FN ALTERNATIVE RESOURCE FOR INCONING STUDENTSTABLE er CONTENTS INTRO bYCTION 2 WE. ARE BERE . COMMYNATY ote oe oe . —Histery F Hyde Part and 3 Learning While Trans: A Compis 63 —Serminding Avess Survival Guide Au Transgender, . rf .Gendergueer, TierSpisit, and, —Waedloven —GencrsGication and Develorment. wb. _ render-Nan- Con forconing dents eal Shey A... Frustrecting Incidents O° _ A ——Teansportution Politics 45... Nevigating Campus as. 2 “ ~—A Rodical History of_tyde Park 03. won Fealing Good : Mind Baly, Spirit. #e ~ —Foweretthe Ue CO. B Spiritual Life nee HE 4 Years, of Cam pus Polities % Sexval Health and Consent... kK —Msney and Finance... 28 Resources far Victims. 8 Abort $4 Getting. Your Tiitien Backl __29 obit Vou Should Total —Daiwersiby Policy Knewing Jour. Rights 32 Chieage. andl “Rows portation. ~—UChicago Employees... 3k __ Bikes. cone ee ~——Research. Websites: Know Your Shit... 3. Fashying ot the 0.6 C.. THEORIES _AND_ PERSPECTIVES - ON GETTING INVelLVED —Being Part f o Diverse Community 3% Advecacy and Political .... —Class-and Clostism.. BRANES wee ——Power, Oppression and Racism Education and Mentoring ——Cultwre.ond Appropriation. Enviroment --Sevism_/ Gender _ Discrimination Health Healtheare _ a: - —Thesender Binary. ~~ mend... Wmigretion.ond Race ____ tea —LSBIG Rights Morethan Marriage 5s Tournalism quality en ene » Labor . . . doa. — Ableism Zand ‘Disability... _._s5_.__0 jowizing—_—...__.. _——-_____102__ —-ANote.on Dfinds pets 5 CONCLUSION ~—Prtwel ege@ sa Chicago: Re imagined . tot — Being Aa Ally ann. Sedal.Testice Slssiry of Terme __t08 . . : Recammendotons dan“Dear members of the Class of 2017, A projector works by continuously passing small, stil images, upside-down, through an opening. ‘On the screen, these same images are larger-than-life, beautifuland right side up. The film Projector is what | thought of when | was standing at the lap of the. John Hancock bulding downtown at an O-Week event when } first came to the Collage. It was a party. | ate little sandwiches and looked out from one of the highest vantage points in the city, the convacational pomp stil ringing in my head. This was the image | was shown of UChicago. But | wondered, what hadn't made it through the University's oficial projector? Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of things @bout our south side campus you don’t see irom the top of the John Hancock. This 2013 edition joins DisO guides befere it in compiling perspectives you might not otherwise see during O-Week; they are heterodox by design, and we contributors to this guide have found them to be absolutely fundamental to our own adjustment to university life—to being active members of a campus community, They will show our turreted, gabled institution in a different ‘ight than its brochures have, offering a bit more shadow to their iconic, sun-washed quad. This guide expases the cisjointedness, past and present, of our collective existence. It does so with the hope that we might recognize the fractures not simply 2s imperfections, but as injustices~and often systemic ones. AS such, we believe that you are both entitled to and responsible for this information, these different perspectives; in order for us to re-make our schaol, we must, as students, reimagine relationships amongst ourselves, wilh our administrators; with our neighbors, with our campus employees, and with the blocks we shuffle between. Only through our own, engagement can our contrived, hand-pickéd campus community become one of real care and reliance. Shared awareness of UChicago’s history, we Kope, willl héla us become critically sensitized to our own actions and to those of the university. It is our especially politicized setting which demands that we reflect on our own social identities: by choice or by chance you have come to school in @ neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Our University is the moving spirit in developments that have created barriers between itseif and its surrounding communities. As Jane Jacobs notes, sometimes a neighborhood gets the benefit of power through possessing a university, “but the citizens of such 2 neighborhoad pay for their ‘free’ gift of power whén the dey comes that their interests run counter to those of Papa Institution. They ere helpless to defeat Papa in the government offices, up where the decisions are made, and therefore they are fAsipless also to leach him or influence him.” Genuine reciprocity can—and does—axist between gown and town but we have to seek it out and foster it, This guide seeks to motivate and facilitate this type of community participation. This guide is not the Hollywood epic that the University would produce; it's the view from the street instead of the Civory) tower. It’s not the Cecil 3. Demille extravaganza, but rether the handheld footage, sometimes a little shaky, and reilecting each author’s personal script. So go out and process it all for yourself. Come back to this guide if you have questions—or especially i you think you have answers. Natale Wright and the DisO 2013 TeamWE ARE HERE Hyde Park was founded in 1835 by Paul Cornell. With the construction of UChicago in. 1890 and the Columbian Exposition in 1893, Hyde Park boomed with hundreds of new residential and commercial buildings. As a popular vacation spot for white city-dwellers, Hyde Park had over 100 hotels by the 1930s. .- In the 1940's, Hyde Park and its surrounding neighborhoods saw a demographic shift as the Great Migration brought Chicago's African American population from 1.8% of b Wes. the total in 1990 to 8.2% in 1940. Many 1930 HH) of the hotels on the South Side became tenement housing, and many whites decided to pack up and “flee” (UChicago debated relocating to Arizona or New Mexico for a while). Hyde Park's residents largely found this change frightening, and responded with violence and restrictive covenants, which were legally-enforceable agreements with Jandiords to not sell or rent to people who didn't look like them. To their chagrin, in 1948 the Supreme Court declared covenants illegal, so Hyde Park had to find a new way to way ta keep out the “blight”. . A group of white businessmen in 1949 formed the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC}. The HPKCC created block clubs with the goal of preventing false gossip, tracking zoning laws . and building violations, and ran their flagship WhistleStop program which taught residents to recognize the sound of a whistle as a cry for help. UChicago watched for three years, then decided that it had a role to play too, after the wife of a professor was attacked and fears of losing prospective students rose. UChicago created the South East Chicago Com/nission in 1952 to “enforce codes and track crime”. Attorney Julian Levi was hired to design the Urban Renewal Program—as it was officially named by the university—with government funding, razing down entire strips of worker housing to 1160°Sbuild student dorms, townhouses, classrooms and parking garages, without allocating public housing space for the displaced poor. The program wrenched out Hyde Park's jazz scene, closing down every jazz site, and bulldozed through the main commercial center on 55th street, leaving three new business sites that excluded nearly all of the old owners. The Urban Renewal program (nicknamed “Urban Removal’) became infarnous for Levi's lack of regard for community participation, and for its anti-poor and arguably anti-biack agenda. The program's work has left its legacy well. Hyde Park has kept its diversity, with a demographic of 40.5% white peopie, 39.5% black people, 13.5% Asian/Pacific islanders, 4.1% multi-racial peaple, 2.1% people designated “other” and .2% American indians. It also has a large middle class population (the average family income is $90,578), reflecting well the line of the HPKCC: “Whites and blacks, hand in hand against the poor”. Since the University of Chicago was founded in 1892, the neighborhoodsaround it, Hyde Park and Woodlawn, have changed immensely. The year after the University opened, the Columbian World’s Fair in Jackson Park transformed the area, as millions of visitors streamed into the area to see the exhibits, the ‘nation tents’ on the Midway Plaisance, and to visit the world’s first Ferris Wheel. The next century would yield existential transformations for the neighborhoods, much of which were instigated and guided by the University itself. As students, we inherit the complicated legacy of University influence over the Hyde Park / Kenwood / Woodlawn area. While the University's presence has allowed Hyde Park to become a (relatively) thriving multiracial and {relatively} economically diverse neighborhood, it has also created friction with neighboring and occasionally hampered the ability of those communities to thrive. To take Woodlawn as an example: the neighborhood—which officially stretches from the Midway in the north to 67th St in the south and the lakefront west to King Drive—has transformed radically since the early 20th century. In the 1940s, it was a primarily white neighborhood; its racial integrity was coded into law by what are called “restrictive covenants”. By the "60s, these covenants were legally unenforceable; however, in practice, the city remained (and remains) substantially segregated. Over time, the racial and economic composition of Woodlawn had areas, has changed. drastically: first experiencing racial succession from white to, black, and then experiencing a precipitous decline in median family income as middle-class suburbs opened to African-American families. By 1960, the neighborhood struggled to get access even to basic municipal services like garbage collection and policing. This ‘decline did not go unnoticed by the University of Chicago: having focused most of its money and political agenda on a revolutionary Urban Renewal project in Hyde Park, it eventually turned its attention to Woodlawn. An organization called the Southeast Chicago Commission, the University’s urban development subsidiary, started work on a plan to raze a section of Woodlawn in order to build the “South Campus Extension”. This plan would have displaced several thousand residents and isolated the neighborhood from public parks and other resources - there was even a plan at one point to run a 6-lane highway along 62nd St. However, the threat of this redevelopment plan galvanized the . neighborhood — into political activity for which it is now famous (well, among scholars of community organizing, anyway). The Woodlawn Organization (7T.W.0.) was founded in 1960 out of the basement of the First Presbyterian Church at 64th & Kimbark under the guidance of Saul Alinsky, the legendary community organizer (who incidentally& Development had been an undergraduate at UChicago). It launched a campaign to prevent the University of Chicago from expanding. inte Woodlawn. University officials dismissed the group at first, but by 1963, T.W.O. and the University had agreed that it would stay north of 61st St - and in return, T.W.O. wouldn't complain about that moderated expansion. The campaign transformed the neighborhood, developing local un-electoral leadership which continues to hold sway in the community. Bishop Arthur Brazier, T.W.O.'s first president, founded Apostelic Church of God at 63rd & Dorchester; Leon Finney, its first executive director, runs the Woodlawn Community Development Corporation, which was once a subsidiary of T.W.O. and is currently one of the largest landowners in Woodlawn. These leaders developed and ~~ maintained substantial and transformative relationships with the University administrators through negotiations in the Sixties. Although the University scaled back its involvement in Woodlawn for a while, the neighborhood remains incredibly impacted by and subject to decisions that are made in the Administration building on Ellis Avenue. Currently, development decisions made by and with the support of University administrators are priming the neighborhood transformation. for another Gentrification More recently, the University has tried to take a more positive role in the development of Hyde Park, primarily through commercial development on 53rd Street, Hyde Park’s main commercial cotridor. However, controversy has arisen over whether or not the changes planned by the University will be good, by and large, for the neighborhood and its residents— especially those not affiliated with the University. The main development initiative led by the University is the redevelopment of Harper Court at 53rd Street between Harper Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, a $114 million project that is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. Supported by the City of Chicago in both of these endeavors, the University has already reopened Harper Theater, and several new businesses such as Clarke’s 24-hour diner and Kilwin’s (an ice cream and fudge shop based in Lincoln Park) have also opened. When completed, Harper Court will include a 130-room Hyatt hotel, 12 stories of office space that will mostly be used by University faculty, 267 new apartments, and 30,000 sq. ft of retail space. Some of the new businesses include LA fitness, Starbucks, Chipotle, Ja’Grill, Park Tavern, Porkchop, Ulta Beauty, and Sir & Madame (an upscale fashion boutique).Community Views Hyde Park residents have voiced. discontent with several aspects of the S3rd street development project, such as the heavy hand of the University in- making decisions, the decrease in affordable housing, the impact: on surrounding residential areas, and the increase in the cost of living. The University has acknowledged that its development plans are intended primarily to serve University students and faculty, as well as make the neighborhood more attractive for prospective students. “It’s enlightened self-interest for us,” said David Greene, executive vice president of the University. “We’ve always been very competitive when it comes to providing a great intellectual community. But we found there was something missing when we looked at the quality of life for students and faculty who are used to the kinds of amenities you find in places New York, Boston and Palo Alto.” As a result, many community members have complained that they were not included in the planning and that the development is not intended to scrve the broader community. Yet many of the new developments are coming at the expense of local businesses that have had a long presence in Hyde Park. The Mobil Gas station and car wash on 53rd street between Kenwood Avenue and Kimbark Avenue are closing to make way for a 12-story apartment tower, and other businesses such as Apartment Finders, Kimonti Salon, Lake Beauty Supply, the T-shirt shop Propaganda, the clothing store Tina’s Designs, and Atino’s Pizza have also closed. Other business such Hyde Park Cigars and the Original Pancake House have moved to different nearby locations. There are also concerns that the developments will increase the cost of living and will make Hyde Park unaffordable for low-income households. Average rent prices in Hyde Park have already risen in thé past few years, with the number of rent-burdened residents increasing by 15% in the last 10 years, and the presence of more upscale businesses on 53rd Strect will cause rent prices to climb even higher. Even graduate students have complained that rent prices are too high, and as a résult many do not live in the neighborhood. , Things to Consider The new University-led developments in Hyde Park may bring trendy new businesses to the neighborhood. But they may also cause the transformation of Hydefrom a racially integrated, economically integrated acighborhood -.onc of the few such neighborhoods in Chicago - into a predominantly white, upper class neighborhood. As a result, not only may Hyde Park lose some of its original character, but many low- income families in Hyde Park will have to relocate to other neighborhoods that have higher crime rates and worse schools, Commercial development is not a bad thing, but it needs to happen with the input of community residents in order to create a truly vibrant cormmunity that improves the quality of life for everyone. So next time you're enjoying the newest amenities of 53rd street, consider: o What sort of responsibility does the University have in the development of Hyde Park, and what sort of role should it play? o What inequities are created or aggravated by gentrification? o Who benefits and who is harmed by the development on 53rd? o What can the University and the Hyde Park community do to ensure that development is equitable? Development in Woodlawn has also been occurring to a lesser extent. Beginning in the 1990s, there was an effort partially led by members of TWO to revitalize Woodlawn through new housing construction. At the forefront of this initiative was Columbia Pointe, a development that planned to fill most of 63rd street from Kenwood to- Ingleside with single-family townhouses (but was only partially completed). During the housing boom of the mid-2000s, Woodlawn became a hot spot for new constvuction, and by 2006, the average sales price had reached $250,000. More UChicago students and staff moved into the neighborhood (concentrated near 61st street), and there were concerns of increasing rents and displacement of community members. New construction has largely stopped since 2008 due to the housing crisis, and the average sales price has consistently been under $100,000. There is evidence that the neighborhood demographics have changed somewhat. The median household income has increased from $22,000 to $27,000, and the white population has increased from 700 to 1,700 residents. Meanwhile, crime has decreased by nearly 50% since 2000. However, Woodlawn remains predominantly African-American and low-income, especially west of Cottage Grove. One recent controversy in Woodlawn is Woodlawn Park, the planned redevelopment of Grove Park Section 8 housing complex, which occupies Cottage Grove Avenue from 60th street to 63rd street. The plan calls for mixed-income units from 61st to 63rd and retail from 60th to 61st. It has received $30 million in federal funding, and some construction has already taken place. However, controversy has arisen over another part of the plan, which involves converting courtyard apartments at62nd and Rhodes, 62nd and Eberhart, and 62nd and Vernon into section 8 housing. As such, some are worried that the development will only move low-income housing further away from the University and into an area that is already affected by disproportionate levels of poverty and crime. ice & Safety History of the UCPD When the University of Chicago Police Department was Initially created by the University in the 2g60s it consisted of only two private detectives. Since then, the UCPD has expanded to employ 140 full-time police officers with.an operating budget of 5,500,000 per year, making it the second largest private police force—after the Vatican. The original boundaries of the police.patrol of the UCPD were 47th Street, 61st Street, and Cottage Grove. However, in 2002, the boundaries were extended to 64th Street on the south and ggth Street on the north, with small extensions to cover University-run charter schools. The UCPD now patrols an area of over three square miles where 65,000 people live, and since CPD coverage lessened in the area, the UCPD is the main police presence in their patrol area. The UCPD is not required to reveal its policies (unlike the CPD), but has openly admitted to racial profiling. Not only have black community residents unaffiliated with the University been especially targeted, but black university students have also reported incidents of racial profiling. In particular, black students have been frequently asked to show their students IDs when they are near campus and have consequently felt unwelcome. In addition, there have been a few incidents involving the UCPD in particular that have caused the student community to question its policies. For example, in 2010, Maurice Dawson, a black student who was misbehaving in the Regenstein, was asked by UCPD officers to shaw his ID, and was arrested when he refused. In addition, this year, four University students were arrested by the UCPD during a peaceful protest about the need for a University-run trauma center.A Different Perspective on the Role of the UCPD Today: by Cameron Okeke The University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) is composed of some of the most courageous policemen and women in the city of Chicago, but they are human, nevertheless. Identities are mistaken and liberties are taken in their aim of protecting us. The question remains: what exactly are they charged to protect-us from? Who exactly tasks this private police force to protect us? How do we measure their success? These are questions that many students struggle to answer, despite attending a university founded upon open discourse. In order to understand ane possible explanation for controversies regarding the UCPD and the differing views of safety at the Callege, a couple things must be clear. First, the University’s vanguard must not be misconstrued as the Chicago Police Department (CPD); they differ in responsibility and transparency. The latter is a public service paid for by the City of Chicago to protect all within the city limits. To make this easy they have white and blue cars and give very little special treatment to Chicago students, Second, statistics indicate that the average violent crime rate from the last 5 years raises from 113 to 273 when you include the immediate areas around the South Kenwood-Hyde Park area, which means the inclusion of 10 blocks north (until 37th Street) and 4 blocks south (until 64th Street) accounts more than half of the total crime in the UCPD patrol area. The sheer size of the UCPD is impressive, comprising of 143 police officers, armed with as.5 million dollar budget. Statistically, we are in good hands, right? Well, controversy has swirled around the UCPD's methods of securing the campus, and moreover, its inability to have an open dialogue with civilians. Though UCPD is a private police force of the university, it does police public property, removing unaffiliated members of the community from campus. Charges of racial profiling have been brought up against the College’s police, but all of these complaints almost always remain in their infancy (editor's note: we're not sure where this Factoid comes from). Many students of darker complexions have complained that UCPD targets them in order to prevent crime. Undeniably there is a range of opinions on how safe UCPD makes the campus. | firmly believe that the feeling of uneasiness prompts more extreme measures like the perceived harassment of students. It is hard to pinpoint where fear of the surrounding community comes from, but it is undeniable that Hyde Park is one of the safest communities in the Southside of Chicago, due largely in part by the efforts the men and women of the UCPD. Still, yostudents cannot be careless. One of the largest breaches of security at the university is uneducated fear of a ubiquitous “other”. If we as a student body call for more protection, then we must have a perceived threat, but many of us are unaware ta what degree we are isolated from the community. So as it stands now, UCPD is efficiently stopping crime and keeping “dangerous”, “extraneous” individuals off our campus, but at the expense of provoking hostility from community members put off by signs of paranoia and distrust (like random police stops). So how do we fix this? We must raise awareness of our surroundings, both on a personal and communal level. Students must be more thoroughly educated on the history of the Southside of Chicago. Next time you interact with the UCPD, think about their motivations. Are the UCPD how cops should act? Aiding certain civilians instead of persecuting them in respect of the law? Or does this stem from a great sense of privilege and coddling by the University for its students? Or do they just have really awesome-looking cars? None of these pressing questions can be answered with a Google search, save from the last one; only if the student body becomes aware of what the demand for more security means. For still another view on the role of the UCPD, see Jon Catlin’s artide “I Was Robbed” in the Maroon: http:/fchicagomaroon!com/2013/03/12/105558). Avictim of crime recounts his struggle with these questions of campus security and its ethical implications. What can | do to stay safe? It is definitely reasonable to take safety precautions, just as you would in any large urban area. However, it is equally important to avoid racially profiling. If you move to the other side of the street when you see an approaching black mate, you could potentially avoid the unlikely possibility of personal harm - but you are also labeling the person a potential criminal and are therefore contributing to the very problem of racial stereotyping. Instead, consider taking the following measures to protect yourself: 412It can actually be easy to spot someone witha concealed weapon by looking at his or her clothing or posture > Ifyou need to travel to or from an off-campus location at night, use the Night Ride Shuttles that can drop you off within a block or two of where you need to go. Travel with friends if possible. If you are alone, try to travel on busy streets such as goth Street, 53rd Street, Woodlawn Avenue, or Lake Park Avenue. Spotting a hidden handgun srrerermcat cart UPPER BODY SHT Ihave fr gehen pont on het tah ie ef awatand ayn yprcned rt ona pon vt Se gover cc puvioy auger ivieshoruar in ow. 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Cate Geooue, ad bens Me HERE vanity a tmputen arom be cost tamu lacomputla col esate fat inte Sbinfubos with ek tap fester uum” ramadan whan ihe wh ecer sang, Bia tced int aint coed orn esr Bader Cte, omer dice, nanny Tecate ew Yrs Gey ok Dar ‘Men fergeraae 12Transportation Politics . 1 of Hyde P During your time here, people wi et you time and oe ana very ways. *go explore the city as much as possible.” This can be done i Walking: have fun with that. Chicago is expansive, and most everything is farther away than it looks. (if you have time and are prepared for the weather, however, walking is lovely.) Biking: There are lots of lovely bike trails you can use; my favorite one runs up Lake Michigan. Please abide by traffic laws Cars: There is traffic. Lots of it. Cabs in/out of Hyde Park can be super expensive, and parking in Hyde Park is generally a pain. Metra: A commuter rail. It runs on the hour, and is pretty isolated, as fat as public transportation goes. If you want something more expansive, cheap and politically engaging, the CTA’s your go-to. ark” and Fun fact: the el is the second most extensive public rail line in the United States CTA History Although plans for an elevated rallway system began in the 1870's, the actual lines didn’t go into effect until around 1892. The World's Fair was a major incentive; one of the first lines, the South Side Line, went across the 63rd St. all the way jo Jackson Park. Now, that track ends at Cottage Grove. Other lines include: Lake St. L {Northern Green Line Branch), Metropolitan West Side L (modern-day blue fine), Union Loop (well, the loop), and Northwestern L (red/purple lines). During this time, Chicago was experiencing a population growth of unprecedented proportions: 600,000 people in the 1890's. It grew to be the 5th largest city in the world at this time, and the wealth gap was astonishing. The el eased the strain that such a population growth had on the city's resources. Disparities of income are affected and reflected in interesting ways by the vatious CTA lines, For instance, on the North side, there is a correlation between proximity toa CTA station and median household income. On the south and west sides, however, this correlation becomes much lass prominent, in short, Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, determined today by barriers long ago. It is these neighborhoods that determine income, although increased rail lines on the wealthier north side are no accident. ‘shades indicate greater weaith} Crime and the CTA Some people have more of an aversion to taking public transit than others, unfortunately, particularly taking the green line, These aversions stem from a fear of crime rates on the CTA, 13especially around low-income areas. Many of these fears are unfounded and based upon dated statistics. Five of the six stations with the highest crime rates fall along the red line, which people generally prefer to use. Furihermore, between 2009 and 2012, the most crimes per station area happened in the Loop; 749 crimes happened in the Loop track itself, while 217 crimes happened ‘on the Roosevelt station in the south loop. Petty theft took up the highest percentage of these crimes, (Source: Alex Bordens, Chicago Tribune Graphics) While it is always important to be vigilant about your person and your belongings, precautions about crime doesn’t need to tum into fear of the places where crime cou'd potentially happen. CTA Over the Years Because transportation is by nature dynainic, the CTA tends to go through changes. Many of the original elevated lines and branches simply don't exist anymore. Up until 1946, Chicago Rapid Transit Company was the head honcho of public transit. When the CTA ultimately took over, it streamlined the entire system, removing express services, closing stations, and even dismantling miles of track. Anyone who wishes to complain about lack of track into Hyde Park {the Green Line used to tun all the way to Stony Island Avenue) can thank this decision. To be fair, the rise of the highways, which prompted many Americans to move to the suburbs and decreased CTA ridership, didn’t help. Future Projects . . a : . Transportation renovations are not a thing of the past. You'll notice that the ted line is not undergoing its main route; due to construction, Roosevelt to 95th will see no red line service, and 63rd to 95th will see no rails at all. The red line is the only quick means of transportation for a jot of people on the far south side. Similarly, Chinatown is also left out of the tail route. There are buses to accommodate the displaced riders, but are those an acceptable alternative? The red line rehabilitation is only one part of a massive capital program. The CTA plans to replace its fleet with brand new cars, redo lots of new stations, and even expand el lines again. Expansions of this type are usually good things; who doesn’t love easier access to public transportation? The CTA's capital program is estimated to cost around $20 billion, About 40% of CTA annuat revenue comes from come from the $2.25 you pay every time you tap your Chicago Card. That means CTA riders will contribute $8 bilion to these projects. But which CTA riders will end up paying the most? rae en sce Whe paystor Recently, the daily : the CYA? unlimited cards almost doubled in price. Often, these prices affect people unequally. One recent CTA study (reported by Kevin O'Neil of ChicagoNow)found out that people tiving in poverty mostly paid CTA fares in cash, leaving them unable to access the free transfers that come with CTA cards. Since CTA cards can only be purchased at train stations, tots of people are at a disadvantage. The CTA passes they do buy are often unlimited day passes - which almost doubled in prices from last year. In shori, minority and iow- income residents are bearing the brunt for these changes. Meanwhile, most of the extensions will venture into the suburbs, away from the people suffering the consequences. When we take forms of transportation, we must ask ourselves: who's getting us form point a to point b? Who's paying the most for these services? Who do these forms of transportation primarily serve? Is this intentional? Does transportation actively encourage or discourage the integration of different neighborhoods? Gatting out of Hyde Park—or even travelling around it—is so much more than exploring different places. Often, it carties a political act in itself. However, no matter what, any form of transportation is better than staying in the Hyde Park bubble if you want to be an active and engaged member of the. community. Transportation is confusing, but so are many other important things in life, 15LeON THE INSTITUTION A Radical History of Hyde Park “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.” — James Baldwin 1850s: Paul Cornell, a businessman and abolitionist, bought 300 acres of land between. 51*t and 55" streets. Several houses were used as stops in the Underground Railroad. Dutch farmers arrived in present-day Woodlawn. 1861: Hyde Park Township established, spanning 39" to 63” streets but later extended to 138" and as far west as State St. The Water Tower | May 1-4, 1886: The Haymarket Riots began as arally in ” was one of the support of the 8-hour work day. A bomb was thrown at police few buildingsto { and the ensuing gunfire resulted in deaths of 8 police, and over _ the Great | 59 civilians were killed or wounded. Eight anarchists were tried for murder; four were executed although the prosecution conceded none had thrown the bomb. 1871: The Great Fire destroy a third of the city, including the . entire central business district. The south side expands quickly as rich and poor alike leave the city center. 18849: Hyde Park and Woodlawn are annexed to the city of Chicago as the Hyde Park Township disbands; much of the “south side” is created in the process. 1892: The University of Chicago is founded. Marion Talbot, first Dean of Women, becomes one of nine female faculty members at UChicago and champions education for women. 1893: 27.5 million visitors and 20,000 new residents flock to Hyde Park for the World’s Columbian Exposition. In the subsequent building boom, developers landscaped Jackson. Park, created the Midway, expanded the El east along 63, and constructed large apartments and hotels. . 1894: 3000 employees of Pullman Palace Car Co. on the south side strike in response to wage reductions, 125,000 American Railway Union workers joined the strike in solidarity, but thousands of US military personnel broke up the famous Pullman Strike. 1902: The University Senate voted to approve segregation of the sexes in the classroom until students’ third year. Objections poured in and the debate continued until the policy was changed a few years later. 4910-1970: New employment opportunities in northern industry and inexpensive, but substandard, housing led to the migration of many African Americans to Chicago (over 500,000 people by 1970), many of whom settled in Hyde Park area. 1919: During the Red Summer of 1919, race riots plagued Chicago, precipitated by the drowning of an African American teen whose raft crossed onto the white-only section of a beach at 29¢ St. Seven days of shootings, arsons, and beatings (mostly ethnic whites 1+attacking African Americans in the Black Belt) resulted in 38 deaths, 537 injuries, and 1000 residents were left homeless. A grand jury indicted 17 black people, but no whites. 1921: Georgiana Simpson, one of the first African American women to receive a PhD in the US, earned her dactorate at U of C. 1927: The Chicago Real Estate Board sent speakers around the south side urging white homeowners to sign covenants promising not to sell or lease property to non-whites. These so-called “restrictive covenants” contributed greatly to the current racial segregation in the Hyde Park area before being declared unconstitutional in the 40s. 1933: Then-President Hutchins of U of C proposed merging the university with Northwestern into “The Universities of Chicago” due to the Depression. Much stiident opposition on both campuses ultimately shut down the proposal. 1937: In the Memorial Day Massacre, the Chicago Police Dept. opened fire on a parade of unarmed striking steel workers and their families at the gate of the Republic Steel Co. in South Chicago. Fifty people were shot, of whom 10 later died, and hundreds were beaten with clubs. No police were prosecuted. 1945: When the Quadrangle Club refused membership to tenured black professor Allison Davis and rumored pacifist Gordon Dupee, a group led by Dean of Social Sciences Robert Redfield sought to amend the Quad Club’s constitution to end discriminatory membership practices. The amendments were defeated 182 to 85, leading Redfield and others to resign. The next day, 17 employees walked out at lunch, protesting the club’s racism. Without fanfare, the Quad Club opened its doors to women and minorities soon after. 1949: Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference formed. Over 50 area organizations, including every local church and temple, PTAs, and U of C faculty and students, were represented at the group’s initial meeting. The HPKCC played a large role in the urban renewal projects that spanned the next couple decades, 1950s — 1960s: Urban renewal of Hyde Park, initiated by UChicago, teamed up with the newly-formed South East Chicago Commission (SECC), which was designed to remove “blight and prevent “white flight.” Blocks of decayed housing and other buildings were demolished and redeveloped, meaning the housing units 1. M, Pei’s University Park Condominiums along 55" Street are one example of 1960s urban renewal projects in Hyde Park (and the way the buildings interrupt rorth-south traffic along 45" St. has been ited segregate Hyde Park) primarily occupied by poorer black people and other minorities disappeared and the residents could no longer afford to live in the area. The U of C’s “urban renewal” effort— called “negro removal” by seme—also resulted in the demolition of a number of cultural centers on 55% St in Hyde Park and an artists’ colony at 57 and Stony. Hyde Park and South Kenwood were then established as avowedly middle-class and “reluctantly interracial” neighborhoods. 1952: The UChicago Sigma Chi chapier disbands in protest of the frat’'s “whites only” membership policy. 1955-19603: Chicago’s first postindustrial crisis occurred, as major meatpacking, companies began to close down and thousands lose jobs. 181955-1975: Leon Despres, a champion of civil rights, served as alderman of Hyde Park. He argued passiouately for civil rights, fair and open housing, racial integration, and historic preseversation. Known as “the liberal conscience of Chicago” and “the lone Negro vote on City Council” (despite being white), he was for many years the lone alderman in opposition to Mayor Daley and the Democratic machine. 1959: Under the threat of U of C’s bulldozing Woodlawn, famed organizer Saul Alinsky, Rev. Arthur Brazier of the Apostolic Church of God, and Leon Finney co-founded The Temporary Woodlawn Organization (later renamed The Woodlawn Organization, TWO), a grassroots coalition of churches, businesses, and civic association united against the U of C’s urban renewal plan and working to empower Woodlawn residents toward “black self-determination.” They also fought against stumlords, exploitative local merchants, school overcrowding; made efforts to get residents involved in the civil rights movement; and challenged Mayor Daley’s political machine by registering tens of thousands of black voters. 1960s: Jeff Fort and Eugene “Chief Bull” Hairston form the Blackstone Rangers (Black P Stone Nation). Unlike other gangs, the group started organizing in Woodlawn by 1965, allying several gangs into the “Ranger Nation” coalition. They have been credited with keeping relative peace on the South Side in 67-68, following the : assassination of MLK, and attempting to make lasting peace to decrease gang fighting. They became politicized and got involved with the Black Panthers; by 69, they were up to at least 8000 members on the South Side. They were also the first street organization to set up clubs in other cities, including Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Gary by 1967. They worked closely with TWO. Aug 1960: Norman and Velma Hill, two civil rights activists and leaders in the NAACP Youth Council, recruit young people of color, as well as some white U of C students, to protest Frege returned to Reinhow segregation at Rainbow Beach. The protestors visited the all- commemorate their wort white beach for a nonviolent wade-in. After two hours without incident, a crowd of angry white men arrived and pelted the protestors with rocks and. slurs. Velma was hit in the head, requiring stiches, but the protestors returned and accessed the beach, this time under the protection of the CFD. 1962: Members of the student government and the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality occupied the area outside President George Beadle’s office to charge the U of C with discriminatory practices in managing its off-campus rental housing. 1963: UChicago and TWO reach an agreement restricting University expansion of the south campus, stabilizing the relationship between TWO/ Woodlawn and the University, The University agreed not to acquire property or develop south of 61% street and TWO won public housing along Stony Island (on land leased from U of C for $1 a year) and on the west side of Cottage Grove, from the city (Grove Pare Plaza). 14May 1966: President Beadle came under fire again, this time for announcing that the University would telease class ranks and other academic information to the Selective Service draft boards, For six days, some 400 students waged a sit-in at the admin building while another six students held a weeklong sit-in and hunger strike at the Quad Club, May 1967: One year later, 120 students hosted another anti-draft demonstration, this time holding a “study-in” at the admin building for several hours. ° Leon Finney has been involved with TWO Almost half of the students were suspended, though and community development in Woodlawn | many of their punishments were not carried out. for more than four decades. Noy 1967: The University releases the (in)famous Kalven Report, which declares the U of C’s ideological and political neutrality. 1967: The Women’s Radical Action Project (WRAP), the university’s first women’s liberation group, formed to discuss politics, learn about self-defense, and create art, through classes, coffeehouses, and consciousness- After teaching at the U of C, Professor raising sessions, Damour Werken Pry. Airs Nov. 1968: Members of SDS (Students for a feminist, Dixon was also an advocate for gay Democratic Society) and the Hyde Park Area Draft Resisters’ Union demonstrated at a civic dinner in honor of newly appointed President Edward Levi, in protest of the dinner’s main speaker, McGeorge Bundy, who was the national security adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. 1969: When the university announced it would not téappoint Professor Marlene Dixon, 400 students occupied the admin building for over two weeks, citing Dixon’s leftist political views and her status as one of few women on the faculty as reasons for her termination. In Feb., the “chickenshit guerilla brigade” barricaded a group of administrators inside the Quad. Club, chanting “61!” in reference to the number of students already suspended for the protest. On Feb 24, 100 students gathered at the president’s house to demand that the disciplinary committee accept a collective defense. By March, over 100 students were expelled or suspended. In May, 60 professors stood in silent vigil outside the Quad Club in hopes of reducing the punishments, to no avail, 1969; History professor Hanna Holborn Gray is appointed the first woman president of UChicago (and the first female president of any major research university in the US). 1969-1973: U of C students and other Hyde Parkers offer counseling and arranged abortions and later performed underground abortions themselves under the name of the Abortion Counseling Service of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, later known as JANE. By the 1973 Roe uv. Wade decision, JANE members arranged an estimated 11,000 abortions across the city. 20°1969: The University of Chicago Gay Liberation Front, Chicago’s first LGBTQ liberation organization, formed at U of C. The group held a 600 person dance party, in Pierce Tower, before being absorbed into the larger Chicago Gay Liberation Front. 1973: A group of Hyde Park women established the Rape Action Group Hotline. ‘After joining the Chieago Gay Liberation | 1985: Women of the UT of C campus organized the Front, U of C students helped plan and school’s first sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi. marche in Chicago's frst Gay Pride 1986: Six public housing high-rises, referred to as the Lakefront Properties, were closed for renovation and the families that lived there were dispersed across the city and promised a home. Two buildings were remodeled and reopened five years later, but the other four were demolished, leading activists and public housing residents to protest. 1988: Jeff Fort was convicted of plotting against the US government for his involvement with Libyan Black nationalists. Fort was jailed, and the Black P. Stone Nation splintered into several different gangs with no centralized leadership, a situation that persists and fuels gang activity today. 1992: During the height of suburban sprawl, the CTA. faced a large budget deficit and announced that it would shut down what is now the Green Line due to low ridership and poor infrastructure. Two years of resistance and action convinced the CTA to invest an unprecedented sum of $300 million to rebuild the existing railways. The line reopened in May of 1996, though its southeast end had been shortened, from } Jeff Fort, founder of the Blackstone j Rangers, is currently incarcerated in the Stony Island to Cottage Grove. | ADE Flocenee Superman Prison. 1996: After a decade of campus organizing, faculty (including Leora Auslander, Lauren Berlant, and Elizabeth Helsinger) established the Center for Gender Studies. The Center’s Lesbian and Gay Studies Project was created a year later. 1998: The U of C added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy. Gender identity was added eight years later. 2001: The Experimental Station, current home of Blackstone Bike Works, the 615' St Farmers’ Market, and other nonprofit projects, is born from the ashes of a fire that destroyed a complex used for socially conscious art projects. 2004: Single-occupancy gender-neutral bathrooms debuted around campus. 2004: After Clemmie Carthans, a black SSA student, was allegedly assaulted by two UCPD officers, over 100 students and community members held demonstrations. 2005: Hyde Park’s first “Take Back the Night” rally, focused on ending sexual assault, empowering people to feel safe in their communities, and solidarity with survivors 212007: UChicago received an anonymous $100 million donation, leading to the creation of Odyssey Scholarships for undergraduates. 2007: Graduate Students United (GSU) was founded as a committee to begin discussing and working to unionize graduate student workers. 2007: The Inter-House Council passes a resolution to implement gender-neutral open- housing options for undergrads, to be available to first-years starting in the fall of 2009. 2008: Hyde Park Co-op Market (in TI's current location) closes due to debt owed to UolC. 2008: The U of C Office of Sustainability opened, headed by former Sustainability Director for Bank of America Iisa Flanagan. 2008: The University purchases Harper Court (52™ and Harper) with plans for redevelopment. The first shops at Harper Court opened this summer. 2008: 5710 S. Woodlawn, home of OMSA and the LGBTQ Programming Office, opens. May 2009: A satirical article in the Maroon prompts several U of C students (mostly white men) to found the group Men In Power, aimed to provide a pre-professional platform for men to “get them ahead” in business, law, and health care careers, as well as “access to women and jobs” and to discuss issues of “reverse sexism.” , along with others, speaks about by the UCPD ata forum 2000; The 61" St Garden was shut down by the U of C in order to build a temporary parking lot for the construction of the new Chicago Theological Seminary building, despite student and community protests. The University then invested $20,000 to set up a new garden at 62" and Dorchester. Oct 2009; Student protest at a lecture by former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert. About 25 protestors were puled from the audience by the police. Pres. Zimmer sent out an email calling the disruption a “disturbing rupture,” effectively shutting down the dissenters’ right to protest. 2010: Mauriece Dawson, a black student, was arrested in the A-Level of the Reg for “criminal trespass” and “resisting arrest.” After being told to quiet down, librarians called the police and Dawson was put in a chokehold and wrestled to the ground. He allegedly refused to show his ID, though witnesses say he wasn't asked to. The event resulted in a series of open forums and increased conversations about racism on campus, but little attempt to address a long history of racial profiling by the UCPD. April 2010: After years of lobbying by the Working Group on the Sexual Assault Policy, a student referendum and SG vote to reevaluate sexual assault policy, in particular to change the policy that charges be addressed within the department of the person accused. May 2010: Undocumented students, organized by the UC Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the Immigrant Youth Justice League, and MEChA, rally on Bartlett Quad for scholarships and public support for immigration reform. 22January 2013: Students and community members protest the latk of an adult trauma care center on the South Side at the University’s new $700 million Center for Care. Four protestors, including one graduate student, were arrested. A month later, an on-duty, plainclothes UCPD officer posed as a protestor, marching during the rally and relaying information about the protest to a superior, April 2013: Numerous anonymous racist posts are created on “Politically Incorrect UChicago Confessions,” a facebook page started by U of C students. Student outrage led to some administrative action, but the page was not shut down, under free speech arguments. Sept 2013: Following the recommendations of a task force of transgender students’ experiences, the University launched a new Preferred Name Policy. Power at the U of C At the University of Chicage, power is officially distributed among three groups: administrators, faculty, and (believe it or not) students. Of course, President Zimmer, the trustees, and co. hold the bulk of the power, but often who answers to whom or which position has what authority are unclear. With a little googling, you can access the University’s Articles of Incorporation and its Bylaws, but if you don’t have the time to comb through those documents, check out this section to demystify some of the University's amorphous and confusing power relations. 1. The Adi istration I'm guessing you have some familiarity with the US government, so think of UChicago’s. administration as a legislative and executive branch, but with just as much bureaucracy. At the top of the executive sector is President Robert Zimmer. According to the University’s Bylaws, Zimmer, as chief executive controls, the “management of the physical plant and the administration of all business activities of the University.” In reat life, this means Zimmer and his staff manage the university’s investments, appoint academic and non-academic staff, oversee everything from Argonne National Laboratory to the libraries and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, and act as an intermediate between the Board of Trustees and the faculty or students. Don’t expect to see much of this guy; Zimmer tends to be pretty distant from undergrads. To help with these lofty tasks, the Office of the President has a pretty extensive staff. Here, you might recognize some familiar (and even some friendly) faces. Directly under Zimmer’s purview are a slew of VPs, Executive VPs, National Lab Directors, the Student Ombudsperson, and the Provost. You can see the entire list of staff (with minimal descriptions) on the Office of the President’s website — which | encourage you to check out — but a few of the more prominent players are listed here: 2SThomas Rosenbaum, Provost: As the University’s chief academic executive, Rosenbaum oversees ‘the Deans of all the University’s academic divisions and graduate schools. Rosenbaum, like Zimmer, stays pretty distant —{'m not sure I’ve ‘ever even seen him in person. Karen Warren Coleman, VP for Campus Life and Student Services: KWC is in charge of the Office of Campus & Student Life, which you'll come into contact with on a daily basis. It may seem like her office oversees everything non-academic, and basically it does. UChicago Dining, Student Housing, OMSA, Athletics, the Dean of Rockefeller Chapel, the UCSC — they all fall under Warren Coleman’s authority, to name just a few (there's a chart on the C&SL website showing its organizational structure — it looks like a food web}: Michele Rasmussen, Dean of Students in the University: Rasmussen starts working in a newly appointed position this year. She reports to Karen Warren Coleman and will be involved in Campus and Student Life initiatives and serve as an advocate for students. Ellie Daugherty, Assistant VP for Student Lifa and Associate Dean of the College for.Student Life and Alumni Affairs: With one of the longest titles in the university, Daugherty is heavily involved in C&SL, and she'll be ane of the more familiar faces you'll see among administrators (especially if you’re invalved in student activism...) John Boyer, Dean of the College: Though he's not known for his interest in social justice, Boyer has a cult of personality among students. A renowned historian with an impressive moustache, Dean Boyer leads an annuat south side history bike tour and probably knows more about U of C history than anyone else. The other half of the University's administration, the Board of Trustees, is comparatively simpler than the Office of the President. in total, the Board is comprised of 54 alumni and plutocrats, in addition to President Zimmer. Besides having more money than God and putting their names on University buildings (seriously, go to trustees. uchicago.edu and just check out who some of these people are), the trustees have broad legislative powers. in charge of the “governance and control” of the university, they add or alter the bylaws, appoint new presidents, and oversee the university's policies and projects. The Board members serve on 11 permanent committees, including an Investment committee, a Medical Center Executive Committee (! wonder if Pritzker sits on this committee?), and an Executive committee, which recommends an annual budget for Board approval and nominates and approves new trustees. The trustees are inaccessible to students, and a lot of secrecy surrounds their meetings — the Student Goverament’s fiaisons to the Board of Trustees sit in on only one committee, have no voting pawer, and by all accounts are an unwanted presence. 24Who's on this board? Here are a few of the finest folks: * Andrew Alper, Chair of the Board: After getting his BA and MBA at UChicago, Alper worked as an investment banker at Galdman Sachs for 21 years. When Graduate Liaison to the BOT Joe Bonni resigned in 2010 (after the University Secretary wouldn’t accept a proxy for Bonni when he studied abroad) Alper stated that student liaisons to the board would never have a vote since they aren’t sufficiently objective. If you live in Alper House, this guy is the namesake. * Thomas J. Pritzker: No discussion of power and wealth in Chicago would be complete without mentioning the Pritzkee family. As the Executive Chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation (which just opened a location in Hyde Park} and Chairman/CEQ of his family org, The Pritzker Organization, Thomas Pritzker is worth more than thé GDP of over 30 countries! Hyatt’s subpar reputation for worker abuses--including dismissing long-term workers and reducing benefits and pay--has spawned protests and global boycotts. * Joseph Neubauer, Co-Vice Chair of the Board: Another Booth grad, Neubauer Is the Chairman of ARAMARK Corporation, UChicago’s food services provider. The litany of accusations, complaints, and criticisms of Aramark seems never-ending: fraud, over-billing, providing poor wages and minimal benefits to employees, setting up monopolies on the campuses they serve, and providing unhealthy conditions and poor quality food (remember all those health code violations last year?). I. The Faculty While admin holds a vast majority of the university’s power, there are two governing bodies consisting of just faculty that handle academic issues and set programs of study. « The College Council: 40 members of the College faculty, half of whom are elected and half of wham are appointed by Zimmer, on Dean Boyer’s recommendation, set admissions and degree requirements for undergrads. They determine grading policies, set curricula, and also determine the requirements for the comman core. * The University Senate: Broader than the College Council, the University Senate is open to any Professor, Assistant Professor, or Associate Professor in any of the University’s divisions, departments, and schools. The Council of the University Senate, a 51-member elected body (plus the President and Provost, as non-voting members), serves as the “supreme academic body of the University.” This legislature sets rules for student conduct and generally has ail the legislative powers not given to the Board of Trustees {which is to say few powers}. UL The Students Even though we’re way at the bottom of the University’s power structure, students have a few venues for involvement, through Student Government (SG). Each year, a three-person executive state (consisting of the SG President and two VPs] is determined by a student election. These three oversee SG committees and work with a cabinet that includes a graduate and an undergraduate liaison to the Baard of Trustees and a community and government tiaison. In addition to these positions, SG includes two 17-member groups: the Graduate Council and the College Council (not the same as the faculty’s College Council). The Graduate Council includes at least one representative from each professional and graduate division, and the collage council includes four representatives from each year and one chairperson from any year (these are the people who plaster the quads with posters and chalk drawings during their campaigns). SG is responsible for hosting campus-wide events; administering its Finance Committee, which provides RSOs with funding; and serving as a voice and advocate for the student body. 252002 Campaign: “Boot the Bell” 2004 2007, Organization; Anti-Sweatshop Coalition (later re-natned Students Organized and United with Labor, SOUL) Goals: Work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers lo boyeott the Taco Bell on campus bee: abuse o| workers. ics: High-profile events, meetings with admin, coalition-huilding red the use of Ure business’ University not to renew its contract with ‘Taco Bell! Campaigi: Save Grove P; Org: Student-Tenant Organizing Project (STOP, later re-named Southside Together Organizing for Power) Goals: Work with low-income housing He ents to prevent the Uni on & demolition of : “Suecessfully pressured the University to back down on ils allempls erealed a ‘oots community organization that exists Lo Lis day Campaign: Killer Coke Spring One: SOUL 2007, Fall Goals: Partigipate in national United Students Against Sweatshops campaign to pressure universities & their dining contractors lo stop purchasing Ce Cola products due to anti-mion practices Result: Campaign Canpaign: Save Dar Org: Students Taking Action Vow Darfur STAND} 26 2008 2009 2011, Fall O 1t YEARS OF CAMPUS POLITICS (a report of major campaigns} 2002-2013* Goats: Pressure the University to shed all investments refated to the Khartot government in Sudan, whieh was accused of carrying out genocide 4 the people of the sonthern region of Darfur ch-ins, direct actions : Campaign unsuceesstul, P Zimmer invokes Kalven Report Campaign: Aramark-Student Worker Allianee Org: SOUL & Students for a Demweratie Society (SDS Goals: Work with Aramark workers al the University and with Team: 745 to win workers a better com Tactics; Meetings with workers & students, coalition-building, rallies Result: Debated; the campaign did provide a means lo connect students with people in the workplace Campuign: Stop the MET Org: Commitee for Open Research on Economy and Society (CORES), Graduate Students United (GSU), SDS Goals: Stop the University from establishing a “Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economic Lae fitton-building, ralli educational events, debate in Faculty Senate Result: Univer: to minor changes in the Institute's plan Ce ucmainist tion agreed Campaign: Level 1 Trauma Center Org: Students for Health Equity SHE}. Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY, STOP's (off-campus) youth organization) Expand access lo Lreauma care on the South Side, particularly by re- establishing a trauma center at. the UChicago Medical Genter Godbuilding & media coverage Result: Ongoing. SG Open Forum with UCMG admin (winter 11), public meeting with CEMC Dean Polonsky (spring 13) Nor paras Fah TRAUMA aN vow! Siadonus for Hicalh Equity campaigning for a trauma conter 2011, Campaign: Socially Responsible Spring Investment at UChicago Org: SDS, Students for a Social, Responsible Investirent Conmitt (SSRIC) Goals: Create a commitiee that would gather and review invesLment-related input from the University community anid provide recommendations tv the Board of Trustees’ Investment Conmittee Faeties: Teach-ins, Student Government (SG) ballot referendum (spring 711). Senior Class Gilt boycott (spring “121 Result: Ongoing; University deposited a total of $1 anil. into four community development financial institutions (CDFis) tn May 2012 as the result ofa student proposal 2011, Campaign: Support Our How Spring Org: Worker-Student Cos SOUL, SDS, Southside Solidari Network (SSA), GSU, & others! subcontractors to retain current eanploye tain current wayos/benelits, & continue lo recogui: their collective bargaining agreement w: Teamsters Local 743 24+ 2013, © Fall 205 Fall Campaign Mews, fall 20) Stady-in at Pres. Zinam office, sing-ins, online petition, fieulty letter and SG levier to Pres. Zimmer Resnlt: Work unionized, but changes included wage cuts, workweek extensions, adjusted collective bargaining agreements, the offering of enhanced severance packages Lo affected omployves ers renain wad neial Aid ily Network poliey at UChie: Wings with adiin, pet deliveries, Prospie Day action, publie meeting with [SN R Ongoing mpaign: Stop Funding ¢ Change, UChicago Org: UChieago Climate Action Network (UCAN), Stop Funding Climate Change (SFCC) Goals: Pressure University to divest from Lhe 30 largest oil and gas companies int the L La Leuer delivery to Pres. Zimmer. petition, SC hallot refereudiam (spring 713}, divestment report (in progress) Result: OngoMONEY + FINANCE Arch Coal, Inc., UChicago's ENDOWMENT = $6.57 billion {as of EY net ahora which uses 2012) company known |, mountaintop Including the Medical Center? ‘ for its 4 removal ot : femal, ractices : Cost to build the UCMC’s CENTER for CARE & { o@loitative : { mene forcoalin | labor practices A . . an ey DISCOVERY* = $700 million Total revenue from the STUDENT ACTIVITIES FEE = $2 miltion (2012-13) — 4 Who knows | Estimated COST of ATTENDANCE** = $63,860 “phat oe With University health insurance? $66,500 amy keener A year’s worth of TUITION** = $45,324 transparency. VN *Completed autumn 2012 #*2013-14, according to the Bursar, for a full-time student in Some fuss (or a ressin ) What do we do with our endowment? In the past and/or present, we've invested in facks & figures... the above (questionable?) companies—most likely via our 50+ external fund managers, that is. Getting Your Tuition Back! Jim “The Door” Duenr This place is expensive-exactly $167.87 per class for a full-time student’s quarter (2012-2013 school year for 3 courses per quarter at 3 classes per week). Luckily, since the admissions gods have blessed you with the ability to be in Hyde Park, there are zillions of ways to make your time here worth every penny, in terms of XP and 4s. Check out the opportunities countless students before you have milked, both legit and not-so legit. ORCSA and the RSO-Empire If you want to host events on campus, in a way that nobody else seems to, you should start an RSO! RSOs only need to appease the bureaucracy demons (have 8 members including you and meet CORSO’s obfuscate guidelines). New RSOs are given some money when they’re incorporated, to get started. Once you’re up and running, each RSO needs to apply to funding sources to host events, pay for pizza, and print flyers. 2Annual Aflocations !s how RSOs can fund events that they’ve planned for the upcoming, Academic Year. This can include recurring events/meetings and new events. Annual Allocations has the funds to cover about 60% of RSO costs funded from the Student Activity Fee in your tuition, but can’t be used for material improvements. Applications to AnnAlare typically due in late Apri] of each Academic year. The AnnaAl committee is composed of the SGFC chair, an SG representative, and an ORCSA representative. Protips: AnnAl is easier than SGFC, though you need a more thought-out plan. AnnAl has WAY more money than SGFC, so apply to AnnAl for bigger events. Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC) is made up of those jerks you voted for because their chalk ad looked the prettiest in front of Cobb. Well guess what, now they have the ability to allocate a massive fund of cash to your RSO for new and upcoming projects. This can be used to purchase material goods for your RSO: think projectors, tshirts, copies of software, etc. Each week of the quarter (including Summer) budgets are due by noon Friday to your ORCSA advisor via email, and are defended Tuesday at SGFC meetings. Protips: Apply 3 weeks before your event. Have a marketing plan. Don’t say you're expecting a large community/non-UofC presence. Co-sponsor with other RSOs. Talk about the “broad range of student involvement” you expect. SGFCis rolling, which means you should apply earlier in the quarter so the big pot of money is still there. Uncommon Fund is. an $85,000 (in the 2012-2013 school year) pot of gold that allows all students (undergrad and grad) to subrnit proposals for ANYTHING. This includes events, capital improvement, projects, or anything else you can imagine! Finalists and winners are determined by a combination of student vates and Student Government committee. Generally, Students submit their proposal in the form ofa youtube video, and advertise via social media. Past funded projects include a community garden, giant chess, puppies on the quads, and kindergarten on the quads. OMSA Allocations offer support and funding to events by Student Organizations that directly impact OMSA’s constituents, enhance its mission, and.add value to the University community. Community Service Fund (CSF) is a funding body that allocates part of the Student Activities Fee toward events that are focused on community service. Any RSO can apply for this funding even if they aren't a CS-RSO. CSF supports activities designed to improve the quality of life of the broader community. Once your RSO has received this money, you can withdraw it out of your account using reimbursement requests, including a receipt, and detailing the money you spent on an event or purchase for your RSQ. 2AArts and Cultural Funds The Smart Museum of Art, the Renaissance . Society, and the Oriental Institute are always free to students. In addition, the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art downtown also offer free admission with UChicago ID! The Court Theater, the Hyde Park Arts Center, and the Goodman theater also provide membership benefits and reduced rates for students, The list of stuff we get into tor free or reduced rates is always getting longer at artspass.uchicago.edu. Student Fine Arts Fund provides small grants to University of Chicago student organizations and individual students. The Fund seeks student- initiated projects that would not typically receive support from another organization. Priority is given to original Ideas for the creation and presentation of all sorts of visual and performing arts, to proposals that bring the arts to more of the campus community, to programs that leverage partnerships among student groups, academic departments, and/or cultural organizations. the SFAF will assist in the implementation of imaginative projects with grants up to $1,500. (Students seeking support for larger projects should inquire about the UChicago Arts Grants.) University of Chicago Arts Council Summer Fellowships are designed to support students undertaking original creative projects over the summer, (Such projects might involve adaptation, choreography, sculpture, painting, drawing, multi-media, music composition, ARGs, Script writing, or translation.) Generally, projects should be intended for production or performance during the following academic year and be handled by enrolled students. Stipends are $1,500 and often have extended deadlines because of lack of applications: UChicago Arts Grants through the Arts Council looks for original ideas for the creation and presentation of the arts. Proposals will be accepted only from university-based or -afiliated organizations or units: faculty, departments or centers, registered student organizations (RSO), campus cultural institutions, and other organizations involved in campus life. Grants range between $1,500 and $7,500. Proposals will be evaluated on the merit of excellence of artistic project, innovation, collaboration, whether with on or off campus groups, feasibility and logistical organization, and student participation. multicultural students, including the: OMSA (Office of Multicultural Student Affairs) provides a shit ton of grants for Academic Support Grant, which supports the pursuit of academically related activities, intended to serve students who, due to financial hardship, are not able to cover the cost of activities or supplies that are necessary for a full academic experience. Emergency Contingency Fund, which assists multicultural students whose ability to continue their educational program at the University of Chicago has been impaired by an unexpected financial emergency. Grad Test Preparation Course Scholarship, which will assist multicuitural students in the pursuit of graduate and professional degrees by offering successful applicants with a 25- 100% waiver off the total cost of the prep course. 30Research Initiative Grant, which supports scholarly research on the multifaceted nature andjor impact of race, ethnicity, and culture within the University of Chicago, higher education in general, or the city of Chicago. Study Abroad Grant, which provides a limited number of grants for students accepted to University of Chicago approved study abroad programs. The grant provides up to $1500 to students who are full-time, undergraduate students in good academic standing and who demonstrate financial hardship. Career Advancement (formerly CAPS, Career And Planning Services) Many have fallen under the spell of the evil (former-)CAPS-pire, and many more will fall in the future, While itis true that Career Advancement has been a force for evil meaningless externships in the past, it’s also a pretty good place to look far employment and internships. It isn’t why the university's gotten better though, that’s all us folks. The Jeff Metcalf Internship program provides paid, substantive internships exclusively to UChicago undergraduates during the summer and the academic year. Over 1,600 students and 325 employers both within the US and abroad have benefitted from the program since its inception in 1997. Read more about past Metcalf interns’ hyped up experiences and explore an internship for yourself at httns:/careeradvancement.uchicazo.edufiabs-internships. research The Alumni Board of Governors Externship Program allows first and second year students to spend two- three days learning about an exciting career by obtaining a firsthand look at everyday tife with alurnni in diverse fields. Participants interact closely with their alumni sponsor and his or her colleagues and are encouraged to ask questions throughout. Externships are unpaid. Read more about the ABG externship program here: https://careeradvancement.uchicago.edufjobs- internships-researchiabg-externships PRISM Grants aim to support the educational goals of the College. PRISM also provides effective career counseling to students who may otherwise assume that Career Advancement is not a resource for them. PRISM serves students in nine majors: Anthropology, Art History, Cinema and Media Studies, Comparative Human Development, English, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Psychology. There are two grant programs connected to PRISM: PRISM Research Grants, funded by the college, and Seidel Scholars PRISM Grants. The Seidal Scholars grants three students selacted as Seidel Scholars a $4000 stipend for.a career-related, individual project that is itself non-academic, but informed by your PRISM major. The grant aims to enable students to spend 8-10 weeks over the summer exploring how they can connect academic passions with a professional occupation. Summer Action Grants offer undergraduate students the funding to work or intem in the United States. Proposals are approved based on budget, back-up plan, and demonstrated benefit of the experience to his/her academic. and/or professional goals. Regional and thematic diversity of projects will also he taken into account. The average grant amount is §1,500, but can be up to §3,500 each. Currently enrolled first through third year undergraduate students who are interested in either working or interning in the US may apply. When applying, students must have a position in mind that is either unpaid or supported by a small stipend. Students must work at least 200 hours during the summer. International students are eligible. at International Experience Grants are the international mirror of the Summer Action Grants and function largely the same, except they must be for internships and opportunities outside of the United States. The average grant amount is $3,500, but each proposal is considered individually for amounts up to $5,000. The grant focuses on serving currently enrolled* first- through fourth-year undergraduate students {including students graduating in June and international students) who are interested in either working or interning abroad. When applying, students must have a position in mind that is unpaid. Students must wark at least 350 hours during the summer international students are cligible.University Policy— Knowing You, g hts Joan Wang, Olivia Ortiz Understanding the policies of the University are important in knowing your rights as a student. UChicago's official standard of policies and regulations can be found in the Student Manual (httoy/studentmanal.uchicago.edup. As you probably figured, however, if we were to detail every single rule found in that behemoth, we'd probably triple the size of this guide. $0 instead, let’s run through some of the most important points and resources as a starting point in figuring out howto navigate the bureaucracy. Important Points from the Student Manual “The contents of this manual do not create a contract between any individual and the University.” The University does not want “rigid conformity” or “narrow application” of anything written in here, Keep this in mind as you go through the rest of the manual. + The official statement of non-discrimination: “The University, therefore, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or veteran status, and does| not discriminate against members of protected classes under the faw.” + The University commits its intention to intervene on the part af unlawful harassment, which it defines as “verbal or physical conduct that is so severe or pervasive that it has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or educational program participation, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or educational environment.” However, the University makes an exception exception if: 1) the behavior is not deemed “objectively unreasonable” or 2) the harassment occurred in a academic, educational, oF research context, provided that the research was not abusive or targeting a specific person or group of people. + -Sexual harassment, as defined by the University, includes: sexual assault, unwanted touching, comments, e-mails, insulting sexual pictures, and other behaviors that are considered unlawful harassment* (*depending on the circumstances and context). + The University prefers to handle untawful harass through a “strong emphasis on resolving complaints informally” (advising and mediation) but this does NOT prevent you from seeking aut formal action from the University, + “Noone at the University may reprimand or discriminate against an individual for having ated an inquiry or complaint in good faith”. Important Resources + Title g Coordinator for Students: Belinda Cortez Vazquez (Belinda @uchicago.edu, (773)-834- 9710) + Affirmative Action Officer (773-702-5672): Tasked with enforcing the non-discrimination policy, as well as Saction 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. 3L+ Mediation: One of the University’s three avenues for handling cases of unlawful harassment. The complaint is to be brought to a Complaint Advisor, where you can then ask for a mediated meeting with the accused, in order ta mutually come to a resolution. The accused must be willing to participate, and madiation will not be used to handle sexual assault cases. + Advising: Advising is provided by a Complaint advisor Other Important Policies: Clery Act and Title q Dana Bolger, from knowyaurix.org, has given a detailed outline regarding the rights you are afforded under the federal law Title IX (abbreviated here, visit the website for the excellent full articte): 2. Title IX a landmark federal civil right that prohibits sex discrimination in education. 2. Title IX does not apply to female students only. 3. Schools must be proactive in ensuring that your campus is free of sex discrimination. 4. Schools must have an established procedure for handling complaints of sex discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual violence. 5. Schools must take immediate action to ensure a complainant-victim can continue his or her education free of ongoing sex discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual violence. 6. Schools may not retaliate against someone filing a complaint and must keep a complainant- victim safe from other retaliatory harassment or behavior. 7. Schools can issue a no contact directive under Title IX to prevent the accused student from approaching or interacting with you. 8. In cases of sexual vielence, schools are prohibited from encouraging or allowing mediation (rather than a formal hearing) of the complaint. g. Schoals cannot discourage you from continuing your education. Bias Response Team: + The University of Chicago defines Bias as is a pre-formed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons who possess common characteristics, such as skin color, or cultural experiences, such as religion or national origin, + ABias Incident involve actions committed against a person or property that are motivated, in whole or in part, by-a bias against race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity, age, or disability. Bias incidents that are addressed by the university Bias Response Team include actions that are motivated by bias but may not meet the necessary elements required to prove a hate crime. + Bias Response Team (BRT) is made up of administrators who are available to support and guide students seeking assistance in determining how to handle a bias incident. Members of the Bias Response Team assist the Vice President in documenting and reporting incidents that occur on carnpus. - + Call 834-HELP (4357) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Email a BRT : . member: + You will be put in contact with a BRT Member. Team Members are on ‘ at me . http://csl.uchicago.e call 24, hours a day, 7 daysa week. ABRT member will promptly review 4) Ctecidefaulfiles all bias incident reports. Students may also report a bias incident by ipdf/BRT%20Roster. way of: Talk to your area Dean of Students 2013-2013.pdF 2012-2013.par 33UChicago Employees Alexa Daugherty When you attend The University of Chicago you may do token “college things” like pulling all-nighters not to study, but for your radio show each Monday morning (done with your roommate who never folds their laundry). Sometimes in all the twisted excitement and unease of starting a new life with new people and new expectations we lose sight of the most basic, everyday things; this includes the employees of The University a. of Chicago. According to the most recent published data, these employees working behind the scenes and, more often, right in front of you are about 16,940 strong. This number excludes dining hall staff ~ hired by Aramark - but does account for administrators, professors, police officers, cleaning staff, and employees of the University of Chicago Medical Center (an entity you're sure to hear about throughout this guide). Note that academic staff, as of 2008, account for 14.67% of that 16,940. All in all, these employees are represented by various campus unions, among them Graduate Students United, SEIU Local 73, and Local 743. From these facts, it is important to understand the daily experience of an employee of The University of Chicago as they deftly cook in our dining halls, talk to us on cold walks across the Midway, lead seminars, clean house lounges, and keep Mansueto in its seemingly permanent state of spotlessness. Yes, you are a student, but devotion to studies should not exist in a bubble far-removed from all human experience. Ideally, an understanding would lead to action; the life of the mind, while enthralling, wouldn't stop you from applying SOSC to real social interactions. And the ways for you to get involved with worker solidarity are many at UChicago. First off, check out $.0.U.L. (or Students Organizing United with Labor), UChicago employees are crucial to our community; in fact, they outnumber Undergrads at least 3 to 1 Oftentimes, they are treated as a separate part of the community ~ this is wrong. Asa student, it is important to not only note, but also understand the ways in which your daily actions affect UChicago employees of all types. Efforts to understand and connect with employees who have been and are likely to stay at UChicago long after you graduate are not only informative, but also rewarding. There is the opportunity (if not human necessity) to talk to the people you will see whilst running to and from class, coffee, and collegiate camaraderie. Through these open conversations, you will challenge previous perceptions and better realize just how essential oft-overlooked employees are for our daily campus experience. For instance, UChicago security guards - keeping us safe and smiling from’5 p.m. to 3 a.m. - have had higher-up administrators call their positions “easily replaceable” due to the existence of “a huge hiring pool.” These threats serve as a means for forcing sup-par working conditions upon employees. In part, these sub-par conditions refer to the fact that security guards must stand outside for 1o-hr shifts - even during bitter winter nights when temperatures can fall to -20° F. 34Cleaning staff, too face a similar experience. On weekends, the University keeps three people on staff during to clean all of South Campus, ‘this is outrageous when — in my dorm experience — weekends are the times when college restrooms, lounges, and halls most need cleaning, It is disgusting and ironic in a terrible (nor ‘Grounds of Being’) way that one member of our community is forced to clean up the mess (from vomit te mounds of shampoo) left by another member of our community. Yes, we're students; we're stressed; we're too busy to even keep up with Game of Thrones, but so too are our University employees. They have children, other jobs, stress, and responsibilities all of which deserve to be observed and respected. Asa student at UChicago, you're expected to find fulfillment in challenge. The University holds you to this standard in many ways, employee-worker relations among them. If open to others, every UChicago student has the voice and resources necessary to campaign for change, challenge paradigms, and confront misconceptions. The time to initiate, investigate, and effect change is now, not only when you are forty and have a Ph.D. in Meta-Theory of Marxist Ethics or Algorithms in Pure Mathematics. . (Updated fr RESEARCH WEBSITES: piso Guide 2811) KNOW_YOUR SHIT. Adminet: http: //adminet.uchicago.edu/index. shtml This is the internal administration w te where many things are posted like power points, official policies Financial Statements: http: //finserv.uchicago.edu/report Guidestar: http: //www2.quidestar.org/organizations/36-2177139/university- chicago. aspx For more information on the university's or other corporations financial matters you can get 99@ tax forms here, About the U of C Generally good stuff to know: NNBD: http: //nndb.cam/ This web-app lets you find connections between powerful people. Who’s on whose board?! Try mapping President Zimmer. Chicago Geographical Information System: http://www, cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/doit/provdrs/gis html The city has an interactive map to access all its information on land holdings! It's awesome, even if it's actually part of a strategy to make information public while preventing easy data analysis! 2536Theuries & Perspectives Theories | Perspectives introduction: Being Part of a Diverse Community Vincente Perez & Cindy Ji At any moment on campus (or in our larger Chicago community), you share the sidewalk with students with vastly different backgrounds than yours, whose way of perceiving and navigating the world around them have been shaped by experiences you can't fully understand. People who have only known the countryside. People who have been sexually abused from a young age or grew up with undocumented family members. People who went to boarding schools or alternative- ly, to underserved school districts. People who grew up on food stamps or haven't been part of one community jor more than a couple years. People of a particular race, gender, or sexuality who have been repeatedly bullied for their identities—or who, on the other hand, ha- ven’t had to actively consider them. The range of contexts and stories goes on. And you will come with your own. Being part of a diverse community means you'll inevitably bump arms—and always have good reasons for daing so. Oftentimes avery- one in.an argument can be right because the disagreement or wording of the disagreement might boil down to personal experiences and con- texts. Welcome this. And intentionally respect others’ contexts. We don’t choose our skin color, our parents, or the community we were born into, but they inevitably shape us and inform our choices. If someone else’s behaviors or beliefs don’t make sense to you, ask questions, Invite conversations that question your own behaviors and values. It can be a beautifully productive process. The following sections offer an introduction to the social theories and perspectives that might give you a glimpse of where your diverse classmates are coming from and why arm-bumping happens. 33Theories & Perspectives Class & Classism Marley Lindsey What are we talking about when we talk about class? One of the trickiest aspects of class is its ambiguity. Poll after poll over the past decade has demonstrated a majority of Americans asso- ciate with the term “middle class”.! These sorts of labels make it hard to comprehend who is hurt most by classism—$100k a year sounds like a fortune to myself as a single child. To a family of 6 residing in New York, it is close to poverty. When we talk about classism in the University, we have to talk about a series of experiences. There is little quantifiable data of what it is like to experience classism at elite uni- versities. All I have are the experiences of myself, and other people who have had difficulty dealing with finances here. Further accounts can be found on the UChicago Class Confessions Page on Facebook. What is classism? ‘Classism is a child of Marxist thought. To quote the Communist Manifesto*: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” The interaction between the bourgeois (upper class) and the proletariat (working class) tends to be dictated in terms of cap- ital (money). In the present day, these interactions are rarely direct— classism is a force that often permeates itself in structural, and per- sonal levels, The manifestation of this history is still visible in the pre- sent day. To be “working-class” or blue-collar tends to have a series of loaded connotations, many revolving around a failure to achieve more. Chuck Barone of Dickinson College words it like this: “Success honors those who make it and failure stigma- tizes those who fail, while liberals tend to focus on defi- ciency, expressing pity and concern for those unfortu- nate enough to fail. Although cast in terms of individu- als and equal opportunities, this ideology is classist. It 1 Andrew Dugan, “Americans Most Likely to Say They Belong to the Middle Class”. Galluppoll.com, November 20, 2012. Accessed: September 6th, 2013. 2 Marx, Karl and Engels, Fredrich, The Communist Manifesto (Chicago: Merlin Press, 1998} page 1. 32‘Theories & Perspectives casts working-class people as inferior and incompetent, middle-class people as superior, perhaps bless by God.”* This is part of a societal trend to view the workirig-class individual as inferior to the “Life of the Mind”. For an example of these generally unspoken sentiments, here is the description of a phamber in an essay entitled “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education”: “There he was, a short beefy guy with a goatee and a Red Sox cap and a thick Boston accent, and I suddenly learned that 1 didn’t have the slightest idea what to say to someone like him. So alien was his experience to me, so unguessable his values, so mysterious his very language, that I couldn’t succeed in engaging him in a few minutes of small talk before he got down to work.”* How does classism manifest at UChicago? The working-class individual, in the eyes of most upper-class stu- dents, is an alien thought to be below those who have gained access to schools like this one. This is a structural form of classism within socie- ty that is only magnified by being at elite institutions. Often jokes are exchanged about becoming sales clerks, or even phimbers. This rein- forces moments of internalized oppression—students whose parents are working-class have often noted feeling shame about such origins. Structural classism also manifests itself closer to our University. The Office of College Aid promises to “meet a student's demonstrated need throughout their four years in the College”. It seeks to create a perfect balance between your legal guardian, yourself, and the college, in terms of paying your tuition. Through this process, the goal is to eliminate class as a consideration. Regardless of whether your mother is a janitor, or a tenured collegiate professor, the University wants to make your presence here happen. The reality is quite different. It includes having to jump through every hurdle the College sets for you in order to receive your aid—in my * Chuck Barone, “Bringing Classism into the Race and Gender Picture” Race, Gender, and Class 6 (1999): 15. * William Deresiewicz, “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education” on Ameri- canScholar.org, summer 2008. Accessed: September 7th, 2013. 34Theories & Perspectives case, it meant finding someone who “knew my family well, but was not a friend or another biased party” to confirm that neither my mother, nor myself had been in contact with my father since I was born. It means finding out in April that the state can tax the room and board part of your financial aid, and you are liabie to pay it. It means at- tempting to find out whether a House trip is worth selling your pride to your Resident Head, and telling them that you can’t afford the $20 fee, but would still like to go. These are all examples of structural classism—if capital was unlimited, none of these would be concerns. Personal levels of classism can be even worse. Rather than having the ability to blame an abstract concept for your misfortunes, the per- petrators are often your classmates, and friends. My first year, friends started a conversation about how much they were expected to pay. A friend of mine said the school expected her parents to pay $30,000 a year. Without thinking I said, “$30,000? That’s insane! Who on earth pays that?” to which she replied, “Yeah, well, maybe if you had a dad you'd be expected to pay more too.” This was not spoken with the in- tent to hurt. She simply expressed a subconscious ignorance in a very poor manner. And here’s the clincher about personal forms of classism— because anyone can claim ignorance about what is common economic practice, any response has to deal with its perception. If] had reacted with anger towards my friend, people may have perceived me as being hostile, or even irrational. From their perspectives, she might have had a factually valid point, without recognition of the privileged context in which she exists. And because of that, their analysis would see some- thing wrong with my emotional reaction, but nothing wrong with the formulation of her statement. The conflict between us came from our own very different pasts and contexts in terms of what we considered a reasonable amount of rnoney, due to what our parents could afford. This personal classism can be combated simply by perhaps taking a step back and recognizing that we all come from different places, and that your normal and my normal are not the same - and that no one, except perhaps our radically unequal economic system - is to blame for their own social class.Theories & Perspectives POWER, OPPRESSION, & RACISM What are power and oppression? On a verv basic lev- el. nower is the ability to exert force on something and change it, such as having authority over sib- lings, being a great public speaker. and so on. As we take a deeper look at ex- tent to which humans are impacted by their social, economic. and political context. it becomes clear that power is a substan- tial and sometimes daunting force behind large-scale systems and change. Let's consider power's influence on the institution of slaverv. The enslavement of an entire sace of individuals was possible only through man’s ability to control individuals both phvsical- Wand mentally. But what allowed the idea that one race was definitively su~ perior to another to take hold and enforce centu- ries of human ownership? Used nevatively, as in slaverv. power be- comes oppression. the exercise of authoritv or power in a burdensome, Vincente Perez cruel. or uniust man- ner. Although oppres- sion can be authorized by individuals. it most commonly refers to wide- spread and far-reaching instances: Japanese in- ternment camps, the Trail of Tears, and com- fort women. to name a few. In each of these ex- amples. a minority group was oporessed by a more dominant grouo in favor of the dominant group's desires. When we look at oppression. it becomes evident that individual acts of discrimination. such as against skin color or gender. resulted in and represented a svstem that could oppress an entire group with the help of power. What is race, anyway? At its core, the con- cept of race is a social construction based on the correlation of physi- cal attributes to specific behaviors, abilities, and lifestyles. Genomically, there is no sharp distine- tion between members of a separate race; many 41 seemingly sharp distinc- tions function along a spectrum. Furthermore, When we talk about ee we refer to not on! Ss ical attributes, but alse cultural ones, hence the ability to say that a non- black person, “acts black.” Thus race does not refer solely to physi- cal markers, but also to the cultural correlations we associate with these markers, which are ulti- mately socially construct- ed, These correlations become problematic when society develops a mindset that categorizes certain behaviors, abili- ties, and lifestyles as infe- tior and uses this mindset to specifically target and oppress groups of indi- viduals based on their physical attributes and perceived race. How are nower and rac- ism connected? Power in the svstem of slaverv manifested in two distinct wavs. Firstly, it allowed the vhvsical atrocity of the slaverv of an entire race through theosvcholoaical atrocity of dehumanizing blacks and perpetuating white su- Dremacy, the repercus- sions of which we still deal with tedav. It al- lowed courts to iustify black individuals as afsths of a person. It taught society to tolerate the violence exerted on black individuals. It al- lowed the crimes of some blacks to become the criminalization of the en- tire race. No matter how subtle or harmiess the discriminatory or oppres- sive acts mav seem, op- pression functions within a larger. ultimately de- humanizing system which manifests itself through more subile acts. The distinction be- tween racism and dis- crimination is subtle but important, and points to the impossibility of “re- verse racism”. Racism is the ovoression of mar- sinalized racial groups which is suoported and perpetuated bv individu- als. institutional systems. cultural norms and prac- tices. and social practices, all of which manifest power. In contrast. dis- crimination involves situ- ations that mav be isolat- ed to snecific individuals and does not have wide- scale repercussions. Be- cause power is the only wav isolated instances of discrimination can be- come widesoread svs- tems, people of color have no institutions or other power structures to oppress white individuals solely based on their skin color. Without pewer. minorities continue to be targeted by policies like Stop-and-Frisk. where people can be stopped and frisked without rea- sonable grounds that they are committing crime. Without power, the maiority black Travvon Martin rallies are depicted by popular me- dia as violent and uncivi- lized “black riots” while white individuals who ransack a surfing compe- tition in California are not depicted as “violent” or “riotous”. Without power. a black individual at this verv University was arrested for being “too loud” in a section of the library that allowed talking. Perpetuated racism allows veoole todav not to auestion the dispro- portionate amount of Af rican Americans and oth- er minorities in the crim- inal justice system be- cause they accent the ste- reotvpe of the African American criminal. These stereotvpes and subtle forms of racism normal- 42 Theories & Perspectives ize oppression to the ex- tent that peoole not only begin to ignore the signs. but also begin to subcon- sciously and accidentally engage in racist behaviors or attitudes. While seemingly harmless. ac- cepting racial stereotvpes sustains racist cultural norms. In the post- slavery era. racism takes more subtle forms - crossing the street. com- menting that African- Americans’ lower per- formance on [O tests suggests differences be- tween the races, not insti- tutional challenges. and so on. These moments mav seem harmless at first. but a closer look re- veals iust how influential thev can be to both mi- norities and dominant erouns alike. The first step towards creating an accepting, egalitarian so- ciety is educating oneself on the individual power that one has to influence societv’s larger power structures. While everv- dav racism is more sub- tle. each one of our ac- tions can either under- mine or support the dominant power struc- ture of racism. and the more we do to educate ourselves. the easier it becomes to undermine it.beories & Perspectives What defines culture, exactly? Our default mode of thinking about culture consists mostly of food, clothing, and/or holidays—we think of Cc ulture udon, saris, celebrations like Ramadan and the Lu- . 7 nar New Year, but culture pervades our lives in far Appropriation deeper and more complex ways than its seemingly Cindy Ji simple manifestations. To give a more technical definition, culture is the product of a person’s accumulated, learned behavioral patterns, the sum of experi- ence, beliefs, values, attitucls, religion, nations of time, roles, concepts of the uni- verse, etc. Culture can be attached to a specific ethnicity, religion, or region, but it can also come from less obvious group identities, incliding social class, level of education, or gender—and from formative experiences that can't be pinned down as easily, like the values learned from a specific organization or the way one’s family does or does not cat together and exchange gifts. . Why does this matter? . At this university, you'll be interacting with students who follow a particular diet or set of rituals, who might have an arranged marriage or only partake in certain sexual acts, who may or may not have complex feelings about the cultures they identify with, perhaps partly because. they fall beyond the bounds of the dominant elite college cul- ture. Keep in mind that individuals choose to follow a cultural practice. No matter how relatively bizarre (relative to what? What’s the norm and why is it the norm?) or how self-admittedly problematic someone’s cultural practice might be, it’s safer to ask why that person chooses that practice instead of joking about “leaving your culture,” pre- tending it doesn’t exist at all, or feigning tolerance. what constitutes cultural appropriation? All cultures borrow from ail other cultures to an extent, but when does borrow- ing become appropriation? Think sports teams like the Redskins. Think cultural sym- bols used as fashion trends: bindis, headdresses, Geisha costumes. Think a celebrity or fashion designer coming out with a new product in animal print and calling it “Afrika.” In each of the above examples, 1) a cultura! symbol has been stripped from its cultural significance or 2) someone from outside of a culture takes assumed symbols under the name of that culture and misrepresents it. It’s disrespectful to market a symbol as fashionable when the person wearing it has little understanding of the culture it comes from or does not commit to lifestyle, values, or attitudes of those who have earned the right to don that symbol, In the latter case, there’s an added layer of a power play. Because cultures that-are often appropriated tend to be underrepresented, when someone from the dominant society misrepresents that culture, people from that cul- ture have little means to properly represent themselves to the same wide audience. Genuine curiosity and 4 desire to learn about another culture is always welcome, but its becomes problematic when culture is wrestled from the people who are part of it people who are not. Especially when the people who appropriate make a culture “cool” hile the people who are part of the culture are considered “exotic” or even “uncivilized,” 49Theories & Perspectives SEXISM /GENDER DISCRIMINATION Sofia Johuson How do we define sexism? One of the most common social assumptions is the perceived connection be- tween one's anatomical sex and their personality. Upon learning an individu- sex, We + Waste no time jumping to conclusions about that individual's behay- dl ambitions. These conclusions re: lt in gonder- artdrive, mien can't cook, women tational, men are re incapable of feeling, and so on. When these assumptions become wide. ly accepted and influential over everything from our economic to our legal sys tem, more problem: Western iy hy, INewning that cis- gendered (gender identity matches assigned biological sex) men held power and that women aud people outside of the ender binary face the majority of gender discrimination. But this docs not moan that men do not face sexism on a regu- Jar basis (they do), or that a matriarehy is the answer to sexisin (it’s not). Why are we still talking about this, a.k. didn’t feminism do enough? In a word, no: Femini ly become beth a taboo topic aud something we assume we are how ‘over,’ since women can vote, work, and hypothe ically, | hold the highest office in the land, Tlowevor, as statistics show, legal rig] not the only, rights that matter, and women's socioeconomic aud, political statis still lags far behind men. Firstly, there is a disturbing lack of even gender di ons: Ln 2012, women made up 47.3% of the US Labor Coree, yet make ap 5.4% of all managerial positi: ind 22.9% of all senior managerial posi- tions. Within polities, the distinction is even more sharp. Despite women mnak- ing up 51 of the fonede population, women hold only 18.3% of gress. The lack of fomale representation tends to lead to an ignoring of women's issues, not out of malicious but out of astinple lack of consciousness by male legislators The reason for the lack of women in high positions i plex; it does not boil down to women “not being allowed to” but to a combina- tion of the tendéncy of men in high positions to hire men, latent sexism, and differing career encouragements between men and women during childhood, as well as variety of other factors, tribution in high powered ‘Wonren also lack legal control over reproductive health: Ace ording to the Na- tional Women's Law Center, 2013 saw 273 anti-abortion provisions introduced, and 38 enacted; 71% of those provisions offered no exeeptions for pregnancies from rape. Moreover, viable alternatives to abortion are still vastly unfunded, 44Theories d+ Perspectives since many women have to pay for birth control out of pocket. [tis worth won- dering why is it that we consider-insuranee covering birth control to be contro- versial when health insurance covering Viagra is routine. Furthermore, the backlash against women who desire birth contro] andra Fluke, for example) often focuses on the fact that they are sexnally active as if that fact is negative aud something society should have a Sa} in, both of which are dubious. al.convnewsnews TocalAiil- introduces to- regulate: lesfidfsshutthatwholethingdown_ceport_ fi nath. pdt Eeonomically, the wage gap poses 2 huge problem for women, The wage gap re- fers to is the fact that on average, an equally qualified woman working in the same field as aman will make 77 cents for cach mans doll: COTTON eX- planation for the wage gap is that” “women choose jobs that allow them to hal- ance work and family, which pay less,” which ignores the fact that wowen’s de- sire to focus more on family may have to do with being tanght that the man earns the money and the woman takes care of the children, or pressures within her own family to be the primary caretaker for her children. While there may be differences in men and women’s behavior that load to the wage gap that arc less obvious than pure sexism, many of these behavioral differences are tied to societal expectations of gender, and therefore still deeply linked to sexim. Women also suffer from gender-based violence, ranging from domestic violence to honor killings to human trafficking, In the United States, domestic sex tral- ticking, in the forms of foreed prostitution and sex trafficking, with 250,000 youths at risk and the Department of Justice (DOF) estimating that about 100,000 US childven have been victims of human sex icking, The domestic violonee bumbers are equally grim. The DOJ estimates that on average, 3 wom- en a day are killed by current or former partners, with ene in four women pericncing domestic vielence in her lifetime, with 1.3 million women expe encing ply ssault by a partner each year. [Lowever, while 85% of dome violence victims are women, 15% are men. However, when mon report domestic violence, they can become the subjects of ridicule or arc simply ignored, be- cause we are taught that men are stronger than women, and therefore cannot be abused by them. However, the only way to fully eliminate gender-based vio- fence is to reach out te men, and reconsider the daimnage caused by societa ceptions of both sexes. ubcnews.go.com USdonestic-sox- trafficking: increasing: in ited- 7194 hoclorgarticle 2013 09/8 a-erim-tally-abusers-guns-aid-the-, 45Theories dr Perspectives ttitudes come from? Biology is a huge talking point for anyone who wants to point out an inherent difference between se: spite continuous shift rect link betaveen gene like xes. We like to believe science is a beacon of truth, de- in scientific paradigm. We also like to believe in the di- s and behavior, and that human evolution functions toad inap. Although the reality is much more complex, biology still func- tions as the rationalization behind many sexist opinions, “Women are the ehildbearers, so they. Te the nurturing ones This somewhat true state- ment is often extrapolated into much broader general- izations, namely that wom- en are on the whole more kind and docile than men. Although women give birth, this instinct dees not neces- sarily translate into a much stronger nurturing instinct aeross the board, and cor- tainly does not translate in- to a nurturing instinct to- wards anything except one’s “Men have inere INES Je inass than women, so thoy're stronger.” Well, yes. During puberty, a man’s body does build up moze muscle-mass, while a woman's body builds up more fat. However, this fact canunotbe taken to - mean that all women are necessarily weaker than. all men. The human body is capable of fantastic feats, and the development and imaintenance of physical strength takes inuch more effort than sheer genetics, Yet men’s sports teams are taken much more seriously (aad are better paid) than women's teams, and women were only recently officially al- lowed to partake in military combat. Men who fill outthe FAFSA have to register their names for a potential draft, while until receatly, women who dearly wanted to fight in wars could not. own child. However, anything sweet aud demure is considered feminine, and any- thing strong and dominant is cousidered masculine. Firstly, the link between these charac ‘teristics and biologie: al sex 35 weak at bes furthermore, our society tends to greatly value “masculine’ characte sover feminine’ ones. Thas women are ex- pected to be quict and polite, s and men fear deviating [vom masculine standards. Consider how * you act Ti ke. a girl” is a commot tt for men, signifying weakness. Consider bow “pussy” about the worst insult you can throw at aunan, while “cunt” is the worst insult can throw at.a woman. Both of these terms ave cuphemisms for the vagina, but the latter takes on much more masenline characteristics than the former. A cunt is a woman who essentially behaves like a man, described more mildly asa “bitch,” though both terms refer, to a woman taking on the “masculine” character maa who behaves like awoman, ng on the: feminine” el sand fear, Both of these instilis point te societal anger when either men or women outsiep their gender roles, and the lower status of “feminine” virtues. 46Theories &y Perspectives “Estrogen.and menstruation make women emotional and irrational,” This claim cane up-again and again when Hillary Clinton ran for president in 2008. Tt also was a justification for denying women suffrage up until the most recent century. In fact, this argument has heen present since the Ancient Greek times, when a woman's humors were aavturally colder, and concentrated in her gui'instead of her-head, like a man’s hot umors. However, there is a lack of ev- idence for even the existence of PMS, at-least in a-way that affects mood, aceord- ing to a recent. Univesity of Toronto study. Furrthermore,-both men and women’s moods are-affected by hormones, yet-we.are concerned about estrogen making women irrational --in what-way, exactly?— while we are not concerned about testosterone making men irrationally aggressive. This ties inte a greater narra- tive in which men are logical and-women are irrational, devaiueing women’s opinions and anger because, “Choy just don't think logically.” All of these ideas aré simplistic, and based on idcology more than anything else, They continue to ex- ist becatise they are convenient— rather, convenient for the people most often in power. Because wom- en are frequently deemed incapable of holding positions of authority, they seldom have a legitimate si in how our society perceives them. They often lack agency, and alter a while, women internalize these ideas about how they shonid be, un- til sexism is so pervasi people don’t even realize i Wh culture and where do Consider the por of sex and sexuality we find in our everyday lives, through our language, our media, and our institutions. Men, we hear, think of nothing BUT sex, which they openly voice since “boys will be boys.” Women, on the other hand, mv t he chaste, since virgi i ciated with purity, and a sexualized woman is labeled a “shit.” However, since women, 15 43 "But in hanter-gatherer societies, men were the hunters, and women were the. gatherers, Ju modern day. terms, this resembles, “Mon go out as the breadwinners of the family, and women stay home.” This is why women are still promoted less often than men (it's assumed “she'll have. chil- dren and leave to take care of”) and why employers hesitate to lire married wom- en. We have mule remarkable cultural progress in accepting women in the workplace, but now it places anew kind of burden on women that to have a sue- cessful career, and a successful family life. Men are still expected:to have arste- cessful career, but it is still shameful for a man to stay at home and raise children, even if the mai would rather stay at home, and the woman would rather work. Tu this world, women must still fo- «us on the family-~ even if they:-would rather not— and men anust stil] focus on work— even-if they would rather not. This is an excellent example of the dou- ble interest in feminism: here, freetloms for. men and freedoms for womemare in tertwined, Here, sexism. hurts everyone.Theories & Perspectives human beings with functioning libidos, face the (false) dilemma of wanting sex despite their socictal obligation to remain chaste, we reach the conclusion that women play hard-to-get, refusing intimacy even thoagh they seeretly wish for it, since society docs not allow women to openly express lust. These com- bined ideas create an expectation that men will always pursue sex, and that. women Will have to be the ones to always receiveaccept their pursuits - by turn- ing them down, This is something called rape culinre - where sexual assault i perceived as common courting tact ics, and where victims of sexual assault are blamed for their misfortune because they were “leading their rapist.on. We can sce the perpetuation of this dangerous mentality in cases such as the Steubenville rape trial, where the media lamented over the loss of the rapists’ All-Amcrican football careers, normalizing acts of sexual assault as something any good boy night do, while focusing on the victim's drinking, as if by drink- ing she consented to sex ity, and her previous sexual history and char- actor, as if her past sexaal history meant constant consent, or reflec ted poorly on her character. [an more mundane examples, think of Robin Thicke'’s recent hit “Blurred Lines’, where he repeats “I know you want it” even hough * ‘youre a good inl” (who ¢ learly cannob want sex) styidesting that her “no’ sometimes mous ‘yes’. Ln reality, “blurred lines” mean “sexual assault.” Only yes means yes. Howey ape culture does not simply cover male- aggressor and fomale-victim dynamic despite it being the most commonly publicized narrative. If a man is assaulted, the sex-hungry perception of men finds it impossible that aman would tum a sexual act down, or finds the idea of a man being overpowered or otherwise hurt by a worn either laughable or impossible. This pereeption is quite clearly problematic; the culture redefines a tranmatic experience as some- thing to be lauded, or a personal humiliation, leading men underreporting rape just as women do The reality is harsh and brutal but important to recognize: anybody can rape and anybody can be raped. This solution can only be found by constantly re membcring that only “yes means yes,” and striving to remove fhe blame from the survivor and placing it where it belongs— with the rapist. 48Theories & Perspectives The Gender Binary Anais Ahmed What is the gender binary? The concept of the gender binary refers to the dichotomy drawn between masculinity and femininity. It posits that there are two sexes - the male and the female - and that with them are necessarily associated only two genders’ - the masculine and the feminine, and that these two genders are associated with two different gender roles. Through this worldview, some things are labeled “masculine” and others “feminine” - for example, things like sewing, skirts, and the color pink have been deemed feminine in our society, whereas things like warfare, neckties and the color blue have been deemed masculine. These assignments are entirely culture-dependent - in Bangladeshi culture, for example, men commonly wear skirt-like garments, whereas in American culture such a thing would be unheard of. Why am I reading about it here? You'll find the gender binary coloring many aspects of your time at the university. In my Physics 131 class, for example, it was about 70- 30 in favour of men, whereas the Tibetan class I took as part of the divinity school was all-women. In Breckinridge House, the second floor of the building is for legally male individuals, whereas the third floor is for legally female ones, regardless of how the residents of these floors may identify as. In none of the dining halls can one find a gender-neutral bathroom, nor in many of the southeast buildings on the quad, nor in many of the dorms, meaning individuals who may not feel comfortable with the assumption of identity of gendered restrooms to have to go far just to use a restroom. One of the biggest flaws of the gender binary is that it ignores the existence of people living as some member of the transgender spectrum (that is to say, identifying as transgender, genderqueer, intersex, Two-Spirit, hijra, vel sim.) and such individuals spend much of their lives fighting the assumptions that the gender binary imposes on us, Although being born with a penis often means that the possessor is a man, you will meet individuals at the university who were born with a penis and identify as women, Likewise, you will meet individu- als who were born with a vagina and identify as men, or individuals who regardless of their genitals or chromosomal alignment identify as neither men or women, and in such cases sticking with the assumptions the gender binary provides can only lead to disrespecting someone’s identity and very being. 44Theories &° Perspectives LGBTQ Rights: More than Marriage Equality Sara Rubinstein Why is marriage equality currently the centerpiece of mainstream LGBT related/ progressive organi- zations’ push for “LGBT rights”, and why is that problematic?: To explain this, { need to give a brief overview of the history of the mod- ern LGBT rights movement in the United States. The movement first gained mo- mentum in the 70s after the Stonewall riots of 1969, and originally took a fairly radical approach. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF), one of the most prominent queer organizations of that time, “aimed to fight the cultural homophobia along- side racism, sexism, and militarism”.5 Soon, however, factions developed with- in the burgeoning LGBT movement and more assimilationist groups, such as the Gay Activists Alliance, which focused on lobbying for legislative reform and gay rights exclusively.6 These tensions con- tinued into the 80s, at which point the AIDs crisis for a short period brought much of the LGBT movement back to its radical roots and made “gay and queer worlds, radicals and incrementalists, united against the governmental indif- 5 Benjamin J. Shepard, “The Queer/Gay As- similationist Split: The Suits vs, The Sluts”, Monthly Review 53 (2001): 51, http://monthlyreview.org/2001/05/01/th e-queergay-assimilationist-split 6 Shepard, “The Queer/Gay Assimilationist split," 52 ference to the epidemic”? However, while the AIDs crisis temporarily united the movement by “impact[ing] gay men irrespective of economic or social class”, bringing “a lot of conservative, wealthy, white gays into the movement” also helped guarantee a sharp return to assimilation-based poli- ties in the following decades.® Since the- se white, cisgender, relatively well-off gay men (and to a certain extent, les- bians) only had their sexual orienta- tion keeping them from being fully within the dominant class in society, their disproportionately greater so- cia] and economic power quickly al- lowed them to dominate the move- ment through powerful and wealthy assimilationist organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Once they began setting the LGBT rights agenda, that agenda became overwhelming focused upon the is- sues—such as the ability to serve i the military and marriage equality— that separated white cisgender well- off gays and lesbians from their het- erosexual white cis well-off peers. In 7 Shepard, “The Queer/Gay Assimilationist Split,” 55 8 Rebecca Burns, “Beyond Gay Marriage”, In These Times, July 24, 2010, - http://inthesetimes.com/article/13466/be yond_gay_marriage/ 50other words, these organizations began “ignoring other social justice issues to promote only a narrow political agenda that concerns gays and lesbians experi- encing oppression through a single vec- tor — sexual orientation — and thus ex- cluding from concern all the queer and trans people who simultaneously expe- rience sexual orientation-based oppres- sion and other oppressions related to their identities as people of color, work- ers, immigrants, gender nonconformers, people with disabilities, and so forth”.?. This in turn causes the general public to remain unaware of the wide range of other challenges faced by the queer community and start to develop a view of marriage equality asa sort of ‘ one-size-fits all solution to all the probiems faced by LGBT individuals, which detracts from the level of finan- cial and other resources allocated to- wards fighting for these crucial hu- man rights issues. What are these other LGBTQ issues? LGBTQ Youth Homelessness According to a 2007 joint report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Coalition for the Homeless, 20-40% of all homeless youth in the United States are LGBT, which is vastly disproportionate to LGBT representa- tion within the youth population as a ° Rick Mananzala and Dean Spade, “The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance,” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 5 (2008): 60, http://srlp.org/files/NPICtransresistance.p df 51 Theories & Perspectives whole, Part of this overrepresentation stems from “familial conflict over a youth's sexual orientation or gender identity...According to one study, 50 percent of gay teens experienced a nega- tive reaction from their parents when they came out and 26 percent were kicked out of their homes”. Additional- ly, “another study found that more than one-third of youth who are homeless or in the care of social services experienced a violent physical assault when they came out”, so teens may actually choose homelessness over staying in a particu- larly abusive foster care or shelter envi- ranment.!? Once homeless, queer youth tend to struggle with numerous enormous challenges. Since they have to deal with the psychological stress of both being homeless and being LGBT in a discrimi- natory society, they are at significantly higher risk of developing mental health problems.!} Queer homeless youth are more likely to abuse substances, three times more likely to participate in risky sexual acts in exchange for getting basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) met, seven times more likely to be victims of a crime, and disproportionately more like- 10 Nicholas Ray, Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth: An epidemic of home- lessness. New York: National Gay and Lesbi- an Task Force Policy Institute and the Na- tional Coalition for the Homeless (2006): 1, http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/ HomelessYouth.pdf 3 Ray, An epidemic of hamelessness, 2 22 Ray, An epidemic of homelessness, 2 1 Ray, An epidemic of homelessness, 3ly to be the victims of harassment, vio- lence, and rape within the juvenile and criminal justice system than are their straight homeless peers.!4 Unfortunately, despite these facts demonstrating home- lessness’ hugely detrimental effect upon thousands of LGBT teens, “homeless youth programs have been grossly under funded, contributing to a shortfall of available spaces for youth who need support. In 2004 alone, due te this lack of funding, more than 2,500 youth were denied access to a [transitional living] program for which they were otherwise qualified. Additionally, 4,200 youth were turned away from Basic Center Pro- grams, which provide family reunifica- tion services and emergency shelter”.15 Poverty in the LGBTQ community: Even though popular mass media tends to portray gay people as over- whelmingly white, wealthy, and well ed- ucated, in reality “LGBT Americans are more likely to be poor and less educated than their peers, and come from com- munities that have been historically, economically marginalized,” black, Lati- no, and Asian people are disproportion- ately overrepresented within the U.S. queer community when compared with the population as a whole.’ Additional- ly, “LGBT Americans are 30 percent 4 Ray, An epidemic of homelessness, 3 48 Ray, And epidemic of homelessness, 4 16 [mara Jones, “Marriage Is Great, But Many LGBT People of Color Need Job Safety”, Cal- orlines, April 11, 2013, http: //colorlines.com/archives/2013 /04/j ob_bias_Igbt.enda.html 52 Theories & Perspectives more likely to have low-income jobs than the general population...are less likely to have high paying jobs than workers as a whole, have a greater sense of dissatisfaction with their living stand- ards...[and] have lower levels of educa- tion than the overall population”.1? Un- surprisingly, then, “the majority of LGBT people actually consider eco- nomic discrimination to be the No. 1 issue in their lives’° Since only 21 states prohibit dis- crimination based on sexual orientation and only 16 states and Washington, D.C. prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, much of the substantial quantities of economic discrimination experienced by LGBT Americanis is currently completely le- gal.'9 Recent reports have shown that “as many as two out of five gay and lesbian workers ‘have experienced some form of discrimination on the job’ with up to one out of five of these having been ‘fired for their sexual orientation,” while for transgender people the situation is far more dire since “nine out of 10 transgender employees have encoun- tered ‘some form of harassment or mis- treatment’ at work with almost half of + 1 Jones, “Marriage Is Great, But Many LGBT People of Color Need Job Safety”. 14 Lisa Dettmer, “Beyond Gay Marriage”, Race, Poverty, and Enviranment 17 (2010): 34, http://www jstor.org/stable/41554743 ¥ Tyler Gabrielski, “Marriage Doesn't Fix Everything for LGBT Americans”, Cam- pusProgress, June 11, 2013, http://campusprogress.org/articles/marria ge_doesnt_fix_everything for lgbt_american 3.those who encountered difficulty on the job reporting extreme hardship, such as losing employment ‘due to gender- identity discrimination”. As a result, in some cities “the unemployment rate of the transgender community can be up to seven times higher than that of the mu- nicipality as a whole” 2° Despite these disturbing statistics, the fight against queer job discrimination and for eco- nomic justice generally has taken a backseat to the push for marriage equali- ty. In fact, the fight for same-sex mar- riage often drains resources which could be devoted to assisting more marginalized queer communities. For example, one woman who worked at “the only freestanding community clinic in California providing health care spe- cifically to trans, lesbian, and bisexual women, notes that she was often unable to get funding for issues affecting poor lesbians and transpeople from these same funders who were more than hap- py to fund gay marriage”?! Trans* issues A joint study conducted by the Na- tional Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality in 2011 found that the situa- tion of transgender and gender non- conforming people is more dire than that of virtually any other subgroup within the queer community. The sur- vey found that “41% of respondents re- ported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population’, “Ninety zaJones, “Marriage Is Great, But Many LGBT People of Color Need Job Safety’. 21 Dettmer, “Beyond Gay Marriage,” 35 Theories & Perspectives percent (90%) of those surveyed report- ed experiencing harassment, mistreat- ment or-discrimination on the job”, “Over one-quarter (26%) reported that they had lost a job due to being transgender or gender non-conforming”, “16% said they had been compelled to work in the underground economy for income (such as doing sex work or sell- ing drugs)”, and “19% reported having been refused a home or apartment and 11% reported being evicted because of their gender identity/expression.” Addi- tionally, the surveyed trans* people ex- perienced four times the rate of extreme poverty as the population as a whole, “41% live without ID that match their gender identity”, “19%..reported being refused medical care due to their transgender or gender non-conforming status”, and "57% experienced signifi- cant family rejection” 22 Despite the trans* community's clear, overwhelming need for support and solidarity, mainstream LGBT organi- zations like the Human Right Campaign have a record on trans* issues that is spotty at best. Since “transgender indi- viduals-are often able to get married af- ter undergoing sex reassignment, and those who transition within marriage are generally still married within the eyes of the law,” HRC views marriage as anon-issue for the trans* community and thus does not advocate for them2? 2 Jaime Grant, Lisa Mottet, et al. 2-7 23 Juan Battle and Colin Ashley, “Intersec- tionality, Heteronormativity, and Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Families,” Black Women, Gender +Furthermore, the HRC has few transgender board members and has even in the recent past included open- ly transphobic leaders such as Execu- tive Director Elizabeth Birch, who once stated that “trans inclusion in ENDA (the Employment and Non Discrimination Act)...would happen ‘over her dead body’’.?4 More recently, the HRC became embroiled in fresh controversy when, at a demonstration for marriage equality on the steps of the Supreme Court, HRC staffers tried to make a transgender man remove the Trans Pride flag because “This {rally] is about marriage equality, this is not about the trans community”; thereby indicating the continued pres- ence of some degree of bias and tran- sphobia within the organization25 What this article is NOT saying: This is not an argument that pursuing marriage equality is “bad” or doesn’t benefit many people: My point is that marriage equality is not a cure-all for the hardships experienced by queer people in America and receives a vastly disproportionate level of atten- tion and resources, not that it's an en- tirely worthless goal. Even very harsh Families, 2. (2008): 14, http://www,jstor.org/stable/10.5406/blac womegendfami.2.1.0001 24 Monica Roberts, “Why the Transgender Community Hates HRC,” TransGriot, Octo- ber8, 2007, http: //transgriot.blogspot.com/2007/10/ why-transgender-community-hates- hre.htmt 25 tbid. 54 Theories & Perspectives critics of the marriage-centric approach to queer politics say that “because of the high prevalence of parenting among LGBT people of color and the economic benefits and security that marriage equality would afford same-sex families, marriage equality for same-sex couples is a racial and economic justice [ssue.”26 Additionally, it is important to point out that, while the evidence shows that mar- riage equality disproportionately bene- fits middle class and wealthier white cis gay mean and lesbians, individual varia- tion exists and thus this does not mean that no lower income or non-white queer people care deeply about and/or desire marriage. This is not a comprehensive list of every issue affecting queer/LGBT people nor a definitive guide to all LGBT issues, but rather a few highlight- ed examples to get people thinking about issues and problems besides marriage that affect the queer community, I'm one college student...do not take the arguments my cited sources and I make to be the definitive or unified voice of the LGBT community. Queer people have just as varied and diverse opinions as all other groups of people, and there are certainly queer people who disagree with or have some criti- cisms of some/all of what I've argued, Don’t take my word as gospel! 26 Battle and Ashley, “Intersectionality, Het- eronormativity,” 14Theories & Perspectives A | e | S m Ableism is discrimination, intentional or not, . ode against individuals with physi- I sab ] | | t cal,sensory, cognitive, or psychiatric ; y disabilities, following the belief that Margaret Fink these individuals need to be fixed or can't live a rich and meaningful life. Because disability status has been viewed as a defect rather than a dimension of difference, disability has still not been widely recognized as an aspect of diversity. A central ableist idea about disability is that it’s an individual, personal “afflic- * tion” or tragedy. As you learn about able-bodied and able-minded privilege, resist the impulse to feel pity for the people on the receiving end of discrimi- nation and inaccessible spaces/events—as a disability rights slogan put it, we don’t want sympathy, we want solidarity and change: “Piss on Pity!” If you're able-bodied, able-minded, you don’t have to think and strategize about whether you'll be able to get into buildings or bathrooms; whether the signage will have Braille, whether that Braille will even be correct; whether you'll be able to use the rows of technology set up for your peers; whether a class lecture will be triggering; whether you will have a psychiatric episode in the middle of midterms, If you’re able-bodied, able-minded, campus and clas- ses are set up with you in mind. if you're able-bodied, able-minded, people look you in the eye, but don’t stare. You don’t have to deal with irritation, an- ger, or outright dismissal when you do daily interactions differently. You're probably not worried that your professors or people you meet are going to give you preferential treatment, discriminate against you, consider you inca- pable of making decisions for yourself, or question your admission to UChica- go because of your disability. You're not systematically made to feel like you're worth less as a person because you move differently, have a different sensorium, think differently, get information differently, have different moods, have different stamina levels, have chronic pain. Your successes are just suc- cesses, not “inspirational” or “despite the fact. 55ny i ee P rohyde park/woodlawn/south shore map for cool kids - the index Farmers Markets 1. Gist Street Market (Sat. 9-2) 2. Hyde Park Farmers Market (Thur. 7-1) 3. South Shore Farmers Market (\Ved. 7-1) Coffeeshops 4. Backstory Cafe 5. Beanie's Coffee & Tea 6 &7. Istria Cafe & Third World Cafe 9. Little Black Pearl 10. Hallowed Grounds TL Ex Libris 12. Div School Coffeeshop 13. Classics Cafe 14. Cobb Coffeeshop 15. Regents Cup Bookstores 16. Powell's Book Store 17. 57th Street Books 18. Serninary Cooperative Museums & Cullural Centers 19. DuSable African-American History Mus. 20. South Shore Cultural Center 9, Little Black Pearl \Vorkshop 4, Experimental Station 21. Hyde Park Art Center 14, Renaissance Society 22. Museum of Science & Industry 23. Oriental Institute 24. Smart Museum 25. Blackstone Library 26. Court Theatre Tl Regenstein Special Collections Housing Co-Ops 27, Baohaus 28. Bowers House 29, Concord House 30. Haymarket House 31. Moomers 32. The Roots Collective Community Centers 33. AKArama Community Service Center 34. Woodlawn Collaborative 35. Hyde Park Neighborhood Club 36. WE.CAN. Housing Resource Center 37. 5710 OMSA/LGBTO Student Center Grocery Stores 38. Open Produce 39, Treasure Island 40. Zaleski & Horvath 41, Bonne Sante 42. A Natural Harvest 43. Aldi 44. Dominick's 45. Hyde Park Produce 46. Farmers Food Basket 47. Green's Foods 48. Amarr Foods 49. Reem Food Market 50. Sams Food Market 51. Harper Foods 52. Moe's Foods 53. Freshway Foods 54. H&D Groceries 55. Latif Groceries & a few places that are off the map... ~ Early to Bed, queer & women-friendly sex shop - www.early2bed.com ~ Brown Elephant Resale Store. benefits HIV/AIDS patients - howardbrown.org: ~ Chicago Women’s Health Center - chicagowomens healthcenterorg. ~ Dill Pickle Food Co- Operative (the only co-op grocery store in Chil) - dilipicklefoodcoop.crg — Chicago Underground Library - underground- library.org = Biblioteca Popular = biblio tecapopularpilsen.wordpress com ~ Southside Community Art Center - southsidecomm 56. One Stop Food & Liquor] Gnityartcenter.com/ 57, Southshore Pantry 58, Crandon Super Market 59. Village Foods 60. Walid Hussein Grocery Bike Shops 4, Blackstone Bicycle Works 61, Bike Clinic - S$ on 71st E of Paxton 62. Dis Bike Doctors 63. Wheels & Things 64. TATI Cycles - N of 53rd at Ellis Community Gardens 65. 62nd & Dorchester Garden 66. Tranquil Community Garden 67. Hyde Park Neighborhood Club Garden 68. 55th & Woodlawn Garden 69. Brickyard Gardens 70. Good Neighbors Garden 71. Angelic Organics Learning/Education Garden 72. WECAN/Woodlawn Community Garden 73. Growing Power Jackson Park Farm/Garden 74, God's Little Acre 79. Snell-Hitchcock Uncommon Garden Project 76. 6900 S. Dante Community Garden 77.7000 S. Merrill Community Garden **New community gardens opening soon in Washington Park and at 72nd & Inglesidel** other: 78, Resource Center (recycling drop-off) 79. Drawers Intimates (sex toy shop) dnterin>outh Shore nyooatawnserniooe!®7 oa TT a goth [oN i a | Cte pea aa oS 40) : g a | S| a le sediqgss ad LB cd | a $| q TT ET) [Saal el TT ees HW al (G eats | EL Eladub Ate) CS food of UePLUT ld LET re fe] | read LT | geet | pliee SP Yl Sed oda So | - up eT AES e \ ‘ —= pop ee SeTheories & Perspectives - a note on blind spots - Colin Low These days, one of the buzzwords in community and activist circles is intersectionality. The word is used to remind us that however well-meaning we might be about race or class or gender or sexuality or culture (the list goes on), those things do not operate as dis- tinct phenomena in our lives. Rather, they intersect in complex ways that we can miss because we make assumptions about what remains com- mon among us. For example: We can be considerate about gender equality and still forget people who are non-white, poor, trans* or non-binary. We can be pro-LGBTQ or against racism and still leave out people who are poor, trans*, asexual, rural, religious, culturally dif- ferent or non-American. + We can be sex-positive and say things that alienate people with disabilities or traumatic triggers. Despite my use of the third person, it is vital not to assume that these people are to be found elsewhere. We are part of the UChicago community. You might find yourself affected by one or more of these things. You might find yourself failing to recognize or remember one or more of these things. The hard lesson is to remain vigilant, make mistakes, learn from them, and never assume that you are somehow ex- empt. 56Theories & Perspectives “4 Privilege Sumaya Bouadi What is Privilege? Ina literal sense, privilege refers to “a special right or advantage al- lowed only to a specific group of people.” While dictionaries are useful, this definition is not. Every single group has special rights and advantages. As a new student at UChicago, you have the privilege of attending one of the most elite colleges in the country. Privilege in a social justice sense does not just refer to the fact that certain groups have special advantages - every group has special advantages - but to the set of unearned advantages or lack of suffering a person receives/does not have to undergo because of their perceived traits, such as being white, male, straight, physically and mentally hea!thy, and so on. Basically, privilege functions as the unknown background to everyone's life. My privileges help define my context, and stop me from experiencing some negative situations while allowing me to experience some positive ones. However, the most important thing about privilege is that it is, usual- ly, the context and background noise of life. It is non-obvious that being white/male/straight/cis has affected life in this way, because you have al- ways been white/male/straight/cis, and this world, and this privilege be- comes your context to the extent that you don’t notice its ramifications. And the ramifications are non-trivial. A brief note on “check your privilege’— Please don’t say this. The fact of the matter is, no one can control their context, and it is difficult to understand things that one has never experi- enced. As my own contextual disclaimer, I am female, straight, cis, and able, so my own very weak ability to speak about straight privilege comes from conversations with non-straight friends. On my own, there is no amount of enlightenment that would truly allow me to understand what straight privi- lege means, because I have always been straight, and I have never really’ known what it means to not be straight, and the full extent of my own privi- lege, So if someone seems to be coming from a privileged position, it is im- portant to understand that they probably do not realize this fact - their privilege is the context of their life. Instead of criticizing, explaining your point of view and the effects of their privilege tends to be a much more ef- fective technique than shutting down the conversation by saying, “check 5+Theories & Perspectives your privilege.” After ail, allies are important, and education can’t happen without willingness to communicate. Why does it matter? Recognizing my privilege allows me to recognize my own self. By un- derstanding my privilege, 1 am better able to understand both the context in which [ exist and the fact that other people do not exist in the same context - therefore, others may perceive a situation very differently than I do and be right, because they are seeing the situation through very different lenses. This understanding helps build empathy and community. By understanding that the way I see the world is deeply affected by the simple biological facts of my existence and is not necessarily accurate, I can be more empathetic and understanding to others in my community with different contexts and be sympathetic to, if not fully comprehending, of their struggle while un- derstanding that my own context means that this is a struggle I can easily cease to be aware of. Understanding and being aware of privilege is not about suddenly not having privilege. It is about understanding yourself, the context in which you exist, and using that understanding to be kinder, more empathetic, and more human to those who exist in different contexts, and understanding that our context fundamentally shapes our world view - but that doesn't mean its the only possible world view. What are the types of privilege? Since Iam, as mentioned above, a cis straight female, [ am unable to speak with great authority on all of the manifestations of these privileges, so rather than providing a comprehensive list, I will attempt to give a few examples. White (Vincente Perez) White privilege manifests itself, perhaps the most obviously, in the recent context of the Trayvon Mar- human beings. White privilege manifests in the ability 10 forget about one's race, which leads to color blindness. However well- tin shooting and the overturned Stop-and-Frisk. Non-white males, especially*Hispanic and African- American males, have a higher chance of being seen as more dan- gerous, uneducated, or criminal than white males. Non-white fe- males are more often exoticized and fetishized, rather than seen as 5e intentioned, a person of color will never be able to go through a day without being pigeon-holed or im- pacted by their race. For further reference and more examples, check out the articles “The Invisible Backpack” and “When Your (Brown) Body is a White Wonderland.”Male Male privilege again manifests in various ways, from the wage gap to the constant attempts to regulate female sexuality. One of the more prevalent issues currently revolves around rape, and female sexuality. Male privilege, and the idea of the heterosexual male gaze defining sexuality - women are inherently sexual because they are sex objects for men - translates into everything from the objectification of wom- en’s bodies in advertising (even though women make up 86% of the consumer spending in the US) to a 14-year old girl being considered complicit her sexual abuse by a teacher by a judge because she was “mature for her age.” Although net even close to a comprehensive list, itis important to think about how we still police women’s bodies and define women by them. Straight A glaring example of straight privi- lege is the fact that there remain 30 states in the US where one can be fired for being gay, and where workplace discrimination is not on- ly commonplace, but legalized. In less obvious ways, it can manifest in an inability to be openly affec- tionate with your parmer out of fear, or even recognize your part- ner as a partner in public, difficul- ties in moving or living where you would like and finding an accepting community wherever you would 54 Theories & Perspectives like to live, or following the faith you believe in without worrying that the leaders of the religious. community will denounce you. Upper-Class : Upper-class privilege most clearly manifests itself in the American myth that “if you work hard enough, you will make it”, suggest- ing that those who are wealthy earned it and those who are poor are necessarily lazy. In other words, upper-class individuals are able to take betler care of their health because of the lack of food deserts and the ability to afford healthy food, as well as insurance, meaning that not only can they regularly visit doctors for check- ups, in the case of an emergency, they are not forced to weigh be- tween their health and their in- come. They are able to live a com- fortable existence and can ensure that this existence will be passed on to their children without too much fear about the possibility of falling social classes. Cis (Anais Ahmed) Cis privilege manifests itself when doctors and psychiatrists allow necessary health care for cis people regardless of how they may dress, whereas for trans* people doctors may choose to withhold care if they find the patient not feminine (or masculine, vel sim.) enough. Wherever cis people may go, they can rely on finding a bathroom thatmatches with their gender without encountering hostility, and do not need to wait until they find a gen- der-neutral bathroom. Cis people are rarely asked what name they were born with if going by a differ- ent name or. about the current state of their genitals, but trans* people receive such questions with non- chalance. Cis privilege means never having to go through the hassle of changing a gender marker on legal identification, Able See “Ableism & Disability.” Note that able privilege is perhaps the most transient form of privilege— and yet one of the most over- looked. We don’t retain able privi- lege into old age, we certainly weren't born with the ability to walk or read, and there is the pos- sibility that any day, we might de- velop or face a physical or mental disability. Theories & Perspectives Christian Again, though many-fold Christian privilege manifests in the ability to practice your faith in public with- out being considered a threat to society, and without concerns that the actions of a radical member of your group will define your own identity, and that’ you will have to be apologize for them. You are more unlikely to have an FBI agent infiltrate a place of worship for fear of “terrorist activity” or be identified entirely by your faith in the workplace. In a more banal way, you are able to take time off work for religious holidays - in fact, it is likely that you will not be ex- pected to work during your reli- gious holiday, and your religious dress is considered appropriate and worn by the majority of the country. Yet again, this list is nowhere near comprehensive, If you're interested, re- search online, or—and this is the best idea—talk to someone who hasn't had the same privileges as you!Theories & Perspectives As a person of privileae, whether from being white. mate, heterosexual. physically and mentally health, etc. you benefit, knowinaly or unknowinaly, from the systematic oppression of another aroun of people. You can’t get rid of this Drivilege: it doesn’t qo away or become ne- aated by beina part of a different oppressed i aroun (i.e. being gav doesn’t rid vou of white privileae, it iust means vou don’t have het- e | n erosexual privileae). So what can you do? You can be an ally. Allies are people who recoanize the unearned privileae thev receive from socie- ty's patterns of iniustice and take dedicated responsibility for changing these patterns. You don’t become an ally by claiming you're Octavia Shaw adainst a system of a oppression: it requires action. from calling out friends’ iano- rant comments to community organizing for social change, and earning the trust of those vou're allving with. Keep in mind that as a member of the oppressing group, vaur socialization affects vour perspective and limits your abilitv to see oppressive forces as Clearly as members of the oppressed aroup. This means being an ally requires vou to earnestly and continually leam and self-educate about svstems of oppression and iniustice. Listen, read, ask questions. Talk to people who nave directly expe- rienced a form of oppression when possible while understandina that vou aren't entitled to an explanation of the injustices and traumas they face, especially be- cause such topics can be triagerina or frustrating. You'll find vourself continually revising vour attitudes and behaviors as an allv—there is alwavs more work to be done. Allies miant fall into the traps of (perhaps unknowinaty) believing thev know what's best for an oppressed aroup or takina credit for an oppressed qraup’s Liberation process. Privileae makes it easy for allies ta speak over oppressed aroups and take credit for their ideas. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn't contribute thoughts or ask questions. but rather that vou should be conscious of the manner in which vou do so (I would suggest first talking to individuals whom vou've established a trusting relationship with). You should be able to accept leadership from members of the oppressed aroun and atwavs allow them to speak for themselves. Don't allow vour feelinas as a member of the oppressina araup dominate discussions of oppression. I cannot tell vou how many times I have heard men declare that women’s distrust of men hurts their feelings in discussions of sexism or white peapie bemoanina the “demonization of white people” in antiracist dis- cussions. Discussions of oppression are not there to provide emotional support to the appressinag arouns. They are spaces for the oppressed aroun to discuss op- pression and how that affects them. and ailies are there to support the oppressed group. Discussing vour feelinas only derails the discussion and places the spot- liaht back on the oppressing aroun in a space set aside for oppressed aroups. Mv tast bit of advice is to be honest and don’t sit on vour doubts (except in public gatherings or meetings where you are an observer)—ask them of someone you trust. 6L62Learning While Trans*: A Campus Survival Guide for Transgender, Genderqueer, Two-Spirit, and Gender-Non-Gonforming Students Written by Neil Nory Kaplan-Kelly (fasilitator of Pronoun Hoedewn and board member of Queers & Associates) Please note: this guide is not completely comprehensive and all information is subject to change. All tnistakes or inaccuracies are my owa, Housing: UChicago was one of the earliest universities of its bracket to have an Open Housing Policy. This means that after first year, all students can choose who they live with, or be assigned’a roommate regardless of gender as long as they request it (excluding designated samesex areas, though 1 am not sure what the policy would be if @ trans woman elected to live in a femaleonly area of housing). Going to the Gym: There are “family” gender-neutral locker rooms at Ratner but you have to request-a key from the front desk and return it there, In terms of spaces for working out, Henry Crown cat, be Jess crowded than Ratner if you want more private work-out space. if you wish to play intramural sports through your house, technically your legal sex applies to which team/which gender ratio you can play on/with but in practice, participation has varied. ‘What's in a Name?: The University has a preferred name policy for day-to-day academic documents i. rolkcall, the cnline student directory, MyUChicago, Glasses UChicago.edu, and Chalk. Your preferred name will not be on your diploma unless you legally change your name and follow the procedures 63set by the registrar, It is also possible to have your first legal initial as your legal name on all of your officlal tegal documents at the University (e.g. Jon Doe becomes J. Doe) and it is best to contact the registrar directiy abcut this if you would like to exercise this right. In terms of your name in housing, it is best to contact your RA or RH directly about ensuring that the name you wish to be called is being used from the get-go. Pronouns: There is no official way to put your preferred pronoun preference into official circulation, which, unfortunately, puts the burden on you and your allies lo ensure that your pronouns are respected and used consistently. If you have any problems with peers, staff members in housing, or professors, the Office of LGBTQ Life’s staff can help facilitate conversations so that your wishes are supported, respected and affirmed. It's an uphill trék but rest assured that queer spaces try to be as transfriendly and respectful of trans* folk as possible. Health: U-SHIP student health insurance only covers hormones, counseling, and cancer screenings. It does not cover any form of surgical transition procedures (“top” or “hottom surgery”). Students and supportive staff and faculty have been fighting to change this policy for years but the University Administration has yet to budge (despite the fact that many of our peer institutions completely cover all medical transition related services). Students have reported mixed reviews of the staff at the Student Health Services in terms of their physical heaith care but somo of the doctors have often had the most positive word-of-mouth reviews (I personally recommend Dr. Helen Xenos and Rebeccs Pride, a nurse practitioner, they are warm, good listeners and holistically-:minded care practitioners). As for mental health services, the University is severely lacking in terms of student satisfaction with the Student Counseling Center, particularly in regards to sexual assault counseling and sensitivity to lowincome, LGBTQ and other marginalized populations ox campus. However, I have personally had good experiences with Dr. Tartoff, Dr. Heck (who rung a trans support group for the UChicago Community), Dr,, MePherrin (who leads @ coming out support group for mostly LGB folks though some trans folks also join), and most recently, Dp. Anaddappa (who has expressed desire to serve the LGBTQ and especially community and welcomes patients from our community). There are also many counselors throughout the city that work with LGBTQ people. My advice is to find the best therapist for your needs, not just their reputation for affirming queer and trans* folks. Bathrooms: As s great relief for first years, Cobb, the Logan Conter, 5710, Hillel, Zolshardt, and the Reg have gender neutral bathrooms. However, many other buildings like Harper and the Reynolds Club lack gender-neutral bathrooms due to Chicago building codes. A longer but not comprehensive list can be found on the Office of LGBTQ Student Life's website. Resources: On Campus: * Pronoun Hoedown: ProHo is an QGroup supported by the Offlee of LGBTQ Student Life. Its purpose ia to be a fun, community-building, and supportive discussion group for trans* and allied ainembers of the UChicago Community. Sometimes there are baked gocds. * Queers é& Associates: Q&A is the largest LGBTQ focused organization on campus. It seeks to be space for stidents to come together and talk about LGBTQ issues and create a safe atmosphere for ali scxuel orientations and gender identities. £4+ Intersection: Intersection is another QGroup dedicated to serving queer and trans” people of color at UChicago. It provides a safe, reflective, and laughter-filled space for its members and has some of the best conversations you could ever find. * ASexualitea: ASexualitea is a group devoted to affirming the asexual community and their allies on UChicago Campus. They are very trans-inclusive and often actually have tea. * Tea Time and Sex Chats: TISC is a student-run organization that provides hoiistic and LGBTQ friendly sex-ed on campus. * The Clothesline Project: the Clothesline Project provides a voice for all members of the UChicago community who have experienced sexual assault, they advocate for University policy change, discourse, and for a safer campus. * QWorum: QWorum ts a QGroup for queer-identlfied women and have been very accepting of trans ‘women in the past few years. = The Agenda: The Agenda is a new light-hearted social group for ques? men on campus. In the Greater Chicago Area: + The Office of LGBTQ Student Life has a good list on its website of Chicago Organizations dedicated to the trans* community in the eity. I personally recommend: ¢ Howard Brown for low-cost and LGBT affirming health care © Affinity Community Services for an educational, challenging, and inspiring experience for those seeicing to work with lesbians and transgender women of color on the south side © Transformative Justice Law Project of Hlinois ag a legal resource for legal name change services and as an amazing organization for soctal justice and incarceration -reform in the city My Experience On Campus: Let me preface my story by saying that I love the University. I am the happiest I have ever been here bocause of the education I have received and the friends I have made here. J want to also recognize thet my experience is deeply rooted in my privilege ss a white, transmasculine, welltodo, mostiy able-bodied, sitizen. I eannot aad do not speak for anyone other than myself. It {s also worth acknowledging that Ihave chosen fo be an advocate on campus and that really is a choice. There is no shame in focusing on schoo! or dating or playing the oboe ote. Do not ever think you shattd be doing something more when you are already doing what you can. Teame to the University to be an intellactual and was interested in student activism but initially wanted to focus on being a student only. Instead, I found myself in a very compliested placo, I love how much this school focuses on theory but I find that we sometimes forget to listen to our own lived experiences, This often meang that creating change and advocating for affirmative transformation of student life and experience can be incredibly slow and there Is sometimes a huge disconnect between the administration, faculty, and students. I love the complexity of this University but ft has led to me to have to defend my identity and expression of myself using social and queer theory instead of just my being ma. I-have been foreed to confront myself and my limitations. [ have had ta hold erying friends who feal alone and unsupported by those around them. I have had to educate and speak out against ignorant and hateful actions towards my community and communities [ am in solidarity with. But I have also kissed 2 beautiful woman. [ have laugbed until I've run out of breath. I have eaten es cream at one am after a night of dancing. I love she complexity of this place because it lets me read Max Weber and dack Halberstam in the éssame night, [ love this university because it has brought ma to a consolousness that is multiple, layered, and I am more than I have ever thought I could be. This University has made me a better man, friend, partner, and leader, It is a very apecial place. But there is always more work to be done. Tht is my challenge to you. Keep the work and the community vibrant, If there is any piece of advice I can give to students who come after me, I would say this: learn. to listen. [ mean really listen. Listening is. what creates coalitions and community. And those things are so needed in our lives. I love the complexity of this place and it has led me to some of the most humbling, intriguing, frustrating, and joyful moments of my life. The queer and trans community on this campus is very wide spread and has many forms of interests and avenues of expression. This means that there is conflict on some levels but more importantly, it is very easy to find out thet someone you assumed had no conneotion to queer life is actually incredibly steeped in i. People surprise you. Everyone here has a story. Don't forget to try to listen for it. Frustrating Incidents at UChicago Ouring your time at the University of Chicago, you or someone you know may experience frustrating or upsetting incidents of prejudice against you or someone you know. While many of these experiences are extremely personai and individualized, we will attempt to provide a timeline of the more public incidents, and the University tesponse to them in order to contextualize the world in which you are about to enter, and provide you with information and resources for possible responses. Spring 2010 - Maurice Dawson In February 2010, UCPD officers arrested Maurice Dawson, a black undergraduate, on the A-level of the Regenstein Library for criminal trespass and resisting arrest. They arrested the student on the requests of a library employee, who called the UCPD with a noise complaint. A UCPD officer requested that Dawson leave the building, and show his student ID. When Dawson questioned the request, he was put ina chokehold and subsequently arrested. The incident upset the student body for multiple reasons. Firstly, noise is allowed on the Aevel - as you will learn, the A-level is occasionally very loud. Secondly, arresting and placing a university student in a chokehold for laughing too loudly seemed to be an overreaction. Thirdly, and most importantly, many students believed that Dawson's race played a key factor in this incident, from the earfy suspicion of the library employee to the overreaction by the UCPD, starting a campus-wide discussion on race and the UCPD’s racial profiling. Even now, the UCPD disproportionately asks Latino and African-American students for their IDs. Spring 2012 - DU and Alpha Delt During May 2012, two fraternities came under fire for racist incidents. The first one occurred on May 8th, when first-year students mowed the lawn at Alpha Delt wearing oversized sombreres and blasting Latin music in a rather blatant display of stereotypical and racist caricature. 66Response: Despite a meeting with the Bias Response Team and others after the incident was reported ta Dean Art, the fraternity did not apologize. However, the national Alpha Delt leadership was notified and the local Alpha Delt chapter leaders were required to attend a meeting with members of the Bias Response Team, ORCSA, and the assistant vice-president for student life. On May 21st, DU presented a party with the theme, “Conquistadores and Aztec Hoes", with the tagline, bring “an unlimited need to conquer, spread disease, and enslave natives.” Response: Students involved in Latin organizations, such as MEChA and OLAS emailed DU within 24 hours with their complaints. By that night, DU issued an apology over email to the students and publicly aver facebook. When confronted with the fact that many felt the apology was insincere, DU committed to an open forum and a meeting with members OMSA’s student advisory board and Latin RSOs. Summer 2012 Building a Response: Over the summer, OLAS worked with College Programming in order to eliminate a racially-tinged question about “two African-American men walking towards you” during Orientation Week. They met with Nicole Woods, the Provest, and proposed new scenarios, which were enacted in the Chicago Life Meetings from 2012-2013, one of which touched in the incident with DU. They also reviewed the -demographic survey, pushing for a broader, more inclusive survey. Fail 2012 Around 6th or 7th week of the Fall Quarter, DU hung a Confederate flag out their window, facing the OMSA offices, teading to OBS contacting the Bias Response ‘Team and various members of the school administrations. Response: Meetings between DU teadership and the school administration occurred, as well as a re-evaluation of the effectiveness of SORT, a required RSO leadership training, in order to include cultural training. OBS also pushed for study abroad programs south of the equator Winter 2013 . On January 27th, there was a protest at the UChicago Medical Center pushing for the creation of a trauma center on the South Side, leading to the arrests of 4 people, inciuding.1 student, Toussaint Losier, an African-American student who was involved in the response to the arrest of Maurice Dawson. Spring 2013 In Spring Quarter, the Politically Incorrect Maroon Confessions page launched, following the lead of more benign anonymous submission pages such as UChicago Crushes. Within a day of its launch, outcry emerged from a portion of the student community regarding the anonymous submissions, which ranged from racist to sexist to downright threatening. 6tResponse: Students formed the coalition CCC (Concerned with Campus Climate), and worked with the ORCSA to generate a statement of values, as well as producing a document of recommended Administrative reforms, laid out in the docurnent below. The Blackness at UChicago Tumblr was also created in response, in order to provide a forum to voice the experiences of black students at UChicago, as well as the UChicago Class Confessions page, which aimed to open up a dialogue in the University about social class. Student Recommendations for Administrative Action - June, 2013 Short-Term As a collective of concerned students, we recommend that the University... 1. Establish procedure for issuing a Public Statement to ensure that they respond to incidents in a timely and evenly distributed manner. 2. Conduct a Climate Study, evaluating the administrative capacity to address the areas of tolerance and inclusion. Set procedure for periodic self-assessments to track our progress and initiate another Provost's Initiative on Minority Issues (the last annual report was in 2004-5). “3. Our primary objective in the study is to provide the University of Chicago with information, analysis and strategic initiatives relating to campus climate. Working in collaboration with Karen Warren Coleman's Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion, as well as with other campus committees, our goal is to foster a culture of inclusiveness for an enriched educational and work environment. This work should result in long-term strategic planning directed by a newly formed full-time Chief Diversity Officer. 4, Design far-reaching programming on cross-cultural competency (Orientation Week, Housing, SORT Process). This would continue the work of the Coatition that formed post-Alpha Delt incident regarding reform of O-Week programming. 5, increase support to §710 and other university sponsored service based offices (Office of Student Disability Services, Resources for Sexual Violence Prevention, Student Counseling Services). . 6. Reexamines the Dean-on-Call and Bias Response Team systems to ensure they are accessible, known of, and effective (knowledgeable about bias and responsive to reports). This includes creating a definitive hierarchy of response and giving students access to the BRT member's official reports while respecting anonymity. Long Term As a collective of concerned students, we recommend that the University... 1. Examines and re-evaluates how it approaches and incorporates diversity in critical areas of student life including but not limited to Athietics, Career Advancement, Housing & Dining, Admissions & Aid, Community Service and Engagement, the Office of the Registrar etc. 2. Expands support to preexisting entities that promote diversity (OMSA, cultural registered student organizations, LGBTQIA student services, disability student services, sexual assault survivor services, elc.) 6s3. Expand the presence of minority naralives and perspeutives in academia through the renewal of the African-American Studies major; increasing the number of minority faculty members and listing of courses focused on the Aftican-American, Asian- American, Latino-American, and Native American experience; and extend Study Abroad opportunities south of the equator in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. 4, Call upon administration to submit a report explaining the rote of each administrator and explaining the policy of administrative response to bias events Navigating the campus as a low-income student - iL In dorms/house culture As a low-income student, adapting to the culture of the University and the house system may not come as easily. Expensive house trips to restaurants and other sites are a normal occurrence. However, discomfort doesn’t have to define your experience. There are a few things you can do to create a more welcoming space for yourself. a. Advocate for more balanced trips: House trips can become expensive, but houses should work towards creating environments in which students of all incomes feel welcome. Tell your RH and RA that you would like there to be more inexpensive house outings. Suggest some yourself! Spending money doesn’t have to be the only way to have fun. b. Facilitate discussions: If you are coming from a low-income background, there will often be aspects of your experiences the some students at UChicago won't 9 understand. Facilitate a discussion abour class in your iS dorm, How does class play a role in our school? Hew can we make it a more welcoming space for everyone? Food Saturday nights: Dining halls aren’t open, but this doesn’t mean you have to spend money at a restaurant. Gather friends together to cook a meal. Also, keep track of your flex dollars to save some for Saturday evenings. In RSOs With regards to activities in RSOs, never be afraid to indicate you can’t afford something. If you want to participate in an activity, but money is an obstacle, advocate for more funding for low-income students for certain activities. Sports and Greek organizations can often be an expensive investment. Textbooks 64The Office of Multicultural Affairs has a library with CORL books and other selections, which students can check out. Email omsa@uchicago.edu for more information. Always look for alternative places to purchase books. Compare prices online, rather than just buying the first textbook available at the bookstore. Resources available 1. Chicago Academic Achievement Program: CAAP is a year-long program that begins with a residential summer academy for 50 incoming freshmen. This program is geared towards low-income and first-generation college students and is intended to give these students a head start in becoming acquainted with college and the city at large. Learn more at caap.uchicago.edu. 2. Questbridge: Questbridge is a national organization that helps low-income students gain admission to top colleges with full scholarships. The University of Chicago is a partner college and there is growing community of Quest Scholars on-campus. As part of the Quest Scholars network, students join a campus chapter, which offers social outings and community. Go to Questscholarsnetwork. org to learn about the UChicago chapter. 3. Socioeconomic Diversity Alliance: A newly formed group (not yet an RSO), SDA is intended to advocate for more resources for low-income students, such as mentoring programs, a suppert group, and a designated advisor. To get more involved, email llopez1 Quchicago .edu. A, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs: Even though OMSA isn’t necessarily designated as a place for low-income and first-generation college students, some of their resources cater to that audience. Their office offers grants for students if needed for study abroad, research, and other academic related ventures. To learn more, check out omsa.uchicago.edu. FEELING GOOD MIND Life here has it’s highs and its lows, and it’s pretty common to feel out of sorts, whether that means feeling anxious before assessments, being seasonally affected by winter, or chronically dealing with mental health issues. On and off campus, there are places you can go and people you can talk to to take steps to feeling good. A good place to start if you don’t know what you want but know you want to feel better is the Student Counseling Service. The SCS on campus provide a resource for any student and any spouse, partner, or child of student who has paid the StudentLife Fee (see below if your program of study doesn’t include this automatically). They offer short-term (generally max 10 sessions at a time) services, which include but aren’t limited to, individual or couples therapy, support groups, psychiatric evaluation, medication management, substance assessment and treatment, an Academic Skills Assessment Program (a no-drug way to work on concentration, time management, good study and test taking habits, etc.), and referrals. This place is good, but it also can be very frustrating and has limitations. Because it is part of the University there is sometimes weird bureaucracy and depending on the situation, sometimes students are forced to take leave-of-absences against their wishes because the school/scs doesn’t know how to handle what is happening while the student is enrolled. These are rare cases, but they do happen. Know your treatment, talk to people (most folks are surprisingly open about their mental health), and ask lots of questions. This might seem like an overwhelming list but really, you can go in and talk to someone for just about anything. For example - reasons UofC students have gone to the SCS: Dealing with a break-up the Dissertation support group Self-harm Anxiety Insomnia Chronic mental illness Diagnosing depression Feeling blue The coming out support group and many more! Eating disorders Psychiatric medication prescriptions Students without the Student Life Fee: Graduate School of Business Evening, Financially the U of C treats services for any Weekend, Executive Programs mental health problems the same way they ssa Evening Program treat any other sickness, and the UShip plan's master of Liberal Arts Program insurance benefits for outpatient or proforma status psychotherapy treatments are only provided if they give a referral or prior approval to the service; if not there's a $50 deductible that comes out of pocket. Dealing with mental health takes many forms, not just going to talk to someone or taking medication. Yoga, meditation, acupuncture, being outside in the sun, all help keep you feeling good, Rockefeller Chapel offers meditation everyday at 8 am, FLWednesdays at 6 pm, and yoga at 5:30 pm on Tuesdays and 4 pm at Bond, You have autonomy in your treatment! There are always options for medication and services. It’s okay to not like your therapist, not every one is right for you and what you are looking for. They understand this so voice any concerns you have and make sure to try aut a few before you commit. There are some limitations to the University’s mental health ‘provisions. The therapy is meant to be acute and short-term. Although they will always see students in an -emergency, therapy treatment plans generally only last for a maximum of one quarter long. The support groups, too, are also limited in nature. Take, for instance, the sexual assault survivor support group. Its scope is six women, and it only takes place during Winter Quarter. There are lots of frustrations and limitations of services at the UCSC, ask around for tips and stories will come flooding out. Listen and learn and ask for help if you don’t know what te do. Addiction If you're unhappy with your relationship with substance use, there are many places to turn for help. Generally, addiction services are not provided through the school, though SCS can connect you with resources. tf you want to keep the school out of your business entirely (a perfectly viable option), there are lots of resources around campus. A good list of recovery groups (AA, NA, SMART recovery, Gamblers Anonymous, etc.) can be found by Googling “UChicago Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Support Groups.” BODY Although the fife of the mind is dominant at the U of C, the life of the body can be just as active and suited to anyone’s plans. Ratner and Henry Crown have really excellent facilities where you can check out a basketball or use a treadmill (with a personal TV}), but they can get crowded sometimes; if you prefer a solitary workout, each dorm has its own exercise reom with weights and cardio equipment. Ratner also offers FitChicago Wellness Classes, which happen daily and are free to all students. Your UC ID gives you access to professional yoga, cardio kickboxing, or water aerobics instructars among others (| highly recommend checking out Zumba class ~ it’s one of the best things at UChicago). y2