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STRINGS RAMEN COMES TO 53RD STREET, REPLACING HIRO SUSHI

NOVEMBER 6, 2019 SIXTH WEEK VOL. 132, ISSUE 6

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Chicago Police Investigate Report of Sexual Assault at Delta Upsilon

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Obama Defends OPC Location, Chides Call-Out Culture

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ARTS: Alum David Gosz Seeks to Change Conversation Around Mental Health

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Recent IOP Instagram Stories Show Anti-Palestine Bias

SPORTS: Women’s Soccer Rallies PAGE 11

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

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Police Investigate Alleged Assault at DU; Fraternity Says Incident Occurred but “No Delta Upsilon Brother is Suspected of Misconduct”

By MATTHEW LEE and JUSTIN SMITH Deputy News Editors As of Monday, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) was investigating a reported sexual assault that occurred at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house on Saturday, according to police and University officials.

A college-wide email sent Sunday by the University’s Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen and Title IX Coordinator Bridget Collier said that a student on Saturday night reported being sexually assaulted at a party at 5714 South Woodlawn Avenue—the fraternity house of Delta Upsilon—to Chicago Police and the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD). The email said that the offender was an unknown male. As of Monday, the offender was still unknown, Chicago Police said.

University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said in a statement to The Maroon that the University sent out a community alert because it “believed the safety information in [the community alert] warranted notifying students.”

CPD officer Jessica Alvarez said that the incident occurred at around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. Chicago police arrived at a near-

by hospital around 1 a.m. in response to the call about the incident, Alvarez said.

Chicago Police is leading the investigation because, McSwiggan said, “the incident in issue occurred off campus.” UCPD “acts in a supporting role if needed,” McSwiggan said.

When asked whether the University is investigating Delta Upsilon, McSwiggan said, “All students at the university are subject to University policies and disciplinary procedures regardless of membership in outside organizations. In light of federal laws protecting privacy and other privacy considerations, we do not release details about individual cases.”

The University does not officially recognize fraternities or sororities.

Rasmussen said in the college-wide email that individuals with information about the incident can contact CPD at 911 or UCPD at (773) 702–8181.

Editor’s note: The Maroon is conducting ongoing reporting of the incident. Details in the below statement from the Executive Committee of Delta Upsilon were not corroborated by The Maroon by the time of publication, and reflect only Delta Upsilon’s account of the situation. Information can be

shared with The Maroon at our tip line.

Delta Upsilon Statement: The Chicago Chapter of Delta Upsilon is deeply saddened to respond to the incident that occurred at the chapter house over the weekend. As a signatory and strong supporter of the Fraternities Committed to Safety policies (FCS), the chapter’s primary priority is the safety of its members and guests.

On Nov. 2, the Chicago Chapter held a closed social event, running approximately from 10:00 pm until 1:30 am, that followed both FCS and Fraternity policies governing social events, as outlined by our Code of Conduct. As a part of our standard risk management policies, the chapter had signs prominently displayed throughout the fraternity house with sober monitors’ contact information, phone numbers for UCPD and the Sexual Assault Dean on Call, and a link (as well as a QR code) to the FCS website.

Immediately upon learning of the incident, chapter officers directed the survivor to the Sexual Assault Dean on Call, UCPD, CPD, and the Emergency Room, to ensure they were aware of the resources available to them. The party was then immediately shut down and its attendees dispersed, in accor-

dance with FCS guidelines. The chapter and its officers acted quickly to assist the survivor and ensure the appropriate authorities were notified of the incident.

Please note that while the email sent out by the school reports this incident as having occurred at 10:30 pm, we do not believe this to be an accurate description, and now understand the incident to have happened approximately 15 minutes before the event’s shutdown.

Having sent a digital copy of our latest composite to the survivor for purposes of identification, and through subsequent dialogue with them, we now understand that no Delta Upsilon brother is suspected of misconduct. That being said, we are in contact with the survivor and have been working to support them to the best of our abilities.

The chapter is cooperating fully with the International Fraternity and will continue to cooperate with any local police or University investigation.

Out of respect for the survivor and possible investigations, it would be inappropriate for us to comment any further on the matter at this time.

Kind regards, Executive Committee of the Chicago Chapter of Delta Upsilon

Multiracial Populism Symposium Examines Left-Wing Movements at 3CT

By ALEX DALTON Grey City Editor On Friday, Saieh Hall hosted a symposium titled “For the Many: On the Prospects of Multiracial Populism” that brought together activists, academics, and politicians to discuss lessons and strategies for left-wing political movements in the United States. The event was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, the Working Families Party, and other University and political groups.

The University of Chicago “was kind of an ideal place” to hold the event, Aziz Rana, professor of law at Cornell University and one of the organizers of the event, told The Maroon.

The University of Chicago, he said, was instrumental in the formation of a past bipartisan consensus that espoused “absolute bedrock faith in market capitalism,” while ignoring the realities of race in the United States—a state of affairs which he believes led to the rise of President Trump.

“What better place to have a conversation about the possibility for a class-conscious multiracial and truly transformative majority?” he said.

Ted Fertik, a senior strategist with the Grassroots Policy Project and the Working Families Academy, also organized the event. He said he saw the event as an opportunity to examine a term whose meaning remains contested.

The term “multiracial populism,” he

told The Maroon, “has been percolating for the last two to five years without anyone really trying to define it.” He said left-wing activists have been excited about a politics that goes beyond the “smallbore” solutions offered by liberalism.

Fertik noted that historical movements labeled “populist,” “didn’t always necessarily have the best record on questions of race and racism,” and today “movements coming out of especially Black and Brown communities [don’t] necessarily see themselves reflected in this sort of broader, emerging populist politics.”

The task, then, becomes building a movement that melds a radical agenda centered around class antagonism with a racially inclusive structure.

Adom Getachew, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago, told The Maroon that in the era of Trumpism, mainstream scholarly and popular discourse “has conceded or accepted the view that populism is anti-democratic, which just seems so strange [because] whatever it is, it’s a project of building majorities.”

For Getachew, it’s just a question of building majorities “in a way that centers anti-racist social justice movements,” she said.

The symposium focused on the difficulties of building a movement that is both politically radical and radically inclusive.

Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, highlighted this CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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“One of the First Problems for Thinking About a Politics of the Many: What About the Few?” CONTINUED FROM PG. 2

tension in his introduction to the event.

In order to overcome the electoral advantage held by the Republican party in the Senate, which through its structure grants white, rural voters disproportionate representation, “we will have to win votes in places where people don’t automatically share our politics, especially on questions of race and racism,” Mitchell said.

“How do we do that without sacrificing our commitments to anti-racist politics?” he asked. “To me, twhe ‘multiracial’ in ‘multiracial populism’ means that we will only build a powerful working-class majority in this country by talking honestly about race and racism, not by avoiding the subject.”

Mitchell cited the example of public swimming pools in the South that were defunded and drained by segregationists in order to prevent Black people from ac-

cessing them, thereby denying everyone the opportunity.

He compared this to how, in his opinion, the right feeds the racial fear and resentment of the white working class in order to advance an agenda that hurts all working people. Only through confronting and exposing this deception, he said, can the left win political victories.

As the first panel of the day, “Global and Historical Lessons,” showed, the meaning and utility of the term “multiracial populism” is far from settled. The panel’s moderator, University of Illinois at Chicago professor Barbara Ransby, was outspoken in her skepticism of the term, questioning whether the term is worth rehabilitating.

“To me, ‘populism’ comes with a lot of baggage,” she said. “It’s so vague, it’s so ambiguous, it can be a lot of things. And into that come a lot of very nasty characters. We’re not just talking about an ac-

ademic debate here; we’re talking about how does this term traffic and travel in the real world.”

In a panel titled “What Do We Want?” professor Yarimar Bonilla of Rutgers University argued that efforts towards leftwing coalition-building must incorporate the voices of people in the United States’s overseas territories, who she said are frequently overlooked.

“That’s, I think, one of the first problems for thinking about a politics of the many—what about the few?” she said. “We think of the few as the elites, but sometimes the few are the minorities.”

While the difficulties of effecting political change came up frequently, the panelists were hopeful overall. The current political status of the United States, speakers stressed, provides a rare opportunity for an organized left to win substantial victories.

For Fertik, now is the perfect time to

confront both race and class in the political sphere.

“I was scared when Trump got elected that the common sense position among your average liberal in America would be that this is such an aberration and we just have to go back to what we had before,” Fertik told The Maroon.

While that may have initially been the case, Fertik said, “I actually don’t think it took that long...to convince people that there must be something more wrong than that with what was going on before for something like Trump awnd Trumpism to happen.”

“Once that switch went off,” Fertik said, “I think it actually became dramatically easier to talk about race in a political setting, and racial justice demands, and not have that seem like it’s somehow at odds with building broad-based solidarity.”

Former Class Representative Starts Think Tank to Review Student Government, Research Mental Health

By JUSTIN SMITH Deputy News Editor David Liang, a second-year who ran for vice president of the student body last year, has started a think tank to research issues pertaining to Student Government (SG) at the University of Chicago.

The Campus Policy Research Institute (CPRI) will be funded by the student-led University of Chicago Democracy Initiative, an RSO, and plans to publish research on the viability of making SG an independent, nonprofit organization and on the state of mental health on campus.

CPRI was started to address “underappreciated problems with the University,” Liang told The Maroon.

For fall and winter quarter, the organization’s leaders say they will focus their efforts on the possibility, cost, and benefits of making SG a nonprof-

it, as part of a campaign for student government independence from the University. They say they were inspired by the autonomous and independent SG organizations of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

“One of the problems we are going to kick off today is to study how pervasive the mental health problem is on our campus,” Liang said.

The organization aims to produce viable research, which can be used to inform SG and administrative decisions. “It’s borderline impossible to make sensible policies without proper data supporting your decisions,” Liang said. He added that they will collect data on the quantity of sleep per night students receive and workload students have as part of their analysis of mental health on campus.

Liang and CPRI deputy directors, second-year Jonah Fleishhacker and

third-year Matthew Pinna, decided to focus on mental health and SG because they are the “issues most pertinent to student life at the moment,” Fleishhacker told The Maroon. The CPRI aims to “look at issues no one has ever looked at before.”

The organization will use primarily “quantitative measures” and, as a “nonpartisan, nonpolitical research group,” aims to be politically independent, according to Liang.

In the long term, the CPRI aims “to be a trusted source of information for decision makers at all different levels,” Liang said. “When [SG or the administration] need facts or data for decision making they can commission us for projects that they want us to look at.”

Liang believes the CPRI is “uniquely positioned to connect with our students and conduct research that they care about,” as opposed to studies the administration has done on campus is-

sues over the past few months, due to the members’ status as undergraduate students. In regards to the University’s recent Campus Climate survey, Liang believes that “sensitive topics can get skewed data when collected by the administration.”

Third-year Joshua McKie, president of the University of Chicago Democracy Initiative (UCDI), which is funding the CPRI, told The Maroon that “the UCDI supports any initiative that advances democracy in any way, and this is a way for people to get more involved in issues on campus.”

The CPRI expects to publish initial project reports on SG independence and campus mental health late winter quarter.

“Regardless of our results, it’s an important step, no matter what, to educate the people,” Pinna said.

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Obama Condemns Call-Out Culture, Defends Vision for OPC

By EMMA DYER News Editor Former President Barack Obama defended his vision for the Obama Presidential Center—including its placement in Jackson Park—at the third annual Obama Foundation Summit Tuesday. The comments marked his first public discussion of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) plans in over a year.

During the summit, hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology in Bronzeville, Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama joined activists, filmmakers, musicians, and actors in discussing how places have shaped their lives.

The summit’s theme, “Places Reveal Our Purpose,” led the Foundation to heavily promote the OPC plans, a stark departure from last year’s summit, where Barack Obama did not discuss or take questions regarding the OPC. Despite criticism of the OPC’s planned location in Jackson Park, including calls for a community benefits agreement (CBA), the Obamas said they see their project as a revitalization of underutilized space.

“It’s about bringing life to a park that may be protected, and loved by its friends, but it’s not used by the community, the people who live there,” Michelle Obama said. “I hope this is something the community feels is an asset, and it requires the trust of knowing that Barack and I wouldn’t bring some crap up into our neighborhood,” she added.

At the beginning of the event, Michelle Obama spoke in conversation with her brother Craig Robinson. The two keyed their discussion off photographs chronicling the chapters of their lives— from their upbringing on the South Side, which they described as steeped in familial love and sense of community, to hosting family dinner at the White House.

The siblings touched on the challenges of growing up on the South Side in a time when white families began leaving the neighborhood in droves.

“As families like ours, upstanding families like ours—who were doing everything we were supposed to do... moved in, white folks moved out, because they were afraid of what our families represented,” Michelle Obama said.

She added that white flight remains a problem in cities. “I want to remind white folks that ya’ll were running from us.

You were running from us, and you’re still running because we are no different from the immigrant families who are moving in,” Michelle Obama said.

Robinson and Michelle Obama also discussed the decision to place the OPC in Jackson Park. Robinson said that he had little exposure to Jackson Park during his childhood, despite growing up less than a mile away from the park.

In Robinson’s experience, Jackson Park “was a park that people just didn’t congregate at. There wasn’t an outdoor access where you did stuff in this park on a regular basis.”

Michelle Obama agreed, saying, “Barack’s presidential library could have been anywhere in the world because there are so many people who feel like he is their president all over the world. We had to think, where do we put these resources—because it will be a resource.

Well, what better place to put it than our backyard?”

Michelle Obama said she had pondered what it would look like to have the vitality of a museum campus, like the one in Grant Park, in the Woodlawn area.

“Well wow, wouldn’t that be a powerful vision on the South Side with the

Museum of Science and Industry and the Obama Presidential Center, where there would be programming and life,” Michelle Obama said. “That it would be a place where people from around the world would come to visit and see. Not just Grant Park, but the South Side of Chicago—why would we try to do this anywhere else but here?”

In the afternoon, Barack Obama spoke with four young adult activists: Awah Francisca Mbuli, a member of Leaders: Africa; Community Leadership Corps member Mimi Gonzalez; Obama Foundation Scholar Samira Koujok; and De’Andre Brown of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.

Obama urged young activists to focus on actions rather than status. “Worry more about what you want to do than want to be,” Obama said. “You may spend ten years just trying to be something, and when you get there it turns out that you have no idea what you want to do with it.”

Obama also added a word of warning to young people in an age of armchair activism. He remarked that there is an attitude on college campuses that “if I tweet or hashtag about, ‘you didn’t do something right, or used the wrong word or wrong verb,’ then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, because, man,

you see you woke I am?”

“That’s not activism,” Obama said.

“That’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you’re probably not going to get that far.”

The day’s final remarks returned to the OPC. Obama, who has been tight lipped in regards to ongoing controversies surrounding the construction of the OPC, continued to avoid discussing the political entanglements the Foundation has faced during OPC’s planning.. Instead, Obama ended the day by asserting his vision for the center.

Obama said he wants the OPC to act as a hub for civic engagement. “The most important thing [Michelle and I] think we can do, is to pass the baton to as many people as possible,” Obama said.

The physical space of the OPC, in which community members can access creator spaces and come together, is the bedrock of Obama’s vision for the project.

“We want [the OPC] to be a university for activism and social change, and a convening place for reimagining how we solve the problems that your generation will confront,” he said. “And we will connect with satellites and nodes and branches all around the world, but this is going t o be the heartbeat, this will be the beacon.”

President Obama and Yara Shahidi at the Obama Foundation Summit’s closing panel on Tuesday. suah oh

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It’s Raining Ra-men: Strings Ramen to Open on 53rd

By ADYANT KANAKAMEDALA News Reporter Chicago ramen shop Strings Ramen, home of the “Monster Hell Ramen Challenge,” is opening a location on 53rd Street.

They will occupy the space at 1453 East 53rd Street, which was filled by Hiro Sushi until it closed earlier this year. In an email sent to The Maroon, the business’s propri-

etors said the new restaurant is “planning on opening in a month, month and a half.”

Ramen at Strings is served in one of four broths: Shoyu, Shio, Miso, and Tonkotsu.

Noodles are made on the premises using a Japanese dough mixer, which kneads the dough before it is made into noodles. They also serve *oden*, or Japanese fishcakes, and other delicacies in light broth, Japanese sodas, desserts, and other specialties.

Strings is a first-come, first-serve restaurant that does not accept reservations. They will “try to turn [their] tables over quickly so that [they] are able to serve the busy stream of hungry customers,” according to a blurb on their website.

Strings Ramen maintains three other locations in Chinatown, Lakeview, and Madison, Wisconsin. All three locations have a dine-in option as well as a more lim-

ited takeout menu. The Chinatown location also has a BYOB policy with no corkage fee.

A specialty at Strings, the “Hell Ramen,” can be ordered at one of five levels of spiciness. Customers who finish the spiciest level in 20 minutes—known as the “Monster Hell Ramen Challenge”—receive a $50 gift card and a free T-shirt. Their meal is also paid for.

With New Shop and Save, South Shore to Kick “Food Desert” Status

By ALEXIS FLORENCE News Reporter Three hundred forty-two South Shore residents came out to a hiring fair on November 1 at the new location of Local Market in Jeffery Plaza amid ongoing construction.

The store is expected to open on November 20 and will be the neighborhood’s first grocery store to open in nearly six years..

One resident who attended the hiring fair was Donald Fruge, who has lived in South Shore since 1970. He described South Shore as a forgotten neighborhood, noting that during his time in South Shore, a decline of economic development occurred in the neighborhood, leading to an influx of drugs and violence in the area.

“This neighborhood has gone down since I’ve lived here. We had everything, we

didn’t even have to go downtown for anything,” Fruge said. “We had all the things we needed in this neighborhood, but all that’s gone now.”

Fruge now goes into Hyde Park to buy his groceries, about a 30-minute bus ride, and said that many people are forced to travel long distances and pay higher prices in order to get fresh food for their families.

“Anytime you have to go out of your

neighborhood that’s an inconvenience…

They [South Shore residents] don’t have access to fresh food. They have so called ‘fresh food’ but it’s not of a higher quality as it was when Dominick’s was here,” Fruge said.

South Shore has been classified as a food desert by the City of Chicago since 2013, when the last remaining Dominick’s, left the neighborhood late that year.

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According to a press release from the former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office, the Niles-based grocery store chain Shop and Save reached a $10 million Tax Increment Financing agreement with the city this past February as part of the city’s efforts to eliminate food deserts.

According to Eva Jakubowski, who owns the local chain with her husband Cezary, the company decided to name the South Shore store Local Market to better convey its goal of working with the community.

“Our goal is to become a local market, a store that will cater to the South Shore community specifically to all of our neighbors, and that we will be embraced because of the things that we will offer,” Jakubowski said.

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The store’s opening is the result of efforts by the Grocery Store Task Force, a group of residents formed by Fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston and Mayor Emanuel’s office to secure a grocery store for South Shore.

The process of acquiring a grocery store was an integral part of Hairston’s reelection campaign earlier this year.

Jakubowski said that after meeting with the task force, the store will work to meet residents’ requests by providing affordable, fresh and quality produce, offering prepared food options and including a wine and beer bar where local groups can come to meet—a feature other Shop and Save locations do not have.

“We are very focused on the healthy, homemade quality ingredients but at a

very affordable prices, which I call value,” Jakubowski said.

Cintinia McPhan, who lives in South Shore and interviewed for a position at Local Market, expressed her excitement for the new grocery store. While holding a Jewel Osco bag full of groceries, McPhan explained that commuting over a mile to Stony Island and 75th Street to pay higher prices for her groceries has been an inconvenience.

Local Market “looks beautiful. It is going to be a fresh start and let’s try to keep it in the neighborhood and promote the business,” McPhan said.

According to Jakubowski, the store is poised to open just in time for Thanksgiving as long as construction and the hiring process remain on schedule. Jakubowski

expressed optimism for the store’s success, but noted the history of previous grocery stores that have come and gone from the neighborhood.

“I understand the concern and this concern is not only for our neighbors it’s a concern for us… There is a lot of love from our end that went into this location. We want our neighbors to understand our success is only dependent on them,” she said. “This store can only be as successful as the support we receive from the neighborhood, and that is the key.”

Fruge was hesitant to express the same level of optimism, but he is still interested to see the store’s impact on the community.

“I won’t say I am optimistic but I’ll say this: the opportunity is there,” Fruge said.

Student Government Proposes Resolution for Standardized Excuse Notes

By DARCY KUANG Senior News Reporter Student Government (SG) passed a resolution aimed at allowing students to access emergency counseling services without academic consequences on Monday.

Authored by SG’s Executive Slate, Class of 2020 Representative Eugene Miravete, and Graduate Council (GC) Co-President Justin Douglas, the resolution calls on the Student Counseling Service (SCS) to provide excuse notes so students can miss class to attend emergency counseling sessions or intake appointments.

Resolutions passed by SG are nonbinding policy proposals, which means that it is up to the administration to decide whether to implement the proposed changes. According to SG President Jahne Brown, the resolution “is a strategic move to demonstrate [to the administration] that the student body supports our proposal.”

The resolution aims to address the issue of long appointment wait times at SCS, Brown said.

“When we discussed this issue with SCS, they shared that a big reason wait times are hard to reduce is because

students aren’t able to schedule during class times,” Brown told The Maroon.

“This is a structural issue that makes accessing mental health resources extremely difficult.”

Miravete said the lack of standardized excuse notes also places additional burdens on students tackling mental health issues.

SCS doesn’t “have a standard excuse note for their appointments, and departments, to our knowledge, do not have a standard policy of accepting those notes…so the burden is entirely on students to ask for an excused absence and navigate that conversation with their professors instead of having an institutional channel to do so,” Miravete said.

In addition to excuse notes, the resolution calls on the University to adopt policies at a departmental level to reduce stress, such as including student input on exam scheduling to avoid spikes in workload.

“I have had professors ask, ‘Hey, do you want the midterm on Wednesday or Friday of fifth week?’ I have gone from having three midterms to one or two in a day, which is a huge relief,” Miravete said.

Miravete said he wants to emphasize

that the resolution asks for student input in exam schedules, not for students to set the schedule.

When asked about SG’s next steps should the administration refuse to implement the resolution, Douglas said, “I think the next steps would then be to have a conversation with University administrators as to why they elected not to adopt the policy. Our goal from that conversation would be to see if there was anything we could do to make the policy more amenable.”

“Regardless of the administration’s decision,” Douglas said, “we intend to keep mental health as a priority. We will continue to advocate for more equitable practices and continue to keep mental health and wellness part of the conversation.”

Brown said that the Executive Slate plans to bring a print copy of the resolution to their meeting with Robert Zimmer at the end of this month.

University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said in a statement to The Maroon that the University declined to comment on the resolution.

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ARTS Alum David Gosz Seeks to Change Conversation Around Mental Health

By KENJIRO LEE Arts Reporter

Since graduating from the College in 2017, David Gosz has teamed up with Leo Fotos to form the Chicago-based producing team Gosz & Fotos, whose mission is to create “impactful, inspirational, and inclusive stories for all audiences.” With their new musical TRU, which premiered at Stage 773 on November 1, Gosz and Fotos aim to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness by exploring the topic of mental health in a new, thought-provoking way.

TRU explores the lives of Truman, a man living with mental illness personified as a toxic relationship with the manipulative Her, and Isla—an artist seeking to rekindle her lost passion and overcome her anxieties.

Last week, I sat down with David in the lobby of Stage 773 to discuss TRU, his time at UChicago, and his career since graduation.

Kenjiro Lee: Tell me a little bit about your experiences at UChicago: your degree, RSOs, etc.

David Gosz: Technically, the degree that I received from the University of Chicago was a B.A. in economics; but in practice, I feel like I majored in a cappella there. I spent all four years involved in the RSO Voices [formerly known as Voices in Your Head]. The a cappella group really allowed me to grow as a leader and grow as the type of person that wants to produce theater, frankly. All of those things that I did ended up being the perfect training course for doing professional theater in Chicago in the weirdest way that I never would have guessed.

KL: Could you elaborate on that?

DG: So, my sophomore year in college, I was the stage manager, and with that, I learned how to set up and tear down and operate a $20,000 sound system that Aca-Council has. And that gave me the tools that I need to be able to sound design or work with sound designers. I know how to wire a theater, and I know how to operate a soundboard, which has been fairly valuable thus far in the process. And my junior year as the business manager of the group taught me a lot about outreach and engaging with corporations and organizations that are trying to book events and musical gigs. So, I learned a lot

about how to pitch performances and how to get people engaged with Voices, which was my main job, and I learned how to write professional emails that way! And then my fourth year as the president of the group really taught me a lot about just how to lead bright, creative people in a way that inspires and creates enough transparency without too much transparency to then fall into these real long conversations that can end up being far more taxing than they need to be. And so, in many ways, all of those things combined is what I’m doing now with this production company and with this musical where I’m a leader of 32 different people, including our cast, our production team, our crew, and they’re all so wonderful and they’re all so brilliant and they have a lot of thoughts and opinions.

KL: You actually answered what was going to be my second question, about how your experience at UChicago informed your career path….

DG: Yeah, and I do have a little bit of economics in there. I am using that in terms of trying to understand the Chicago theater market, how to set ticket prices, how to advertise, how to appropriately negotiate and respectfully negotiate people’s stipends.

Just really trying to understand the beauty of the Chicago non-equity theater market where people value themselves, and it’s really fun to see how different people value the work that they do.

KL: You have an interesting way of going about things in that you’re self-producing this, which a lot of people don’t necessarily do in the theater world: They’ll hire a producer to help negotiate productions of their work. What has it been like juggling producing duties while creating theater?

DG: It’s a lot of fun, first and foremost; it is by far the most rewarding thing that I’ve ever pursued. At first, I thought the writing of it was the most rewarding thing, but then adding that production element to it has just enhanced the experience tenfold. It’s one thing to create something and send it off to someone and say, “Hey, can you help me make this happen?” and it’s another thing altogether where you feel so much more empowered if you say, “I created this thing and now it’s my responsibility to make this

happen.” And so, me and my coproducer Leo Fotos over the last two and a half years have really had to take a crash course on Chicago theater production. And we’ve had some great mentors along the way who’ve been there to answer our dumb questions and we’ve really just been absorbing everything that the more established theater professionals that we’ve met have told us. And we’ve also made really great partnerships with some mental health organizations with this production that I don’t know would have happened if we weren’t holding the reins.

KL: Moving on to TRU itself and your experiences as a writer, what are your music inspirations, theater or otherwise?

DG: TRU is very much musically-inspired

by Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder. Definitely not musical theater at all, but those are the kinds of music that my cowriter Leo grew up on, and he shared that with me. And those two artists, if you go through their entire discography, they have a song for everything. So, we kind of wanted to play with that in a musical theater style and we ended up with a very eclectic mix of musical stylings where each character—there are six principal characters—has their own distinct style.

KL: Where did the idea for TRU originate?

DG: Leo and I got together about three weeks after we first met. I had just graduated from high school and we decided we wanted to be friends and do something together, so we said, “Alright, let’s write a musical. Why not?” So, we sat down and wanted to take on a story that could make a societal impact, because we believe that one of the main things that theater does that other entertainment media don’t do is be progressive and make societal change and draw attention to topics that people might not necessarily feel comfortable talking about or want to talk about at the Thanksgiving dinner table. So, in that first meeting we ended up settling on mental illness as this thing that tied the two of us together. Because our families have a history of it, he and I both have a history of it, and at the time in 2013 it wasn’t something that was as widely talked about or openly talked about as it is today. So, we started writing and we wanted to try and make the invisible nature of mental illness accessible to people

that might not know what it’s like, to begin understanding, because understanding is the base layer for empathy. And what we’re trying to do, especially for the people that end up seeing our show that don’t live with mental illness, is give them an idea of what some of their friends and loved ones might be going through in a way that is more accessible than the inner demons that one can battle in their own head. We personified it in this character [Her], and we’re portraying it as this toxic relationship, which I think is more accessible to someone who doesn’t have the experience. And for people who do have that experience it could be a different way to think about their own mental illness and their battles with their mental health.

KL: As the mental health conversation has shifted since you started this in 2013, how has TRU itself changed?

DG: About three years ago we partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)—we took our eighth or ninth draft of the script to them and said, “Hey, we think we’re onto something here, but we really would like to ask you for help as mental health professionals to be able to make sure that 1) first and foremost, that the story we’re telling is safe, and 2) that it is impactful.” And so, they really helped us transform that character of Her and transform that relationship between Truman and Her into something that is less fantastical and more intimate, because she started off as something that is larger than life and they really helped us make her something that was life-size.

KL: Where do you see TRU going next?

DG: We would love in the next two or so years to try and take it to either Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway in New York to see what that market looks like, because all we know is Chicago and we’re excited to try and take it to different places. But that being said, our longer term goal with this show, our ten-year plan per se, is to take this show on the road and take it in a small way—be able to pack it up in one truck and bring it to different cities across the country, where the stigma surrounding mental illness is especially high or the accessibility to theater is particularly low, and take this CONTINUED ON PG. 8

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 6, 2019

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“I love going to see a show that is trying to speak an unspoken truth...”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 7

show to places that would otherwise not get to experience it if we did not take it there, because part of our mission as a company is to tell inspirational, impactful, and inclusive stories. And sometimes the best way to do that is to take the story to the audience that could benefit from it most.

KL: What advice would you give to anyone pursuing creating theater as a career?

DG: “Don’t be afraid to mess up” is my biggest advice. Write bad songs, write bad dialogue, write bad narratives, and try to find the good in what you’ve written. Don’t let yourself get paralyzed because you feel you have to write something good, because any time you write something, at least part of it will be good. So, make choices, take risks, and don’t judge yourself before you’ve gotten it out on the page or before you’ve gotten the notes on the lines and spaces. Don’t judge yourself before you’ve expressed it.

That’s one rule that Leo and I have when we’re writing: We’re not allowed to say “Never mind.”

KL: What excites you about theater artistically?

DG: The risks that people take to try and tell truths. I love going to see a show that is trying to speak an unspoken truth for the first time, because often that’s unique to theater.

I’m not the type of person that gets, like, jazzed up by jazz hands per se. I love content and story, and the fact that theater is so fragile and imperfect because a show is only there for three to four weeks and then it’s gone forever, at least that exact version of it, [makes it] precious and special. And the fragility of it all, where if one or two things go wrong then the whole thing can collapse....

It’s a miracle that any show happens at all.

And that’s kind of the beauty of it. It is, by far, of performance art, the most fragile.

KL: What is one takeaway you want au-

diences to have after they see TRU? DG: I would love it if right after they see the show, they grab a pamphlet and Google NAMI or Google The Kennedy Forum or Google Hope For The Day just to learn more about what mental health care is like currently in the world and what people can do to engage and help out. But I also want people to take a look inward and ask themselves who their family is. Because it doesn’t have to be the people whom you share DNA with. It can be the people that you decide who your family is. Ultimately, TRU is a story about a man’s struggle with his mental illness, but it’s also a story about what family means to different people. And it goes far beyond your nuclear family in some cases, and in other cases it might not even include your nuclear family—it might include the whole city. In hearing and watching and experiencing TRU, I hope that everyone does have a slightly greater appreciation for their

friends and loved ones.

KL: I do have one last question. As I was doing research for this interview, I found your Twitter.

DG: [smiles] Oh no.

KL: And I was wondering, since Halloween’s coming up, what’s your favorite ghost joke?

DG: My favorite ghost joke is actually best presented in writing, so this might be good for your article! What is a ghost’s favorite number?

KL: What?

DG: 800.

TRU runs from November 1 through November 24 at Stage 773 in Lakeview. Tickets can be bought here.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Smart Talk: “The Problem With the Police”

By ADRIAN RUCKER Arts Reporter

Flanked by the panels of Meleko Mokgosi’s riveting Bread, Butter, and Power at the Smart Museum of Art on October 29, four activist scholars discussed issues of police violence, corruption, and power. The event was organized by the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights and the Smart’s Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry.

The panel included Trina Reynolds-Tyler, member of the Invisible Institute and a graduate student at the Harris School of Public Policy; Damon Williams, cofounder of the #LetUsBreathe collective; and Craig Futterman, clinical law professor at the University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney, most notable for his work on the Laquan McDonald case. Their discussion was moderated by Reuben Miller, an assistant professor in the School of Social Service Administration.

The conversation centered on how police function as a state monopoly on violence and what that means for people in heavily policed areas, especially the Black and brown communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides.

They began with an epistemological

question: How does closeness with people within a group affect how social scientists study them? Science often treats proximity as a bias, making researchers who belong to the communities they study feel the need to distance themselves from them. However, the panel spoke to the strengths of the opposite approach, arguing that the lived experience of researchers gives them a unique framework for asking questions. A data scientist at the Harris School who was raised on the South Side of Chicago, Reynolds-Tyler pointed to her own experience as a valuable resource for evaluating policy from the perspective of both policymakers and those whose lives are most directly affected by policy.

Shifting to the topic of policing, Williams spoke to his own experience. “A police officer threatened to kill me when I was 19 years old,” he shared in an emotional moment. “I didn’t even know what that meant until I first shared it with a teacher, and she started to cry.” Living in hyper-policed spaces, “where the police are our government,” leads to the construction of fundamentally different realities for their occupants, who are conditioned to respond to harm in a way that perpetuates those same realities. The association between criminality and Black-

ness is “deeply embedded into the logic of this country,” Williams emphasized.

Tensions also arose between the stated role of the police in society and how their actions prop up the carceral state. The panel pointed out that the existence of the police prevents communities from dealing with their own violence, immediately escalating dangerous situations to an interaction with a militarized state organ. “I know victims of domestic abuse who are afraid to call the police because of what that entails—the damage it can have,” Reynolds-Tyler said.

Statistically, the effectiveness of police in performing their supposed functions is also called into question. Miller raised the point that less than 22 percent of murders are solved in Chicago when the victim is Black, making the police feel more like forces invading a community than its protectors. The speakers were also cognizant not to discount the substantial negative effects of recurring police interactions that do not involve assault or arrest, citing the exasperation and exhaustion of being the subject of a suspicion rooted in racism.

The evening concluded with speculations of what an abolitionist world might look like. While much of the Smart Talk had revolved around the detriments of various

oppressive social structures, there was an air of inspiration and empowerment when the conversation turned to important individual victories. Drawing from historical example, “abolitionist joys,” including the removal of legal apartheid and Jim Crow regimes, were praised, as were constructive programs such as the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program.

In light of the helplessness that activists can feel when confronting a seemingly impenetrable system, Williams asked: “How dare we say no? How dare we say [those victories] aren’t real?” Contemporary examples of positive movements included the recent Chicago teachers’ strike, in which educators, students, and community members came together to demand better conditions for their children, and the recent passage of a reparations ordinance for victims of police violence in Chicago.

“The solution looks like community,” Williams concluded. “We are violent because we are living in artificial scarcity; our land relationships demand a certain kind of labor from us. A system that allows homelessness to exist when there are more than enough empty homes is one of violence.”

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 6, 2019

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Arting Around: Week Six

By ARTS EDITORS

as part of the English Department’s Research Cluster on “Literature of Migration.”

Wednesday , November 6 Learn the art of Pita Baking Chabad at UChicago, 6—7 p.m. Free Shahar Stern leads a lesson in crafting, baking, and eating pita bread. Savor your own creations with a generous dip of hummus at Chabad.

Party at the Smart: Silent Disco Smart Museum of Art, 8—10 p.m. Free.

Exclusive for UChicago students.

Another week, another chance to see the Smart after-hours. Inspired by the student-curated exhibition “Down Time: On the Art of Retreat,” this event is a great opportunity for students to dance their midterm stress away.

Thursday, November 7 Migrations Stories Chapbook Reading Logan Center 801, 6 p.m. Free Faculty, staff, and creative writing students tackle the issue of migration as they read original works from their chapbooks,

Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex Court Theater, 7:30—9 p.m. $10 with UCID. 5 shows a week until Dec 8

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The first of Sophocles’s famous Oedipus trilogy, all of which will be staged by Court Theater over the next two years. Here’s your chance to see what Freud was going on about.

Friday, November 8 SASA: Diwali 2019 Hutchinson Commons, 6:30—10 p.m.

Tickets $7 when bought at the Reynolds Club through November 7, $10 at the door Join SASA in the celebration of the Festival of Lights and enjoy exhilarating performances from Chicago Raas, UChicago Bhangra, and other South Asian arts RSOs. Dinner will be provided.

Across 1. Fuel 4. Model X and Y maker 9. What the doctor’s looking for, maybe 14. A nucleotide, hydrolyzed 15. Some jelly 16. Home to a mythical lion 17. *Amulet component, perhaps 19. ___ queen 20. Stony ___ 21. Puts Clairol over Revlon 23. Direction in Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” 24. The shakes, for short 25. School supply 29. Sheeran and O’Neill 30. Hella shady 31. Grassy expanse 32. Place to find a kinkster, briefly 33. Non-space bar orders 34. Where new stars are born... or a loose description of 17- and 53-Across 37. [Puddle stomps] 38. Poetic homage 39. African island with a Portuguese name 40. Pretend-shy

Panel Discussion: Walter Benjamin’s “Arcades Project” Seminary Co-op Bookstores, 6—7 p.m.

Free In a star-studded panel, Lindsay Waters joins UChicago professors D. N. Rodowick, Tom Gunning, and Bill Brown in a discussion about celebrated German critic Walter Benjamin’s “Arcades Project.”

Sunday , November 10 Stalker screening and Introduction Max Palevsky Cinema, 7—10 p.m. $5 Doc Films will screen Tarkovsky’s soul-searching, 1979 sci-fi movie, which will be introduced by professor Robert Bird.

1. ___ boi 44. Kazakh capital recently renamed to NurSultan 45. Neighbor to Ind. 46. It can be edited 47. Does ochos 49. ___ compound 50. Colonial India’s sir 53. *Turf test field 55. “Girls rule, boys ___” 56. Five ___ 57. Did a 5K, say 58. Play part 59. Romance languages professor Cajkova 60. CTRL neighbor Down 1. Risk it for the biscuit 2. Worshipped 3. Parodies 4. One item in a checklist 5. Cornerstone letters 6. Curling and quidditch 7. They need to be memorized 8. Set the curve 9. Someone who should know the 7-Down 10. Multifunctional 11. Thurman of Kill Bill 12. Moon lander, for short (better ask your parents for this one)

13. Roadside assistance provider 18. “Gotcha!”

22. High school club 24. Rembrandt, e.g.

26. Warbled 27. City on the Great Lakes 28. In medias ___ 30. Like snow in winter 31. Org. protected by Citizens United v. FEC 32. ___ device 33. Les ___ 34. They go down on you at UChicago 35. Plenty 36. Casual wear 37. Where to get your MSW 40. Chess piece 41. Half of some Spanish unions 42. Primal 43. Fine 45. Pretender 46. A higher power 48. It’s me!

49. 2020 election starter 50. Accommodation granting dep.

51. Subplot 52. Muck raker?

54. Friend to Harry

ASSISTANT FOR HP R.E. BROKER: MARKETING, CLERICAL WK, WEB MAINTENANCE. 20 HRS WEEK, FLEXIBLE HRS, WORK AT HOME MOSTLY; $17 HR. CALL (773) 684-5021.

the chicago maroon — November 6, 2019

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VIEWPOINTS The Crucial Role of Journalism in Suicide Awareness The need for factual reporting of student suicides is imperative; the inclusion of expert advice can make this easier.

Letter to the Editor Suicide is a major public health concern and the second-leading cause of death among young adults in the U.S. Responsible and accurate media coverage of suicide can reduce the risk of vulnerable individuals attempting or committing suicide. Various groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have created guidelines for reporting on suicide that protect readers while preserving the independence and integrity of media professionals.

We commend The Chicago

Maroon for being a resource to the University of Chicago community during a time of grief and loss.

As two psychiatrists who care for many members of this community, we would like to draw attention to an important but often unacknowledged fact: Beneath the surface, people who die by suicide experience psychological suffering that is easy to overlook.

Up to 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a mental health condition, though many do not receive adequate treatment due to stigma, shame, and barriers to access.

Media can play an important role in suicide prevention by pro-

viding mental health education and encouraging those who are at risk to seek help. When reporting deaths by suicide, journalists should also discuss risk factors for suicide, research about suicide prevention, and options for treatment of mental illness. We also recommend requesting input from suicide prevention experts and offering hope to readers who may be troubled by reading the details of deaths by suicide.

As a community, this is a time when we should seriously consider the warning signs of suicide, including thoughts about death and dying, feelings of hopelessness, feeling trapped, frequent

substance use, and extreme mood swings. If you are concerned about someone you know, do not leave them alone. Remove any potentially harmful objects from their possession. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273–TALK (8255). Call 911, go to the emergency department, or seek help from a medical or mental health professional. You can also text HOME to 741741 to get in touch with a crisis counselor.

The University’s Student Counseling Service is located at 5555 South Woodlawn Avenue.

Students may schedule appointments by calling (773) 702–9800

or walking in during business hours (Mondays through Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.). The University’s Dean-on-Call can be reached at (773) 834–4357.

We hope that The Maroon will serve as a supportive platform during times of tragedy by helping to provide education and hope to those who may be suffering, or know someone who is.

Austin Blum, M.D. ’18, J.D. Katie Washington Cole, M.D., Ph.D. The authors are resident physicians in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

The Case to Step Away from Law (and Maybe Law School) Lee Harris, Editor-in-Chief Elaine Chen, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Deepti Sailappan, Managing Editor Peng-Peng Liu, Chief Production Officer

The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the editors-in-chief and editors of The Maroon.

NEWS

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Zahra Nasser, editor Meera Santhanam, editor ARTS

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Jessica Xia, head of production Suha Chang, head designer Ray Davies-Van Voorhis, design associate Jinna Lee, design associate Minghao Sun, design associate BUSINESS

Michael Vetter, chief financial officer Brian Dong, director of strategy Gianni LaVecchia and Kelsey Yang, directors of marketing Victor Doddy, director of development Jennifer Phu, director of operations ONLINE

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By Leena el-sadek When I was applying to law school, I had three people in mind. First, my uncle—the epitome of a public servant— who, even amid the deepest throngs of the Egyptian Revolution, woke up every morning to meet his clients experiencing employment discrimination.

Second, Malcolm X. In his autobiography, Malcolm stated, “My greatest lack has been, I believe, that I don’t have the kind of academic education I wish I had been able to get—to have been a lawyer, perhaps.” Malcolm X, a civil rights activist in the Black Power movement, was my biggest role model growing up; I saw fulfilling his dream as a way of continuing his legacy.

And third, Mamie Till. Mamie was the mother of Emmett Till, a young boy who was brutally murdered at the age of 14 after being accused of flirting with a white woman in Mississippi (who confessed that she was lying). After his corpse, dismembered and beaten, was brought back to Chicago, Mamie insisted on an open-casket funeral to “let the people see what they did to my boy.” By sharing her story with the country, Mamie galvanized thousands of civil rights activists from across the country and world. 50,000 people were estimated to have visited her house at 6427 South St. Lawrence Avenue—50,000 people came here to Woodlawn, a neighborhood that currently houses only half of that pop-

ulation. Moreover, after the open-casket funeral, Mamie dedicated the rest of her life to revealing to the world what happened to her son.

Though Mamie’s lifetime preceded mine, she still had a profound impact on my life. To be a single, powerful Black woman who ignited an entire movement was historic. Her pursuit for justice was unwavering; she committed her life to racial equality and civil rights through the very last year of her life, doing everything from speaking all around the country to teaching in Chicago public schools. She inspired me to use my education to serve communities who have been robbed of their humanity.

When I found out I was going to Continued on pg. 11

the chicago maroon — November 6, 2019

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“The legal system is a lot of things–but it’s not noble.”

Continued From pg. 10

UChicago Law, I knew I had to visit her house in Woodlawn.

Despite my conviction, it took me over two years to make the trek to Mamie’s house. It wasn’t the distance that held me back—the mere 1.1 miles can hardly be considered an inconvenient walk from campus.

Rather, I didn’t want to be just another visitor who expected the homeowners to curate their house as if it were an exhibit. Turns out, my fears were wrong: I was the first visitor in three years. Upon arriving, a few things stood out to me about the house. For one, the home is impressive in its austere simplicity.

Two stories high, the deep-red brick home represents what I believe to be the stoicism of Mamie. The home was planked by an empty verdant lot to the

left and another two-story brick home to the right. Greeting me were the current tenants of the house, a couple whose origins were not too far from my own in Mississippi. The current tenant’s mother is a cousin of the late Emmett Till, though he thinks the owners did not realize the connection when he signed the lease. I asked him how it feels living here. Locking his eyes on the porch, he said, “No one cares about this neighborhood. If they don’t want to put a sign saying who lived here, do you think they will care about the house?”

When I visited Mamie’s house for the first time, I wanted to experience it with the belief that I was doing good by her. I wanted to feel like I, too, was unwavering in my fight for justice, that I made her proud. But as I

left 6427 South St. Lawrence Avenue, I couldn’t help but face the reality: Although I am working diligently towards my law degree, I am not learning how to rectify or prevent injustices.

So far, my studies have disabused me of the notion that the legal system is noble. Today, like 65 years ago, the legal system is a barometer of social privilege, providing the most utility to the elites. The legal system is precedential, conforming to principles established by actors who never agreed to further Mamie’s fights. The legal system is also political by nature, handing the judicial scales to presidential appointees who promise to uphold the opinions of the political bourgeoisie. Finally, the legal system is discretionary, allowing police, prosecutors, and judges to subject a dispro-

portionate number of people of color to the mass incarceration system without needing to provide any justification for their decisions.

The legal system is a lot of things—but it’s not noble. The people using it, the ones who are manipulating it to radically change the status quo, are noble, but the system is not.

I urge students, law and non-law, to realize this difference. Like Mamie’s unrecognized home, we hide this country’s blemishes and blunders, contouring, partitioning, and realigning them to thwart the responsibility for our mistakes.

But as students, we can step outside the realms of conformity and recognize our faults. We cannot absolve ourselves of the responsibility of confronting the past. We have to see what’s

unseen—what’s intentionally left out of history and discussions.

So, yes, Woodlawn needs to recognize this house—establishing it as a state landmark would be a first step. But then, we also need to reckon with how almost 65 years later, little has changed in the environment around 6427 South St. Lawrence Avenue. 65 years later, we still need to “let the people see what they did.”

SJP: Recent IOP Instagram Stories Show Anti-Palestine Bias The IOP’s pro-Israel Instagram stories raise concerns about the institution’s nonpartisan identity.

Letter to the Editor Beginning at 1 p.m. on October 31, @uchipolitics, the official Instagram account of the Institute of Politics (IOP), published a series of posts on its public story in conjunction with an event hosting American diplomat Dennis Ross, titled “Unpacking the Israeli Elections.” The event was used as an opportunity to publicize an anti-Palestinian, pro-Occupation political platform as representative of the Institute.

This incident raises serious concerns about the politics of the IOP, the potential for bias within its hiring processes, and the lack of sensitivity and respect that it holds toward the concerns and struggles of oppressed peoples worldwide.

Though the IOP defines itself as a nonpartisan institution, the Instagram story displayed otherwise: Among recordings of Ross speaking, one post called to question the legalization of settlement colonies in the West Bank, thereby ending the possibility of a twostate solution; another labeled the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement as a “hot topic,” bent on the “deligimization [sic] of Israel...”; one post, completely irrelevant to the event being held, celebrated Israel as “a leader in sustainable energy” and “the most inclusive country in the Middle East.” The use of the IOP’s public media accounts for the dissemination of pro-Israeli propaganda, pinkwashing—employing a false rhetoric of Israeli LGBTQ+ acceptance to forgive the daily violence of military oc-

cupation—and anti-Arab rhetoric is reprehensible, but far from surprising.

Last year, the IOP made concessions to several student groups on campus in response to a maroon op-ed explicitly addressing the lack of resources and platforms for marginalized students on campus. Now, only one month into this new academic year, we are once again left disillusioned by the empty promises of the IOP. We have no choice but to view this event, and the accompanying rhetoric published on social media, as a disregard for calls for substantive change within the Institute, and a continued willingness to legitimize anti-Indigenous, colonialist narratives of power. This clear violation of the IOP’s own values promotes a culture of distrust be-

tween their organization and the larger student body—particularly among students of color—who now must question whether or not the IOP is indeed committed to maintaining its nonpartisan

stance, representing the voices and experiences of Palestinians, and creating space for open political exchange and understanding on our campus.

Signed: Students for Justice in Palestine African Carribean Students Association Arab Students Association Fikayo Walter, Chair of IOP Leaders of Color Grace Peguese, Mentorship and Alumni Coordinator for IOP Leaders of Color IOP Student Advisory Board Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx Aztlan Multi-Ethnic Student Society Muslim Students Association Omar Salinas, Secretary of IOP Leaders of Color Organization of Black Students UChicago Animal Welfare Society UChicago Student Action Zachary Williams, Vice-Chair IOP Leaders of Color

THE CHICAGO MAROON — NOVEMBER 6, 2019

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SPORTS

Men’s Soccer Becomes First Program in UAA History To Win Four Consecutive Outright Titles

By MICHAEL KAYDIN Sports Editor

The University of Chicago men’s soccer team beat Case Western Reserve 1–0 on Friday, November 1, and Carnegie Mellon 1–0 on Sunday, November 3, to clinch an automatic berth to the highly prestigious NCAA tournament and the coveted University Athletic Association (UAA) title. In the process, the team improved its conference record to 6–0 with 11 goals scored and zero goals conceded.

The UChicago soccer team is the first program in UAA history to win four consecutive outright titles, solidifying its status in Division III soccer as a unique and highly-capable team. Fourth-years Sam Barovick and Nate Johnson are the only athletes in the campus’s history to

win four straight conference titles. As the regular season comes to a close, UChicago’s soccer team has a chance to continue its impeccable defensive track record without conceding a goal and finishing its conference campaign undefeated.

On Friday, third-year Scott Lich (unassisted) secured the victory in the second half and guaranteed UChicago’s share of the UAA title and spot in the NCAA tournament. On Sunday, UChicago’s second win of the weekend was facilitated by first-year Richard Gillespie’s goal, assisted by fellow first-year Kameron Bloye, which secured the team’s fourth consecutive outright UAA conference title. With a win and shutout on Saturday against Wash U, UChicago will become the only men’s soccer team

in UAA history to complete its conference schedule 7–0 with zero goals conceded. The only other team to endure a season without any conceded goals was New York University in 2010, but its season ended with three draws.

Following the conclusion of Sunday’s game, Johnson said: “I’m really proud of this team and all we have accomplished so far this year.

I think coming into the season there was a lot of doubt surrounding what this team could be after losing three All-Americans [Max Lopez, Matt Koh, and Nicco Capotosto]. The new guys coming in helped that transition be so much easier than expected and with each game, our new identity continued to grow. This season has been a full team effort. When we started this season, we

had three goals: win a conference championship, make the NCAA tournament, and win a national championship. We’ve got one more goal left, and I couldn’t be more excited to win the conference out and start celebrating with the team.”

Overall, the team’s recruitment of new foreign talent, mixed with the coaching expertise of first-year head coach Pat Flinn and leadership of thirdand fourth-years, has produced a team that is capable of regularly surpassing expectations and continuously challenging itself to accomplish new feats.

The team is meticulously preparing for its next match, full of confidence that its record-breaking season is only days away from happening.

Women’s Soccer Rallies to Victory at Carnegie Mellon

Women’s soccer at Carnegie Mellon last weekend. courtesy university of chicago

By BRINDA RAO Sports Reporter

This past weekend, the women’s soccer team rallied from a loss against Case Western Reserve by dominating in their Sunday’s game against Carnegie Mellon.

The Maroons attempted several unsuccessful goals in their Friday game but managed to make a comeback in their Sunday game. Following these games, the team is edging into its season’s end as the 12th seed in the UAA. The team has been training hard to

end their season strongly. Following Wednesday’s snowstorm, the atmosphere for the end of their regular season is edging in. However, the Maroons continue to strive and persist in practice and games. Second-year Keeper Emma Smith explains, “Pushing each other in practice and in games in order to succeed together is a huge part of our team’s culture. Practices cater towards competition and preparing for the next game every time.”

The Friday game hit a few snags, especially with a referee getting injured six minutes into the second half. Despite efforts from the midfielders and forwards, no goals were successful. Captain Hanna Watkins had three shots on goal, in addition to attempting to connect a header from third-year Katie Jasminksi. This game was complemented by third-year keeper Miranda Malone’s four successful saves. However, the Spartans Anika Washburn proved to be the only player on the field working two successful goals.

Reflecting on the game, Smith comments, “The expectations of the team and the coaches going into every game are that we will give 100 percent every play and do anything for our teammates to win every game.”

The Maroons did not let the defeat stop them from rallying in their Sunday game. The final score was 3—2 against No. 23 Carnegie Mellon. The Maroons displayed a strong defensive play in the second half, successfully preventing all attempts on goal. This was heightened by third-year Maddie DeVoe scoring the only secured goal of the second half.

Watkins commanded the game with two goals. This brings her season total to 10 successful goals.

Looking forward Smith notes, “Our ultimate goal is to win a national championship, but we focus on getting there one game at a time. WashU next!”

The Maroons will play the Wash U Bears in their Senior Game on Saturday, November 9.