate on 57th Street, and began spray-painting buildings and public art near the corner of Ellis Avenue and 57th Street. Officers from the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) and the Chicago Police Department (CPD) responded to the scene.

Protesters instigated confrontations with police by physically surrounding a police car, further vandalizing and damaging

property, blocking the public road, and striking police officers who responded.

UCPD arrested two individuals – one for criminal damage and one for battery to a police officer. The Chicago Police Department arrested one individual for battery to a police officer.”

According to a University spokesperson, “the University of Chicago is fundamentally committed to upholding the rights of protesters to express their views on any issue. At the same time, University policies make it clear that protests cannot jeopardize public safety, disrupt the University’s operations, or involve the destruction of property.”

CPD officers gather on South Ellis Avenue between Ratner Athletic Center and Court Theatre after the protesters dispersed. The Maroon counted at least 30 CPD officers and at least 20 UCPD officers present at the protest. nathaniel rodwell-simon.

This protest came at the tail end of National Students for Justice in Palestine’s “Week of Rage,” which commemorated the anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas War and encompassed the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. Sundown Friday also marked the beginning of Yom Kippur, the end of the Jewish High Holy Days.

In a press release following the events, UCUP discussed the day’s events. “When UCPD and CPD came at protestors with batons, attempted to run people over, and mass pepper-sprayed in a drastic escalation of police violence from prior protests at the University, the crowd responded

instinctively, recognizing that we must protect each other from the university’s agents of brutality,” the statement read.

“The people who spontaneously decided to surround a squad car, confront two police departments, and not back down in the face of pepper spray and batons realized that UCPD and CPD stand between us and divestment: the police are an occupying force, and the solidarity movement for a free Palestine will have to go through them.”

At the time of publication, UCPD had not responded to a request for comment and CPD could not be reached for comment.

Faculty Forward Delivers Petition to UChicago Administration

By AMY MA | Deputy News Editor and DEREK HSU | Senior News Reporter On Thursday afternoon, about 30 members of Faculty Forward, the union representing non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Chicago, gathered near the entrance of Levi Hall and delivered a petition to University administrators.

The petition, addressed to University President Paul Alivisatos and signed by

415 union members—more than 80 percent of Faculty Forward—calls for competitive salaries, benefits comparable to other Top 20 schools, and fairer contract terms.

Union leaders cited frustration with the progress of ongoing contract negotiations as the motivation for the demon-

stration. A representative of Alivisatos accepted the petition on behalf of the administration.

Faculty Forward was formed in 2015 when non-tenure-track faculty at the University voted to unionize and affiliate with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73. The union represents approximately 550 members, including writing specialists and teaching fellows, who teach roughly 60 percent of

all undergraduate classes, according to Faculty Forward data. Since its establishment, the union has successfully brokered two collective bargaining agreements and is currently negotiating its third contract, a process that began in March 2024.

According to Tristan Schweiger, Faculty Forward secretary and assistant professor in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, the union made “a good CONTINUED ON PG. 5

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“They say it’s a budget shortfall… But our ask, our most ridiculous, generous ask, will cost them at most $11 million.”

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courtesy of jazmine salas.

deal of progress” on non-economic concerns during negotiations over the spring and summer.

“We have a much stronger academic freedom and faculty speech article now than we had in the past, and we also have much better language on non-discrimination and anti-harassment, particularly some provisions for dealing with online harassment, which has been a concern for our members,” Schweiger said.

Schweiger noted that the union is close to achieving their goals on immigration and visa sponsorships. The H-1B visa is now the default status of instructional professors and professors who practice the arts. The visa options still remain ambiguous for other types of lecturers, such as teaching fellows.

Despite progress in these areas, Schweiger explains that Faculty Forward remains “frustrated” with discussions

Figure one. Faculty Forward Salaries Relative to Economic Factors. courtesy of marshall jean, assistant instructional professor in sociology.

around faculty compensation, which is central to this round of negotiations. The union argues that salaries have not kept up with inflation, resulting in a 10 percent erosion in faculty purchasing power since the last contract was signed in 2019. (See figure one).

Publicly available data compiled by Faculty Forward shows that UChicago pay for non-tenure-track faculty is 18 percent lower than its Ivy Plus university peers.

According to Faculty Forward CoChair Jason Grunebaum, the administration responded to the union’s demands by proposing a five-year contract—an increase from the previous three years— with annual wage increases between 2—3 percent. Faculty Forward’s bargaining committee rejected this offer, explaining that it “essentially just [doubles] down on pay cuts” and adds “an additional two years in the future that we will not get a chance for renegotiation” when considering inflation and increases in living costs.

These difficulties in the bargaining process resulted in the circulation of the petition. “We feel like we need to submit a petition to show the University that we really are willing to fight for a fair contract,” said Agnes Malinowska, a member of the Faculty Forward Bargaining Committee.

During the rally, several members of Faculty Forward delivered speeches in support of the petition’s demands.

Grunebaum criticized “UChicago’s narrative of austerity” and questioned how the University has chosen to allocate its financial resources, pointing out that the top 30 executives at the University make more money than the entire 550–person bargaining unit.

Charlie Cunningham, an instructional professor in the mathematics department, built upon this argument: “They say they don’t have any money to pay us.

They say it’s a budget shortfall. … But our ask, our most ridiculous, generous ask, will cost them at most $11 million. … They just don’t want to spend it on undergrads and quality teaching for undergraduates.”

The rally also focused on the status of teaching fellows and writing specialists, whom Faculty Forward identifies as its most precarious groups.

Writing specialists were only recently awarded access to the union’s benefits in May 2023. Sarah Osment, who has been employed as a Writing Specialist for four years, expressed her concerns on the absence of recognition she and her peers receive.

“The University seems committed to segregating writing instructors from other faculty on campus and even other members of Faculty Forward,” Osment said.

Ella Wilhelm, a teaching fellow who received her Ph.D. in Germanic studies in 2023, felt she was misled by the benefits of the position. She explained that her takehome pay was less than the $45,000 compensation offered to graduate students, who have yet to receive their degree.

In a statement to the Maroon, the University said it was “negotiating in good faith” with the union.

“We are grateful for the contributions of the approximately 500 instructional professors and other instructors represented by the union and look forward to working constructively on a contract renewal that will benefit employees and serve students,” the statement added. “We are hopeful for a mutually agreeable resolution to the negotiations.”

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Former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Talks at Chicago Forum Event

By ANIKA KRISHNASWAMY | Deputy News Editor On October 10, former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad and professor Tom Ginsburg, founding faculty director of the Chicago Forum on Free Inquiry and Expression, discussed the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict at International House. The talk was the first installment in a series titled “What Might Peace Look Like?” hosted by the Chicago Forum on Free Inquiry and Expression.

Ginsburg opened the discussion by reflecting on the Oslo Accords, a set of agreements signed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The accords stipulated that Israel would accept the PLO as a representative of Palestinians in exchange for the PLO renouncing terrorism and officially recognizing Israel’s right to exist. They also established a Palestinian National Authority to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip for five years before permanent solutions could be discussed.

Fayyad, who was serving as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) representative during the signing, recalled its importance and how it had initially been a source of excitement in the international community.

“I was, at the time, a national civil servant with the IMF… in Washington, DC, when the actual declaration of precedence of the world was signed on 13th of September, 1993, and I remember it was so momentous,” Fayyad said. “The IMF, which, as many of you know, is very conservative—institutional, strong traditions—interrupted the meeting of the executive board at the time to actually watch the event. It clearly was a big deal at the time it happened.”

In spite of the optimism and grandiosity that had surrounded the Oslo Accords, Fayyad noted a lack of clear framework for Palestinian statehood, pointing out that, although the Accords initiated peace negotiations, they failed to explicitly reference the establishment of a Palestinian state. “From the very beginning, I was struck by something that actually came back to haunt everybody,” Fayyad said.

“Maybe, at the time, people were banking on… the strength of goodwill and strong interest [for a Palestinian state]… [from] the international committee to deliver on… the state for Palestinian people. Nowhere… will you find, in the documentation, that is Oslo… any reference to Palestinian statehood.”

As the discussion continued, Ginsburg

“If you’re in Gaza today, and somebody says, ‘150 countries recognize Palestine,’ that’s political fiction,” Fayyad said.

“It feels good that we have these countries recognizing… the state of Palestine, but in the absence of a credible path forward to… be really stable, it’s political fiction.”

Ginsburg and Fayyad also discussed the titular question of the talk—what might peace look like—offering both historical insights and potential first steps.

members. During the middle of the initial conversations on stage, one protester interrupted by accusing Fayyad of having “Palestinian blood on your hands,” criticizing his leadership during the Second Intifada, and asserting that his failure to recognize that “the only way to freedom is the resistance” resulted in countless deaths. During his tenure as prime minister, Fayyad focused mainly on state-building and economic growth

Former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad (left) and professor Tom Ginsburg (right) discuss the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict at International House. nathaniel rodwell-simon. expanded upon this notion of Palestinian statehood, focusing mainly on the challenges surrounding it. He explained that, while “you could even argue that there is a [Palestinian] state in the legal sense,” the bureaucratic capacity to function effectively is still key to achieving statehood.

Ginsburg said that, although Palestine has been recognized as an official state by 138 of the 193 United Nations members, he believes that this recognition has not yet translated into tangible statehood.

Likewise, Fayyad explained his frustration at the gap between international recognition and the actual reality of daily life for Palestinians.

“Conflicts like this [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] do end,” Ginsburg said.

“And what is required, from my point of view, is that you have moderates on both sides who are willing to do a deal with each other and that can control the people who want violence…. And in a way, what happened in Oslo is that the hard-minders spoiled it very quickly.”

“Peace, just peace… is about the absence of tension,” Fayyad said. “[If we want to resolve this,] let’s begin by getting rid of the tension…. Prioritize bringing about ceasefire in Gaza.”

The event was also marked by two interruptions by protesting audience

rather than on the brewing tensions with Israel, which made him unpopular among some Palestinian factions.

“You should be ashamed of coming here…. You were in charge of killing so many people,” the protester shouted.

After a few minutes of the protester’s speaking, Ginsburg stepped in, trying to emphasize the importance of free speech and reminding the protester of the scheduled Q&A in which they might better voice their concerns.

“I’d like to just say something about free speech, which is, of course, [that] we welcome questions,” Ginsburg said. “If CONTINUED ON PG. 7

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“I bear full responsibility, and I do not think [well] about… it.”

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you were to get up in the question time and ask such a question, that would be acceptable. The problem [with] such disruptions, [is that] they are patronizing to everyone else in this room.”

Shortly after, the protester was escorted out of the room by security. Approximately 20 minutes later, two other audience members hoisted a banner

and distributed pamphlets explaining “Fayyadism,” Fayyad’s philosophy to never “confront them [Israel] for your full rights,” and stating that he “cut off salaries to thousands of Gazan public service employees… [because] they worked against ‘Palestinian legitimacy,’” among other things.

During the official Q&A, which began just a few minutes after the interruptions,

Fayyad addressed the protesters’ criticisms, reflecting on his own leadership.

Fayyad acknowledged the effects of his broader political strategy during his tenure as prime minister and also explained his reasoning. “I bear full responsibility, and I do not think [well] about… it. I don’t feel about it,” Fayyad said. “But this is how the other things were, and I thought we had a shot at actually chang-

ing things…. And that did not happen… for [a] long list of reasons.”

Ultimately, Fayyad and Ginsburg agreed that the path to peace is still quite difficult and one in which the underlying issues of justice and statehood must be addressed.

“Our right to a state has to be recognized, and that has to be the starting point of the conversation,” Fayyad said.

Maroons for Israel Hosts Consul General of Israel to the Midwest

By NATHANIEL RODWELL-SIMON and OLIVER BUNTIN | Senior News Reporter Maroons for Israel (MFI) hosted Yinam Cohen, consul general of Israel to the Midwest, on Tuesday, October 8.

Pro-Israel students from Loyola and DePaul Universities were also present.

The event, which was attended by approximately 30 students, featured a significant level of security, including plainclothes University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers, Israeli consular security, and four Deans-on-

Call. The meeting’s location was not announced prior to the event, and only approved guests subject to an ID check could attend. Attendees were required to store their bags outside of the room with a security officer.

MFI President Joachim Sciamma told the Maroon that he and MFI Event Coordinator Jake Rymer had been working with the University and Cohen’s security detail for four months prior to the event,

in accordance with the University’s “High Profile Events” protocol for RSOs. In a statement to the Maroon, Sciamma expressed that he was not worried about reactions to Cohen’s presence on campus.

“SJP has done a very good job of not being reactionary to our events and installations, and we don’t anticipate a negative reaction to this event,” he said.

Cohen has previously visited UChicago.

Last winter, he met with University President Paul Alivisatos and students from Chabad and Hillel “to further enhance the

Yinam Cohen, consul general of Israel to the Midwest, speaks at the event. nathaniel rodwell-simon.

partnership between [the University] and Israeli research institutions and to make sure that every Jewish or Israeli student feels safe on campus,” according to a post he shared on X at the time.

In response, UChicago Jews for a Free Palestine released a letter denouncing the meeting and requesting that Alivisatos hold a public meeting on the University’s investments and relationships with Israeli institutions.

Cohen is a critic of the way other Chicago educational institutions have handled antisemitism. In a Chicago Tribune oped published in July, he accused Chicago public schools and universities of allowing Jewish students to be “physically and verbally targeted” and, citing U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, alleged that pro-Palestinian protests have been encouraged and financially supported by Iran.

Moderating the discussion was David Litman, a writer for pro-Israel media monitoring and research organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.

Following a moment of silence commemorating the October 7 attacks, the event, titled “Democracy in Israel,” began with a discussion of the differences between the Israeli and U.S. systems of government. Cohen explained that the Israeli parliamentary system is “fundamentally different” from the structure of government in the U.S. “The huge difference compared to America is that we have a coalition-based government,” Cohen said. “There are many parties in Israel that reflect the diversity of the country… and I think that CONTINUED ON PG. 8

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“International law is a thing that is sometimes wielded against Israel.”

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helps guarantee wide representation to the diverse elements of Israeli society.”

He specifically noted the presence of the United Arab List party in the former coalition government as a testament to this diversity. The party is now in the opposition bloc to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.

About halfway through the event, the discussion shifted to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, along with Israel’s broader relationship with Palestinians and Arab Israelis.

Both Cohen and Litman were critical of organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which Litman called “disgusting,” for claims that they have made about disparities in treatment between Jewish and Arab residents of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Cohen also discussed accusations that Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza constitutes a genocide, which the International Court of Justice deemed “plausible” in a January 2024 ruling.

“What’s a genocide? Nobody on this campus or any other campus using the word has made the minimum effort of [looking it up],” he said. “Genocide is the

systematic killing of a group of people based on their nationality or ethnicity….

There is definitely a politically motivated overuse of this word, and what’s happening in Gaza is a war.”

Cohen argued that the war in Gaza started on October 7 “when Hamas invaded Israel” and that “the civilians that got killed in Israel were killed on purpose knowing they were civilians based on their ethnicity and religion.”

Cohen also discussed the more than 40,000 Palestinian casualties of the war in Gaza, blaming Hamas for using civilians as “human shields” and arguing that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has been especially careful to limit the number of civilian deaths (compared to those of combatants) in contrast to other recent wars in the Middle East. He also argued that a significant number of those included in the death toll are members of Hamas, as the 40,000 number does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

“According to UN stats, in urban warfare… the ratio between civilian casualties and military terrorist casualties is 8:1,” Cohen said. “In U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ratio was lower, it was four civilians to each combatant. Even if we take Hamas numbers, it means the

ratio [of civilian to combatant deaths] in Gaza is 1:1 or maximum 1.5:1, the lowest ratio in any modern warfare.”

However, Cohen did express regrets about the deaths of civilians in Gaza, stating, “Is [the killing of civilians] horrible?

Yes. Does it break my heart every day?

Yes.” According to Reuters, as of October 1, the death toll in Gaza stands at over 41,500 people, the “vast majority” women and children. Israeli estimates claim that 17,000 were Hamas fighters. The toll does not include the thousands of bodies that have been unable to be extracted from rubble. Additionally, former U.S. State Department employees have claimed that the IDF’s airstrikes exhibit a much higher tolerance for civilian casualties than the U.S. military, resulting in the Biden administration’s decision to delay the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs in May. Although he spoke at length about Israel’s compliance with international law and its active involvement in the UN, Cohen also believes that there is bias against Israel in the international court system and in the application of international law.

“International law is a thing that is sometimes wielded against Israel,” Cohen said. “The implementation or interpreta-

tion of many [international courts] is politically motivated, and that creates a huge problem for Israel.”

Cohen then took questions from the audience, which prompted discussions on the growing number of Israelis not subject to military service, the relationship between American and Israeli Jews, and the prevalence of social media in shaping people’s perceptions of the war in Gaza.

“The ratio of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians [posts on social media]—that’s very simplistic—is not representative of the actual public opinion in America,” Cohen said.

Cohen also blamed antisemitism among “educated people” on academic trends in Europe and America that “[examine] every issue in the world in the lens of oppression and privilege,” which he thinks “serves to attack Israel” because of the visibility of the war in Gaza.

Following the event, Cohen mingled with attendees and posed for photos. He told the Maroon that the Israeli government looks to strengthen its ties with the University and other colleges in the Midwest, both for research purposes and to connect with students.

He also told the attendees that he plans “to come back again and again.”

Chabad, Hillel Host Events Commemorating Anniversary of October 7 Attacks

By FEIFEI MEI and NATHANIEL RODWELL-SIMON | Senior News Reporter On the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, Rohr Chabad at the University of Chicago and University of Chicago Hillel held two separate events in memory of those killed.

Chabad organized a memorial and prayer in the Social Sciences Research Building, with guest speaker Emil Tessler, an Israeli citizen who served with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) special forces. Hillel held a concert in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, which included speeches by community members, musical performances, and a prayer for those killed in Israel on October 7.

The October 7 attacks by Hamas killed at least 1,200 people, including Israelis, Americans, and other foreign nationals. Hamas took an additional 251 as hostages. As of September 23, 117 of the hostages have been rescued or released, 37 bodies have been recovered by Israel, and around 100 are believed to be still held in Gaza. Israeli strikes and military actions have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and at least 1,400 Lebanese in the Israel-Hamas War, with millions more displaced from their homes.

Members of Rohr Chabad, UChicago Kehillah, Jewish Grad Hub, Law Students

for Israel, Maroons for Israel, Yavneh of Hyde Park, the Jewish Business Students Association, and the Jewish Law Students Association attended the Chabad event at 4 p.m.

“This [memorial] is not just about reflecting on what has happened, it’s about coming together to honor our collective strength… and find the courage to move forward as proud Jews with a sense of purpose and instilling hope in our hearts,” Baila Brackman, co-director of Chabad, said during her opening remarks.

“Don’t let anyone make you afraid of our beloved Jewish identity. Stand tall, wear your Jewish symbols proudly, and let the world see the beauty of who we are.”

Rabbis Yossi Brackman and Mendel

Rapoport, of UChicago Rohr Chabad and JGrads Chabad, respectively, spoke about the power of prayer and song, which were featured heavily in the event’s program.

Joel Abraham, a second-year student in the College, led the singing of the prayers “Avinu Malkeinu” and “Acheinu.” MAPH second-year Hannah Kieve also performed on the violin, and Rabbi Brackman read Psalm 121 from the Tehillim aloud with the audience.

Emil Tessler then spoke about when his younger brother, who had been working as a security guard at the Nova Music Festival where Hamas launched one of its attacks on October 7, texted that he was in danger.

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“This [memorial] is not just about reflecting on what has happened, it’s about coming together to honor our collective strength.”

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“His goodbye message was, ‘Terrorists behind me, bye.’ I freaked out—I didn’t know what I was supposed to do right now, so I… flew back to Israel,” Tessler said. “When I landed, my parents told me my brother was safe and sound.

He cried to me and he said, ‘Please don’t go to the military.’ I was in a special forces IDF brigade—there was no way I wouldn’t join my unit, go into Gaza, do whatever mission they gave to us. I said goodbye to my family. [My brother] said, ‘They’re thirsting for your blood—for our blood.’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter, I will protect my nation.’”

After returning to Israel, Tessler was conscripted by the IDF special forces.

His unit was dispatched to Southern Israel and Gaza and tasked with rescuing hostages.

Rapoport spoke after Tessler.

“We have to remind the world that the Jewish people, by nature, are beyond nature. We have to remember our purpose and connection to the land of Israel,” Rapoport said. “If we look through our history, the Jewish people have stood up again countless times, no matter how hard we were knocked down. We must do three things: pray, cry, sing. …Aswe remember those that have been taken from us… they each had a special song. We have to continue their song so that their song never fades.”

Eliana Mazin, a third-year in the College and the president of Chabad’s student board, said at first after the October 7 attacks she felt alone and “horrified by the virulent antisemitism [she] saw on campus,” but “in spring, a new atmosphere descended upon the campus.

An atmosphere of strength, resilience, and togetherness. We turned our suffering to celebrate our mutual devotion to Zionism,” she said of the Jewish organizations at the vigil.

After a short video clip on the aftermath of violent attacks on Jewish communities like Kfar Chabad and their rebuilding efforts, the evening concluded with a final performance, a communal rendition of “Am Yisrael Chai.”

Speaking to the Maroon after the

Left: UChicago Chabad holds its memorial and prayer in the Social Sciences Research Building. Right: After Hillel’s concert, attendees gathered on the steps of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel with candles. feifei mei, nathaniel rodwell-simon. event, Rabbi Brackman said that the sense of Jewish community on campus “has been very strong, students have felt a lot of pain from what’s going on… but [they] have found a lot of comfort among allies and our own community.” Brackman added that moving forward, Chabad aims to find ways to help Jewish students “support one another, and to support efforts to strengthen the Jewish community and Jewish practice.”

Before the Hillel event, which took place at 7 p.m., UChicago Hillel Rabbi and Executive Director Anna Levin Rosen shared a statement with the Maroon explaining the purpose of the event, situating it in the context of the last year and the Jewish High Holidays.

“Rockefeller Chapel has historically served as a place for gathering and for mourning, for seeking to understand each other and be inspired. Each of us wants to be both resolute and compassionate—the Israeli musicians and composers tonight represent that balance as well. Dean [of Rockefeller Chapel] Maurice Charles has been a model of this ethic and a rock for

our campus community this past year.

His expansive leadership makes space for our grief in a time of strife,” the statement said.

“This year, October 7 falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and there is a deep need to allow resonance and echoes of our ancient traditions to reconnect us in a moment when we are shattered,” the statement concluded.

Rabbi Levin Rosen also spoke at the event, discussing the story of creation and the need for love and community in the face of grief and violence.

“In this past year, we have been desperately busy—trying to keep up and sit down, trying to read and argue, maintain silence, and post and write and fear. We did not take time for mourning. Tonight, we have an opportunity to take that time together,” Levin Rosen said.

Levin Rosen’s words were followed by the musical portion of the evening, which included performances by a string quartet, a piano and violin duo, and vocalists.

Among the songs performed were Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,”

Ravel’s “Kaddisch,” and Max Janowski’s “Sim Shalom,” arranged and performed

by Hannah Kieve and accompanied by Tom Weisflog, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel’s organist.

After closing words from Dean Charles and Rabbi Levin Rosen, the group gathered on the steps of Rockefeller with candles to sing more songs.

Following the event, the Maroon spoke to Elisheva Coleman, an assistant professor of neurology at University of Chicago Medicine. Coleman attended the event for the sense of community, something she felt was important at a time when she has felt alone as a Jewish person.

“I wanted to do something that was part of a community that I belong to. It was important to me to be with a community, with one of my communities,” Coleman said. “This has been a very, very hard year for a lot of us. I, and I think many Jews, have felt deeply, deeply alone this year, and it is very important to gather together and remember that we are not alone.”

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ELECTION 2024 SPECIAL INSERT Editor’s Note For most undergraduates, this election will be their first time casting a vote for president. The stakes are high as voters select candidates based on decisive issues like reproductive rights, the economy, climate change, gun control, and health care.

Hyde Park and Woodlawn residents will also vote on important community races, such as positions in the local judiciary and state assembly. Additionally, they’ll choose Cook County’s first-ever elected school board members and weigh

in on three advisory questions addressing reproductive health care, taxes, and election interference. Early voting has already opened across Chicago’s 50 wards and, from October 30 to November 1, students can cast their ballots in the Reynolds Club.

As a publication devoted to both the University of Chicago campus and the surrounding communities, the Maroon is responsible for keeping readers informed about the community, both on and off campus. This election season, be-

yond just the presidential race, is crucial for the future of Chicago’s courts, schools, and more. Although most UChicago students spend only four years of their lives in Hyde Park, their votes will still help shape this community. Both local and national issues are at stake, and we hope our coverage will help readers as they prepare to cast their vote this November.

From the opening of the polls to the moment the races are called, the Maroon will continue to bring you timely coverage this election season. Follow along online

at chicagomaroon.com.

In these pages, you’ll hear from political organizations on campus, learn about Chicago’s down-ballot races, dive into Chicago’s first-ever school board race, and explore the election’s potential impact on a federal bill spreading the Chicago Principles.

Welcome to the Chicago Maroon’s 2024 Election Special Insert.

— Tiffany Li, head news editor; Katherine Weaver, news editor; Evgenia Anastasakos and Rachel Liu, Grey City editors

2024 Maroon Voter Guide

By NAINA PURUSHOTHAMAN | Senior News Reporter UChicago and the Hyde Park and Woodlawn communities straddle multiple districts for the Illinois House of Representatives and Chicago School Board races.

BALLOT MEASURES: Note: A ballot measure is a law, issue, or question posed to the voters. In this election, all ballot measures are advisory questions, which are non-binding and are meant to gauge public opinion on issues.

Illinois Assisted Reproductive Healthcare Advisory Question This ballot measure will ask voters whether medically assisted reproductive treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, should be covered by any health insurance plan that already provides full coverage for pregnancy-related treatments.

Illinois Income Tax Advisory Question This measure will ask voters whether an additional 3 percent tax on income exceeding $1,000,000 should be instituted to fund property tax relief.

Illinois Penalties for Candidate Interference with Election Workers’ Duties Advisory Question This measure will ask voters wheth-

er candidates who interfere with or attempt to interfere with election workers’ duties should be subject to civil penalties.

FEDERAL: President of the United States Kamala Harris (Democratic Party): Harris currently serves as the vice president of the United States. Some of her key policy focuses include expanding reproductive rights, healthcare access, and homeownership access, as well as taking action against climate change. Her running mate, Tim Walz, is the governor of Minnesota.

Donald Trump (Republican Party): Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, has remained a central figure within his party for the past four years. He has campaigned on a platform of stricter controls on immigration, deregulation of industry, and whatever economic policy. His running mate, J.D. Vance, is a U.S. senator from Ohio.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent): Kennedy has endorsed Trump and announced that his campaign is suspended, but his name is still on the ballot in Illinois. He is an environmental attorney and activist who gained attention for his stance towards vaccinations when he opposed state and federal COVID-19 guide-

lines. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is an attorney in Silicon Valley.

U.S. House Illinois District 1 Jonathan Jackson (Incumbent) (Democratic Party): Jackson is from Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood and earned his M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business.

Before taking public office, he launched many telecom, distribution, and construction businesses and taught finance and entrepreneurship at City Colleges of Chicago. According to his website, Jackson is committed to improving access to education and healthcare and raising awareness about innocence and juvenile justice issues.

Marcus Lewis (Republican Party): Lewis is a former postal worker for the United States Postal Service, an ordained Apostolic Pentecostal minister, and a community activist. He leads grassroots efforts to educate voters on conservative principles such as limited government and fiscal restraint. According to his website, Lewis supports mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and sealing the U.S.-Mexico border. He supports Donald Trump.

STATE: Only one state race out of 10 is contested.

Illinois House of Representatives District 26 Kambium Buckner (Democratic Party): Buckner is from the South Side of Chicago and graduated from DePaul University College of Law. In the past, he has worked with United States Senator Dick Durbin, served as the executive director of World Sport Chicago, and has led government and neighborhood relations for the Chicago Cubs. According to his website, Buckner is pro-choice, committed to investing in higher education, and wants to provide opportunities for business growth. Buckner is also a current UChicago Institute of Politics Pritzker fellow.

Audrey Barrett (Republican Party): Barrett is from the South Side of Chicago and is the CEO and founder of Kingdom 4U Health and Wellness. She is a nurse who has worked in pediatric home health since starting her career.

According to her website, Barrett’s top issues include crime, education, the drug crisis, and lack of access to health care.

LOCAL: Of the 46 races on the local ballot, only 10 are contested: Cook County Clerk The Cook County clerk maintains vital records for the county, administers CONTINUED ON PG. 11

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The Cook County clerk of the Circuit Court manages all administrative functions of the circuit courts in Cook County, including handling court records and overseeing court proceedings.

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parts of the real estate tax process, and makes Statements of Economic Interests and lobbyist registrations available to the public. They also serve as the chief election officer for the county and the clerk of the County Board of Commissioners.

Monica Gordon (Democratic Party): Gordon is currently a Cook County commissioner and earned her B.A. from Northern Illinois University and her M.A. from Governors State University.

According to the Cook County website, she serves on 14 Cook County Board Committees and is the vice-chair of the transportation and tax delinquency committees. Before assuming this office, Gordon was the director of government relations at Chicago State University.

Michelle Pennington (Republican Party): Pennington grew up in the suburbs of Dallas and moved to Chicago after college. In the past, she worked for iWorks, an early internet startup, and was the vice president of operations at Computers for School, a partnership which worked to put donated computers into Chicago public schools. Additionally, she has run a real estate business since 2007. According to her website, some of her top issues include election integrity, equitable representation of election judges, and bringing the clerk’s office workforce back to working in office five days a week.

Christopher Laurent (Libertarian Party): Laurent grew up in New Orleans and, after earning his B.A. in journalism, enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After completing his service, Laurent began working at a local law firm and has since contributed his time to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, an organization of which he is a senior vice commander. According to his website, his top issues include election integrity, property rights protection, power decentralization, and community engagement.

Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court The Cook County clerk of the Circuit Court manages all administrative functions of the circuit courts in Cook County, including handling court records and overseeing court proceedings.

Mariyana Spyropoulos (Democratic Party): Spyropoulos grew up on the South Side of Chicago and earned her law degree at University of Illinois Chicago Law and her M.B.A. from Loyola University Chicago. She has also served as president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners and as an assistant state’s attorney. According to her website, her top issues include fighting corruption and misconduct, digitizing all court files, and bringing the courts to the communities by expanding expungement summits.

Lupe Aguirre (Republican Party): Aguirre is a real estate attorney with an M.A. in public administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He operates a law firm in Chicago that focuses on real estate, family, and business law.

Michael Murphy (Libertarian Party): Murphy worked in information technology and moved to Cook County in 2021.

According to his website, his goals include minimizing taxpayer expenses and promoting accountability within the clerk’s office.

Cook County State’s Attorney The Cook County state’s attorney is the county’s chief prosecutor, responsible for prosecuting criminal cases, managing the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and representing the county in civil proceedings.

Eileen O’Neill Burke (Democratic Party): Burke was raised on the Northwest Side and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Chicago-Kent College of Law. She worked as a Cook County assistant state’s attorney for 10 years, then as a criminal

defense attorney. She also served as a justice on Illinois’s First District Appellate Court. According to her website, her top issues include stopping the flow of illegal guns into Chicago, starting programs that fight historic disinvestment in neighborhoods, and rebuilding the State’s Attorney’s Office after attrition.

Bob Fioretti (Republican Party): Fioretti is an attorney who worked as the senior supervising attorney of the General Litigation Division. He has been involved in over 500 civil rights cases and has been appointed several times as an Illinois special assistant attorney general and special assistant state’s attorney.

According to his website, his top issues include removing undocumented immigrants, standing up for victims of violent crime and their families, and enforcing the law “as written.”

Andrew Charles Kopinski (Libertarian Party): Kopinski has lived in Cook County for his entire life and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has also worked as an accountant, real estate broker, and lawyer, focusing on transactional law. According to his website, his biggest goal is to reduce violent crime and property crime in the county.

ensures equitable tax rates.

La Grange Highlands Sanitary District Trustee Board At-large Trustees oversee the local sanitary district to ensure proper wastewater and sewage management.

Jessica Biggs (Nonpartisan): Biggs is a former middle and high school teacher and was the principal in CPS at Burke Elementary School for six years. She has been recognized by the Bronzeville Alliance, the Bronzeville Community Action Council, the Southeast Chicago Commission, Metropolitan Family Services, and the mayor of Chicago for her community leadership. According to her website, she aims to make schools inclusive and believes learning should offer real-world applications. She is also committed to ensuring magnet, specialty, and selective enrollment schools are accessible to families.

Andre Smith (Nonpartisan): Smith

Francis A. Jakubka (Nonpartisan): The Maroon could not find information on this candidate.

Philip C. Sirotzke (Nonpartisan): The Maroon could not find information on this candidate.

Cook County Board of Review District 3 The Board of Review handles property owners’ appeals regarding taxes and

Larry R. Rogers Jr. (Incumbent) (Democratic Party): Rogers has been a trial attorney for more than a decade and assumed this office in 2004. According to his website, Rogers has used his office to increase community awareness through technology and has also streamlined the appeals process. He also says he is committed to accountability, transparency, and ensuring no citizen is overtaxed on their properties.

Nico Tsatsoulis (Libertarian Party): Tsatsoulis moved to Chicago at 19 and earned a B.A. and M.B.A. in finance from the University of Chicago. In the past, he has worked in finance, retail and wholesale, and real estate in Chicago and overseas. In 2024, he was elected the Libertarian committeeperson for the Fifth Ward. According to his website, he is advocating for reducing reliance on property taxes by finding alternative sources of taxation.

Chicago Public Schools School Board District 6 School board members oversee public schools within their district and make decisions concerning budgets, programs, and staffing.

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Circuit Court judges handle civil and criminal cases at the county level, presiding over trials and ruling on cases.

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is a community leader and founder of “Chicago Against Violence,” an anti-violence initiative that collaborates with local police, community organizations, and residents. He is also the vice chair of the Washington Park Resident Advisory Council, which aims to enhance the quality of life for neighborhood residents. According to his website, some of his primary goals include increasing proficiency in reading and math, increasing transparency and community engagement, expanding busing and transportation opinions, and promoting Career and Technical Education (CTE).

Anusha Thotakura (Nonpartisan): Thotakura is a former middle school math teacher. According to her website, her primary goals include prioritizing and expanding access to quality Pre-K programs, investing in student mental health by ensuring every school has a counselor and social worker, and improving access to Career and Technical Education (CTE).

Danielle Wallace (Nonpartisan) (Write-in): Wallace worked in CPS as a clerk and disciplinarian for over 15 years.

According to her responses to Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey, she is running for the Board of Education to provide every child with equitable resources, mental health support, and quality education. She advocates for community-centered solutions, including more community partnerships, co-creating solutions with parents, and transparent decision-making processes.

Chicago Public Schools School Board District 10 School board members oversee public schools within their district and make decisions concerning budgets, programs, and staffing.

Robert Jones (Nonpartisan): Jones is a pastor and community organizer from Bronzeville. According to his website, he supports school funding equity, providing a holistic learning environment, scheduling community engagement, and engaging with local school councils.

Karin Norington-Reaves (Nonpartisan): Norington-Reaves is a Chicago Public Schools graduate and a school board member who has been a workforce development leader for over a decade.

She began her career as a teacher before launching her legal career with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Citizens Utility Board. According to her website, she has focused on education access for children with disabilities, economic development, and district-wide career programming in the past.

Adam Parrott-Sheffer (Nonpartisan): Parrott-Sheffer is an educator and former principal with over 20 years of experience working with schools.

According to his website, he supports building an inclusive community for LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and students experiencing uncertain housing or food scarcity.

Che Smith (Nonpartisan): Smith, also known as “Rhymefest,” is a recording artist, actor, and community advocate who has won two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe.

According to his website, Smith focuses on teacher recruitment and retention, community engagement, data-driven decision-making, and transportation and accessibility.

Rosita Chatonda (Write-in) (Nonpartisan): Chatonda has a doctorate in education and believes one of the district’s most urgent needs is addressing low literacy rates. According to her Facebook, Chatonda aims for equity across all schools and believes all students, especially those in inner-city communities, deserve access to a quality education.

Cook County Circuit Court (James Flannery vacancy) Circuit Court judges handle civil and criminal cases at the county level, presiding over trials and ruling on cases.

Pablo deCastro (Democratic Party): deCastro was a trial attorney in Chicago for 28 years before becoming a judge. He has experience in trial courts and appeals in state and federal courts.

According to his website, he also volunteers at the UChicago Crime Lab, where he implements strategies to improve the criminal justice system. deCastro graduated from UChicago in 1991, where he majored in philosophy, and from 2019– 22, he taught in UChicago Law School’s Intensive Trial Practice Program.

Tien Glaub (Republican Party): Glaub is a prosecutor who helps manage administrative adjudication at the City of Chicago’s hearings facility. According to her website, she aims to ensure judicial power is used to render justice to all parties, especially for residents who don’t receive adequate protection against crime.

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (three seats up for election, voters may choose three candidates) This body oversees wastewater treatment in Cook County and is responsible for safeguarding water resources and maintaining treatment facilities.

Marcelino Garcia (Incumbent) (Democratic Party): Garcia is an attorney with specialties in local and international government, healthcare, and community affairs. He currently serves as the director of community affairs for the Cook County Health & Hospitals System. According to his website, he aims to conserve and preserve resources and the environment to eliminate the harmful effects of untreated wastewater.

Kari Steele (Incumbent) (Democratic Party): Steele is serving her third term as president of the Board of Commissioners. She is a chemist, environmentalist, and licensed real estate broker and has experience working as a water chemist for a purification plant in Chicago. According to her website, she has been a part of initiatives that promote local green infrastructure, reduce flooding, and increase sewer capacity.

Sharon Waller (Democratic Party): Waller is a licensed professional environmental engineer with 30 years of experience in the water industry. She also has a Ph.D. in water quality studies and is

the president of the River Park Advisory Council. Her website shows her primary goals, which include flood management, clean water, and climate resilience.

Claire Connelly (Republican Party): Connelly has a background in nonprofit fundraising and advocates for clean and safe water for all. According to her website, she also aims to protect the environment and promote transparency in government.

Richard Dale (Republican Party): The Maroon could not find information on this candidate.

Brendan Ehlers (Republican Party): The Maroon could not find information on this candidate.

Toneal Jackson (Green Party): According to Ballotpedia, Jackson has experience as an outreach and community engagement entrepreneur. She served as a Local Schools Council chairperson for over a decade and has been the Cook County Green Party chairwoman for two years. She advocates for community engagement and protecting the environment.

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (special election) This is a special election to fill a vacancy in the same body as above.

Precious Brady-Davis (Incumbent) (Democratic Party): Brady-Davis is currently serving as the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioner.

According to her website, she is focused on protecting Lake Michigan, Chicago’s primary source of drinking water, as well as shielding homeowners and businesses from urban flooding.

R. Cary Capparelli (Republican Party): Capparelli is an online instructor at South Dakota State University in geography and geosciences and previously served on the Illinois International Port District board. According to his website, his mission is to make the agency more accountable and to combat the current spending habits, which he believes are poor.

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What to Know About Chicago’s First-Ever Board of Education Election

By GABRIEL KRAEMER | Deputy News Editor This November, Chicago will hold its first-ever Board of Education elections, just weeks after the entire board resigned in protest amid disagreements over budget issues.

The city is divided into 10 districts, each of which will elect one candidate to the nonpartisan 21-member board.

Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint the other 11 members for a two-year transition period. In 2026, the current districts will be split in half, and the full board will be filled with elected members, with the board president elected city-wide.

Hyde Park and Woodlawn are divided between Districts 6 and 10. District 6 covers the main quad and areas north and west of it, including the dorms on the north side of campus, while District 10 covers Hyde Park east of Woodlawn Avenue and areas south of the Midway, including International House and the south campus dorms.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill instituting the elected board in 2021 after a years-long campaign for the reform. Previously, the mayor appointed a seven-member board.

The school board shares authority over Chicago Public Schools (CPS) with the mayor’s office and the CPS chief executive. CPS also gets funding from the state government and negotiates contracts with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

The current board members—all appointed by Johnson—resigned on October 4 after the mayor urged them to remove CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, according to reports by the Chicago SunTimes and WBEZ. The mayor hopes to approve a short-term loan to help cover CPS’s budget deficit and pay for salary raises in a new CTU contract, but Martinez referred to the loan plan as fiscally irresponsible, leading to Johnson’s public call for Martinez’s resignation.

District 6 District 6 extends from 76th Street north to the Wicker Park area. Three candidates are on the ballot: former princi-

pal Jessica Biggs; Anusha Thotakura, the director of a progressive advocacy group; and Andre Smith, the founder of Chicago Against Violence.

Biggs, who was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, served as principal of Burke Elementary School in Washington Park before she was controversially fired in 2018, with community members opposing her departure. In an interview with the Maroon, she said that her platform has four parts: equitable access, budget, staff and leadership pipelines, and community engagement.

“I believe I’m the only candidate in this race that has both the experience and the track record in schools around the neighborhood of the University of improvement, of authentic community engagement,” Biggs said. “I’m the only person in this race in District 6 who has a child in the system, so I have a clear stake in the success of the system.”

She opposes Johnson’s short-term loan to solve the budget crisis. “I don’t think that taking out a short-term, high-interest loan is in the best interests of all the students and families or the district or Chicago long-term,” Biggs said.

“We’ve done this before, we’ve learned from it, and I think the saying is, ‘When you know better, you do better.’”

Biggs also said that she supports keeping Martinez in his position, citing stability. “I think it’s really important that [CPS] has [a] stable leadership and CEO through a major transition to an elected school board,” she said.

Thotakura is a former math teacher and high school debate coach. In an interview with the Maroon, she said she was concerned about inequities at CPS. “In a lot of schools in our city, we have under-resourced schools with crumbling building infrastructure and students that don’t have access to the same opportunities based on their own zip codes,” Thotakura said.

Thotakura, who was endorsed by the CTU, said that her top priority would be addressing the budget deficit. “Having a

responsible budget that fully funds and resources our schools, closing the current budget deficit of over $600 million in a way that’s equitable and also sustainable, is the biggest challenge,” she said. “That’s why I’m running—because I think we need someone who can actually get sustainable funding for our kids.”

Smith did not respond to a request for comment.

District 10 District 10 covers a large portion of the South Side along the lakefront, stretching from near McCormick Place to the southern edge of the city. Four candidates are competing for the seat: former principal Adam Parrott-Sheffer; attorney and former teacher Karin Norington-Reaves; musician Che Smith, known professionally as Rhymefest; and pastor Robert Jones.

Parrott-Sheffer, who now serves on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, was the principal of Mary Gage Peterson Elementary School on the North Side and later worked for New York City’s public school system.

“When we talk about deep knowledge of what our kids need to be successful— kids across the economic spectrum, kids across race and other identities—I bring a deep knowledge of how you help teams do that,” he told the Maroon. “At the other end of it, I’ve also done this work at scale.

I have implemented policies that impacted 1.1 million students.”

He highlighted the budget as a top issue CPS is facing. “There was a $500 million dollar deficit just this year, and any budget shortfall that big is going to require both revenue and cuts to be at all realistic,” Parrott-Sheffer said. “There’s probably about $30 to 40 million in cuts we could make in terms of administrative functions if we’re willing to put more autonomy and accountability on our principles. We could probably get even more by closing network offices or things like that.”

Norington-Reaves, who was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, was previously the executive director of the Chicago division of Teach For America and now

serves as the CEO of i.c. stars, a workforce development nonprofit.

She told the Maroon that top issues for CPS included improving early childhood literacy and career and technical education. “Early childhood capacity to read is a big predictor of later success in life, high school completion rates, and, quite frankly, prison rates, and so we’ve got to have a greater emphasis on kindergarten through second grade literacy,” Norington-Reaves said. “And career and technical education is imperative: 40 percent of our CPS graduates one year after graduation are neither working nor in school, and we can remedy that by making sure that we have solid career/ technical education beginning as early as sixth grade.”

Norington-Reaves also cited her past roles as good experience for dealing with CPS’s budget deficit. “I’ve had significant experience managing complex and very large budgets,” she said. “As CEO of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, I managed a budget that started off as a $3 million cash advance on a $30 million budget and grew that to a $100 million budget. I raised philanthropic and corporate private sector funds to the tune of $150 million and created innovative projects and programs that impacted young people, particularly opportunity youth—young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are out of school and out of work.”

Che Smith is a rapper and Grammy Award-winning songwriter known for his work with Kanye West. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Chicago City Council in 2011 and was a Pritzker Fellow at UChicago’s Institute of Politics last year.

He described his platform as focused on “BCP: budget, curriculum, personnel” in an interview with the Maroon.

“We must start with the budget,” he said. “Balance the budget. Use our community assets as surpluses and deliver our children and our facilities what they need to succeed. We see under-enrollment in many schools, buildings not being used. We see waste in our system. So, the budget must be a priority.”

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“What bothers me most about every single bit of these discussions is that nowhere is anyone centering what is best for our children.”

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Smith added that his background as a musician would provide a unique perspective that the board would benefit from. “I have a background as an artist….

I believe to have a dynamic school board, you need a diverse school board,” he said. “You need more than just one type of experience or qualification: You need artists. You need scientists. You need educators. You need people in finance.

You need people that know how to build things. And you need artists.”

“We talk about how we’re tired of art programs being the first thing that’s cut from CPS. Why don’t we give artists seats at the table of creation in terms of policy?”

Jones, who was endorsed by the CTU, did not respond to a request for comment.

Many of the candidates emphasized the importance of voting in local elections, even for college students who might not be from the area. “Your property taxes in a couple of years, 50 percent of them are [going to] Chicago Public Schools,” Parrott-Sheffer said. “You are financially invested here, even if all you’re doing is buying a coffee, so you ought to have some say in where your money goes.”

“Even if you don’t feel a connection to Chicago, hopefully you feel a connection to the kids in your community that live in the University area and in the wider city,” Thotakura said.

Candidates from both districts universally decried the recent “chaos” in CPS management. “It’s unfortunate that the board resigned because in a crisis, you’re supposed to dig in,” Che Smith

said. “That’s not how you protest. You protest by resolving the issues in a way that benefits the community.”

“What bothers me most about every single bit of these discussions is that nowhere is anyone centering what is best for our children,” Norington-Reaves said. “These political machinations are not about the work of the schools. They are about the business of politics, and honestly, I’m tired of it.”

Some also criticized large donations to some candidates in the school board election. “My hope is very much that having members of our communities be able to elect members to represent them and make decisions will help to democratize [the system],” Biggs said. “But we’re watching huge dollar amounts coming from Illinois charter schools, as well

as the teachers union, and I think such high-dollar races are going to make it challenging for the original intention of the board to come to fruition.”

Many parents and family members of students at William H. Ray Elementary School in Hyde Park told the Maroon that they didn’t know a lot about the school board races. Some said they were worried about potential corruption and decline in schools under an elected board, while others expressed hopes that the board could function better.

“I’m probably going to vote for whoever the teachers union supports,” said Christine Kim, whose son is in third grade at Ray. “I think the teachers have been doing a great job trying to get resources for the school, and basically, I think they have our kids’ best interests at heart.”

Election Could Determine Fate of Federal Bill Spreading Chicago Principles Nationwide

By TIFFANY LI | Head News Editor and CELESTE ALCALAY | Deputy Grey City Editor As November nears, the election could determine whether a federal bill calling on almost all higher education institutions to adopt the Chicago Principles has a chance of passing.

A section of the End Woke Higher Education Act (H.R.3724) “calls on nonsectarian institutions of higher education to adopt the Chicago Principles or substantially similar principles.”

The bill passed on September 19, 2024 in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans currently have a majority by eight seats, and is now moving through the Senate, where Democrats have a majority.

Many believe the Democrats’ Senate majority is precarious, though, and whether Republicans manage to take the majority could determine whether the bill is ultimately signed into law.

Introduced by Representative Burgess Owens (R-Utah), the bill was passed

in the House by a 213-201 vote, with all voting Republicans in favor and all but four Democrats opposed. If the Senate flips Republican this November, which many election forecasters currently view as likely, the bill’s chance of passing could rapidly increase.

The bill would not legally mandate the adoption of the Chicago Principles or similar principles but merely urge higher education institutions to do so.

In communications with the Maroon, Owens’s office said that the bill specifically recommended adopting the Chicago Principles because they “are seen as the gold standard for promoting and protecting free speech.”

The section of the bill titled “Adoption of the Chicago Principles” reads: “The Congress— (A) recognizes that free expression, open inquiry, and the honest exchange of ideas are fun-

damental to higher education; (B) acknowledges the profound contribution of the Chicago Principles to the freedom of speech and expression; and (C) calls on nonsectarian institutions of higher education to adopt the Chicago Principles or substantially similar principles with respect to institutional mission that emphasizes a commitment to freedom of speech and expression on university campuses and to develop and consistently implement policies accordingly.”

The office of Representative Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.), who originally drafted the section, did not respond to a request for comment from the Maroon.

Since December 2023, a wave of institutions including Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern have already voluntarily adopted official positions of institutional neutrality substantially similar to UChicago’s Kalven Report, which the Chicago

Principles are built upon.

The drafters of the Chicago Principles report said that the widespread adoption of the principles by other academic institutions came as a surprise.

Law professor Geoffrey Stone chaired the committee commissioned by then-President Robert Zimmer in 2014 to create the report. The Principles were “written specifically about the University for the University,” Stone said. “It didn’t even occur to us that anyone else would adopt it.”

One of Stone’s former students and Princeton’s president, Christopher Eisgruber, was the first to “figure out that you could just lop off all of the discussion about the history of the University of Chicago and adopt the substantive part of the report,” Stone recalled.

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“I don’t think that every university in the country has to adopt them because universities have all kinds of different purposes and cultures.”

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hypothetical,” he said.

Tom Ginsburg, founding Faculty Director of the Forum on Free Inquiry and Expression, said in a separate interview with the Maroon that he didn’t believe the Chicago Principles were necessarily a good fit for all institutions.

“I think they’re good for us. I don’t think that every university in the country has to adopt them because universities have all kinds of different purposes and cultures,” Ginsburg said. “At the end of the day, these things only work if they’re embedded in the culture of the

university.”

Ginsburg emphasized that UChicago had not promoted the bill, and Stone stressed that “unlike public universities, private universities are free to be who they want.”

Ginsburg said he thought the federal bill might “force [universities] to come up with better programs to promote open discussion in classrooms” but expressed that Congress should leave the situation to higher education professionals to manage.

“I think that higher education should sort itself out,” Ginsburg said. “When

Congress is passing laws in a highly politicized and polarized environment, they’re not likely to help much…. I’m pretty skeptical about the state of Congress, I’m sorry to say, so I don’t think [trying to promote productive academic speech is] what they have in mind.”

He added, though, that he could “understand the impulse” of people who thought higher education institutions had not managed free speech well enough on their own.

“I think universities need to return to recognize that their core mission is freedom of inquiry. It’s to teach and to

research,” Ginsburg said. “We have huge problems in this country… that we’re not going to make progress on without universities, and that universities won’t make progress on if they’re dominated by groupthink, where everyone thinks the same thing and is unable to challenge each other’s ideas. So I think that it’s really important for universities to realize that’s their job—to provide an environment in which people can talk across difference[s] and challenge each other on their ideas. And if we can do that, maybe we’ll regain the faith of the public.”

Your Guide to 2024 Illinois Judicial Races

By OLIVER BUNTIN | Senior News Reporter This November, UChicago students voting locally will have the chance to elect one justice to the Illinois Supreme Court, four judges to the Illinois Appellate Court, and 32 judges to the subcircuit courts of Cook County.

Partisan primaries for each race concluded in March, leaving voters to decide between the Republican and Democratic candidates in each election.

In the Illinois Supreme Court’s first district, comprising Cook County, incumbent Joy Cunningham, a Democrat, is running without opposition.

Cunningham has been on the Supreme Court since 2022, previously serving as

an appellate judge. A graduate of John Marshall Law School (now UIC Law) in Chicago, she previously served as general counsel for the Loyola and Northwestern medical systems before entering public service. Her platform emphasizes reproductive rights and inclusion.

For the Illinois Appellate Court’s first district election, none of the four races are contested.

While Cook County has dozens of judicial elections scheduled, only a small number are contested.

Of the 30 seats up for re-election as part of the Cook County Circuit Court’s general election, only one is contested.

Democrat Pablo deCastro is facing off against Republican Tien Glaub. deCastro (A.B. ’91) teaches in the Law School’s intensive trial practice program. He began his career in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office before becoming a federal public defender. His advertising emphasizes “equitable access to justice,” although he has not released a platform.

Glaub, the first Republican to run in a Cook County Circuit Court general election for over a decade, describes her candidacy as motivated by a desire to increase awareness of “justice and fairness” in the judicial system. Glaub currently serves as a manager of Administrative Adjudication for the City of Chicago and has also not released a

platform.

For the two seats up for re-election in Cook County subcircuit’s district one, Carl Walker and Erika Orr are running unopposed. This subcircuit district encompasses Hyde Park and most neighborhoods along the South Side lakeshore.

In Cook County, only subcircuits 12 and 17 have Republican candidates contesting the election. Voters can consult endorsement guides from the Chicago Council of Lawyers and various bar associations surveyed by WTTW. Voters with further questions about eligibility and ballot access can visit the Illinois State Board of Elections website for more information.

UChiVotes Promotes Early Voting on Campus

By KATHERINE WEAVER | News Editor UChicago students can vote early on campus from October 30 to November 1 thanks in part to efforts from many campus political organizations. One such organization is UChiVotes, a nonpartisan initiative run through the Institute of Politics, which aims to encourage voter engagement in the UChicago community.

The organization is led by co-chairs

Shannon Dye and Davis Turner, both fourth-years, and focuses on creating a culture of “lifelong voting.” The Maroon spoke with Dye and Turner about what UChiVotes is doing to help UChicago community members participate in this year’s election.

UChicago will be hosting early voting through Chicago’s College/University

Early Voting Program at the Reynolds Club. Polls will be open Wednesday, October 30, through Friday, November 1, starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m.

There is no difference between a vote cast early and a vote cast on election day.

“There’s definitely less stress to early voting,” Turner said. “I know that people are complaining about long lines at early voting sites across the country, but typically the site isn’t too busy in Reynolds.”

Students and community members voting on election day must do so in their precinct’s poll location, which can be found under “Voting in Illinois” on the UChiVotes website. Hours of operation for each poll station vary. UChiVotes will also have a table in the Reynolds Club to help voters find their polling locations and answer any questions.

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Illinois is one of 22 states that allows same-day registration.

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same-day registration. Registered voters do not need to bring any form of identification or proof of residence to the polls, but the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners recommends carrying a government ID in case of any issues with the registration.

Unregistered voters with Illinois state driver’s licenses only need to bring the license; others must bring a form of ID such as an out-of-state driver’s license, state ID, or passport, as well as proof of residence. On-campus students can find proof of residence on the myHousing portal, and off-campus students can bring a copy of utility bills, leases, or other official documents with their address listed. All unregistered voters must also know the

last four digits of their Social Security number.

UChiVotes partners with many groups on campus, such as Housing and Residence Life, Undergraduate Student Government, and College Democrats and Republicans, to help spread voting information within their organizations.

On October 25, UChiVotes is working with Midwave Radio to host a free voting-themed concert. UChiVotes Voting Ambassadors will be present to assist in voter registration, and there is a $10 suggested donation for the bands who have donated their time to the concert.

Most students are familiar with UChiVotes through tabling events staffed by Voting Ambassadors, who are UChiVotes team members trained to educate about

elections, voting, and voter registration.

“I was very involved in politics throughout high school, but it wasn’t until later that I learned actually how low voter turnout was,” Dye said. “Since I found out that fact, I was like, this is crazy. We need to do something about this.”

“The year I got to Chicago was also the first year that I was eligible to vote, and I was really, really excited to vote, and I wanted people to be as excited as I was,” Turner said. “I was a voting ambassador my first year.”

UChiVotes has recently focused on building connections within the UChicago community, with an emphasis on outreach to students in on-campus housing.

“One thing we’ve learned from psychology is that the more you can get voting just

out and about, it doesn’t have to be difficult to persuade people,” Dye said. “That’s why we like to talk about a culture of voting—if you see it everywhere, you’re more likely to remember deadlines, to remember to request your ballot, [to] remember to mail it in.”

For more information on how to register to vote and where to cast your ballot campus, scan the QR Code to UChicago Turbovote.

Democratic, Republican Students Prepare for Election Day

By ANIKA KRISHNASWAMY | Deputy News Editor As Election Day approaches, students across a broad spectrum of political views and affiliations are preparing to vote. The Maroon sat down with Democrats and Republicans in the College to understand the issues most important to them this election season.

Second-year UChicago Democrats member Soph Franklin expressed optimism about the level of Democratic engagement on campus. “I feel really happy that a lot of my peers are also politically engaged and are excited to get out there and vote,” they said.

Robbie Hlatki, a second-year and communications director for UChicago Democrats, noted that the RSO has been very active this quarter. He pointed to spikes in attendance at weekly meetings for the RSO and on its canvassing trips for the Harris campaign as indicative of excitement surrounding this particular election.

“I think we see a lot more energy,” Hlatki said of this election cycle as compared to past ones. “This… is a choice between Kamala Harris or Donald Trump...

Not everyone agrees with every single policy that is supported by Harris, but I think there’s a consensus among UChicago Democrats, and I think among my

estimates, the UChicago body, that she is the better pick in this election. She’s the one fighting for us.”

For Hlatki, the most important voter issues this election are the same ones that the Harris campaign promises to champion. “I’m worried about what Donald Trump’s going to do,” he said. “I just believe that Kamala is going to fight for my future because she’s going to push for stricter gun laws that are basic common sense, like background checks, red flag laws, assault weapons ban... Kamala Harris is going to take us forward in so many more ways.”

Franklin echoed these concerns but cited the Supreme Court in particular as their main voting issue.

“It’s really important to have someone who I trust, who will pick justices who will protect my rights and my values… [because they’ll] be serving on the court for most of my adult life,” Franklin said, emphasizing the long-term impacts of judicial appointments on issues like reproductive rights.

On the other side of the aisle, fourthyear Republican Carolyn Russell named the economy as her top priority in the upcoming election and a key reason for her choice to vote for Donald Trump.

“The economy—with [the Biden-Harris] administration, we’ve seen prices go up,” Russell said. She added that immigration was important to her too. “I’m all for immigration—this country was built on immigration—[but] I think that to have people we don’t know here… [is] a problem, and I think that impacts the economy a lot, too, because we’re paying a lot for the illegal immigrants to be here.”

Second-year Republican Akshay Kirthi expressed a similar sentiment, noting his dissatisfaction with the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policy, and criticizing America’s tendency to act as a “global policeman” in major international conflicts.

“I believe that America should act in its own interests,” Kirthi said. “I think the U.S. should disengage from Ukraine, disengage from Israel, disengage from other parts of the world, [but] I think that’s definitely an uncommon view, especially among Republicans, even certain Democrats.”

He spoke about the realities of leaning more conservatively on what Kirthi called “an extremely liberal” campus, noting some level of “stigma,” but credited UChicago’s emphasis on free speech with making them more comfortable to express dissenting opinions.

“I think free speech is definitely a mo-

tivating factor for why I publicly call myself a conservative,” Kirthi said. “I think it’s important to air these differences in political philosophy because I think as long as we have a common understanding that we all want this country to be better… that makes the differences that we might have in getting there far more approachable.”

Democrats at UChicago also view the University’s free speech culture as a positive force; Hlatki expressed pride in UChicago’s commitment to fostering open dialogue. “I think UChicago’s focus on free speech is really great for the political climate,” he said. “The president of UChicago Republicans is a good friend of mine… We [the two RSOs] have a debate coming up… that’s the epitome of free speech.”

Both Democrats and Republicans at UChicago agree that this year’s race will be a close one and encourage their fellow students to be informed voters.

“Say, ‘Hey, what values do I support?

And how do these candidates [support them]? Would they reflect them if they were elected in office?’” Hlatki said. “This election is going to be close. That’s why every single vote matters… Every single call we make matters.”

UChicago Republicans did not respond to an interview request from the Maroon.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 24, 2024

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ARTS Beauty and Horror in “East Texas Hot Links” at Court There is a mosaic of experience in Court Theatre’s first play of the 2024/25 season, writes Arts Editor Nolan Shaffer.

By NOLAN SHAFFER | Arts Editor It is 1955 in East Texas, and in the worn down, “colored only” Top o’ the Hill Café, anxiety simmers among East Texas Hot Links’ community of eight bantering, diverse characters. For most of the play this anxiety is like a shadow, ready to engulf the characters and pierce their facade of normalcy at any moment. In the otherwise relaxed and humorous bar atmosphere of the play, which opened September 6 at Court Theatre, apprehension builds with a horror that is at once both engrossing and terrifying.

The plot is largely unadorned: for most of it, a slice of life of a hot, tinged evening in a café in East Texas meanders by. Things heat up when it is revealed that, due to an act of greedy betrayal, a shady job opportunity for Delmus (a determined David Dowd), which seems too good to be true, is actually the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) trying to teach him a lesson. The format of this, slow then quickly hot, allows the actors to take center stage in the story by giving room for them to develop. What results is a beautiful collage of characters who span the gamut on everything from humor to attitude to life philosophy. Adolph (a good-natured Wille B.) is exceptionally wise. The audience hangs on to every word of the poetic monologues he delivers from his chair with the candor of a sage. Rather than possessing Adolph’s acquiescence, Delmus is filled with a fiery ambition for a better life, an ambition so strong that he’s willing to put himself in danger for it. This array of perspectives is not only refreshing and entertaining but also meaty, providing a view into the social fabric of a story of violence and community that, though fiction, has been lived through in many iterations.

Director Ron O.J. Parson skillfully navigates the anxiety of the play’s conflict without letting it dominate the story.

East Texas Hot Links is just as much a play about the strength and beauty of a Black community as it is a stark reminder of a lived reality of fear and violence. This delicate balance is accomplished largely through humor and intimacy dotted with bleak reality checks. Roy (an animated Kelvin Roston Jr.) cracks jokes and is filled with energy but is plagued with a tangible restlessness. In a manner typical of the play, XL Dancer (a fiery Juwan Lockett) laughs as he twice mentions working for “the same old white man” since he was a baby. Yet this takes on a gutting significance when we’re confronted with what we already suspect: in a string of casual disclosures, XL reveals that his boss comes from a family of slave owners, is a member of the KKK, and controls the town they live in.

There is an elephant in the room in East Texas Hot Links: the characters are looking for escape, but it’s clear, as America’s history (and Chekhov’s gun) reminds us, that they will be unlikely to find it. This is amplified by a credibly worn-down set (designed by Jack Magaw) situated in the middle of a forest with nowhere to go, and the nail-biting sounds and lights of an arriving truck with KKK members (sound design Josh McCammon; lighting design Jason Lynch). This dramatic irony and its visual support create a kind of claustrophobia that makes the production as exciting as it is alarming. The end of the play becomes so tense that one fears to blink lest they miss what happens. That said, this thread of tension occasionally gets lost in the first half of the play, leaving one to wonder how exactly the 90-minute run time will be filled. If these dead moments are Parson’s strategy for capturing the stagnant atmosphere of the Top o’ the Hill Café, they come at the occasional cost of the audience’s attention.

However, the play never gets too tired as the characters respond diversely and dramatically to their environment. From the get-go, Roy is dying for something, anything, to provide reprieve. In fact, the play begins with a long silence that’s

dynamics. The respect she commands and the community she’s cultivated are brilliantly palpable, adding glimmers of hope and inspiration to the production. This sense of community is perceptively reinforced by Boochie (a booming A.C. Smith)

Buckshot and XL Dancer (left and right) face off as tensions rise with nowhere to go. courtesy of michael brosilow.

broken only with a poignant “Damn” by Roy. On the other hand, Buckshot (Geno Walker, who has a wonderful range that spans from dreamy to homicidal) begins calm and grounded but can only contain himself for so long before pressure causes something within him to burst. Finally, Delmus is desperate to leave and is willing to take any job he can get his hands on, which is gutting when we’re bleakly reminded by Adolph that wherever he goes, he’ll still be working for the same white man.

A wonderful element of this production is its ability to show pockets of beauty in the darkest moments, especially as the plot progresses and things become ugly.

Charlesetta (a truly shining AnJi White), is a strong and intelligent glue in the play’s

and Columbus (a wonderfully kind Alfred H. Wilson, who nails his soft-spoken demeanor), especially as their intimate investment and compassion in the other characters becomes manifest.

There is an incredible moment near the end of East Texas Hot Links where it feels like the scene should end, but it doesn’t.

There is a long, agonizing silence that sweeps through the house of Court Theatre and hangs in the air, transforming the audience members into what feels closer to witnesses than theatergoers. There is a raw feeling as the actors themselves become real people: traumatized, exhausted, and out of breath. Suddenly and without fanfare, the line between fiction and reality becomes indistinct, and, like the actors, we too are left gasping for air.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 24, 2024

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Sit Down. Sturgill Simpson Has Things That You Need to Hear.

In a stop at the Salt Shed, country singer Sturgill Simpson sealed the end of his old outlaw style. But in Simpson’s own words: “Sometimes beginnings can come from an end.”

By NOAH GLASGOW | Head Arts Editor “Sit down, baby,” Sturgill Simpson sings. “I got some things that you need to hear.”

These words lead the last track on country singer Simpson’s most recent album, Passage du Desir. On the winding nine-minute track, Simpson searches for a way to tell his lover that it’s time they moved on. “What if I told you / I’m not the man that you think I am?” Simpson wonders. “Would you listen / or would I only

hear / the door behind you slam?”

Though these words close Passage, they opened Simpson’s Salt Shed concert earlier this month. The Sturgill Simpson coming onto the stage was not the Grammy Award–winning Kentuckian who’d won hearts with outlaw stories in the style of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. That’s no longer the man Simpson is. But the end of one thing inevitably marks the start of something else—perhaps something wiser,

Sturgill Simpson plays the Salt Shed. noah glasgow.

toughened, brighter. It’s that cycle, freighted with tragedy and promise, that plays out in the lyrics of Simpson’s latest songs and on the strings of his electric guitar.

After a vocal cord rupture cut short Simpson’s 2021 tour, no one knew if Simpson would return to the recording studio, the stage, or even, for that matter, the United States. Having lost his voice, Simpson absconded to Paris, and indeed that’s where the first lines of Passage du Desir find him: “Spend my days in a haze / floatin’ round in the Marais.” “Melody washes over but can’t make out a word they say,” Simpson sings of his new neighbors.

It’s a turn away from lyrics and toward “melody” that Simpson seems to have brought to his music from his sojourn in Paris. At the Salt Shed, Simpson talked precious little. He played for nearly an hour—pivoting from “One for the Road” into “Some Days” and fan favorite “Turtles All the Way Down”—before ever setting down his guitar. Even then, he didn’t take a moment to welcome Chicago to his concert. He merely conferred with his band and picked up the next song.

Simpson worships at the shrine of the guitar. Whole songs slipped by without a single verse sung. Reportedly, Simpson only agreed to tour his latest album after

he was invited to play guitar alongside Bob Weir and Mickey Hart—former members of The Dead—at a tribute concert. It’s melodies, not words, that have brought Simpson back on stage. “You and me, we don’t need words to say anything, / they just get in the way,” Simpson sings on “If the Sun Never Rises Again.”

It’s hard not to hear the fear of an old injury lurking behind those words. At some level, Simpson has every reason to avoid singing. But it’s more than that. Live, Simpson pares down the highly produced tracks on Passage—featuring strings, organ, even a brass band—so that his guitar can tell the story. The strings whine on “If the Sun Never Rises Again” and mourn on “Jupiter’s Faerie.” That’s Simpson’s magic.

Perhaps it was only with his vocal injury that he could open up these new passions.

Even in “Mint Tea,” which turns on Simpson’s good-old-boy charm rather than pushing into the introspection found on the rest of the album, the heel-tapping hook still exalts in the sort of joy that Simpson digs up in the worst moments of injury and tragedy: “Put another Band-Aid on my bullet wound, / and pour us both another cup of that mint tea.”

As he himself sings: “Sometimes beginnings can come from an end.”

PODCASTS The Arts Podcast: BRAT Summer Hosted by TIFFANY LI | Arts Editor and ELIZABETH ECK | Arts Reporter Edited by TIFFANY LI | Arts Editor

Tune in to hear another episode of the Arts podcast, where Elizabeth and Tiffany talk all things Brat (Charli XCX’s newest album) as they review the Sweat tour, featuring Charli XCX and Troye Sivan with Shygirl as the opener.

On this episode, they’ll also share their thoughts on whether Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend is brat, why the Kamala Harris campaign picked up and ran with Brat’s branding, and what tracks they’re excited for from the remix album of Brat released last Friday.

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 24, 2024

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SPORTS Recent Results

Upcoming Games

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country have both placed well in recent races, with the men’s team finishing sixth out of 46 competitors at the DIII Pre-Nationals Meet on Oct. 4. The women’s team showed similar strength, finishing second out of 44.

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country: UAA Championship, Attleboro (Mass.), 12 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2.

Football lost in a high-scoring match against Illinois College on Oct 12, finishing 50–37. The Maroons are now 3–2 in conference play.

Football: Chicago vs. Cornell College (Ill.), 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26.

Men’s Soccer went to the Empire State for their first two conference matchups, drawing 0–0 in Rochester on Oct 5 before trumping NYU 2–1 on Oct 12. After a 3–1 loss to North Park University (No. 9) on Oct. 16, they are now 7–6–1, 2–0–1 overall.

Men’s Soccer: Chicago vs. Case Western Reserve (Ill.), 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25.

Women’s Soccer started their season strong but have struggled against their first two league opponents, losing 3–1 to Rochester (No. 14) and 2–0 to NYU (No. 17).

Women’s Volleyball has started off the season strong but lost 3–1 to Emory (No. 6) in the UAA Round Robin hosted by Wash U on Oct. 13. They are now 20–5.

Women’s Soccer: Chicago vs. Case Western Reserve (Ohio), 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25.

Women’s Volleyball: Chicago vs. Wash U (Mo.), 12 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27.

Chicago vs. Case Western Reserve (Ohio), 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27.

Free Event

November 9, 2024

Malcolm X College 1900 W. Jackson Blvd.

Register Now: chicago.gov/CityCivicsDay

THE CHICAGO MAROON — OCTOBER 24, 2024

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CROSSWORDS

80. Take Me Out to the Ballgame ACROSS 1 Witch 4 Kronk and Ken, to name two 10 Acronym for short attention spans 14 Braves, on a scoreboard 15 Say positively 16 Woodwind insert 17 Slushy relative 19 Certain supermarkets 20 Seldom 21 Limit 22 “Les fleurs du ___” 23 Low sugar, as a soda 24 Permits 25 Karate level 26 Tennis player Jabeur 27 Life vest: Abbr.

29 Future J.D. hurdle 30 Meir of Israel 32 Proportion 33 Situation in which a walk scores a run, in baseball 35 ___ nova 36 Change 37 Part to play 38 Doofus 39 Bar scene?

42 Singer Redding 43 People who might grade your psets 45 Side product?

46 Sponsor of the Texans’ football stadium 47 German article 48 Bathroom sign 50 Locale of Arches National Park 51 “Don we now our gay apparel” time?

53 Sunni or Shia 54 Libyan language 55 Capital of Croatia?

56 Inquires 57 Texas city 58 Many flatscreen TVs DOWN 1 Braid, bangs, or bun 2 Accomplish 3 Looks daggers (at) 4 Grab a cab 5 “Crikey!”

6 AOL alternative 7 General Motors brand 8 Ocean predators with the second-largest brain of all marine mammals

9 10 11 12 13 18 24 25 27 28

By ELI LOWE | Associate Crossword Editor

For more puzzles, visit chicagomaroon.com/crosswords.

Soak What UChicago confusingly refers to as a quarter Public help for a litigant Let into the game GPS lines Tennis do-over Word with ends or evens Features of lawns and lawn mowers Entourages Pet peeve?

30 31 32 33 34 35 39 40

Manipulates into questioning one’s sanity, slangily Carte start “Fiddlesticks!”

Shoe storage spot Center for Identity and Inclusion org.

Literary sisters Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Christmas curmudgeon Threw, in Gen Z slang

41 43 44 45 47 48 49 50 52

Prepares potatoes Caesar’s land Plain type?

Kerfuffle Joystick alternative “Star Wars” heroine Theater chain locations “___ Today” (newspaper) “Ground rule” hit: Abbr.