Tensions ran high last night in the packed McCormick Tribune Lounge, where members of the University of Chicago community gathered to discuss the UCPD’s arrest of a black male student in the Regenstein Library last Wednesday. Dean of Students Kim Goff-Crews, UCPD chief Marlon Lynch, and Assistant Director of the Library Jim Vaughan were there to mediate the discussion and answer questions. But as more than one student pointed out, they said very little, other than that the situation would be dealt with appropriately. The ongoing investigation—involving interviews of witnesses of the arrest—prevented them from disclosing the details of the case.

Some audience members asked about library and UCPD policy, and when it’s necessary to show ID (answer: on University property, almost always). Witnesses of the arrest described it as disturbingly violent, and at least two related their frustration with the lack of a quick response from library and university administrators. The main theme and sentiment of the discussion was summed up by one especially skilled orator, who said, to loud applause, “As someone who’s been affiliated with the University as a grad student for more than eight years, I’m sick and tired of black students being racially profiled by our own police department!” Several African-American students told their own stories of being harassed by the UCPD, and dozens of hands shot up in response to a query of who in the audience had been racially profiled.

The discussion ended without much closure, but Goff-Crews encouraged students to organize an executive committee to continue the conversation, with the possibility of more open meetings in the coming weeks.

You can read more about the meeting in a Maroon article.

Last Friday’s Maroon reported that on the evening of February 26, a fourth-year University of Chicago student, Mauriece Dawson, was arrested in the Regenstein Library for criminal trespass and resisting arrest. University of Chicago Police Department officers were responding to a complaint by a library clerk that Dawson and a friend were being disruptive, and claim that he refused to show ID or leave the library when asked. However, witnesses say the officers never requested ID and used undue force to arrest Dawson, who is African-American. There will be an open meeting about the incident this Tuesday from 6 to 8pm in the McCormick Tribune Lounge at the Reynolds Club, 5706 S. University Ave., with representatives from Campus and Student Life, the College, the UCPD, and the Regenstein Library.

A former Chicago Weekly writer and Features Editor like Katie Buitrago! All of us at the Weekly want to congratulate Katie on her excellent feature in the most recent Chicago Reader, “What sort of woman reads Playboy?” It’s about Peggy Wilkins, a forty-something Hyde Park resident and University of Chicago Library server technician, who has worked her way to the top of Playboy Magazine fandom. She’s even had to rent an second apartment above the one she shares with her boyfriend to store her exhaustive collection of magazines and posters. So what drives Wilkins’s passion? Read the article to find out!

The University of Chicago student activist group SOUL (Students Organizing United with Labor) got some big-time press coverage for their latest demonstration against hour cuts for residence hall staff. In addition to the usual chants, the activists sang their own protest-specific renditions of Christmas carols last Thursday outside the campus housing office and administration building. The story appeared in the online and Chicago print editions of the New York Times and was reported by the recently founded Chicago News Cooperative.

This week’s issue of the Chicago Weekly includes a Perspectives piece by University of Chicago alum Ryan McCarl about an attack on the UofC Men’s Cross Country team that left one student permanently injured. At press time we still didn’t have all the details on the attack, but since then we’ve found out the whole story.

Two weeks ago, on Friday, October 15, 15 members of the Men’s Cross Country team were running west along Garfield Boulevard, a route they’ve often run before. At about 3:50, when they reached Garfield and State, an eastbound green Buick sedan drove by and opened fire with paintballs. Second-year Andrew Wong turned to look at the car and was struck on the bridge of his nose by a paintball, which ricocheted into his right eye. His cornea was scratched and his iris was partially (and permanently) detached, allowing bright light into his inner eye. Wong went to the ER that night and has seen an ophthalmologist several times since then. Read the rest of this entry »

At left, a civil discussion between both parties; at right, smokers and associates. (Sam Feldman)

While yesterday’s “rumble” at the C-Bench didn’t involve the much-hoped-for synchronized snapping face-offs or moody Leonard Bernstein music, it drew a sizable turnout and transformed the relaxed atmosphere of the C-Bench into one of palpably curious excitement. Students who usually don’t sit at the unofficial hipster hangout found themselves milling about within its acoustically perfect shape, and smokers who use the C-Bench for disaffected lounging took new pride in brandishing their cigarettes, drawing and puffing with distinct vigor. Read the rest of this entry »

The University of Chicago’s sizable Indian population has finally caught the eye of the supreme deity that is the Bollywood film industry.

Hitting theaters last month, “What’s Your Raashee?” stars Harman Baweja as Yogesh Patel, a Booth School student who studies by day and disc jockeys by night. Summoned home by his parents, where, like in almost all Bollywood movies, a marriage is forced upon him, Patel decides to meet exactly twelve girls—one from each sign of the zodiac. All are played by Priyanka Chopra in a deeply complicated undertaking of lengthy proportions.

While the film has received chilly reviews back in India, I, for one, am glad that some attention is finally being brought to the Booth School’s seedy underworld of wild DJs.

Check out this excerpt from the film of Patel break dancing in all his branded glory.

(Thanks to the University of Chicago Magazine, which tweeted this to our attention.)

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.

The C-Bench. (Sam Feldman)

The C-Bench, a large semicircular stone bench placed on the University of Chicago campus through the generosity of the Class of 1903, has always had a reputation. Until the 1960s, it was reserved for varsity lettermen and their dates. More recently it’s become known as the haunt of chain-smoking hipsters. But this Thursday, a group of athletes is looking to win back the bench. The Order of the C, the University’s varsity letterman group, is asking all interested campus athletes to gather at the C-Bench at 1pm the day after tomorrow in order to “take it back from the smokers,” according to an email sent out to the Women’s Athletic Association mailing list on Monday afternoon.

Patrick Offner, president of the Order of the C’s Executive Board, commented, “Our hope is that the university will openly embrace our intentions. The C-bench was once associated with all the positive ideals of the university: open discussion, tradition, and healthy lifestyles. This point of congregation for athletes, and later the entire student body, has been claimed by a smaller, exclusionary group and the consensus is for change.”

Update: For the latest C-Bench news, see our next post.

A bonfire on Saturday, October 24 shows support for the 61st Street Community Garden. (Sam Feldman)

The 61st Street Community Garden was founded about a decade ago as a shared garden for families. Each family or individual pays about $40/year for a 10′ x 10′ plot of land with few restrictions to grow. The Garden, however, is owned by the University of Chicago and was built on top of a vacant lot. Earlier this year, the University announced its intentions to demolish the garden so it could use the land as a staging ground for the construction of the new Chicago Theological Seminary campus. The individuals and community involved with the garden have had various conversations with the University about relocating or preserving the garden, but the University still plans to demolish it next month. There are a few events coming up to celebrate the garden and raise awareness about its closing. Both of them will be held at the garden.

• Saturday, October 24, 2-5 PM – Come Say Hello, Come Say Goodbye?: Food, bonfire, and a drum circle to show support for the garden. I had the distinct pleasure of overhearing a planning meeting for this event hosted by University of Chicago students, and their basic mission is to show appreciation and hope from students that the University will change their plans.
• Sunday, November 1, 10AM-4PM – Last BBQ and Potluck: This event is hosted by community members and meant to be a last goodbye to the garden. There is more information on volunteering to help gardeners relocate their equipment, but the gardeners still do not have another site for the planned relocation.

Chicago Sun-Times

Chicagoist

After several years of stop and start, the Woodlawn Collaborative, a joint project between University of Chicago students and nearby community groups, officially opened last week in the First Presbyterian Church at 64th Street and Kimbark. The first occupant of the site is MAGIC, a Woodlawn-based neighborhood youth services organization, which will provide a safe study space for local middle and high school students.

Last spring the Weekly ran a story on the Collaborative’s long struggle to secure the space for use by student and community groups involved in the arts, education, and activism. Greg Gabrellas, one of the founders of the Collaborative and a student at the University, updated us on the project and emphasized that the opening is only the first step. “We still must create an organization, basically from scratch, that is comprised of student and community-based organizations working towards a common end.” The Collaborative has roughly 20 partner groups and hopes to expand programming through the fall and winter and begin running at full capacity by next spring.

The project’s mission to act as a catalyst to social change in Woodlawn is seeing its first results. “We can’t pretend that we can solve these urgent social problems ourselves; we will educate the next generation of artists, activists and intellectuals who can take a stab at it, perhaps in better conditions than our own,” Gabrellas says. He emphasizes that what the collaborative needs now more than ever is people. “There is a place for everyone: group leaders to shift their activities here, teaching artists to teach classes, economics majors to help us with our finances, and dedicated people to ensure that everyone who enters our facilities is safe and sound.” On October 30th the members will convene for their fall general meeting to discuss the transition into a full-time center.