Dissecting the “that guy” species

By Alec Brandon / September 19, 2007

While you enjoy the happiness and splendor of O-Week at the U of C, it is worthwhile to take a moment and consider the choices you’ll have to make in the not so distant future. In just seven days, O-Week will be over and you’ll realize that you not only have to live with these...

Pitchfork gives music festival a 7.4; hipsters rejoice

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / September 19, 2007

Indie’s eccentric tastemaker Pitchfork Media threw its third annual music festival from July 13–15 in Chicago’s Union Park. Unlike some other summer fests, Pitchfork is affordable—from the tickets to the vegan ice cream—and tends to be a very chill experience. Attendees lounge in the grass, read in the shade, and peruse attractions such as the...

Immigration bill defies core American values

By Liz Egan / June 1, 2007

Illegal immigration into this country has gotten out of hand, and smothering the problem with a bill hundreds of pages in length, as congressmen are currently attempting to do, is not going to bring us any closer to finding a solution. Appalling as it was that this immigration bill went up for a vote before...

ROTC bans counterproductive to their cause

By Alec Brandon / June 1, 2007

It is graduation season again and at ceremonies all over the country, graduation speakers are offering up life lessons. One theme sure to make more than a few appearances is the importance of public service. Particularly after 9/11, it has become something of a fad for speakers to extol the virtues of giving back, conjuring...

Freedom of expression can offend

By Tara Kadioglu / June 1, 2007

A college newspaper should exercise caution before throwing around the weight of its opinion—especially when it starts to take the moral high ground over specific individuals’ personal lives, whether they are administrators or not. As former editor-in-chief of the Maroon, I’m no stranger to the fact that the unsigned editorial can be tricky to write,...

The facile gestures of academia

By Steve Michalkow / June 1, 2007

These days, I find myself becoming quite displeased and agitated with the activities of our lauded universities. The source of my consternation tends largely to revolve around the cheap public relations gymnastics university organizations engage in whenever any unpleasant incident or fact becomes known. Most notable in the past few months were the responses to...

Granting the life of the mind

By Maroon Editorial Staff / May 31, 2007

This week, an anonymous alumnus donated an unprecedented $100 million that will enable students from low- and middle-income families to enjoy the fruits of a U of C education. The donation will transform the campus culture and improve the educational experience of all students by fostering socioeconomic diversity and helping the University fulfill its obligation...

Life of the mind is only half it

By Lee Solomon / May 31, 2007

The notion of the life of the mind is what has set the U of C apart from its peer institutions as a university with an intellectually rigorous liberal arts curriculum. Though U of C students typically have taken pride in the orientation of their classroom experience toward subjects and issues of theoretical concern, they...

Administrators should exercise caution online

By Maroon Editorial Staff / May 25, 2007

“Fuck the creationists.” Are you offended? It is safe to assume that many members of the University community would be—especially given that the word “creationists” could be replaced with any other label, with equal or greater effect. It’s surprising, then, that a University administrator would endorse such a slogan in a public forum. In what...

How the GOP can win in ’08: impeach Bush

By James Conway / May 25, 2007

The Republicans are desperately seeking a new strategy for victory in 2008 and, as their self-appointed strategist, this political junkie and armchair campaign manager has a novel idea that will in fact allow the GOP to retain the White House. Considering the various factors currently keeping the Republicans’ morale and hopes for victory down, it...

We can make a difference—and we should

By Ethan Stanislawski / May 25, 2007

Recently, I had the pleasure of watching Network, one of my all-time favorite movies. When I first saw the movie, I was drawn to its absurdist black humor, but the movie has become less and less funny with each viewing. The main character in the film, Howard Beale, was the television anchor everyone wanted in...

Different ends need different means

By Kelin Hall / May 25, 2007

As the Green Campus Initiative (GCI) representative to the Sustainability Council and a member of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), I think that what GCI does speaks for itself, without holding the group in contrast to other activist groups. The Maroon Editorial Staff’s denouncement of STANDs “aggressive tactics” (“Speak Softly and Carry a Green...