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College third-year found dead in Hyde Park apartment

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:28:00 +0000

Rising College third-year David Stein was found dead by apparent suicide in his Hyde Park studio apartment Friday, June 27. It was his 20th birthday.

Stein, a neurobiology concentrator from the northern Chicago suburb of Glencoe, was remembered Monday as a studious and inquiring lover of science whose quirky sense of humor found a perfect match when he matriculated at the University of Chicago in the autumn of 2006. He was subletting an apartment in Hyde Park this summer while he took a course in organic chemistry.

Family, friends, and acquaintances said they were shocked to learn of his death over the weekend. Although the official cause of death is yet to be determined, Dean of Students in the College Susan Art said that it appeared to be “self-inflicted.”

According to Seth Stein, David’s father, his son’s body was found in his apartment by officers Friday night after his family called the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) when he did not arrive home as scheduled that evening. He typically rode the train when making trips home, his father said.

“He was due home for dinner and birthday cake,” said Stein, a professor of geology at Northwestern University, from his Glencoe home. “We contacted the University police. They went to his apartment. They together with the Chicago Police told us that he was dead.”

UCPD officials offered no comment Monday.

Seth Stein said that he last saw David Sunday, June 22, and that he had spoken with him by telephone the following Wednesday. It is not yet clear how long he had been dead when his body was discovered.

Stein is the second University affiliate to die by suicide in recent months. In December, College graduate Alexander Bethurem (A.B. ’07), a fixture of the Regenstein Library’s Ex Libris coffee shop, was found dead in his Chicago home.

Statistics on the University of Chicago’s student suicide history were not immediately available. According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the third-leading cause of death among youth aged 20 to 24, behind accidents and homicides. But many suicide experts believe that among college students, suicide may be the second-leading cause because of the lesser prevalence of homicide among that group compared with the general population of the same age bracket.

A 2002 National Mental Health Association study estimated that more than 1,000 suicides occur on college campuses each year.

Seth Stein said that he was willing to talk about his son’s death because the rate of suicide on college campuses “is a huge, huge problem.”

“I’m shattered by the whole thing. It’s like someone ripped a part of your heart out,” he said.

“He was our ‘that kid’’’

Although Stein had suffered episodes of depression while a student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, after he arrived at the University and settled into his Snell-Hitchcock dorm his family believed that he had overcome most of his personal troubles, Seth Stein said.

“He was getting As in his classes, he was active in the house government, and a variety of things like that,” he said.

While living in Snell-Hitchcock last year, Stein, the nephew of Oriental Institute director Gil Stein, had served as house secretary of Hitchcock House.

“He wrote very funny minutes for our dorm that everyone really appreciated. He was one of the few secretaries who was regular about that,” said Jenny Sax, Stein’s resident head.

An e-mail sent out to members of the Snell-Hitchcock community by Resident Master Kit Chaskin Saturday informed students of Stein’s death and invited them to an informal remembrance gathering.

“By all accounts, David was a kind and thoughtful guy who made strong connections to this community during his two years here,” she wrote.

Seth Stein said that his son had relished his time at Snell-Hitchcock.

“Snell-Hitchcock is sort of a zany kind of place, and he liked that part about it. He said that so much about it was like [the Harry Potter book series’] Hogwarts,” Seth Stein said. “He loved it there, he loved it there. [The U of C] was his first choice and he planned on staying there…. He basically found a community of kids that he liked.”

He was an active participant in this year’s Scav Hunt, and had aided his house to victory for the second straight year.

Aside from that, as a budding scientist, “he liked the cachet of living in a building that Enrico Fermi lived in,” Stein said.

Reached by telephone Monday, some of Stein’s closest friends were not yet ready to speak about their friend's passing.

But Anna McGeachy, a friend and fellow Snell-Hitchcock resident who lived down the hall from Stein, said that Stein was “for the most part quiet and pretty studious…. We mostly talked about science together.”

Still, McGeachy recalled one instance when Stein had asked to borrow her cat-ears headband “and anything else that resulted in him looking like a mouse of some sort,” she said.

According to Seth Stein, as part of an assignment for his Hebrew class, David had decided to wax creative by using stuffed animals to demonstrate the array of creatures represented in a biblical passage.

His enthusiasm for his religion also manifested itself in his regular visits to the Newberger Hillel Center, where, according to center executive director Daniel Libenson, “he was somebody that was thinking a lot about his own Jewish identity and was always interested in what was going on at Hillel.”

“He was somebody who was always involved in various impromptu conversations. He also wasn’t tremendously outgoing…but I didn’t perceive him as a shy person,” Libenson said.

Stein spent last summer participating in a study abroad program in Israel, where he learned Hebrew and traveled extensively.

Even at Hillel, Stein found opportunities to express his quirky humor. While reading a passage from the Book of Esther during the festive Jewish holiday of Purim, Stein used comical voices to represent each of the characters in the story.

“Most of the time students are concerned that they aren’t going to read the Hebrew correctly,” Libenson said.

In a June 21 birthday greeting written to friend and fellow third-year Jory Harris and posted on Harris’s Facebook page, Stein wrote, "Sing and rejoice! For many aeons ago today, Jory Harris was born [tho' he is yet young]! I hope you're having an awesome birthday.”

“He was kind of an off-the-beaten path kind of person,” McGeachy said. “He was a ‘that kid,’ but he was our ‘that kid.’”

“He loved serious ideas”

A National Merit scholar and an avid cyclist, Stein also excelled on his high school’s debate team and was a voracious reader of science, science fiction, mysteries, as well as social science and humanities texts. He was named one of his high school’s best history students, and he found a way to join his passions by exploring the relationship between history and science.

When filling out the University’s UnCommon Application as a high school senior, he named Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species as his favorite book. “And he had actually read it,” Seth Stein said.

“He was a very bright, articulate, very verbal sort of kid,” he said. “When they assigned Thucydides in class, David was one of the ones who actually read it. He loved serious ideas, science fiction, Sherlock Holmes. He had a very broad range of interests.”

Once at the University of Chicago, Stein discovered his interest in neurobiology and decided to major in the subject. He adorned his bedroom with posters depicting the human brain, his father said.

Stein had worked in the laboratory of neurobiology professor Kamal Sharma, whose research emphasis is on the effect of neurodegenerative diseases on spinal motor circuits. “He was really excited about the opportunities in the field,” Seth Stein said.

Stein’s funeral services will be held today at the Am Yisrael Synagogue in Northfield. In lieu of flowers, Stein’s family has asked that contributions be made to the Friends of the Glencoe Public Library.

It is unclear whether the University will organize a public memorial service for Stein, but according to Dean of Students Art, her office plans to send an e-mail message to the undergraduate student body with information about the death.

In her e-mail to Snell-Hitchcock residents, Resident Master Chaskin reminded students that personal counseling services are available through the University’s Student Counseling and Resource Service at (773) 702-9800.

Maroon is on hiatus

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:40:00 +0000

The Chicago Maroon will be on summer hiatus until September 19, when our Orientation Issue comes out in print and online. Continuing coverage of U of C and Hyde Park news will be available on our blogs, which can be found on the right side of the website. Major breaking news will be posted on chicagomaroon.com.

Trans students unhappy with perceived SCC faults

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:34:00 +0000

This final installment of our series on transgender campus trends explores campus health care options for the transgender community.

For many transgender students, the quest for campus health care that fits their particular needs and concerns is a daunting one. In recent years, members of the LGBTQ community frequently cited health care reform at the Student Care Center (SCC) as one of the key campus issues for the University’s queer community.

In 2005, a group of students and staff representing the University’s LGBTQ community released a set of recommendations for the future of LGBTQ support at the University.

In particular, the recommendations stressed the need for better HIV/AIDS screening procedures at the SCC. At the time, the SCC offered confidential HIV screening, which limited access to testing results to the patient and the doctor. However, the SCC did not offer anonymous testing, which does not associate the patient’s name with the results.

“Our colleagues in the SCC worked very closely with various students and administrators to develop a mechanism to be able to do that,” said Bill Michel, assistant vice president for student life and associate dean of the College.

But some transgender students on campus believe that the SCC still struggles to cater to some transgender needs.

Luka Carfagna, a graduate student in a one-year master’s program, is a female-to-male transgender student who identifies as genderqueer. Carfagna said that the SCC has garnered an unwelcoming reputation among the University’s trans community, adding that the wording in the SCC’s Womancare service is alienating for many trans students who are transitioning from female to male.

A first-year trans student, who requested anonymity, echoed Carfagna’s concerns, and said that she was dissuaded from using the SCC services after hearing about the experiences of other trans students.

“Health care for trans people is practically atrocious,” she said, citing a lack of knowledge about and sensitivity to trans bodies and trans health needs.

Concerns voiced by the trans community about the state of health care available to trans students at the SCC prompted several students from the LGBTQ community to meet with SCC representatives last month to discuss ways to make SCC services more welcoming to trans students.

The discussions resulted in a set of initiatives tentatively slated for implementation early next year, said Cherie Dupuis, a family nurse practitioner who attended the discussions along with SCC director Kristine Bordenave.

Dupuis said that the SCC would like to designate a staff member as a point person familiar with trans health care who would be able to connect students with health care clinics and resources throughout Chicago.

“There are so many different areas in health care that we can’t know about all of them. We are hoping to get at least one person who would be knowledgeable about these issues,” Dupuis said.

In the past, trans students at the U of C have sought out health care options not offered through the SCC at Howard Brown, an independent health clinic north of Lincoln Park that serves the LGBTQ community in the Chicago metropolitan area. Howard Brown offers testing, vaccination, support groups, and primary medical services to members of the LGBTQ community for free or at a reduced rate.

“There are a number of [health care services] available in a city like Chicago, but you sort of have to dig around and search. Howard Brown is a tremendous resource for transgender students,” said John McPherrin, a psychologist at the University’s Student Counseling and Resource Service.

In addition to systematizing the Chicago area health care resources already available to trans students citywide, Dupuis also said that the SCC is planning on changing the name of its Womancare services both in clinic settings and on its website, since many trans students find the wording alienating.

“It’s supposed to be a time to talk. We’re trying to make it clear that it’s a service for everyone,” she said. “We’re hoping to make it more inclusive.”

Additionally, the SCC and members of the LGBTQ community have plans underway to add trans educational components to the SCC’s upcoming retreat in August.

Several trans students have also expressed frustration about their inability to get prescriptions for hormone therapy at the SCC. According to Dupuis, SCC personnel hesitate to write or fill the prescriptions because they don’t have expertise in the field of sex hormones.

“The truth is that we don’t know long- term consequences of [hormones], so we hesitate,” she said. “I don’t think anyone right now is comfortable with that. It should be done through an endocrinologist.”

Nevertheless, campus clinics nationwide prescribe and dispense hormones to trans students, and some insistent trans students at the U of C were eventually able to get hormone prescriptions from the SCC filled after several attempts.
Carfagna, who did his undergraduate work at the University of Vermont, said that the University’s trans health care lags behind that of his alma mater.

“At my past institution, they just got hormone therapy covered under student health care. And they are, as are other schools, working on covering gender reassignment surgeries. And the only complications they are running into are with the health insurance companies. It’s not with the administration on campus,” he said.

Nevertheless, while many trans students find fault with the current state of trans health care at the SCC, they attribute these oversights to lack of education and not to unwillingness to work with trans students.

“There’s a really self-conscious lack of information at the Student Care Center about trans people. They’ve very up-front about their lack of knowledge,” said Red Tremmel, a graduate student in the history department.

“We’re going to stay in contact. We thought we were doing a lot of good things, so we were surprised to hear that some students felt uncomfortable [with SCC health care],” Dupuis said.

Paper gives opportunity to Hyde Park’s homeless

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:33:00 +0000

Robert, a 5 foot 8–ish man who wears a black quilted jacket, stands in front of the Med. It’s hard to discern his age, as his features are soft and youthful but weathered, framed beneath a hood which almost overshadows his warm, patient half-smile. The StreetWise newspapers held at chest level are the only indication that he wants to sell you something. A man walks by with his daughter. “Hey Robert, how’re you doing?”

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” Robert said. The man took a five dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Robert in exchange for a newspaper. Robert reached into his pocket for change, but the man interjected.

“That’s for you, man,” he said. Robert shook his hand, and the man and his daughter continued to walk down the street.

A student soon walked by as well. “StreetWise newspaper today?” Robert asked. But the boy walked by, looking intently at his shoes.

Ten years ago, Robert was in a homeless shelter in Evanston where he heard about StreetWise, a program that publishes a weekly newspaper to be sold by homeless or unemployed vendors. According to the organization’s website, StreetWise is “the only place where you can become employed immediately with nothing more than a desire to work, regardless of your background or situation.”

So Robert attended a mandatory two-hour orientation to learn the dos and don’ts of working as a vendor, a program which stresses that StreetWise employees must be courteous and presentable at all times.

But Robert is beyond courteous—he barely even advertises his presence as people walk by.

“Most people don’t understand what StreetWise is. I don’t want to bother anybody. I’d rather lose a dollar than get their attitude,” he said.

Robert used to read the paper each morning on the way to work and share the news with passersby. But Robert said this method was often met with responses like, “Man, get a job, leave me alone.” To Robert, that’s one of the most insulting comments someone could make. “This is a job,” he said.

One of the goals of the StreetWise program is to help vendors become self-sufficient. However, both Robert and Kenny Turner, a 10-year StreetWise veteran, acknowledge that one of the drawbacks of StreetWise employment is the lack of a reliable paycheck.

The vendors buy each paper from StreetWise for 30 cents and sell them for a dollar, accepting tips if they’re offered. Robert said that in past years, he made as much as $50 to $60 per day selling papers in front of the Medici. But these days, he considers himself lucky if he makes $30. He attributes this drop to the downturn in the economy.

Although Robert used to like his job, his enthusiasm has waned as selling papers has became less lucrative and more frustrating. Both vendors noted that the job is not for those with a short temper or deficiency of will.

“You’ve got to take in everybody’s attitude and keep a smile on your face all the time,” Turner said.

Robert recalled one incident when a man looked him in the eye, took out a dollar, walked by with it in his hand, and looked back mockingly as he put it back in his pocket.

“If that makes his day, then fine, that kind of stuff doesn’t bother me,” he said.

Some Hyde Park employers have recognized that the persistence and amicability necessary to working for StreetWise make for good employees. Turner now bags groceries at Hyde Park Produce. Pizza Capri hired Robert as a deliveryman, but since his car broke down last week, he has returned to selling StreetWise until he has enough money to get his car repaired.

“When Hyde Park Produce was making deliveries to the Medici, they’d see me out there every day, in every kind of weather—winter, summer, fall. They saw that I’m cool with everybody, that I know how to treat people,” Turner said.

When the grocer began remodeling this past winter, Turner filled out an application and eventually received a job offer.
Robert now lives on the South Side. He now takes classes at iO Chicago Theater, an improv comedy studio in Belmont, and hopes to soon be employed in his dream job as a comedian.

“StreetWise helps a whole lot of people,” Turner.

Investment in Darfur was never certain, Zimmer says

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:30:00 +0000

The University’s holdings in Darfur during last year’s investment controversy were minimal and may no longer exist, according to University President Robert Zimmer.

Last year, the University chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), a nationwide student group advocating divestment in companies that support or deal with the Sudan, pushed the administration to discontinue investments in the country. After several months of deliberation, the Board of Trustees ultimately decided against divestment, citing the Kalven Report, drafted in 1967 in response to student protests over the Vietnam War. The report restricts the University from taking political positions that could endanger its culture of academic freedom.

Zimmer told the Maroon last month that in response to STAND’s advocacy the Board of Trustees asked him about the state of the University’s investments. According to the president, he then asked Chief Investment Officer Peter Stein to determine whether there was any money invested in Darfur.

“At that time, at the best we could tell, we had a very diminuous holding in one relevant company, which I reported to the Board,” Zimmer said.

Zimmer stressed that such definitive statements about the nature of the University’s investments are difficult to make, as well as to keep continuous track of. Because the University invests in funds, as opposed to direct ownership in a company, it is not always readily apparent what companies the University has an interest in, Zimmer said.

“Sometimes we don’t just invest in funds, but funds of funds. So, in many cases you’re three orders of magnitude away from knowing what the answer is,” Zimmer said.

According to Zimmer, due to such indirect advisement of the Investment Office and the dynamic changes in the market, it is only possible to take a snapshot of investments.

A source knowledgeable about the operations of the Investment Office and only willing to speak on the condition of anonymity corroborated Zimmer’s statements and said further that it was highly likely that at any given time the University’s investments in Darfur are minimal, if existent at all.

The source said that Peter Stein had mentioned in August that the University had no money invested in Darfur and that generally the Office wouldn’t invest there, regardless of the campus politics surrounding the country.

“It’s not stable enough to go into Africa,” the source said. “The economies there are too risky and unstable. And while University investments are fairly aggressive, they aren’t particularly aggressive in taking risks in different geographic regions that aren’t established yet.”

The source added that while the University is often many steps removed from the companies it gives money to, it is still unlikely that the University had significant ties to funds that do business in Darfur. The Investment Office, he said, likes to hire fund managers who invest very specifically—industrial manufacturers in the Midwest, for example—so it would be difficult to have substantial money in Darfur, given that fund managers specializing in that region aren’t seriously considered by the University.
“It’s unlikely that the University would even take a meeting with a person who wants to raise a fund to invest in Sub-Saharan Africa,” the source said.

Vice President for Strategic Initiatives David Greene said that even if the University hadn’t held any interest in companies involved with Darfur last year, the administration still would have taken a stance on the question of divestment.
“These are still relevant issues whether or not there are actual funds involved,” Greene said. “We have to take these questions with all the seriousness they imply. There were fundamental questions that deserved serious consideration and shouldn’t be tossed aside.”

According to Zimmer, he would have been ducking the issue if he hadn’t taken a substantive position.

“I didn’t think it was the right stance to try to avoid the question,” Zimmer said. “This University has never been afraid of disagreement, never been afraid of taking a position that people are going to argue with.”

Aliza Levine, former co-chair of STAND, led many of last year’s efforts to persuade the University to divest. Levine said that even if the administration had reported no investments in Darfur, it would not have been enough to satisfy STAND’s goal to get the University to declare an unconditional divestment.

“We would have been grateful, which we would be today if we weren’t invested,” Levine said. “But it’s not about whether at 2 p.m. this Wednesday we have an investment. It’s whether on a regular basis we have our money in companies that do business in the Sudan.”

Senior Class Gift boasts 60-percent participation

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:29:00 +0000

Approximately 60 percent of fourth-years have donated to the Senior Class Gift as of early this week, meaning that the fundraising committee has passed an important hurdle in their effort to solicit donations for College financial aid, although participation still lags behind that of the Class of 2007. Alumnus John Fyfe (A.B. ’68) pledged to donate $25,000 to the gift once participation passed 55 percent, and students involved in the fundraising process celebrated the fulfillment of that promise in recent days. “Last month we were a little bit behind last year’s participation rate [for that stage of the quarter],” said Anna Snoeyenbos, chair of the Senior Class Gift Committee, “But we have now surged ahead and are just breaking records left and right. We’re really poised to reach our goals.”

  Last year, over 70 percent of the senior class donated to the gift, approaching Dartmouth and Yale University’s 80-percent participation, Snoeyenbos said. This year the goal is to reach 80-percent participation.  “We want to catch up with other schools because young alumni giving and the senior gift do get factored into our rankings in the U.S. News & World Report,” Snoeyenbos said. “The biggest way you can tell how people judge their experience at the University of Chicago is whether or not they decide to give something back.”

The gift committee is encouraging students to donate $20.08 in commemoration of their graduation year, but a few students who are not involved in the committee have gotten into the campaigning spirit as well.

After learning that donations as small as 50 cents counted toward senior class participation, fourth-year Michael Atzmon began offering one-dollar bills to his friends on the condition that they donate them to the gift fund.

“The U.S. News & World Report rankings are heavily influenced by alumni giving, so I felt like 20 extra dollars to try to bump the school’s rankings would be a good investment,” Atzmon said.

But a potential boost in the College’s ranking is not the only incentive for students to donate. Money donated to the senior class gift is funneled into the College Fund, which sponsors study abroad programs and student aid. 

“I donated because the money goes to things like financial aid, and that’s important to me,” fourth-year Margot Spellman said.

Seniors have until June 13 to donate to the class gift. According to their website, the committee is hoping at least 159 more students will participate in order to reach last year’s 72-percent benchmark. For every percentage point above that number, University trustee James Crown has pledged to donate an additional $4,000 to the gift.

U of C professor salaries rank fifth in the nation

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:27:00 +0000

University of Chicago professors earn higher salaries than most of their peers, according to a report released by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in April. The average salary for a full-time professor at the U of C during the 2007-08 academic year was $170,800—the fifth highest in the nation. Only professors at Rockefeller University, Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton earn more on average.

The University’s high salaries correlate with the University’s achievements and individual faculty members’ national and international reputations, said Dean of the College John Boyer.

“The University of Chicago has long been one of the four or five top universities in the United States in terms of scholarly reputation and prestige, and one of the top ten universities in the world,” Boyer said in an e-mail interview. “It is thus not surprising that our salaries are strongly competitive.”

Full-time U of C professors’ average salaries are higher than their counterparts at peer institutions such as Columbia University ($162,500), Yale University ($165,100), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($151,600). Full-time professor salaries at all those universities are still far above the national average of $118,444.

According to the study, although many universities are increasing full-time faculty salaries, professors are concerned about the fragile state of the U.S. economy and the fact that raises generally lag behind the inflation rate. Nationally, the average salary
for a full-time professor rose by 3.8 percent this year, but the inflation rate increased 4.1 percent.

The report also noted a gender wage gap for full-time professors at the U of C. Mirroring a trend across the country, the average male U of C professor makes $16,600 more per year than his female counterparts. This is a noticeably larger gap than the $10,808 difference in nationwide averages between genders.

Another concern voiced in the report is the widening gap between professor salaries at public and private universities. Full professors at the top public university in Illinois, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, make $125,700, which is higher than the national public school average but significantly lower than salaries at universities such as U of C and Northwestern.

While the report did criticize private universities for rendering some public universities noncompetitive in attracting renowned professors, Division-I schools were scolded as well. The AAUP found that many universities in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision—formerly known as Division I-A—pay their head football coaches ten times as much they pay senior professors.

Despite challenges, some undergrads make marriage work

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:26:00 +0000

Most U of C undergraduates who list themselves as married on their Facebook profiles do so in jest. But for a small handful of students, opting for the “married” or “engaged” relationship status online isn’t a joke—it’s the real thing.

Third-year Tori Neal was married in April after a three-month engagement to her long-time friend Logan Lodge. Rea Manderino, also a third-year, has discussed marriage with her now-fiancé Steven Waner since her first year in the College. The couple officially got engaged last month.

Neither Neal nor Manderino expected to tie the knot so early in their lives.

“I actually had a conversation with him. I wanted to just be friends, I wanted to focus on school,” Neal said of her husband Lodge, who has been stationed in Guam as a Navy locksmith for three years. “I told him, ‘When you leave, I’m not going to be your girlfriend.’”

But after a number of visits to Neal both in Chicago and in her Indiana hometown, Lodge surprised her with a proposal.
Prospects of marriage surprised Manderino as well. She met Waner, now a Wichita State University graduate and an aerospace engineer, as a high school senior. The two hit it off immediately.

“It wasn’t supposed to have happened,” Manderino said. “I was supposed to come to Chicago, start my life new—not fall in love with a Kansas farm boy.”

While romance planted the couples’ intentions to marry, finances played a bigger role in setting the date. Although Neal originally wanted to delay her wedding until after her graduation, she changed her mind when she found that Lodge would receive a housing allowance if they married during his time in the Navy.

“It’s a significant amount of money—enough for him to buy the plane ticket home and come home and plan the wedding in two weeks and send him back,” Neal said. “That’s why we bumped things up…. If it were up to me, I totally would have waited.”
Manderino, on the other hand, decided to hold off on marriage in large part because she anticipated her tuition payments would put a greater burden on herself and her fiancé if they married early.

“Essentially instead of relying on my immediate family, I would rely on both of our incomes,” Manderino said of her tuition payments. “So since we would both be registered as adults, I would be expected to take out more loans.”

In addition to financial concerns, Manderino also wants to make sure she’s mature enough for marriage by her wedding date.
“You kind of need to go through college and get an idea of the real world before doing something so drastic,” she said. “Some of my high school friends had kids—in high school—and it’s like, ‘Wow, you’re my age.’”

Neal said her friends reacted negatively when she first told them about her engagement, partly out of similar concerns over maturity.

“One [concern] was career-related,” Neal said. “Will I still do what I want to do, because now I have another person to factor into future plans? And their other thing was, Will you be happy? You’re really young, and is this a decision you’ll be okay living with the rest of your life?’”

To these questions, Neal believes she can answer in the affirmative.

“In my particular situation, I’ve known him for so long, and he’s so connected to home life,” she said. In fact, Neal and Lodge met while they were in the sixth and seventh grades, respectively.

But Neal and Manderino have their concerns as well. Both are involved in long-distance relationships with their spouse or fiancé and have yet to live the “normal” married life. Striking a balance between their studies, friends, and significant others is a challenge they anxiously await.

“Now it’s fine—I get up early in the morning and we talk for a couple hours,” Neal said. But when Lodge comes back from Guam to live with her in September, she anticipates some major changes.

“It could be interesting, learning how to balance making sure work’s done, that my homework’s done, so that when he comes home from work I can focus on him,” she said. “And he’s aware that it’s going to be difficult. I don’t also want to push him away, our first year of being married.”

Manderino, who has never known college without her long-distance relationship with Waner, believes marriage and engagement put a completely new spin on the college experience.

“Especially at this age, when you’re just concerned about your GPA and finding an internship—attaching to someone is probably more than most people bargain for,” she said. “I’ve never gone to a frat party, I’ve never really gone to a real party, ever.… You’re always calling home, and saying ‘Hey hon, what do you think of this?’ and it’s definitely an acknowledgment that what I’m doing is not for myself, it’s for another person.”

But in spite of the strain and sacrifice of three years in a long-distance relationship, Manderino finds that the upside is quite substantial.

“I have my life set,” she said. “It’s a good feeling. I have someone who will always be there for me, who I can trust.”
Neal also looks forward to having her husband around as a constant support system.

“I’ll be living with my best friend—he hasn’t really done the school thing, but he’s really encouraging,” Neal said. “So while I’m struggling to finish and writing the B.A. and all that stuff, he’ll be there to be my cheerleader.”

Though both Neal and Manderino said they knew no other married or engaged undergraduates at the U of C, Neal feels her own situation is not too different from that of some of her unmarried peers.

“We’ve got the legal title, but I’ve got quite a few friends who are living with their boyfriends and girlfriends,” Neal said. “So it’s not really that different, minus the true permanency factor.”

After restoration, chapel instruments sound again

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:24:00 +0000

For the first time this academic year, the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel bells will once again sound throughout the University campus.

After undergoing a repair process lasting nearly a year, the carillon—a musical instrument consisting of a cluster of cast iron bells, each weighing several tons—will play for the Hyde Park community this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in the Chapel’s performance of A Musical Renaissance: Gala for Organ and Carillon. The concert will celebrate the restoration of the 75-year-old Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon and the E. M. Skinner Opus 634 organ, showcasing the new range and capabilities of the restored instruments.

Saturday’s concert will highlight the powerful sounds of Chicago’s largest organ with newly commissioned pieces by William Bolcom and Marta Ptaszynska, a professor in music at the College. The Rockefeller Chapel Choir, Motet Choir, University Chorus, and University of Chicago Singers will accompany the commissioned works.
The Gala culminates a mission that began in 2005 when

President Emeritus and ethnomusicologist Don Randel announced he would not leave the University until funds to repair the carillon and organ were raised. His sermon precipitated a gift of $1.6 million from trustees and friends of the University, marking the start of the $3 million project.

Weighing in at over 100 tons, the Chapel’s carillon is the second largest carillon in the world, second in weight only to the Riverside Church’s carillon in New York City. When it was installed in the Rockefeller Chapel tower in 1932 for $230,000, it was the largest carillon in the world. The carillon is comprised of 72 bells, the largest of which weighs 18.5 tons and is 10 feet in diameter. The second largest bell is the same size as Big Ben.

The Netherlander company Royal Eijsbouts, one of very few companies that repairs carillons, came to Rockefeller Chapel in September to uninstall and send 46 bells to the Netherlands for repairs. After repairing the bells, Royal Eijsbouts shipped them back to Chicago and reinstalled them in a new, more acoustic arrangement.

Previously, the smaller bells were located above the keyboard and underneath the larger bells, allowing the carillonneur to hear them but making it difficult for the notes to escape the tower and reach the audience. The smaller bells have been relocated above the larger bells to allow their sound to travel.

“You can get much more musical nuance out of the instrument now,” said Wylie Crawford, the University carillonneur.
The cabin for the carillonneur has also been completely restored and expanded to accommodate tour groups. The old keyboard, which was made before carillon keyboards were standardized, has been replaced.

In addition to playing the carillon every Sunday and at special events, Crawford teaches the instrument to members of the student organization The Rockebellers. He will be performing on Saturday with assistant University carillonneur James Fackenthal and guest carillonneur Milford Myhre. A live video feed will allow concertgoers to watch the dancelike movements of the carillonneurs as they play the seven-foot keyboard in the Chapel’s tower.

Thomas Wiesflog, the University organist, will be playing the newly restored organ, a $2.1 million endeavor that included a new tonal arch and restoration of the 8,565 pipes that make up the organ.

“For a pipe organ, the building is the sound board,” Wiesflog said, adding that the layout of the components has been re-engineered to better suit Rockefeller Chapel.

Along with other repairs underway at Rockefeller, a restored roof and window will prevent water damage that has caused significant harm to the organ in the past. Electrical wiring from its original installation has been replaced, and an up-to-date computer system has been added.

Schantz Organ Company, known for its work on Skinner organs, disassembled the organ and shipped it to their factory in Ohio for the restoration process, then reassembled the organ in Chicago.

Baroque pipes that had been added since the organ was built were removed to maintain its Renaissance character, and the Randel State Trumpet has been added in honor of the former president.

“[The organ] has been restored to be a truly grand Romantic instrument,” Wiesflog said.

VP for Community Affairs search stalls as more candidates sought

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:22:00 +0000

The search for the University’s next vice president for community and government affairs has stalled, administrators involved with the hiring process have confirmed.

After interviewing four finalists for the position last month, administrators have decided to consider additional candidates, possibly extending the search into the summer. In an interview last month, President Robert Zimmer said he expected to fill the post before the end of the quarter, although that now appears unlikely.

“This is a long process where we’ve actually spoken with dozens of candidates over the last several months…. The most important thing is that we get it right,” said Vice President for Strategic Initiatives David Greene, who has been in charge of the search. “If it [the search] takes additional weeks, months, for someone at this level, that person is going to be here for a substantial period of time.”

The decision to seek additional candidates has suggested that despite the broad variations in background and skill sets represented by the four finalists, whose information and résumés the Maroon has obtained from multiple sources, those responsible for filling the post remained uncertain about the candidates’ qualifications to assume the leadership of one of the most influential offices at the University and on Chicago’s South Side.

Despite the step, the four finalists have not been ruled out, Greene said.

The vice president for community affairs is charged with fostering the University’s relationship with surrounding constituencies and with overseeing the University’s involvement in the commercial and economic development of Hyde Park and its environs. The office assumes broad oversight roles of the U of C’s local public education programs as well as campus policing and security policies.

The position was vacated in February when vice president Hank Webber, who had served in that capacity for 11 years, left the University to take a similar job at the Washington University in St. Louis.

Over the course of his tenure, Webber’s position was frequently the object of vocal community protest over what many in Hyde Park as well as in neighboring communities saw as University imposition. The southward expansion of the physical campus into Woodlawn has been the most recent and persistent of these concerns, but the recent acquisition of several commercial properties in Hyde Park has also raised unease among some community activists wary of University efforts to spur Hyde Park’s retail and commercial development. Administrators have maintained that their engagement in external relations has consistently sought to incorporate community input and participation.

Considered comparatively, the four final candidates who visited the University for interviews last month were noteworthy for their widely differing qualifications. Each candidate would represent a notably distinct assertion by President Robert Zimmer and the hiring committee of the priorities that the administration has set for the future of the office, for the approach that the University will take in developing its relationship with the surrounding communities, and for establishing its roles within the city of Chicago.

At the request of multiple quoted sources with direct knowledge of the candidates who expressed concern about the integrity of the hiring process, the Maroon is withholding the names of those on the administration’s short list.

Urban university experience

The first candidate presents a firm academic background in urban youth and educational development, race politics, the media, and community relations as well as considerable experience working for a major research university in a large city.

His role in overseeing his university’s relations with surrounding communities as well as dozens of university–community partnerships suggests familiarity with the types of relationship-building abilities that are critical to the office of vice president for community affairs, but his university’s situation within a neighborhood considerably more affluent than the U of C’s is indicative of the stark difference in approach that would be necessary to foster successful town–gown collaboration.

His expertise in race politics, particularly among the African-American community, could be appealing to the administration, because it would allow the University to “put out articles that look good” about the University’s relationship with its predominantly African-American neighbors, said one source involved in the hiring process, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Another source familiar with the candidates said that while the first candidate seemed uniquely qualified for the office, there were doubts as to the administration’s likelihood of selecting him because of the commercial and development interests that the University also has in Hyde Park.

Understanding Chicago politics

The second candidate’s professional training as an urban planner and policy analyst in Chicago, her extensive involvement with the city’s financial institutions, and her employment within the upper administration of the municipal government make her the most politically and financially connected of the four finalists. Her experiences would benefit the University in affording it “the most political clout with town hall,” one source said.

She has been engaged in public and private projects for local sustainable development and also in advising financial institutions on socially responsible spending and grant-making.

Her financial role in administering multi-million-dollar budgets for public and community development programs, both private and municipal, has earned her public recognition within the nonprofit sectors and by major Chicago media outlets.

Community education outreach

Most recently, the third candidate has worked for some of the country’s most prominent private foundations, as director of several education policy associations and as an analyst and researcher for multiple public school districts.

His research on learning and teacher development and his role in formulating education curricula could lend guidance to the educational outreach and charter school programs that the University has enthusiastically presented as illustration of its interest in fostering positive relationships with its surrounding communities by allocating significant financial and institutional resources for the benefit of its neighbors.

“If what you want is someone who’s going to address community engagement, I felt that he had the best sort of tools both cognitively and intellectually,” one source said.

Commercial planning and development

The fourth candidate’s professional experiences lend themselves more than any other candidate to the commercial, retail, and property development of the University’s surrounding area.

“He seemed to be about plans on charts and the bottom line dollar,” a source said.

Given the University’s recent purchase of Harper Court, its plans to redevelop the Harper Theater Building on East 53rd Street, and its stated interest in overseeing the commercial development of Hyde Park, the fourth candidate would provide a firm hand in guiding the administration’s policies toward the University’s physical redevelopment efforts.

He would be among the most qualified candidates for taking the lead on the University’s collaboration with municipal authorities to formulate a successful bid for the 2016 Olympics, whose central presence in Hyde Park will make the University one of the key players in that city-wide effort.

Next steps

Administrators would not comment on the extent of the expansion of their search for additional candidates for the vice presidential position or whether specific applicants were being sought out.

“Because of the breadth of this position and because of the University’s aspirations, there’s no one person that’s going to have all of the relevant experiences,” Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Greene said. Instead, the administration has sought candidates who can “assemble a team” of associates that will most effectively tackle the University’s many interests in its community while incorporating it in the University’s decision-making process, he said.

Throughout the process, the University has had conversations with community leaders about their wishes for the office’s successor, Greene said in response to questions about the limited transparency of the search’s progress.

But ultimately, he said, “the person we’re hiring is a University official and a University employee.”

Quadrangle Club employees vote to join Teamsters union

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Quadrangle Club employees unanimously voted to join Teamsters Local 743 Tuesday, the union that represents many University clerical and maintenance workers. The employees expect to receive official certification in the coming weeks.

Club employees first approached the union to discuss possible representation over growing frustration with the current Club’s current management. At the time, Local 743 was undergoing a change in leadership, and an employees’ petition was not approved until a new union administration reconsidered it in March.

Chris Nogulich, the Club’s current general manager, declined to comment.

Some employees believe that union representation is especially important in light of the club’s impending transfer to a new management company. The University, which last year assumed financial control of the Club, will select that firm, but it has been unable to guarantee the security of workers’ jobs once the new management is in place.

“The union gave us a strong avenue for our concerns to be heard and called on the University to commit to something on paper,” said one employee who requested anonymity because he was criticizing the current management. “[The University] agreed to address the effects of job loss for anyone who is not hired,” he said.

Bill Silver, a union representative, said the union’s top priority is to ensure job security for all current employees. The union will also bargain with the University on behalf of employees who are not rehired.

“Our second focus is anyone who is left behind, but we hope that we won’t have to resort to that,” Silver said.

Though employees have voted to join the union, the Quadrangle Club itself will only be unionized under the new management if the majority of the employees are rehired.

“If the new management hires the majority of employees, they will have to sit down with the union to talk about wages, hours, benefits, etc. If not, we will have to organize again with the contractor,” Silver said.

In an interview with the MAROON last week, David Greene, University vice president for strategic initiatives and head of the committee selecting the new management, said that all of the bidders for the management position have expressed interest in negotiating with the employees and are open to working with a collective bargaining unit.

“We gave the University two weeks to investigate this with the bidders. They came back and told us that the contractors were okay with the union,” Silver said.

Because union presence has become increasingly prevalent among restaurant and hotel employees, Silver does not anticipate that the employees’ union activities will be an obstacle to their rehiring.

“It’s probably not [the new management’s] first choice, but it’s a reality,” Silver said.

Zimmer announces new campus safety initiatives

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:31:00 +0000

President Zimmer announced new steps the University will take to improve campus safety in an e-mail to the University community Wednesday. The letter addressed the recommendations made by the Campus Safety and Security Committee, an ad-hoc group for following the shooting death of graduate student Amadou Cisse last November.   The committee’s report, the result of four months of discussion and evaluation, was released Wednesday.

A new shuttle bus system, a walking escort service, daily crime report postings on the University’s website, and new outdoor security cameras are some of the changes the report suggests. The report also marked several areas for improvement, including police deployment and staffing, technology, incident reporting, and safety education and outreach.

Immediately following Cisse’s murder, the University stepped up its police presence, extended the hours of the late night van service, improved lighting on campus, created the Campus Safety and Security Committee, and hired an outside security consulting firm to research additional safety measures, Zimmer wrote in his e-mail.

“I think that many people have been pleased with the changes implemented after Amadou Cisse’s death and wanted to make sure that the University would continue to improve on these changes as appropriate,” Kimberly Goff-Crews, committee co-chair and vice president and dean of students, said in an e-mail interview.

 According to Committee Co-chair and Divinity School Dean Richard Rosengarten, the University plans to phase in all or most of the suggested changes over an extended period of time.

 “We would be naïve if we thought we could do it immediately. It would be hard financially and administratively. So we will have to prioritize the changes we want to make,” Rosengarten said.

 “I can say that the committee was cognizant of making recommendations that could be sustained and adapted as necessary over time,” Goff-Crews said. “That is why we recommended that many of the departments across the institution report to a central person who would be able to assess and improve a coordinated effort.”

 The committee expects current safety plans to evolve as the University community’s concerns change, Rosengarten said. For example, when the new dorm and arts center open south of the Midway next year, the University will change its transportation services and safety system to accomodate the expansion. He also expects the forthcoming Community Safety website to adapt to new technological advances.

 “One of the challenges was sorting out different kinds of considerations so we could set up the right kinds of categories of issues—what it was like then and what could be done to improve them,” he said. “Because of the broad University community, we also had lots of different perspectives to take into consideration.”

 The committee, made up of students, faculty, staff, and community members, began meeting in early December and faced pressure to act quickly because of the urgency of safety concerns, Rosengarten said.

 “While being as comprehensive as we could be, we had to act fast,” he said. “The feeling was that we needed to move with all due speed to some action plan.”

 Although the committee’s report is finished, the group’s work is not over. In the coming years, the committee will serve an important advisory role for University administrators, Zimmer wrote.

In visiting restrooms, trans students face tough choice

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:28:00 +0000

This third installment in our ongoing series on transgender campus trends explores how the University’s efforts to implement single-user restrooms have been received by members of the transgender community.

For many members of the University’s transgender community, using public restrooms can present a challenging and often alienating dilemma.

Their quandary manifests itself when they have to decide between using a facility based on their biological sex or on the gender with which they identify.

“I’ve had people call security on me,” said one fourth-year trans-identified student, who requested anonymity. “I’ve been sent from one [restroom] to the other. ‘Oh, this is the men’s restroom, you should be in the women’s restroom.’ ‘Um, this is the women’s restroom, you should be in the men’s restroom.’ And I’ve dealt with all manners of humiliation. I’ve had people refer to me as ‘it,’” he said.

“I’ve had this experience on campus, and I know it’s one that other people certainly contemplate as an issue every time they go into a restroom. ‘Is this what’s going to happen to me?’” he said.

In 2003, the office of the vice president and dean of students and the office of the provost convened a group of students, staff, and faculty to evaluate LGBTQ student life at the University in response to student concern over the lack of gender and gender identity clauses in the University’s diversity statement. In 2005, the group released a series of recommendations to enhance support for the University’s LGBTQ community. Along with several other issues, the recommendations highlighted the need for more single-user restrooms in campus buildings.

As part of efforts to enhance campus life for transgender students, the group compiled a resource guide with a list of all the existing single-user restrooms on campus and began to identify new locations for single-user restrooms, Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Associate Dean of the College Bill Michel said.

“A group of students began advocating for gender-neutral restrooms and worked closely with me and my colleagues. The Regenstein was a place where we added them, and when we built Ratner we made sure there were some single-user restrooms there, and in many other buildings we have renovated and/or built over the last several years, we have always tried to identify locations for single-user restrooms,” he said.

Red Tremmel, a trans-identified Ph.D. candidate in the history department and a resident head in Max Palevsky, spends most of his time researching and writing his dissertation in the Regenstein. Tremmel, who has been at the University since 1996, said that the addition of the single-user restrooms to the library’s upper levels greatly simplified his trips to the bathroom.

“It’s just such a relief for those who don’t fit into categories of male and female. It’s a relief to not have to go into [standard] bathrooms when I’m in the middle of writing my dissertation. I don’t want to have to be dealing with other people’s issues about my gender,” he said.

“It makes a huge difference in people’s lives. A huge difference.”

The newly renovated 5710 Woodlawn building, which houses both the LGBTQ Programming Office and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA), also features single-user restrooms.

“One person told me that they pretty much will only use the bathrooms at 5710 South Woodlawn, because that’s the only place on campus where every bathroom is single-user, so you’re not visually isolated from others by choosing to use a single-user restroom,” the anonymous fourth-year said.

Yet despite the University’s response to student requests for single-user restroom facilities, several trans students said that navigating the campus’s bathrooms remains a challenge.

The lack of awareness and publicity of single-user restrooms already in place is problematic for many trans students, the fourth-year said, adding that the many single-user restrooms lie in out-of-the-way locations or bear confusing signs that do not explicitly designate them as single-user.

He explained that because the ground floor of the Regenstein does not have single-user restrooms, many new students might not know to look for the single-user restrooms on the library’s upper levels.

“So essentially you have to already know your way around buildings or you might think that all floors are like the first floor. And it takes time to build up knowledge about campus,” he said.

One first-year trans student said that while she knows that single-user restrooms on campus do exist, the extra effort required to find one discourages her from using them.

“On the University of Chicago website, there’s a list of all gender-neutral bathrooms,” she said. “They’re kind of out of the way and in backward corners. In general it’s a problem finding one. I just go back to my dorm.”

Because single-user restrooms have utility even for non-transgender people—including the disabled and parents with small children—not just members of the trans-community would benefit from the publicizing of existing single-user facilities, the fourth-year said.

“I think there’s a growing recognition, not on this campus in particular, that there are other people who are not transgendered who use those bathrooms. Some people are just pee-shy. Or maybe someone just had really bad stomach problems and wants to be far away from everyone. I don’t feel there’s a need for social camaraderie in the bathroom,” he said.

U of C wins 19 Fulbright fellowships

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:24:00 +0000

Nineteen University students and alumni have been awarded Fulbright Student Program Fellowships for the 2008–2009 academic year, representing a 28-percent acceptance rate among U of C applications, according to University administrators.

This year, 67 applicants sought the award, Senior Adviser for International Initiatives in the College David Comp said in an e-mail interview. Last year, the University had 58 applicants to the program, with 17 winning the prize.

For the 2006-–2007 academic year, the University ranked seventh among the top doctoral institutions for number of Fulbright scholars, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education report. That year, Yale, Harvard, and Brown garnered spots at the top of the list, with 31, 25, and 24 winners respectively. The U of C had 18 winners.

Eleven current fourth-year students won Fulbrights this year.

“I applied for the Fulbright because I thought it would be a great opportunity to take a break from academia and seek out a research project that would be completely motivated by personal curiosities and interests,” fourth-year Pearl Kan said in an e-mail interview. Kan will conduct research on Hakka Chinese reggae music in Jamaica.

Early in the application process, Kan did not expect to win the award.

“I had a terrible first interview,” she said. “I actually cried afterwards!

“Maybe I won because my research project really touches on a subject that is understudied,” she said.

“Part of my project is devoted to researching the Chinese diaspora refracted through reggae music,” she said. “There are plenty of Afro-Chinese reggae stars, and I’m particularly interested in roots reggae which speak[s] about social issues,” Kan said.

Some winners credited College advisers for their help during the application process. “Completing my application over time and repeatedly checking in with the advising staff really helped me locate the various strengths and potential weaknesses of my application,” said Ryan Kaminski, a fourth-year who will teach English in Hong Kong.

The program awards approximately 6,000 new grants each year, with roughly 1,200 going to Americans.

Several College alumni were among the recipients. Yana Morgulis (A.B. ’07) plans to study economic development in Cambodia, Emily Pickerill (A.B. ’06) will study political science in Tunisia, and Kristen Dennesen (A.B. ’04) won an English teaching assistantship in Brazil.

Initiated in 1946 by Senator J. William Fulbright (D-AR), the Fulbright Fellowship is an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government that aims to further intellectual and cultural relationships between the U.S. and other countries. Applicants submit a proposal for a research project abroad, and winners receive grant money to cover the costs of research and study abroad.

Other winners of the fellowship will conduct research in countries including Austria, Spain, South Africa, Macedonia, Indonesia, and South Korea.

University fires Harper Theater developers

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:11:00 +0000

The University has dismissed Baum Realty and Brinshore Development, the two firms responsible for developing the Harper Theater Building on East 53rd Street and South Harper Avenue.

The decision to end the contract, first reported in the Hyde Park Herald last week, came just days after the University announced that it had purchased Harper Court, the retail center adjacent to the Harper Theater, for $6.5 million.

According to Susan Campbell, associate vice president for government and community affairs, the firms were fired because they were unable to satisfy certain agreements they had reached with the University.

“We have been disappointed that the development team hasn’t met with deadlines and specifications they have ascribed to,” Campbell said at a May 12 Tax Increment Finance meeting, according to the Herald.

The failure of meeting those agreements entailed the firms’ inability to recruit tenants and acquire funds for the project, said Robert Rosenberg, associate vice president for public affairs communication.

“As part of development contracts there are milestones that have to be met in terms of the developer securing the tenants necessary and the funding necessary to develop the project,” Rosenberg said.

“The University was very generous in letting the date of the milestones slip.... The developers were not successful in meeting those milestones,” he said.

Representatives of neither company would comment on the decision.

“There’s no point in burning bridges with the University,” said Richard Sciortino, president of Brinshore Development.

The University purchased the Harper Theater building in 2002 with plans to redevelop the site into a mixed retail space that would serve as the center of Hyde Park’s main commercial corridor. Those efforts were stalled after some community members urged the University to preserve and reopen the building’s shuttered movie theater.

After efforts to determine the feasibility of that option, University planners scrapped it in favor of a plan featuring upscale retail and restaurant establishments. In 2006, the University hired the Baum and Brinshore firms and unveiled plans to demolish most of the existing structure and replace it with new retail spaces. Baum Realty has extensive experience attracting retailers to Chicago areas and has played an important role in the commercial development of Bucktown.

The inability of the development firms to attract tenants willing to set up shop in Hyde Park has brought to the surface some of the difficulties that have plagued retail development efforts in the neighborhood for decades. Upscale retailers and national chains have been reluctant to risk investment in Hyde Park because of the constraints of its consumer base, its relative commercial isolation on the South Side, and the limited expendable income of its majority student population.

The University’s purchase of Harper Court last month came after successive failures by the property’s owners to attract purchasers and developers for the site despite added incentives that included an adjacent parking lot.

Although the termination of the developers’ contract for the Harper Theater building suggests that the University may have plans to consolidate its development with that of adjacent Harper Court in light of its purchase, Rosenberg said that the decision was not necessarily made for that reason.

“My understanding is that they were completely separate events,” he said. “We are currently reassessing the situation with the Harper Theater.”

Students dig up World’s Fair relics, uncover history

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:01:00 +0000

University archaeologists have uncovered thousands of artifacts from sites around the world but have only recently tapped into an archaeological goldmine just down the street.

A group of students, led by anthropology Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Graff, has been working this quarter to dig up the long-buried remains of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.

When Graff proposed her idea to the archeology department last year, the College suggested that she turn the dig into an archaeological methods course to be taught this quarter.

“The class has been great, but it does make things slower in many senses because the students have other classes and things to do so we can only dig twice a week,” Graff said.

The class of 20 students meets for lectures about the history of the fair and archaeological excavation methods. The actual digging occurs during lab sessions, which meet all day Friday or Saturday throughout the quarter.

Graff selected four areas of the 633-acre fairground site to excavate and began digging for artifacts in early April. The holes the class has dug are approximately three feet deep and sixand-a-half feet wide.

They have uncovered nails, plaster pieces, bricks, ceramics, and pieces of glass dating back to the 19th century.

“We collect anything that is an artifact. That means anything human-made, including the modern stuff. It is important not only to look at the Exposition, but also how the land has been used since then,” Graff said.

Scraps of product packaging have helped students piece together a picture of the dynamics and dimensions of the fair. World’s fairs and exhibitions were important stages for the debut of new products and innovations. The Chicago Fair was the birthplace of Cracker Jacks and Quaker Oats.

In addition to the nitty-gritty aspects of the excavation, the project also involves extensive paperwork and mapping. For the course’s final assignment, students will conduct research on an artifact of their choice.

“One of the great things about historical archeology is that it [provides] a lot of evidence to help us interpret the artifacts and what each tells us about the site,” Graff said.

Although the team moves the smaller discoveries into the lab for further analysis, larger finds like pipes and building foundations must be observed on site and mapped.

Graff has been interested in the World’s Fair since she first came to the University of Chicago, where she focuses on 19th-century habits of consumption and tourism.

Graff’s dig is a personal as well as a historical endeavor. Graff grew up in Los Angeles but learned from her family that one of her great-grandfathers, a Russian Jew, worked as a ditch digger on the Chicago Fair grounds after immigrating to the United States.

Over the course of six months in 1893, the Chicago Fair attracted 12 to 16 million people who visited and revisited the fantastical collection of classical exposition buildings, canals, restaurants, and other innovative attractions. Today, little trace of the physical Fair remains above ground, with the exception of the Palace of Fine Arts, which now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

Doniger to deliver convocation speech

Fri, 23 May 2008 05:18:00 +0000

Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade distinguished service professor in the Divinity School, will deliver the commencement address to this year’s graduating classes at the June 13 and 14 graduate and College convocation ceremonies. Steven Kaplan, the Neubaurer Family professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the Graduate School of Business, will deliver the commencement address to graduating GSB students on June 15.

Doniger said she is thrilled by the announcement and is looking forward to addressing graduating students.

“I delayed my summer plans several weeks in order to do it. I think it’s a great honor,” Doninger said.

Her speech, entitled “Thinking More Critically About Thinking Too Critically,” will explore critical approaches to classic texts written in cultures and eras whose values diverge from modern sensibilities, Doniger said. Doniger has also delivered the Orientation Week’s traditional Aims of Education address in the past, but said that her commencement speech will approach problems of reading in a different light.

“This will be more about coming to terms with the flaws in great classics. Problems such as racism and sexism are looked at in a different way today,” she said. “It’s about learning to read the classics in a new way that was not possible fifty years ago.”

Doniger said she looks forward to a final opportunity to address her own graduating students, adding that she admires the University’s tradition of choosing faculty speakers instead of well known public figures.

“Chicago has its funny traditions and this is one of them,” she said. “You see your own students graduate so it’s very nice.”

Unlike many of its peer institutions, the University typically chooses faculty members to deliver the annual commencement address. By contrast, at Harvard’s upcoming commencement ceremony, J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, will deliver this year’s address. In previous years, Bill Gates, Conan O’Brien, and Will Ferrell have given Harvard’s graduation speeches.

Well known author Dave Eggers will deliver Brown University’s address and former British prime minister Tony Blair will speak at Yale. Presidential candidate and U of C Law School professor Barack Obama will address the graduating class at Wesleyan University, an announcement made this week after the school’s original speaker, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor

President Bill Clinton delivered remarks in addition to the faculty address at the 1999 convocation, as did New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.

Not all students agree with the University’s tradition of choosing faculty members over big-name speakers, and many say that the U of C should jump on the bandwagon of schools who bring public figures to campus for commencement.

Fourth-year Andrew Hughes would rather have a well known speaker deliver the commencement address than a professor when he graduates next month.

“Certainly there are some professors who could deliver great speeches, but few if any could provide that opportunity to say, ‘I saw so-and-so speak,’” Hughes said. “I suppose I want a memorable send-off to commemorate my time here. I want to be able to look back fondly on my last day at the University.”

Third-year Jake Lasala agreed.

“I have been to a few large-scale talks at this University, and the majority have knocked me out. By the time they speak at my graduation, I will have already done all the work; it would be nice to sit back and be entertained,” Lasala said.

“It would be nice to hear from someone who isn’t part of this community, who can talk about the real world, because Lord knows this isn’t real life,” he said.

However, second-year Nick Geller said that the University’s tradition of selecting commencement speakers from the faculty helps maintains its intellectual tradition and distinguishes it from its Ivy League peers.

“Commencement is not about laughing,” Geller said. “At Harvard, Princeton, and other Ivy League schools that want a celebrity to speak, it is really all about the frills, and there is not any real substance.”

Correction

The May 23 article "Doniger to Deliver Convocation Speech" incorrectly reported that in 1999 and 2006, President Bill Clinton and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered the University's convocation addresses, respectively. They delivered convocation remarks in addition to the traditional address delivered by University faculty members.

Quad Club employees look to unionize

Fri, 23 May 2008 05:17:00 +0000

The University has said that it hopes to turn the Quadrangle Club around after years of mismanagement and unprofitability, though it remains unclear what role the Club’s current employees will play in the Club’s renewal. Employees are seeking union representation to address their concerns over working conditions as the administration works to select a new management company for the facility.

Although the Quadrangle Club is technically an independent entity, the University has played an increasingly large role in its maintenance and management over the last two years, said David Greene, vice president for Strategic Initiatives.

Unhappy with the club’s decline, members voted the University a sustaining member, with a mandate to appoint the new board of directors and assume overall responsibility for club management. In November of last year, the University pledged $10 to $20 million for renovations and improvements to the building and facilities.

The Club’s new board of directors, headed by Greene, will select the new management group. Four companies and the current management company have responded to a formal request for bids to assume responsibility for the club, and a decision will be made in the coming weeks, Greene said.

The prospect of new management was welcomed by Quadrangle Club employees, numbering approximately 30, who say they have had problems cashing paychecks and scheduling hours for special events. Moreover, they have had conflicts over benefits, sick days, profit sharing, and overtime.

“Unfairness pretty much sums it up,” said one employee, who asked not to be named because she was concerned that the current management might remain in place.

However, employees were frustrated that they were not given any concrete information about their job security under new management.

“Nothing was being told to us. We were always told, ‘I don’t know,’” said another employee who asked not to be named. He added that employees could not be certain that their concerns were discussed during meetings between the University and the club’s board of directors. The club’s general manager, Chris Nogulich, was the only Quadrangle Club employee who met with University representatives. Nogulich declined to comment for this article.

Quadrangle Club employees first approached the Teamsters Local 743, the same union representing other campus workers, in 2007 to discuss the possibility of unionization. When the union reviewed their petition in March, employees had grown more eager for representation.

“We need someone to talk to, to air our grievances,” an employee said. On Tuesday, employees will vote to determine whether the union will represent them.

Nearly all the Club employees have signed cards agreeing to union representation, said Bill Silver, a Teamsters representative. He anticipates that Tuesday’s vote will pass easily. Many employees believe the union has already given them a voice in discussions with the University. Employees were encouraged by the University’s response at a recent hearing organized by the union, during which the University agreed to negotiate with the employees as a collective bargaining unit should the vote pass.

According to employees, the University representatives promised to do all they could to ensure that all employees receive employment at the Quadrangle Club or the University or receive some sort of severance compensation.

“Before the union talks, we were told just to ‘think positive,’” one employee said.

While Greene acknowledged that the transition may be “unsettling,” he emphasized the University’s commitment to the club employees. “Our intent all along has been to ensure that employees are treated very well, to make sure that people have opportunities and that there will be a great transition plan,” Greene said. Although the University has not insisted that a new contractor rehire current employees, potential contractors will help employees navigate the change in management, he said.

“In interviews, all the potential management companies are very interested in working with the current employees,” Greene said.

However, Silver has been frustrated by the University’s inability to guarantee employees’ positions. “Employees want an official, guaranteed agreement,” he said.

The union’s top priorities will be to encourage the new management company to rehire the employees and to negotiate with the University over solutions for employees who are not rehired, he said. “The University has big plans for the Club,” he said. “Our message is, don’t leave employees out of the mix.”

For Harper Court tenants, nostalgia and uncertainty

Fri, 23 May 2008 05:13:00 +0000

Bruce Kyes, the owner of the Plants Alive florist in Harper Court, remembers when the Court was a bustling shopping center. Christmas was an eventful time for the shopping center’s patrons and merchants, with a Santa Claus sitting for children and opera singers going from business to business singing carols. A garden in the middle of the center attracted children and served as an epicenter for community events. It was a popular spot for casual chess games and tournaments.

Plants Alive has been in Harper Court since its Hyde Park debut in 1965 and is the only remaining business of the original Harper Court stores. Since his store opened, Kyes has seen about 50 businesses set up shop then shut down, he said.

“They’ve come and gone; It used to be a much busier place,” he said.

Over the past five or six years, Harper Court’s business has gradually gone downhill, Kyes said.

“The remaining stores left because there started to be less and less traffic,” Kyes said.

A farmer’s market was introduced to the shopping center a few years ago, which helped some of the businesses but hurt Kyes’s florist business, since people started buying flowers from the market instead of the store.

Last week, the University announced its purchase of Harper Court from the Harper Court Arts Council for $6.5 million and informed Harper Court business owners of the property’s impending closure. Although it means that in the coming months Kyes will shutter his windows after more than 40 years, he said he is pleased with the purchase, adding that the University has shown concern about the center’s merchants in the past.

“We just love their attitude. They were clear and helpful,” he said.

Still, Kyes said Harper Court merchants did not know about the sale of the shopping center until late in the negotiation process.

“Originally we thought it was going to be sold to a developer who was going to tear it down. That plan fell through ,and we were really never told anything about it again. We did not even know it was up for sale. The merchants were out of the loop,” he said of the process.

The assistant manager of Harper Court’s Calypso Cafe restaurant, Brenda Forsythe, is concerned about Harper Court’s, and therefore Calypso’s, fate.

“The only thing I could be concerned about is what could happen to Calypso Cafe,” Forsythe said. “It would be a concern to us at our restaurant. We are very established in this area.”

Forsythe has not discussed the purchase extensively with the management team and has no idea what the University plans to do with Harper Court or when, she said.

The University has not announced its development plans for the property. Nevertheless, Kyes said that he has faith that the University will help business owners find other outlets when they’re finally forced to close shop.

“They were very nice about it. We’re going to stay here at least until the demolition begins,” he said. “We’re just happy that it’s not a developer who is going to tear Harper Court down immediately and does not care about the fate of the merchants.”

Kyes said that the opening of Park 52, a new American-style bistro, in Harper Court last month has brought increased business to the center’s merchants. Plants Alive has seen an increase in foot traffic and sales, he said.

“We’re happy about Park 52 opening,” Kyes said. “People have been coming every day.”

Park 52’s Director of Operations Kari Fitzgerald said that so far the restaurant has garnered significant business. She added that the Harper Court location is ideal because of its proximity to the historic Checkerboard Lounge and the building’s size.

Fitzgerald said she thinks the University’s purchase will help Harper Court business owners, including Park 52.

“I believe it will positively affect our business. By revitalizing Harper Court it will help the businesses,” Fitzgerald said. “People who would not normally come here will come here now. We’re excited,” she said.

“I do not see why anyone would be upset. I think anyone taking an interest in Harper Court is great,” she said. “Anything that will bring more foot traffic into the neighborhood will help existing businesses.”

Writer-in-residence George Saunders reflects on career

Fri, 23 May 2008 04:58:00 +0000

George Saunders knows all about failure. But three failed novels didn’t keep Saunders from writing.

Now an acclaimed author, professor of creative writing, and recent recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Saunders spoke of his life as a writer and the writing process at a talk in Swift Hall Wednesday.

Drawing on his own struggles with early writing projects, Saunders encouraged the aspiring writers in the audience to never stop writing.

“You’re like, ‘Oh, if I blow this, I suck. And if I suck, I can’t be a writer,’” he said. “The idea that there is some point that you can justify to quit is wrong.”

Saunders’s most recent book, The Braindead Megaphone, is a collection of nonfiction short stories. He is currently the University’s 2008 Kestnbaum Family Writer-in-Residence, a position sponsored by the Committee on Creative Writing. In previous years, the the Committee hosted writers Lydia Davis, Zadie Smith, and Art Spiegelman.

Before becoming an author, Saunders worked for an environmental engineering firm and an oil exploration crew.

“I’ve done a lot of things not by design, but kind of by ineptitude,” he said.

Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Saunders received a B.S. in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines before going on to earn his master’s in creative writing at Syracuse University, where he is currently on the faculty of the Master of Fine Arts program. Saunders works with three other faculty members and the 19 master’s students who are part of Syracuse University’s creative writing program. He pushes his students to delve into situations they often do not want to confront.

“When the story starts getting red hot, you find these avoidance moments,” he said.

In his own writing, Saunders said he has returned to writing fiction, attributing his foray into nonfiction to a midlife crisis. He was motivated to explore other mediums by the hope of reaching a broader audience.

“Is there something defective in me that I can’t get normal people to read my stuff?” he said.

He has written three books of short stories, a children’s book, a novella-length fable, and a number of pieces for The New Yorker and GQ. He has also appeared on The Colbert Report, and Ben Stiller purchased the film rights to his book CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.

Burgeoning writers in the crowd also took home some pointers for their own work. Saunders said he recommends paring down manuscripts, adding that he will often writes six or seven polished drafts of an ending before settling on one.

“Stories are increasingly becoming like little puzzles you work out for yourself,” he said. “There’s a kind of radically scary truth. All the time we spend [reading and analyzing literature], at the moment of writing, that can really trip you up.”

He said that the process of revision is essential and said that a first draft is never indicative of a writer’s ability.

Hemingway’s writings informed Saunders’s early literary interests. He referred to his early writing as “Hemingway imitations of me—Hemingway in Texas.”

In his youth, Saunders said, he focused too much on the conceptual aspect of writing by picking apart the writing of the authors he admires and attempting to transplant their voice into his own writing.

“I would write these stories that were kind of like Somerset Maugham on quaaludes,” he said.

“I was really trying to mimic my hero,” Saunders said of Hemingway. “At a certain point, the analysis is not the production.” After years of refusing to read current writers, he read Stuart Dybek, who writes short stories that are often set in Chicago and was inspired to find his own contemporary voice.

As a young man, Saunders was inspired to pursue higher education by the books of objectivist Ayn Rand, who espoused laissez-faire capitalism.

“I read Atlas Shrugged, and that is really why I went to college,” he said.

But after working for corporations and witnessing worker abuse firsthand, Saunders’s political stance turned liberal. His writing often addresses issues of consumerism and capitalism, but he said he avoids focusing on that while he writes in order to avoid being condescending.

“I think any kind of agenda in a story, which of course we all have, has to be examined all the time,” he said.

But despite all the theory and analysis, Saunders said that becoming a good writer ultimately requires actually putting that knowledge into practice and recommended writing for as little as 20 minutes a day.

“We just talked about stories for three hours. Let’s remember that that has very little to do with writing one,” he said.

UnCommon Interview: Co-Op bookstore manager Jack Cella

Fri, 23 May 2008 04:55:00 +0000

When then–graduate student Jack Cella began working part-time at the Seminary Co-op in 1968, he didn’t imagine he would one day occupy the esteemed position of manager of the legendary academic bookstore, which he has run for more than 30 years now. The University’s recent acquisition of the Chicago Theological Seminary building, whose sprawling basement houses the bookstore, puts the Seminary Co-op’s future place in the building in a precarious position. Earlier this month, the University announced plans to house the new Milton Friedman Institute in the Seminary building, but it remains unclear what this decision implies for Hyde Park’s longstanding literary venue. This week, Cella sat down with the Maroon to discuss the past and the future of the Co-op.

Chicago Maroon: The Seminary Co-op has served Hyde Park for over 40 years. What has made it so successful?

Jack Cella: Well, I mean, I think we’ve tried to be as good a bookstore as we can be and to fit into this exceptional community we’re a part of. The community has been very supportive of the Co-op, but also very demanding. I think our attempt to be a bookstore that could be a really good fit for the Hyde Park–University of Chicago–South Side community—that’s what made the store successful. I would say the customers have been...appreciative, and they’re not shy about letting us know when we should be doing better.

CM: You came to the University as a graduate student. How did you first get involved with the Co-op?

JC: I was just looking for a part-time job.

CM: Then it just transformed into something more?

JC: [Laughing.] It transformed. There wasn’t any specific date. It gradually became all encompassing. I’ve certainly worked with and met great people over the years.

CM: A former president of the University once said that the loss of any single faculty member is preferable to your loss. Do you agree?

JC: No. But it was a very nice comment.

CM: How did you react when Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar had his ashes scattered on your front lawn?

JC: Well, I had known Chandra—that’s what he went by—for a long time. He would come in frequently and we would talk about stuff. He would talk. I would listen. He would talk about a variety of things. The last book he wrote, he was writing about Newton. For several years, he had talked about how exciting it was to read The Principia. And he died very unexpectedly. And a few weeks later, two weeks later, his widow came by and said that Chandra had said that he wanted his ashes in five places that were closest to him, one of which was the bookstore. I was really nonplussed. And I think of him, probably every day. I keep his books on display in display cases and his ashes were spread right out in front. He was an exceptional person. I’m giving you my honest reaction.

CM: You said earlier that Hyde Park is a very demanding community about books. Can you elaborate about that?
JC: I think books and ideas and the life of the mind are very central to the University and the community. I think you asked why we’ve been successful for 40-some years; it’s because of the community we’re in. You can never be satisfied in a business like this, because you can always do things better or stock things more widely or have a different mix of authors. And what I meant by demanding was…frequently when customers see something they like they’ll compliment it, but they’re not shy about saying, “Well, why don’t you do this?” or “Why didn’t you do this in addition?”

CM: When did you find out that the University was planning to buy this building from the Seminary?

JC: I think, I know they’ve been in discussions for about a year, serious discussions for maybe two months. I mean serious in the sense that the numbers seem to be right.

CM: Were you involved in the process of the deal?

JC: No. I was informed of what was going on, but I wasn’t in the process at all.

CM: Other than the ownership of the building, has anything changed?

JC: No. I think the Seminary has been a good landlord for the Co-op. We’re just tenants here. But I think an old building like this takes a tremendous amount of money just to not improve but just to keep decay at bay. I think they never really had enough money to do that. The University will really be committed to maintaining the building and have the money to improve systems and keep it the way it should be.

CM: Do you welcome the University?

JC: I think so. I think it will be a good arrangement all around, and I think they’ll allow us to involve the Co-op and have a very good relationship with the University [including] students, faculty, administration, and staff. We have hundreds of undergrads working here all over the place. So many faculty members and administration members come in. So yes, I do welcome them.

CM: Do you know what specifically the deal entails for this building?

JC: I don’t. All I know really is what the press releases say.

CM: Do you know what happens to your space in the building if the economics department chooses to move in?

JC: I think we just do not know. It’s years in the future. But I think the University, from what they say, is really committed to either taking care and improving the space or finding us an equally central and better space for the Co-op.

CM: You run one of the most respected academic bookstores [in the U.S.]. Do you do anything unintellectual outside the bookstore that you would care to confess?

JC: [Laughing.] I don’t do too much outside. I mean I am active in the community and on the board of the building I’m in, the board of the Co-op. I read and garden. It’s been a great life.

Admissions yield for 2012 hits 39 percent

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:12:00 +0000

The U of C’s admissions yield for the class of 2012—the percentage of accepted students who choose to enroll at the University—is 39 percent, based on preliminary admissions office figures. This year’s number represents a slight increase over last year’s yield of 36.5 percent.

Of the 3,460 students admitted, 1,350 had accepted the offer by the May 1 response deadline, though this number may drop somewhat within the coming months, Dean of Admissions Ted O’Neill said.

Based on trends from previous years, O’Neill said that he anticipates about 50 to 65 confirmed members of the class of 2012 to defer their admission or choose to attend other institutions over the summer, creating a yield rate closer to 37 percent.

Although this year’s waitlist includes 1,200 students—400 more students than last year—O’Neill said it would be “highly unusual” for waitlist acceptances to factor into the final yield significantly.

According to O’Neill, the yield rate from waitlist acceptances is usually close to 100 percent, and O’Neill added that he “can’t foresee admitting enough from the waitlist to make a significant difference.” The current class size of 1,350 is already larger than the University had planned to accommodate.

Still, O’Neill expressed some surprise that despite admitting 200 fewer students than last year, the percentage of admitted students who accepted seats will see only a marginal increase. Strong applicants have many options in deciding which institution to attend, O’Neill said, citing the class of 2012’s 27.8-percent acceptance rate—the lowest in the University’s history.

“We admit good students, so it’s not surprising that our yield would be lower. It’s actually odd that the yield has increased as we’ve become more competitive,” O’Neill said.

However, he stressed that the yield holds a “trivial” significance in national college rankings calculations.

Despite huge increases in applicants from last year and decreased acceptance rates, the University of Chicago’s yield is still significantly lower than that of other elite institutions.

Nonetheless, yield percentages have fallen slightly at many of these institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Yale’s current yield is estimated at 68.9 percent, a modest decrease from last year. Harvard’s projected final yield percentage is 76 percent, a decrease from last year’s 78 percent.

While some expected Harvard’s and Yale’s attractive new financial aid packages for middle-and upper middle–class families to increase their yields, Harvard’s and Princeton’s decisions to eliminate early decision and early action admissions—designed for committed students—may have negated this effect.

O’Neill credited greater availability of information for the increased competition for spaces in next year’s entering class.

“The more information is available to the rest of the world about us, the more respect we gain,” O’Neill said. He also credited current students’ enthusiasm and success with increasing the University’s appeal to prospective students.  The University of Chicago has been an underrepresented school, O’Neill said, but effective delivery of information through the internet and print materials to interested students has increased the school’s visibility.

“We have a great story to tell,” O’Neill said.

Grad group seeks better benefits

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:10:00 +0000

The formation this school year of Graduate Students United (GSU), a group of graduate students seeking to improve graduate employee benefits at the University, has added yet another voice to the chorus of calls for better representation and funding at the University.

GSU was organized in September to present a unified group to advocate for graduate student worker issues.

“The main goal was to build the power of working graduate students,” GSU member Jack Lesniewski said. “Not to be relying on ad-hoc committees or on particular administration at particular points but to have a sustained power and presence that democratically represents the interests of working graduate students.”

Last May, the University’s announcement of total funding for all incoming graduate students in the Humanities and Social Sciences divisions prompted a group of current graduate students to launch the initial planning stages of the GSU.

Although the University’s tuition proposal and enhancements announced earlier this year by Provost Thomas Rosenbaum will provide all graduate students with some benefits, Lesniewski said that many current students detected a lack of collective organization in the graduate student community to voice their concerns over funding issues.

The Graduate Council’s Graduate Student Funding Committee was born out of this frustration, which, along with its parent organization, works to give graduate students greater input on campus policies.

“What we are doing is working as a new organization representing graduate students as workers, which gives us a different kind of leverage and autonomy because there is no established channel for graduate students as workers,” GSU member Joe Grim Feinberg said. “I would like to see our aims not be different but complementary.”

Toussaint Losier, head of the Graduate Student Funding Committee and a member of GSU, said that the two organizations have engaged in several successful joint ventures, including a postcard drive to send comments to the Provost and a rally in the winter. He said that the two groups, while sharing similar goals, have different means toward those ends.

“It’s nice to have an organization like the GSU because the Graduate Student Funding Committee is a representative organ which had to represent the students’ concerns, so there’s only so much it can do,” Losier said. “It’s not an organization anyone can join.” In contrast, any graduate student who pays the yearly dues of $5 can become a member of GSU.

GSU has begun to pressure the University to provide better health care coverage for graduate students. It plans to present the administration with a petition today, signed by 461 students asking for better insurance for all student employees,―both graduate and undergraduate,―and a remission of fees for all students in advanced residency.

“I hope the administration will see this as a statement of what graduate students and other members of the community want to see change,” Grim Feinberg said. “Given the undemocratic structure of the University, we don’t count on them doing what the vast majority of people want, and that’s why we’re organizing.”

Deputy Provost for Graduate Education Cathy Cohen said that she is interested to see whether GSU will operate differently than other graduate student advocacy organizations that already exist on campus. She said that GSU would need to accrue substantial membership before the group could claim to represent the interests of the over 9,000 graduate students at the University, but that she expects that the organization will facilitate communication between University administrators and graduate students.

“I think the more [student groups], the better. It’s a democratic process,” Cohen said.

Presently, GSU is working to build its membership. Without formal leadership positions, all members have the ability to vote and raise concerns before GSU.

Currently, GSU has about 100 members after two weeks of active recruitment, but Grim Feinberg said that the organization hopes to eventually represent graduate students from all 55 degree-giving programs.

The group has already organized two rallies on campus to bring attention to its efforts, and members view the petition as the next step in their overall plan to establish GSU as a reputable student organization.

“What we’re expecting is that this [petition] won’t be enough for the administration, and that’s why we’re doing it as part of a larger plan,” Grim Feinberg said.

With sufficient membership, GSU hopes to enter into collective bargaining negotiations with the University as a means to better working and studying conditions.

“What we’re hoping is that they’ll recognize how widespread the demand is for change,” Grim Feinberg said.
Cohen remains positive about the administration’s responsiveness to student concerns but said that graduate issues involving allocation of resources lack easy solutions that appeal to everyone.

“I’m always interested in hearing constructive ways we can enhance graduate learning at the University of Chicago, understanding the constraints of the University,” she said. “We can’t do everything that everyone asks us to do, and even though we are committed to improving graduate study, sometimes we might disagree [about how to do that],” she said.