Botany Pond’s clear water reflects fall trees and University buildings.
Snow is falling, and it’s nearly Thanksgiving break! As per tradition, the Maroon would like to take a moment to shout out some of the things we are particularly appreciative of this year:
- Botany Pond, for finally reopening and giving us (and the ducks) a place other than the Reg to contemplate life.
- Via, for being free (assuming you consider your time to be worthless).
- Alivisatos’s emails, for letting us know that the University cares about us in the most administratively neutral way possible.
- The annual quad holiday lights, for being the only reason to go outside after 4 p.m.
- Course evaluations for giving us our quarterly illusion of democracy.
- Cathey Dining Commons’ desserts, for keeping us all on our toes. Will it be s’mores pizza or a festive Halloween sheet cake? The thrill of unpredictability fuels our stomachs.
- Nevin Hall, for rising from the ashes like our mascot, the Phoenix.
- Grad students, your absence will be felt, and we’ll miss overhearing your name-dropping Hegel, Heidegger, and other great philosophers in Plein Air.
- The Phoenix, a new student magazine, for being absolutely obsessed with us. We’re flattered.
- The Museum of Science and Industry (now the Griffin Museum), for reminding us that even the force of gravity isn’t stronger than a donation.
- Professors who cold-call in big lectures, for forming trauma bonds between everybody who takes their classes and keeping us intellectually humble.
- Justin Trudeau, for blessing our campus with his presence via the IOP event, even though nobody was brave enough to ask him about his relationship with Katy Perry. That question will always be “The One That Got Away.”
- The cast of Saturn Returns for filming on campus and being mean to us while doing so.
- Phoenix cASH, for being completely and totally unnecessary.
- The Scav documentary, for showing that UChicago can keep fun alive when it wants to.
- Our current reality, where we’re supposed to call the University of Chicago Police Department (to add more guns to the situation! The more the merrier) if Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows up on campus.
For all of our roasting, we really are thankful.
- To the Maroon staff, including our new members, for all their hard work, talent, and dedication—you keep this publication alive from one generation to the next.
- President Paul Alivisatos, Provost Katherine Baicker, and CFO Ivan Samstein for sitting down with the Maroon this past spring and fall to update us on the budget and other university issues.
- Ben Waltzer and Nely Rentas de Romo for inspiring JAM programming.
- The Maroon’s advisory board, for providing wisdom and guidance on running the paper.
- Jimmy Brown, TJ, and LaSabra Williams for helping us keep the Maroon a functioning entity.
- Nora Titone, Laura Sandino, and the Parrhesia program for their tireless work in fostering inclusive discourse on campus and creating the opportunity for students to hear from some of the most impactful journalists of our day. We’re honored to work with you.
- Our wonderful guests this quarter from the Baltimore Banner—Alissa Zhu, Jess Gallagher, and Nick Thieme—and the captivating Gustavo Arellano from the Los Angeles Times.
- University Staff—without you, the University wouldn’t function.
- Faculty and students, for their intellectual curiosity and ambition in and out of the classroom.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the Maroon!
