Yesterday’s post titled “University of Chicago jocks move to take back ancestral bench” has generated a lot of hubbub. Patrick Offner, president of the Executive Board of the Order of the C, today informed me that he and the Order of the C “are NOT taking back the C-Bench, but rather using it as a setting for activities aimed at bettering the campus community.” He also called the email to the Women’s Athletic Association mailing list that I quoted in my last post “misinformed,” and said what’s happening at the C-Bench tomorrow is in fact the first larger meeting for something called the “C-Bench Initiative.” The Initiative, according to Offner, “will involve several projects over the course of the year, but many of these are still in the planning phase. Potential ideas are to pass out information about healthy lifestyles and provide nutritional information to students.” Offner also suggested that I was focusing too much on the C-Bench itself, which he says was chosen because of its “historical significance related to the athletic community” and because it’s in an area many students pass through.
So is that what’s happening tomorrow? Is the Order of the C just starting an initiative to improve health on campus?
According to emails obtained by the Weekly, Offner and other members of the Order of the C contacted a number of athletic teams in the past few days to alert them about the event tomorrow. One email from a member of the Order of the C Executive Board to a team mailing list was titled “TAKING BACK THE C BENCH” and began as follows:
“Team,
I’ve got something very important to discuss with you.
1. The year is 1903. The “C” bench is erected outside of Cobb Hall. Soon after, Varsity athletes and their girlfriends make it the coolest place to be.
Flash forward, the year is 2009. The C bench has become a haven for pretentious cigarette smoking hipsters and their star-crossed love affairs. Varsity athletes are rarely seen enjoying the C bench’s well designed seating and atmosphere, meant to encourage healthy discussion and social engagement.
This, gentlemen, is a problem.”
The email goes on to inform team members that “all of the Men’s Athletic Teams on campus, led by the Order of the C, will be staging a protest of our new organization, the SAAS (Student Athletes Against Smoking)” on Thursday. The last part of the email before the signature reads:
“I encourage all of you to attend, to wear either your lettermen jackets or some other athletic related attire, and to help pass out fliers and generally discourage hipsters and others who continue to besmirch the good name of the C bench. See you all there.”
This email, like the one sent out to the WAA mailing list on Monday, makes it sound like what’s happening tomorrow isn’t just a meeting about a public health campaign. It makes it sound like what’s happening tomorrow is a jocks vs. hipsters rumble.
And then there’s the picture at the bottom of a poster Offner sent to the orderofthecboard mailing list:
The Tribune isn’t predicting rain tomorrow afternoon, so I’d encourage everyone to drop by the C-Bench around 1pm and see for themselves what’s going on.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
[...] Update: For the latest C-Bench news, see our next post. [...]
October 28th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
this is viral marketing for cigarettes
October 28th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
What’s wrong with a culture war. If student athletes want to get more involved with campus life what better way that to have a public and good spirit rivalry with another mis-understood often maligned group on campus: hipsters. I say this “C-bench rumble” should be the start of a whole series of events aiming at deciding once and for all who’s better, Hipsters or Jocks. We’ll have a culture Olympics with events like Twister, pie eating, “Who has the silliest uniform?” (for this one I’m picturing tight jeans and v-necks, vs. shoulder pads and wrestling suits.), and even the dreaded, “who’s music is most un-listenable” where Lil’ Wayne faces off against Hair Police … I personally have no idea who would win these age old competitions.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:09 am
what about Antisocial Nerds Against Binge Drinking?
October 29th, 2009 at 12:31 am
who wants to wake up early in the morning to make ‘ask me about my athletics scholarship!’ tshirts?
October 29th, 2009 at 1:21 am
division III athletes do not receive athletic scholarships. your desire to make those tshirts really just shows how little you actually know about what goes on at the U of C with relation to anything that does not involve being a total douchebag.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:18 am
SAAS: Smokers Against Athletic Students
We’re having our own protest which consists of chain smoking cigarettes for hours at the c-bench.
Please do join us.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:49 am
is this going to be like the outsiders?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw5ypsjT5wM
October 29th, 2009 at 9:06 am
hey ericm, if you think a little harder about the t-shirts idea, i think you’ll find that the fact that athletes do NOT get scholarships here is mostly the main point.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:44 am
friends and colleagues, this afternoon you decide a public. you are measured by the clarity of your laughter: pick a side, but don’t ever cover for a dumb joke.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:53 am
they don’t?? good thing i overslept then, huh…
October 29th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Someone tell me since when ‘healthy lifestyle’ has been a tenet of the U of C? In becoming what we are today we bulldozed original Stagg for a library, and Robert M Hutchins, the best President ever of this fine Institution, famously said “Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes away. ” Hipsters are gross, though.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
[...] yesterday’s “rumble” at the C-Bench didn’t involve the much-hoped-for synchronized snapping face-offs or moody Leonard Bernstein [...]