Don’t bench creativity

By Zack Hill / February 19, 2008

[img id=”80333″ align=”alignleft”] I don’t see what’s wrong with building a bench. As a student at the University of Chicago, I expected my class to contribute money toward a concrete legacy to leave as our class gift—Some firm structure, emblazoned with “Class of 2008,” so that for years to come, U of C students could...

Running from the PC Police

By Claire McNear / February 19, 2008

[img id=”80331″ align=”alignleft”] The year before I arrived at my high school in California, there was a notable incident. Until that year, the Honors U.S. History class had performed an annual Civil War battle reenactment on the field, divided between the opposing “troops” of the Confederacy and the Union. During the year in question, the...

All the wrong answers

By Matt Barnum / February 19, 2008

“What’s going on in America?” wondered Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn. In the wake of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) shootings, Zorn asked readers to respond to this question on his blog. 382 comments later, we are no closer to an answer. In Sunday’s print edition of the Tribune, Zorn ran several—presumably the best—of his...

Hope for Kosovo

By Bridget Fahey / February 19, 2008

The central government building in Pristina, Kosovo, is made almost entirely of glass. A former bank, it was renovated after the violent Serbian conflict in 1999 to symbolize Kosovo’s hopes for economic prosperity and transparent governance. But the view from the northwest side reflects a different reality: A row of run-down and decaying residences stand...

Don’t ask, do tell

By Ryan Kaminski / February 19, 2008

There is little doubt that presumptive Republican pesidential nominee John McCain, is banking his candidacy on being strong on security-related issues. Whether singing about bombing Iran, committing himself to chase Osama Bin Laden to hell, or voting against a ban on water-boarding, McCain wants to be the “tough guy.” Apparently, that “toughness” also includes reversing...

Not just another Flick chick

By Evelyn Wiese / February 19, 2008

Lately, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about Chantelle Jones. I went to high school with Chantelle; she was perky, brunette, and, above all, unapologetically ambitious. Almost from the moment she first raised her hand, Chantelle was universally reviled by the male population of Laguna Beach High School. In the classroom, she was mercilessly scrutinized,...

A chip off the old Block

By Tim Murphy / February 12, 2008

[img id=”80301″ align=”alignleft”] We have a lot to worry about these days. According to the Mayan calendar, the world is slated to end in four years, giving the Cubs a little less time to win the World Series and bringing a sense of urgency to whoever enters the White House in November. Meanwhile, a U.S....

Aid should focus on those who need it

By Alec Brandon / February 12, 2008

Last October, Senator Chuck Grassley (R–IA) decided to get on the high horse of populism, proposing a bill that would force universities to spend more of their swelling endowments. Basically, his proposal would require colleges with endowments greater than $500 million to spend at least 5 percent of their endowment every year. While Grassley’s legislation...

Table talk

By Maroon Editorial Staff / February 8, 2008

One year ago today, an embattled President Zimmer met with students to defend the University’s new graduate student financial-aid package and the decision not to divest from Sudan. With a hostile audience that often seemed more intent on drawing applause than asking questions, the event was a failed attempt at conversation. While tonight’s discussion with...

From Carville to Clayton, media anything but super

By Ethan Stanislawski / February 8, 2008

Very rarely do we get two “super” days, back-to-back. America has only a handful of days in a given year when everyone will be talking about the same thing, whether they want to or not. These are usually Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Oscar night, and, as we experienced earlier this week, elections and the Super Bowl....

Liberal education provides tools to fight injustice

By Ryan McCarl / February 8, 2008

The vast majority of the stories carried in the daily news will be washed away by time and forgotten by posterity. This observation has led many great minds to conclude that there is no value to be had in a mastery of current affairs. Why read The Economist when we can read Thucydides or Gibbon?...

Society ignores racial realities

By Frank Lin / February 8, 2008

The way we learned about slavery in kindergarten has always stayed with me. Maybe there was something in the water back then; maybe it was the poetry of being at the epicenter of the civil rights movement, Birmingham, in a school that occupied what may well have once been a cotton plantation; maybe it was...