AWS Website Banner 11/4 – 12/4
The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon
The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon
AWS Website Banner 11/4 – 12/4
The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon
Stories and content by Letter to the Editor

Letter: Panhellenic Council Addresses Sororities’ Accomplishments, Challenges to Come

By Letter to the Editor / June 4, 2016
Panhellenic Council is UChicago’s largest women’s organization, and the umbrella organization for the four National Panhellenic Council affiliated sororities at UChicago. This letter serves as an update on what UChicago Panhellenic women have accomplished over the course of this year. We have strengthened our relationship with campus and broader Chicago communities and continue to provide...

Letter: Alumni Take Issue With History Department Changes

By Letter to the Editor / June 3, 2016
We have recently come to learn that the Department of History has decided to do away with the compulsory B.A. thesis requirement. Instead, the department will now be offering a “two-track system” which would require a B.A. thesis only from those who wish to earn departmental honors. As alumni who deeply cherish the academic experience...

Letter: Administration Action Against Greek Life Unfairly Punishes Multicultural Greek Organizations

By Letter to the Editor / May 23, 2016
On March 2, 2016, the Center for Leadership and Involvement (CLI) advisors met with presidents of all fraternities and sororities to discuss changes to Greek life that will be effective in the 2016–2017 school year. Shortly after, changes were announced that prohibit Greek organizations from applying for Student Government Finance Committee and Annual Allocations funding,...

Letter: Student Center Would Facilitate Campus-Wide Student Culture

By Letter to the Editor / May 5, 2016
The University of Chicago has traditionally been known as the place “where fun goes to die.” This funny yet self-deprecating slogan has proven extraordinarily resilient over the years. Yet Jim Nondorf, Vice President and Dean of Admissions, says that perception is changing. In a 2013 Maroon Q&A, when asked about the humorous slogan, he responded,...

Letter: GSU Responds to Arguments Against Graduate Student Unionization

By Letter to the Editor / May 2, 2016
We are writing as the organizing committee of the graduate employee union Graduate Students United (AFT/AAUP), which currently has over 700 members across all the divisions of the University. A small but very vocal group of administrators has recently been scheduling closed-door meetings and town halls and writing emails and op-eds to sow doubts about...

Letter: Students Call For Program Changes to Prevent Lowered Financial Aid for Resident Assistants

By Letter to the Editor / April 21, 2016
For each of us, our houses—Talbot, Midway, and Breckinridge—played a significant role throughout college. We made our closest friends in our dorms, served on our House Councils, and volunteered as House O-Aides to facilitate the incoming first-years’ transition. It makes sense that we wanted to apply to be Resident Assistants (RAs) this year: we value...

Letter: UCAN Endorses United Progress for Student Government, Esquivel for Undergrad Liaison to the Board of Trustees

By Letter to the Editor / April 21, 2016
There are many changes that we, the UChicago Climate Action Network (UCAN), would like to see on our campus. We demand that UChicago be held accountable to the needs of people and the planet rather than the interests of big donors, and we call for increased transparency around financial and administrative decisions. More specifically, we...

Letter: IIRON Calls on New Provost to Meet Demands

By Letter to the Editor / April 14, 2016
As representatives of the IIRON Student Network (ISN) at the University of Chicago, we’re writing in response to the announcement of an upcoming transition in the Office of the Provost. Our organization includes the UChicago Climate Action Network (UCAN), Students for Disability Justice (SDJ), Campaign for Equitable Policing (CEP), and Fair Budget UChicago (FBU). Our...

Letter: J Street UChicago Comes Out Against Resolution

By Letter to the Editor / April 7, 2016
J Street UChicago is opposed to the resolution recently introduced by UofC Divest. We are unabashedly pro-Israel, pro-peace, and pro-Palestinian. Our belief in social justice, human rights, and self-determination for both peoples has led us to work toward a two-state solution and to oppose the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The UofC Divest resolution...

Letter: UofC Divest Calls for Divestment for Human Rights in Palestine

By Letter to the Editor / April 7, 2016
Palestinians today face a comprehensive system of occupation, dispossession, and segregation—in short, apartheid. Their cities are bombed, resources stolen, children kidnapped, and movement restricted. They have asked for our help. In 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called on the international community to use the tactics of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to pressure...

Letter: South Side Community Calls for More Efficient Metra System

By Letter to the Editor / January 7, 2016
The Metra Electric, which serves Chicago’s South Side and South Suburban communities, is a hugely underutilized asset. If operated like CTA lines—with trains every 10 or 15 minutes, full Ventra integration, and transfer discounts—the Metra Electric could unlock the enormous development potential of the South Side and South Suburbs. Built as a transit line much...

Letter: Contingent faculty’s petition to unionize

By Letter to the Editor / November 16, 2015
We, the undersigned tenured and tenure-track faculty at the University of Chicago, support the right of our contingently-employed faculty colleagues to form a union. We affirm the statement of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that “faculties at both public and private institutions are entitled, as professionals, to choose by an election or comparable...

Letter: Law School professor makes the case against divestment

By Letter to the Editor / November 5, 2015
A petition is circulating among the faculty of the University of Chicago to “urge the University to divest from the fossil fuel industry.” As of now, it has over 109 signatures from professors across the University. This is a small part of a larger campaign spearheaded by Students for a Just and Sustainable Future (SJSF)...

Letter: SJP responds to allegations of spreading false information

By Letter to the Editor / October 19, 2015
On October 5, Abdulrahman Shadi Obeidallah was shot in the chest with a live round by an Israeli soldier near the main entrance of the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. He died a short while later, still wearing his school uniform. Unfortunately, this was no isolated incident. Since October 1, Israel has killed 32 Palestinians...

Letter: UCAN demands that Trustees consider divestment

By Letter to the Editor / October 15, 2015
In September, the University of California Board of Regents divested itself of $200 million worth of investments in coal and oil sands. We want our university to do the same. Since 2012, the University of Chicago Climate Action Network has been advocating for the university to divest from fossil fuels—more specifically, to sell all direct...

Letter: SJP spreads false information around campus

By Letter to the Editor / October 15, 2015
On posters all throughout campus, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) claim that the Israeli military murdered Esra’ Zidan Abed and Ahmad Manasra. I am not writing to provide context or commentary. I am not writing to debate SJP on the ongoing events in Israel. I am writing with a single purpose: to refute lies...

Letter: The Maroon needs to revise online comment policy

By Letter to the Editor / June 1, 2015
Dear Editor, This quarter, online comments on Maroon Viewpoints pieces about sexual assault have called women such degrading names as “bitch” and “fool.” The Maroon’s Viewpoints editor’s email response to my request to remove the comments was: “We can only remove when a comment threatens to physically harm a user.” In my opinion, rude comments...

Letter: Update on re-installing stained glass in Bartlett

By Letter to the Editor / June 1, 2015
I want to thank The Maroon and especially journalist Maggie Loughran for the outstanding recent article on the plight of the Edward Sperry stained glass that once adorned Bartlett Commons (“Bartlett Stained Glass Still in Storage After 15 Years,” 5/15/15). It is my hope that the article, together with a major effort by alumni, current...

Letter: College Council rep responds to CAT .

By Letter to the Editor / May 21, 2015
In a Viewpoints article published in last Tuesday’s issue of The Maroon, “CAT’s Out of the Bag” (5/19/15), Cortney McInerney addressed the Student Government Assembly’s decision to decrease the budget for the Coalition of Academic Teams (CAT) by $20,000 next year. While debate over the budget decisions is always welcome, the facts and positions presented...

Letter: Peregrine falcon predation is actually beneficial to Hyde Park

By Letter to the Editor / May 11, 2015
A recent article entitled “The missing birds of Hyde Park” by Karen Bradley inaccurately portrays peregrine falcons as strong negative influences on the birds of Hyde Park. As a biology and environmental studies major with a strong interest in conservation biology, I applaud any efforts to protect native fauna. However, there are serious issues with...

Letter: E&R committee illuminates issues on candidate spending

By Letter to the Editor / April 27, 2015
A recent opinion piece (“Pay to Play” 4/24/15) in The Maroon unfortunately contained a glaring omission regarding the elections process. The election rules impose strict campaign spending limits on each and every candidate. The limits for Slate and Liaison candidates correspond to the amounts furnished by the Election and Rules committee, so out-of-pocket expenditures in those campaigns...

Letter: Dey mischaracterizes Mr. AEPi

By Letter to the Editor / March 18, 2015
After reading Darien Dey’s piece “What we laugh about when we laugh about race,” I could not help but be a little bothered. As a black woman on this campus, I stand for other black women and in no way want to invalidate her legitimate feelings concerning the joke made at the Mr. U pageant....

Letter: French club says “Freedom of speech does not mean safety from debate” in response to criticisms of Zineb El Rhazoui discussion of free speech

By Letter to the Editor / March 5, 2015
Last week, the University of Chicago French Club hosted an unprecedented discussion on freedom of expression called “Who is Charlie?” featuring Charlie Hebdo journalist Zineb El Rhazoui. As its organizers, we were thrilled to note the overwhelming interest in the event, and the many conversations on free speech, France, secularism, and Islam prompted by El...

Letter: Restaurant review doesn’t take Senegalese culture into account

By Letter to the Editor / March 5, 2015
After reading Isaac Stein’s recent review of Yassa, the Senegalese restaurant in Bronzeville (“South Side Senegalese Satisfies Stomach” [3/3/15]), I am left wondering if Stein or his editors bothered to do any research about Senegal or its cuisine before the visit. Although Stein’s meal sounds wonderful, where was the Senegalese food? No Yassa, no Mafe? No...

Letter: Divestment from fossil fuels a unique campaign

By Letter to the Editor / December 2, 2014
South African social activist Desmond Tutu has called climate change “the human rights challenge of our time.” Within the UChicago Climate Action Network, we agree. We also believe solutions to climate change must be multifaceted—there is no silver bullet. That’s why, as part of a larger strategy for tackling climate change, we’re pushing for our...

Letter: Umbrella movement more dynamic than represented

By Letter to the Editor / December 2, 2014
In his op-ed “Under My Umbrella” (10/24/14) David Grossman arguest that the Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong’s protest for a more democratic election process under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, will end as soon as the CCP says it will. As an international student from Hong Kong, I quibble with such an assertion. It...

Letter: Katz talks about discrimination too narrowly and zionism too broadly

By Letter to the Editor / November 25, 2014
I am sympathetic to Katz’s complaints of discrimination in “That wasn’t funny” (11/18/14), having been at the receiving end of racism myself. I was thus disappointed to learn that Katz chose to highlight anti-Semitism over other types of discrimination. Katz alleges that fabrications about Jews have somehow gone unnoticed on campus while “other awful minority stereotypes”...

Letter: Admin pay in perspective

By Letter to the Editor / November 25, 2014
Dear Maroon, As the author of work cited as background to data analyses of a November 21 Maroon article (“Univ. admin pay not outlier, Maroon finds”), I would like to offer both compliments and clarifications. First off, numbers-driven investigative reporting on higher education is much needed both here and across the country. Pretty much every...

Letter: OBS urges student solidarity around petition

By Letter to the Editor / November 21, 2014
In light of recent acts of racially motivated hate, the Organization of Black Students (OBS) would like to express our firm stance and complete solidarity with all victims of intolerance, marginalization, and targeted personal attacks. While some may be inclined to perceive this most recent event as an isolated incident, this is instead the latest...

Letter: Chancellor Wise shouldn’t have spoken on diversity

By Letter to the Editor / November 14, 2014
On Monday evening, the University of Illinois–Urbana Champaign Chancellor, Phyllis Wise, spoke as a part of the Biological Sciences Division and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion’s Diversity and Inclusion Speaker Series. We are delighted that the University has a series focused on the vital issues surrounding diversity (or the lack thereof) on our campus. However,...

Letter: Students stand by the IOP

By Letter to the Editor / May 30, 2014
“How much we value the right of free speech is put to its severest test when the speaker is someone we disagree with most.”—American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Hate Speech on Campus Last week at the Institute of Politics (IOP), Dan Savage was a guest at a seminar hosted by Spring Fellow Ana Marie...

Letter: Wessan’s claims uninformed

By Letter to the Editor / May 9, 2014
Eric Wessan’s general indictment of Student Government (SG) in “Electoral Dysfunction” (5/6/14) is so filled with contradiction it hardly merits a response. However, we in positions of SG leadership would like to address a few of the factual inaccuracies in the piece because, to Wessan’s point, it is important that correct information be available to...

Letter: McAvoy doesn’t know everything

By Letter to the Editor / May 8, 2014
In a recent response to Grace Koh’s article “Faith and Fear” (4/18/14) entitled “Not Fit for Print” (4/25/14), third-year contributor Spencer McAvoy makes a serious plea for the Maroon to toss aside principles of free inquiry and to censor views—such as opposition to gay marriage—deemed too bigoted and nonsensical to express in public. In doing...

Letter: Outgoing SG slate reviews year in office

By Letter to the Editor / May 6, 2014
Now that our term is coming to a close, we on the Student Government (SG) executive slate would like to take this opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved and to assess what next year’s SG can still accomplish. But first, many congratulations to the United Progress slate on their victory in the recent...

Letter: Photo unfit for print

By Letter to the Editor / March 11, 2014
On Wednesday, March 5, ArtShould held a PostSecret Gallery Night in the McCormick Lounge, featuring anonymously-crafted and secret-divulging postcards made by UChicago students. The Maroon covered this event (“Students Postsecrets in Public,” 3/7/14), and placed the article on the front page of last Friday’s issue. Accompanying the article was a colorful example of a PostSecret...

Open Letter: Too long to wait for an assault policy

By Letter to the Editor / February 23, 2014
Dear President Zimmer, We recently learned of the continued problems with sexual assault at UChicago from a report in the Chicago Maroon (University Under Federal Investigation for Sexual Assault Policy, 2/11/14), which was subsequently picked up by national media outlets. We are dismayed that there has been insufficient progress to address sexual violence crimes on...

Letter: Daugherty overstates transparency

By Letter to the Editor / February 21, 2014
My name is Michaeljit Sandhu, and I graduated from the College in June 2013. I was a Summer Links participant in 2010 after my first year and a program coordinator this past summer. I also worked as the volunteer referral student staff at the University Community Service Center (UCSC) during the 2012–2013 academic year. I...

Letter: Admin defends Summer Links

By Letter to the Editor / February 14, 2014
I commend the Maroon’s recent editorial, “Broken Links Can Be Mended” (2/4/14). I agree with the message of transparency and communication regarding the changes to the Summer Links program. Open communication is central to successful programming and is a hallmark of the University Community Service Center (UCSC). We also value the rights this University protects...

Letter: Obama Library resources too valuable to turn down

By Letter to the Editor / January 31, 2014
In last weekend’s editorial “Obama library is a compromise not worth making” (1/17/14), Andrew Young expresses concern that bringing the Obama presidential library to Hyde Park would be a mistake—one that would endanger the University’s “principles of free inquiry and critical analysis”—because many documents in the museum would be selectively chosen by the library staff...

Letter: How universities can expand education opportunity

By Letter to the Editor / January 31, 2014
Graduating from college is the most important way that kids from challenged circumstances can change the courses of their lives, improving their career opportunities, earnings, and social status. The White House recently gathered nearly 100 higher education leaders to announce new initiatives for reducing barriers to this end. Although the White House did not offer...

Letter: A broader perspective of social justice

By Letter to the Editor / January 31, 2014
Since announcing substantial changes to the Summer Links (SL) internship program several weeks ago, the University Community Service Center (UCSC) has come under fire yet again. Students have expressed concern that changes to SL programming, including the addition of for-profit and philanthropic internship sites, threaten to eliminate SL’s unique and transformative focus on social justice....

Letter: Obama library is an archive, not a presentation

By Letter to the Editor / January 24, 2014
In “Obama Library is a Compromise Not Worth Making” (1/17/14), Andrew Young fundamentally misunderstands the nature of presidential libraries. They are at once libraries and museums. While certain artifacts and documents may be presented as part of a narrative in the museum space, the documents and communications accumulated during a presidency are presented to researchers...

Letter: SCS Director on programming

By Letter to the Editor / January 24, 2014
We commend the Maroon’s decision to publish a quarter-long series on student health last fall. The article, “Student Health Series Part III: Counseling and Mental Health” (11/19/13), was especially welcome news at the Student Counseling Service (SCS). We embrace every opportunity to get the word out to the University community about our services. And to...

Letter to the editor: Rebuttal to Prof. Stone on Snowden

By Letter to the Editor / January 17, 2014
As the Maroon reports in “Snowden Broke the Law, Says Law Prof (1/14/14),” Professor Geoffrey Stone stated that “there are costs as well as benefits from what Snowden did…. Many of those costs damaged the United States in its relations with other nations. It may damage the infrastructure of the Internet, causing countries to put...

Letter: J Street liberals fundamentally misunderstand “pro-Israel”

By Letter to the Editor / December 3, 2013
In her November 26th piece, “What It Means To Be Pro-Israel,” Daniela Tolchinsky completely flubs what it actually means to be pro-Israel. In keeping with her status as a J Street UChicago board member, Tolchinsky proffers a left-wing approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as purportedly representing the unequivocal paradigm of what it means to be...

Letter: Equality does not preclude marriage

By Letter to the Editor / November 22, 2013
A few summers ago, I worked at a major LGBTQ organization. I understand many people’s concerns about these sorts of organizations. We do need to continue to hold these organizations accountable, but that does not mean that they are not doing good work in the meantime. These groups, like the Human Rights Campaign, may be...
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