The trouble with college rankings

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 3, 2006

Applying to college is never a pleasant process. For almost every high school senior in the country, this time of the year is marked by never-before-experienced levels of anxiety and uncertainty. But every year the U.S. News and World Report college rankings seem to clear this daze for many students and their families. College rankings...

Failures of the past and ideas for the future

By Andrew Hammond / October 2, 2006

This is the fourth and last year I will write a column for the Chicago Maroon, and I feel more idealistic than when I started writing. But before I spend the year reveling in the realm of distant possibility, let me begin with frustration. For this is also the fourth year, but unfortunately not the...

Going for gold: Olympics in Chicago

By Samuel Rosenberg / October 2, 2006

As Chicago moves forward with its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, it is continuing to do something that is typical of our city: dream big. Despite initial popular plans to concentrate the Olympic events along the lakefront, near the McCormick Place Conference Center and Soldier Field, the layout has now been amended to...

The Sheen of American redemption

By Patrick Burke / October 2, 2006

During my summer journey through Sicily, on an overly ambitious B.A. project, I had the pleasure of being assaulted by a variety of politically conscious thieves and would-be demagogues not wanting to splurge for first class seats on TrenItalia. On a midnight train from Palermo to Bari, as a Moroccan man was berating me in...

The shadow economy of Russia’s Army

By Luba Romantseva / October 2, 2006

It is telling that in Russia, the largest women’s association deals not with gardening, women’s rights, or education, but with the protection of its sons in the nation’s army. The Union of the Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia (USMR) has been fighting since 1989 to shed light on the topic of soldier maltreatment in Russian army...

In defense of Early Action

By Maroon Editorial Staff / October 2, 2006

Harvard’s decision earlier this month to end its Early Action program prompted a flurry of praise from the masses and had caused other institutions to follow suit. Princeton, for example, which was expected to turn its binding Early Decision program into a non-binding Early Action program, instead emulated Harvard. Earlier this week, the University of...

Welcome President Zimmer

By Maroon Editorial Staff / September 14, 2006

The Maroon welcomes President Zimmer.

Slamming progressives on minimum wage

By Alec Brandon / September 14, 2006

This summer has been a hot one, especially for progressives: Bush’s approval ratings are mired in the mid-30s, pariah Joe Lieberman has been ousted as the Democratic nominee for the Senate, and Democrats look well positioned to retake the House and Senate. But progressives aren’t waiting until after the 2006 election to get many of...

Big box stores mean fewer jobs for poor

By Samuel Rosenberg / September 14, 2006

Returning to Hyde Park for another school year, the students at the University of Chicago are once again thrown into a city brimming with political buzz. While the city was full of action during the summer, the most important issue directly affecting our student body focuses on the all-too necessary activity of shopping. As any...

In praise of self-assigned reading

By Andrew Hammond / September 14, 2006

Hello! My name is Andrew Hammond and I represent a portion of the left side of the opinion spectrum formally known as the Viewpoints Section. During the year, my writing will anger those of you who don’t agree with me and disappoint those of you who do. But before we usher in a new year...

Pay it Forward

By Maroon Editorial Staff / June 2, 2006

Four years at the University of Chicago come with a hefty price tag, and future graduates may be wondering why they should give even more money in addition to the tens of thousands they’ve already paid for tuition. These students will hopefully consider that the cost of a Chicago education is much higher than the...

Leila takes on the biggest issue in her world

By Leila Sales / June 2, 2006

After two and a half years as a columnist, I give you this, my final “Apathy In Action!” for the Maroon. Though this column has dealt, in its time, with many pressing world issues, including neither the war in Iraq nor global warming, I have always shied away from the one topic that is most...