Residents meet to discuss future of Harper Court

By Emily Alpert / May 2, 2006

About three dozen people gathered at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club on April 25 to share ideas about the future of Harper Court. James Withrow, vice president of the Hyde Park–Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC), which organized the meeting, said the goal was to get “starting ideas” leading toward “the large-picture idea of what should happen...

Cook County sherrifs seek former Shoreland resident

By Emily Alpert / April 25, 2006

Two Cook County sheriffs entered Shoreland Hall on the morning of Friday, April 14, seeking a former resident. The officers knocked on the door of Compton House resident Deanna Day. The student, a fourth-year in the College, said that the two officers began to yell at her when she answered the door. “They were very...

Kids play squash, study on campus

By Emily Alpert / April 14, 2006

“Squash: a garden vegetable!” said fifth-grader Rachel King. “Ha!” King is a participant in MetroSquash, an after-school program housed in Henry Crown that pairs homework help with sweaty rounds of squash. She held up a dictionary triumphantly as MetroSquash Executive Director David Kay looked on. “There are all kinds of things that are wrong in...

Hyde Park groups balk at possible sale of Harper Court

By Emily Alpert / March 31, 2006

Following 14 weeks of near-silence, the Harper Court Arts Council confirmed its intention to sell Harper Court to a for-profit developer at a public meeting with community members on March 13. The Council has come under fire for its failure to communicate with neighborhood residents about the sale, raising fears that the new Harper Court...

Hyde Park groups criticize sale of Harper Court

By Emily Alpert / March 31, 2006

Following 14 weeks of near-silence, the Harper Court Arts Council confirmed its intention to sell Harper Court to a for-profit developer at a public meeting with community members on March 13. The Council has come under fire for its failure to communicate with neighborhood residents about the sale, raising fears that the new Harper Court...

Status of Harper Court sale in limbo

By Emily Alpert / March 3, 2006

Hyde Park’s most active civic organization, the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC), has received no response to its request for a private meeting with the two groups—the Harper Court Foundation and the Harper Court Arts Council—involved in the recent process of transferring ownership of Harper Court, a neighborhood shopping center. Harper Court was established in...

Community groups convene over fate of Harper Court

By Emily Alpert / February 17, 2006

The recent sale of Harper Court has stirred controversy among Hyde Park residents, prompting a meeting last week between community organizations and the Illinois Assistant Attorney General’s Office. “It happened so quickly with so little warning, with no discussion,” said George Rumsey, president of the Hyde Park–Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC). “No one anticipated it. It...

Trustee addresses community relations in MLK Day speech

By Emily Alpert / January 17, 2006

Over 1,000 people crowded into Rockefeller Chapel yesterday for “Still Realizing the Vision,” the University’s annual service in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On the first year that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has been recognized as an official University-wide holiday, University President Don Randel announced that it was “not merely another excuse...

Former Quad Club employees claim unfair wage discrepancies

By Emily Alpert / January 6, 2006

Two white students, former employees of the Quadrangle Club, claim that they were paid a higher wage than non-student employees for the same work. Lena Muldavin and Elizabeth Daniel, both third-years in the College, say the wage difference was part of an overall pattern of preferential treatment for student employees, most of whom are white,...

Pub floods on first night of the quarter

By Emily Alpert / January 6, 2006

Minor flooding forced the Pub to close early Tuesday night, to the frustration of patrons and staff. According to manager Victor Vogt, the Pub closed at around 11 p.m., two hours before its regular closing time, as a “precautionary measure” when staff discovered water flowing in from just outside the emergency exits. “The announcement that...

Zambian princess addresses AIDS

By Emily Alpert / November 18, 2005

Students gathered in the Biological Sciences Learning Center Thursday night to hear Princess Kasune Zulu of Zambia, a renowned HIV/AIDS activist. Zulu is employed by the World Vision Organization’s HIV/AIDS HOPE Initiative in Zambia, where she trains physicians in patient care and teaches prevention measures to Zambian youth. She has also helped raise funds to...

Losing (or stealing) Native American trust

By Emily Alpert / May 19, 2005

For over a century, the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust has snatched American Indians’ rightful profits by pinching funds from destitute Native nations. An eight-year lawsuit, Cobell v. Norton, aims to make the government pay what they rightfully owe, but, surprise, surprise, the feds can’t even account for the missing funds, and are dragging their...

Geneva should save people, not just save face

By Emily Alpert / May 5, 2005

The Geneva Conventions do not protect you from torture, they protect the feds from having to face up to it. At least, that’s what the Department of Defense would have you believe. In a convenient sleight of hand, the DOD argued this past week that releasing torture photos from Abu Ghraib—the infamous “second round” shots...

Woodlawn residents discuss concerns with NCP development plan and more

By Emily Alpert / April 25, 2005

About 40 Hyde Park residents attended an outdoor meeting held by People of Woodlawn (POW) to discuss their concerns as Woodlawn residents last Thursday. Among their top priorities were affordable housing, youth programs, better retail options, activities for seniors, and “no more condos”—a slogan printed on POW buttons and flyers. A main topic of discussion...

The RealID Act makes me want to vomit

By Emily Alpert / April 21, 2005

To pressure Congress into swallowing Bush’s latest military spending bill, the Republican Party is sweetening the deal. To mask the $81.3 billion of bitterness, House Republicans are heaping on riders like $580 million humanitarian aid to Darfur, $656 million for tsunami relief, and $580 million for peacekeeping programs. In this flurry of cut-and-paste legislation, however,...

Operation Sex-ucation: Activists talk about the birds and the bees

By Emily Alpert / April 19, 2005

Sex Education Activists (SEA), a student group, held its first major promotional event, “Operation Sex-ucation,” at Ida Noyes Hall Saturday evening. The event, which featured informational booths, free food, and live music, drew roughly 60 students, mostly women, who wanted to learn more about sex education. Student groups such as Women and Youth Supporting Each...

The Woodlawn Organization isn’t working

By Emily Alpert / April 6, 2005

Many University students maintain a privileged transience—spending a quarter in Paris, a summer at home, shuttling belongings in brown cardboard boxes from one apartment to the next. However, in Woodlawn, Hyde Park’s southern neighbor, longtime residents and new ones alike are facing unwanted moves, as the area’s remaining subsidized housing is illegally preyed upon by...

Arrest of Hyde Park high-schooler at McDonald’s leads to protest

By Emily Alpert / April 5, 2005

On Friday at noon, a group of over 100 demonstrators, including Kenwood High School students; community members; and University students, faculty, and staff, converged on the McDonald’s located at 5220 South Lake Park Avenue to protest the restaurant’s student seating policy, in spite of the restaurant’s decision to reverse the policy on Thursday, following the...

The TRC: Making nice without making right

By Emily Alpert / February 25, 2005

CAPE TOWN—On the television screen, glowing over our intent set of students, a mother railed, “I used to be fat.” She gestured to her clothing—the gingham-print “folk dress” of rural black women—which hung loosely on her birdlike, frail frame. “Now I am thin. I used to be fat.” Her eyes bore into the strong-jawed man...

An African arrival: confusion and delight

By Emily Alpert / January 28, 2005

January 27, 2005—CAPE TOWN—Having ascended a series of swooping hills, our luggage-bloated van slowed to a stop. We’d been circling the tiny residential district of Tamboerskloof in Cape Town, South Africa, looking for the guest house we’d be lodged in during our stay. Incredulous, we stared up at the pert, meringue-colored Victorian perched atop a...

Gonzales: All the fascism, none of the fun

By Emily Alpert / November 21, 2004

As Bush swaps Ashcroft for Gonzales, even the staunchest civil libertarian can’t help a twinge of nostalgia. Say what you will about Ashcroft—through all the detentions, the tortures, the abuses of privacy and the stifling of dissent, you could always count on Ashcroft to do something so absurd, so cartoonishly zealous, that for about five...

A call for liberal conversation with the Right

By Emily Alpert / November 5, 2004

It’s generally assumed that get-out-the-vote efforts work to the benefit of the Left. Younger, more transient voters are less likely to be registered, and more likely to vote Democrat. In this election, particularly, liberals assumed that voter registration and turnout were a top priority. As we plastered campuses with information, looked up polling places, and...

Refuting the health care “refusal clause”

By Emily Alpert / October 27, 2004

This past February, in Denton, Texas, a rape survivor obtained a prescription for emergency contraceptive pills from a hospital—a hurdle in and of itself, as I’ve argued in the past. When she arrived at the pharmacy counter, however, she was made to jump through a new series of hoops: The first two pharmacies she entered...

Bush appointee is hazardout to women’s health

By Emily Alpert / May 21, 2004

Last week, another one of Bush’s politicized appointments favored ideology over reality, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected over-the-counter availability of emergency contraception (E.C.). The decision, condemned by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association, bears the mark of David Hager, chairman...

An authentic pro-choice movement

By Emily Alpert / May 7, 2004

If life were hewed to a legal definition, the abortion debate might be easier. But human development does not submit easily to the taxonomy of legal categories. Defining adulthood at age 18, for instance, is a matter of convenience, not science; clearly, people aren’t transformed from dependents into consenting, fully rational agents at the stroke...

“Combatant” Padilla deserves his rights

By Emily Alpert / April 23, 2004

In 2002, Jose Padilla was arrested at Chicago O’Hare Airport on return from Pakistan. He found himself taking an unexpected trip south. For over two years now, on the orders of President Bush, Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has been detained incommunicado in a South Carolina naval brig on suspicion of a plot to detonate a...

Don’t lock up the ballot box

By Emily Alpert / April 9, 2004

For his California robbery conviction, Abran Ramirez served three months in jail, 10 years on parole, and a civil death sentence. As a consequence of a now 20-year-old conviction, Ramirez is prohibited from voting for life. Unfortunately, his is not an isolated case. Felony disenfranchisement prohibits 2 percent of Americans from voting; among black men,...

Nader won’t be the one to stop Bush

By Emily Alpert / March 2, 2004

“I think this may be the only candidacy in our memory that is opposed by people who agree with us,” joked Ralph Nader upon hitting the campaign trail this Monday. Unlike his 2000 run, which at the bare minimum was bolstered by the Green Party (and a few A-list fans), Nader 2004 is a lonely...

Marriage Initiative does gays a disservice

By Emily Alpert / February 13, 2004

While gays are throwing themselves at the altar, the White House is throwing the altar at straights. Bush’s Marriage Initiative, a $1.5 billion package, purports to strengthen straight, low-income marriages through counseling; education; and, sometimes, cold, hard cash. Like most apple pie proposals, it’s a mixed bag. Providing desired resources to the underserved, such as...

WMD: a faith-based initiative

By Emily Alpert / January 30, 2004

This week, having vacated his post, the leading U.S. weapons inspector, David Kay, contends that Iraq was disarmed at the start of the war. His replacement, Charles Duelfer, agrees. “The prospect of finding chemical weapons, biological weapons is close to nil at this point,” remarked the former U.N. weapons inspector and Bush senior administration official...

Bush talks turkey on immigration

By Emily Alpert / January 16, 2004

President Bush’s proposal to offer temporary worker status to undocumented immigrants has been greeted, understandably, with ambivalence on the part of the undocumented workers and their advocates. The proposed bill is promising. Undocumented foreign nationals currently employed and residing in the U.S., as well as foreign nationals applying from abroad, would be able to obtain...

Bush’s secrecy blocks view of White House actions

By Emily Alpert / November 21, 2003

It’s an oft-cited fact that Bush has held fewer press conferences than any contemporary president except Nixon in his second term—a paltry 9 besides Clinton’s 33 and Bush Sr.’s 61 at the same point in their terms. Now, as of last Wednesday, the Bush administration has effectively cut off financial questions from Congress as well,...

It’s all fun and games until someone gets syphilis

By Emily Alpert / November 6, 2003

The issue of abstinence-only sex education seems particularly surreal on this campus, where most people getting an education are busy trying anything but abstinence. Equally strange (although no more surprising) is that the same administration that claims to be cutting the government out of our lives is so intent on getting it into our pants....

Immigrants hurt by post-9/11 America

By Emily Alpert / October 2, 2003

In the film _Dirty Pretty Things_, the main character, an illegal Nigerian immigrant in London, remarks, “We are the people you do not see.” As a class of people made invisible through both draconian laws and national hostility, immigrants do thankless work and, well, aren’t thanked. Public opinion generally reviles immigrants, though a comprehensive study...

Explore the South Side or suffer the consequences

By Emily Alpert / September 11, 2003

Most of us are willfully, pathologically blind to the South Side. The blinders originate sometime during O-Week, or maybe earlier, as we begin to set our boundaries. For some, they extend to Cottage Grove Aveneue and Hyde Park Boulevard; for others, even closer, at 53rd Street and Drexel Avenue. The O-book even provides a map...