Leila shapes her Internet presence

By Leila Sales / February 27, 2004

I don’t talk on AOL Instant Messenger much any more. It used to be my primary form of communication—I have literally hundreds of pages of AIM conversations saved from 10th grade. Why did I not just pick up the phone and call my friends? Unclear. I think phones seemed, at the time, passé. Phones were...

The case against gay marriage

By Manuel Lopez / February 27, 2004

This week President Bush proposed a constitutional amendment that would preserve traditional marriage laws while permitting alternative arrangements for gays and lesbians. While many have criticized the President for cynically seeking a “wedge issue,” in my view all Americans should welcome the opportunity for debate on this critical subject. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in...

Give Hutchins his due

By Maroon Editorial Staff / February 24, 2004

In 1929 the Board of Trustees selected Robert Maynard Hutchins to be the president of the University of Chicago. At 30, he was the youngest president of a major American university. But his age did little to stop him from fundamentally shaping the U of C into the great institution it is today. How is...

No Child Left Behind Act splits Bush allies

By Gautham Rao / February 24, 2004

Conservatives, it seems, are suffering from a bad case of buyer’s remorse. They are finally beginning to understand what the rest of this country has long known: the Bush administration’s domestic agenda is a rudderless ship whose captain is either incredibly disconnected from reality or consciously misrepresenting reality. We can all agree that this administration...

U.S. at standstill over cloning debate

By Joel Lanceta / February 24, 2004

Last week, two South Korean scientists announced they had cloned human blastocysts (embryos in their initial stages) to generate embryonic stem cells, touted as leading to potential therapies for many debilitating conditions, including diabetesand Parkinson’s disease. In doing this, the Korean scientists have revived a serious debate in the science world, as scientists, politicians, and...

2004 election trends

By Justin Ellis / February 24, 2004

You should all know by now that what the national press says about the elections just doesn’t matter. Everybody from The New York Times to CNN to The Indianapolis Star proclaimed first that only Lieberman could win, then that Bush was unbeatable, and then that Dean was going to be the nominee, come Clark or...

DAC discusses student input in University decisions

By Andrew Elliot-Chandler / February 24, 2004

Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in a series of occasional updates from the chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council. Last week, the Dean’s Advisory Council confronted the issues of student involvement in University decision making and the scholarship/grant processes overseen by the College. The first topic was last quarter’s Shoreland issue, not for...

Administration holds its own

By Maroon Editorial Staff / February 20, 2004

We’ve heard about the Black Monday of stock market fame, but what about the U of C’s Tragic Thursday? All in the space of 24 hours, the Burton-Judson Dining Commons were closed for health violations, all buses running on 55th Street were re-routed due to a gas-main leak, and the Reynolds Club was hit by...

Leila takes on her refrigerator, strangers

By Leila Sales / February 20, 2004

I am engaged in this epic, Lord of the Rings-type battle with my refrigerator. I realize that it’s just a small ugly box in the corner of my dorm room, but in my mind it is a bow-and-arrow-wielding demon from the World Beyond. Maybe not even bow-and-arrow. Maybe, like, death. On regular, eight-minute intervals (oh...

The time has come to allow same-sex marriage

By Annie Huang / February 20, 2004

I am what you would call the proverbial fag hag. And it is my duty as a fag hag to look out for my gay friends, since, as Margaret Cho says, “Fag hags are the backbone of the gay community.” But recently, fag hags around the world can sleep easier and worry less about the...

Academic solutions for the U of C

By Ashlee Gabrysen / February 20, 2004

The “life of the mind”: you read it on almost every pamphlet printed by the College. Perhaps the unofficial U of C mantra, while not necessarily negating the life of the body or the soul (although various maroon-and-navy t-shirts seem to attest otherwise), speaks volumes about what is par excellence here. I, along with countless...

America is winning the war on terror

By George Anesi / February 17, 2004

This past week, the New York Times reported its account of a 17-page memo sent by terrorist mastermind Musab al-Zaqwari to other Al Qaeda operatives. If genuine, the memo is the most comprehensive and instructive look into the world of anti-Western Islamic terrorism to date, and removes much of the uncertainty surrounding terrorist activity and...