Subway to open on 55th Street

Students returning to campus after the Thanksgiving break will be greeted by an additional dining option in Hyde Park when a new branch of Subway opens during the first week of December. The new store will be located between Cornell Drive and South Hyde Park Avenue on 55th Street, and will offer special amenities for University students.

“My partner Imram Khan and I did some research into the Hyde Park food market, and we found that this is an underserved area in terms of dining options,” said Shehzad Khoja, the franchisee for Subway. “We felt that a 55th Street location would be a good one, and would be far enough from the 53rd Street location to be profitable and meet a different population.”

According to Khan, the 53rd Street branch of Subway is one of the top ten most profitable in Chicago. Subway has also been investigating the neighborhoods of Kenwood, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn for potential other franchise locations in addition to the two Subways that are already open.

The new Subway on 55th Street is expected to employ approximately ten to 15 part-time workers. However, the number of employees will depend on the volume of customers as well as overall economic trends.

U of C students who go to the new Subway will find a useful service for doing work – high-speed internet access. “We will have ports available for students if they want to plug their laptop in and surf the Internet,” Khoja said. “We won’t provide the computers, but we will be providing Internet access.”

The 55th Street Subway will market itself to students in other ways as well. “From time to time throughout the year, we will be having special promotions for our U of C student customers,” Khoja said. “We are going to be working very hard to win student customers.”

—Ben Hellwege

Van Der Ghinst nomintated to attend West Point Conference

Fourth-year in the College Jerome Van Der Ghinst has been nominated to attend the 54th annual Student Conference on United States Affairs (SCUSA 54) at West Point this upcoming Wednesday through Saturday.

According to the Web site, the goal of SCUSA 54 is to provide the delegates a forum in which to explore and recommend U.S. foreign policy post 9/11. The intention is that they will craft a successful national strategy in light of changes to the foreign policy landscape.

Organizers of the conference are hopeful that input from a diversity of voices will provide a unique outlook to this global dilemma.

The keynote speaker at the conference will be retired general Wayne A. Downing. A highly decorated combat veteran, Downing was appointed by the President to assess the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. base at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, and to make recommendations on how to protect Americans and U.S. facilities worldwide from terrorist attack.

The conference will be divided into 16 roundtable discussions ranging from “Cyber-future” to “Global social concerns.” Van Der Ghinst has been assigned to the “Terrorism and other Global Threats” roundtable.

The policy recommendations that come from the student input will be assessed to see if they can work, given available resources as well as what the potential reaction from U.S. allies and adversaries will be. The recommendations will be published and will be available to government officials.

200 schools from around the world will participate in the conference. One undergraduate from each school is selected to debate. From the United States, Chicago will join other elite universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.

John Mearsheimer, professor in the Political Science Department and a West Point graduate, was selected by West Point to nominate one appropriate student from Chicago. He chose Van Der Ghinst, a concentrator in Political Science and International Studies, for a variety of reasons.

“He’s an exceptional student with an excellent analytical mind who knows a lot about international relations,” Mearsheimer said.

Van Der Ghinst is currently student government vice president of administration, and the president of the Chicago Undergraduate Political Science Association.

“I am honored to represent the U of Chicago, and am excited to hear what my peers have to say. Hopefully we will come to sensible conclusions about the opportunities and threats for the future of U.S. foreign policy,” Van Der Ghinst said.

—Sean Wereley